Ryan Price's Soapbox

This week President Obama unveiled a a new story intended to show how his policies have assisted in helping people from start of life to end of life. The truth is non delusional American’s do not want a utopian cradle-to-grave society. For those of you who haven’t read about “Julia” I advise you to go to BarackObama.com and read the story. It narrates her life from age 3 to 67. At the beginning Obama credits Head Start not her two parents with her being ready to learn and succeed in kindergarten.

Instead of individual teachers, private mentors, home-school organizers, or charter-school leaders, Obama extols his federal Race to the Top program for implementing the high-school “classes she needs to do well” in college. As she gets older it gets worse – instead of thrift-minded families who save for their own kids’ higher educations (or who opt for non-college alternatives) and who encourage those kids to work in private-sector summer jobs, Obama praises his “opportunity tax credit” and Pell Grants for putting Julia through college.

Moving on to age 22-26 – Instead of acknowledging how costly Obamacare mandates have caused individual-market health-care insurers to drop plans altogether, Obama promotes the government-manufactured umbilical cord tethering “children” like Julia to their parents’ health-care plans until age 26. Instead of accepting that the costs and consequences of a woman’s sexual choices should be a matter of personal responsibility, Obama heralds his religious-liberty-crushing birth control/abortion mandate for allowing Julia to “focus on her work instead of worrying about her health.”. As for better schools for Julia’s new son, Zachary. Nope. It’s Obama’s “investments” in education and “programs like Race to the Top.”

Julia starts her own web business. She qualifies for a Small Business Administration loan, giving her the money she needs to invest in her business. President Obama’s tax cuts for small businesses like Julia’s help her to get started. She’s able to hire employees, creating new jobs in her town and helping to grow the local economy.

In the real world, according to Dun and Bradstreet, the SBA supported fewer than 62,000 small-business loans: a measly 0.2 percent of the nation’s 27.5 million small businesses. The vast majority of entrepreneurs get their start without the SBA’s “help” and want only one thing: for Obama and his wealth-confiscators to leave them the heck alone.

As soon as “The Life of Julia” hit the web, conservatives swarmed Twitter to provide real-world counter-narratives. “I’m no Julia,” one wrote. “As a small-business owner I’m being taxed to death. I need the (government) to get out of my way and let me make money.” Another young conservative female tweeted: “As a woman business owner I’m offended that POTUS thinks I need him to survive and thrive.” Conservative writer Kemberlee Kaye added: “What the Julia example really shows is the Democrat ideal. Complete and total reliance on the government.”

My story? I am starting my own small business IT firm and want no help from the government nor would I ever expect tax payers to front the bill. What the administration fails to see is that the American people are very resilient and capable of improving local schools, the community, and raising our kids just fine without government intervention. Thanks but no thanks Obama.

I am the kind of citizen who votes on the issues not party lines. I don’t vote based on the candidates good smile, or his excellent speaking ability, or if they are a specific faith. I vote based on where they stand on issues that will directly affect myself and my family. Would I have voted for Obama in 2008? Likely not, because the candidate I supported was actually Hillary Clinton based on her experience and her beliefs during the primaries were not as far left as Obama. Closing in on 2012, let’s see what Obama has done in his presidency and the problems we still face as a country, call it …transparency if you will.

Obama set the bar too high for himself, maybe  it’s an inflated ego but it has caused him to fail by his own standards. It’s the Obama administration, not the Republicans, that said if his stimulus package was passed unemployment would not exceed 8 percent. Obama joked there weren’t as many “shovel-ready” jobs as he thought. In such hard times, now isn’t the time to joke.

It’s Obama who promised to cut the deficit in half. It’s Obama who said if we passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health care cost curve would go down rather than up. It’s Obama who promised us recovery and prosperity, hope and change. What we’ve gotten instead is the opposite.

• Under Obama’s stewardship, we have lost 2.2 million jobs (and 900,000 full-time jobs in the last four months alone). He is now on track to have the worst jobs record of any president in the modern era.
• The unemployment rate stands at 9.1 percent v. 7.8 percent the month Obama took office.
• July marked the 30th consecutive month in which the unemployment rate was above the 8 percent level, the highest since the Great Depression.
• Since May 2009 — roughly 14 weeks into the Obama administration — the unemployment rate has been above 10 percent during three months, above 9 percent during 22 months, and above 8 percent during two months.
• Chronic unemployment is worse than during the Great Depression.
• The youth employment rate is at the lowest level since records were first kept in 1948.
• The share of the eligible population holding a job has declined to the lowest level since the early 1980s.
• The housing crisis is worse than in the Great Depression. (Home values are worth roughly one-third less than they were five years ago.)
• The rate of economic growth under Obama has been only slightly higher than the 1930s, the decade of the Great Depression. From the first quarter of 2010 through the first quarter of 2011, we experienced five consecutive quarters of slowing growth. America’s GDP for the second quarter of this year was a sickly 1.0 percent; in the first quarter, it was 0.4 percent.
• Fiscal year 2011 will mark the third straight year with deficits in excess of $1 trillion. Prior to the Obama presidency, we had never experienced a deficit in excess of $1 trillion.
• During the Obama presidency, America has increased its debt by $4 trillion. That is to say, Obama has achieved in two-and-a-half years what it took George W. Bush two full terms in office to achieve — and Obama, when he was running for president, slammed Bush’s record as being “unpatriotic.”
• America saw its credit rating downgraded for the first time in history under the Obama presidency.
• Consumer confidence has plunged to the lowest level since the Carter presidency.
• The number of people in the U.S. who are in poverty is on track for a record increase on President Obama’s watch, with the ranks of working-age poor approaching 1960s levels that led to the national war on poverty.
• A record number of Americans now rely on the federal government’s food stamps program. More than 44.5 million Americans received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, a 12 percent increase from one year ago.

So…based on these facts. I ask you this has Obama earned a 2nd term? In my eyes. No.

This will be the start of a series where I look at all the potential 2012 candidates for the Republican nomination. Now of course we can’t really do Obama because he’s the President but what we can do is give some possible insight as to what he will be running with in terms of campaign points. Now lets look at what Newt brings to the table.

Jobs & the Economy

America only works when Americans are working. Newt has a pro-growth strategy similar to the proven policies used when he was Speaker to balance the budget, pay down the debt, and create jobs. Here is his plan.

The Gingrich Prosperity Plan -

• Stop the 2013 tax increase to promote stability in the economy. Job creation moved from stagnant to improving in the two months after Congress extended tax relief for two years. We should continue what has worked by making the rates permanent.
• Make the United States the most desirable location for new business investment through a bold series of tax cuts and regulatory reforms, including:
• Eliminating the capital gains tax to make American entrepreneurs more competitive against those in other countries;
• Dramatically reducing the corporate income tax (the highes in the world) to 12.5%;
• Allowing for 100% expensing of new equipment to spur innovation and American manufacturing;
• Ending the death tax permanently.
• Repeal Sarbanes-Oxley to remove burdensome financial regulation that is holding companies back from taking risks and making new investments.
• Implement an American energy policy that creates jobs in the United States versus the Obama plan which borrows money from China to give to Brazil to drill for oil and to then sell to Americans.
• Enforce the fiscal responsibility Americans deserve by controlling spending, implementing money saving reforms, and replacing destructive policies and regulatory agencies with new approaches.
• Repeal and replace Obamacare with a pro-jobs, pro-responsibility health plan that puts doctors and patients in charge of health decisions instead of bureaucrats.

Tell the Truth about National Security

Keeping Americans safe is the most important duty of government. That is why the confusion and incoherence of the Obama Administration’s response to the threats facing America is so troubling. Newt advocates sound policies to keep Americans safe based on timeless American principles.

Sound policies to keep Americans safe –

• Understand our enemies and tell the truth about them. We are engaged in a long war against radical Islamism, a belief system adhered to by a small minority of Muslims but nonetheless a powerful and organized ideology within Islamic thought that is totally incompatible with the modern world.
• Think big. America currently lacks a unified grand strategy for defeating radical Islamism.  The result is that we currently view Iraq, Afghanistan, and the many other danger spots of the globe as if they are isolated, independent situations.  Only a grand strategy for marginalizing, isolating, and defeating radical Islamists across the world will lead to victory.
• Know our values. America’s foreign policy must begin by understanding who we are as a country.  We are, as Ronald Reagan said, the world’s “abiding alternative to tyranny.” Therefore, America’s foreign policy must be to ensure our own survival and protect those who share our values.
• Military force must be used judiciously and with clear, obtainable objectives understood by Congress.
• Implement an American Energy Plan to reduce the world’s dependence on oil from dangerous and unstable countries, especially in the Middle East.
• Secure the border to prevent terrorist organizations from sneaking agents and weapons into the United States.
• Incentivize math and science education in America to ensure the men and women of our Armed Forces always have the most advanced and powerful weapons in the world at their disposal.

An American Energy Plan

Today’s high gas and energy prices are entirely a function of bad government policies. Newt has an American Energy Plan that would maximize energy production from all sources–oil, natural gas, wind, biofuels, nuclear, clean coal, and more–and would encourage clean energy innovation without discouraging overall energy production.

Newt’s American Energy Plan:

• Remove bureaucratic and legal obstacles to responsible oil and natural gas development in the United States, offshore and on land.
• End the ban on oil shale development in the American West, where we have three times the amount of oil as Saudi Arabia.
• Give coastal states federal royalty revenue sharing to give them an incentive to allow offshore development.
• Reduce frivolous lawsuits that hold up energy production by enacting loser pays laws to force the losers in an environmental lawsuit to pay all legal costs for the other side.
• Finance cleaner energy research and projects with new oil and gas royalties.
• Replace the Environmental Protection Agency, which has become a job-killing regulatory engine of higher energy prices, with an Environmental Solutions Agency that would use incentives and work cooperatively with local government and industry to achieve better environmental outcomes while considering the impact of federal environmental policies on job creation and the cost of energy.

Healthcare

The big government Obamacare approach does not address the root causes of America’s health care crisis. Instead, it creates layers of new taxes, regulations, and bureaucracies that will ultimately make our problems worse, not better. Newt proposes a personalized health system that would save lives and save money by empowering doctors and patients with more choices and more information.

Reforms to save lives and save money

• Make health insurance more affordable and portable by giving Americans the choice of a generous tax credit or the ability to deduct the value of their health insurance up to a certain amount and by allowing Americans to purchase insurance across state lines, increasing price competition in the industry.
• Create more choices in Medicare by giving seniors the option to choose, on a voluntary basis, a more personal system in the private sector with greater options for better care. This would create price competition to lower costs.
• Reform Medicaid by giving states more freedom and flexibility to customize their programs to suit their needs with a block-grant program similar to the successful welfare reform of 1996.
• Reward quality care by changing the Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement models to take into account the quality of the care delivered and incentivizing beneficiaries to seek out facilities that deliver the best care at the lowest costs.
• Reward health and wellness by giving health plans, employers, Medicare, and Medicaid more latitude to design benefits to encourage, incentivize, and reward healthy behaviors.
• Stop health care fraud by moving from a paper-based system to an electric one. Health care fraud accounts for as much as much as 10 percent of all health care spending, according to the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association. That’s more than $200 billion a year. Compare this to the 0.1% fraud rate in the credit card industry thanks to its high-tech information analysis systems.
• Stop junk lawsuits that drive up the cost of medicine with medical malpractice reform.
• Speed medical breakthroughs to patients by reforming the Food and Drug Administration.
• Inform patients and consumers of price and quality so they can make informed choices about how to spend their money on care. Patients have the right to know this information, but finding it is virtually impossible.
• Invest in research for health solutions that are urgent national priorities. More brain science research, for example, could lead to Alzheimer’s Disease cures and treatments that could save the federal government over $20 trillion over the next forty years.

Protecting Life and Religious Liberty

The revolutionary idea contained in the Declaration of Independence is that certain fundamental human rights, including the right to life, are gifts from God and cannot be given nor taken away by government. Yet, secular radicals are trying to remove “our Creator” – the source of our rights – from public life. Newt has an aggressive strategy to defend life and religious liberty in America.

Principles to protect life and religious liberty

• Nominate conservative judges who are committed to upholding Constitutional limited government and understand that the role of the judges is to interpret the law, not legislate from the bench.
• Combat judicial activism by utilizing checks on judicial power Constitutionally available to the elected branches of government.
• End taxpayer subsidies for abortion by repealing Obamacare, defunding Planned Parenthood, and reinstating the “Mexico City Policy” which banned funding to organizations that promote and/or perform abortions overseas.
• Protect religious expression in the public square such as crosses, crèches and menorahs.
• Protect healthcare workers right to conscience by making sure they are not forced to participate in or refer procedures such as abortion.
• Protect the rights of home-schooled children by ensuring they have the same access to taxpayer funded, extra-curricular educational opportunities as any public school student.
• Protect the rights of teachers to use historical examples involving religion in their classroom.  Nor should they be discouraged from answering questions about religion or discussing it objectively in the classroom.
• Protect the frail, infirm and the elderly from the state’s arbitrary decision to terminate life.

To view his Interview with Sean Hannity here are two links:

http://video.foxnews.com/v/4690270/newt-gingrich-on-his-2012-run-part-1/

http://video.foxnews.com/v/4690269/newt-gingrich-on-his-2012-run-part-2/

To learn more and to support Newt on his path to the Presidency visit: http://www.newt.org

You’re probably wondering, what is this post about well I recently finished watching a documentary regarding the economic collapse of 2008. I refused to believe that it was the ole ‘It’s Bush’s fault’. So basically here’s what this documentary is about:

The film examines the causes of the economic collapse of September 18, 2008. The film surmises that the Greatest Generation, in their effort to prevent their children from having to suffer the horrors of The Great Depression and World War II overly nurtured and protected them, unwittingly instilling in them an outlook of selfishness and irresponsibility. The Greatest Generation also put into place many institutional protections against the kind of financial recklessness that led to the Great Depression. After they all retired and died, the documentary alleges these protections and rules were gradually removed or ignored, and the financial crisis of 2008 happened as a result of the next generation’s selfishness and irresponsibility. It suggests the generation that grew up as the hippies of the 1960s eventually came to power and promoted their outlook upon the financial markets, taking reckless risks — because having enjoyed prosperity all their lives, they believed there could be no downside to their decisions.

Effectively the generation of the 60’s and the hippies who married Wall Street and Big Government is what brought us to this point. We privatized profits, when they piled losses upon losses…and they went running to the federal government for bail outs. There was no more Democrat or Republican…it was just incumbents. Clinton was told by Robert Rubin that globalization was America’s new direction. His administration was subsidizing and encouraging risky and irresponsible behavior…the party became the party elites and we somehow had a place in this ‘global’ scheme. When things went bad those who toyed around with the investments were not responsible for those losses…the middle class was.

One doesn’t know there were 4 major bailouts (not related to our own). Those being Mexico in 1994, few years later Russia, then the Asian crisis then Argentina. Each one of those investments went south – funded by …you guessed it…tax payer money. Now typically if a bank made risky loans and they fell through, the bank was responsible. Somehow we got to the point of Systemic failure, where institutions suddenly became to big to fail. It quit becoming Wall Street being conservative and prudent to no liability. The five major banks then requested more leverage 25,30,40 to 1 …you have NO room for error and this was granted by The government!Where are those five banks now…they don’t exist because they over leveraged themselves. So while none of them are burdened with the responsibility… 30,000,000 jobs are gone…and the middle class gets stuck paying the tab…again and again.

Now our problem is we have deindustrialized and outsourced all our manufacturing jobs – Now we consume 5% more than we take in and borrow from the world. We owe external nations in upwards of $7 trillion. The trade deficit will eventually get so high that they can buy out all the publically traded companies and effectively BUY America… that is our future.

Rewind to 1977 – Jimmy Carter is pressured to sign the community reinvestment act which required banks or I should say forced banks to lend to people who could therefore record unemployment, welfare, spotty jobs and no background checks and lying on applications (recommended by ACORN). The political minds of the 1990s and the Clinton Era played on the black victimization and played on the white guilt to prove that we aren’t inherently racist which fast tracked the bubble that Jimmy Carter began almost 30 years ago. Clinton then said banks could be punished severely if they did not lend out to more risky people. Fannie and Freddie then said the government would back these risky securities and credit default swap.

On September 18th 2008 – The Awakening occurred… the unthinkable became thinkable. That morning over 5 trillion dollars was to come out of the money markets…in 24 hours it would spread globally and risk destroying this country. In a short time frame…our entire wealth in this country was squandered away. Capitalism didn’t die…the moral fiber and sense of responsibility and liability died and failed.

The unfunded liabilities of Medicare and social security is …wait for it.  OVER 100 Trillion dollars. That’s 100,000,000,000,000 dollars… , we have a 12 trillion dollar national debt , 7 trillion trade debt, and a 1.4 trillion budget deficit. In 2011 , the first baby boomer will qualify for their social security and Medicare. We would need to have 100 trillion right now, earning interest to pay for all of this. The total valued wealth of the US which is only 50 trillion still only amounts to half of what was promised! We have borrowed …twice the wealth of our nation and no one see’s any room for fear there?! We aren’t even close to paying off our debt – right now our interest on the debt is 400 billion and after running deficits til we hit 20 trillion, that interest will jump to 1 trillion.. That’s like paying the minimum payment on your credit card and it never going down.

I hope America can turn around ….because the future looks pretty bleak for my generation and those after mine…who might not ever get to retire and will be shouldered with this insane amount of debt. Our parents…got rich by gambling our future away. Stop Spending, stop over regulation, stop manipulating the system and stop trying to regulate health care and push us toward the European model…THAT is how we fix this.

Here’s a trailer and if you want to watch it contact me and I’ll give you the info:

It’s no mystery that Obama’s approval ratings are taking a major dive, but we all fell for it. After eight years of big government by a party that was suppose to stand for small government, fiscal responsibility and free market, was far from it. People wanted change, People wanted something different. Posing as someone who was going to be a Moderate Democrat, nearly everyone in America was under the spell of Obama. Now, almost two years later, the man we put in office who had an approval rating of 79% now sits at a daunting 41%. So where did he go wrong, what has happened in the last year and a half that has America’s mind changing their tune and what they think of Obama. We’re going to discuss some causes of this and why I think Obama might not be able to recover from this and potentially be abandoned by his own party. Can it get any worse for President Obama? Undoubtedly yes. Here are some key reasons why the Obama presidency is in serious trouble, and why its prospects are unlikely to improve between now and the November mid-terms.

Out of Touch with Americans:

I could go way back to the beginning but I’ll pick a more recent event that most of you have at least seen in the news lately. The First Lady’s ill-conceived trip to Spain at a time of widespread economic hardship was symbolic of a White House that barely gives a second thought to public opinion on many issues, and frequently projects a distinctly elitist image. The “let them eat cake” approach didn’t play well over two centuries ago, and it won’t succeed today. Sorry guys, a trip to Florida 27 hours after returning isn’t going to fix this.

Most Americans have lost confidence in President Obama:

Right now we are still knee deep in a recession with fears of a double dip toward the end of the year. Bank’s aren’t lending, Health Care Reform has been passed before Job creation. Nearly six in ten voters say they lack faith in the president to make the right decisions for the country, and two thirds “say they are disillusioned with or angry about the way the federal government is working.” The poll showed that a staggering 58 per cent of Americans say they do not have confidence in the president’s decision-making. If Obama wants to restore confidence, he MUST create jobs and make the choices his party doesn’t approve of always. Tax cuts for businesses in this country would greatly help businesses hire more help and not have to worry about paying high taxes. This will also take more and more people out of the unemployment line, the less you have on unemployment benefits the better and the more Americans you have working.

The United States is drowning in Debt:

The common argument here “Well Bush got us into this!” – while this might be true in some respect. Bush inflated the deficit from 5.7 Trillion to 10 Trillion over the course of 8 years. So if we take this into account over 8 years, bush only spent 537.5 Billion a year and most of that was funding the war in Afghanistan among other things. Let’s look at Obama now: National Debt is at 13.3 Trillion up from 10 Trillion when he took office so we take into account he’s coming up on 2 years in office. He has spent…drum roll … 1.5 Trillion  for 2009 and 2010. That is over 3x what Bush spent per year and with the projected debt to hit over 103% of the GDP to Debt Ration…it’s only going to get worse if our leaders are allowed to spend like they are women on a shopping spree

Big Government Idea not over with Americans:

The relentless emphasis on bailouts and stimulus spending has done little to spur economic growth or create jobs, but has greatly advanced the power of the federal government in America. This is not an approach that is proving popular with the American public, and even most European governments have long ditched this tax and spend approach to saving their own economies. If it has failed in Europe what makes you think it’s gonna be different here. Our system works fine and it was designed to be as such, controlling everything effectively  takes the freedom out of the individual and trades you for the security of government which no matter what will always fall short in the end when push comes to shove.

US Foreign Policy is a train wreak:

The surrender to Moscow on Third Site missile defense only to have them turn around and assist Iran with nuclear enrichment when they promised to be side by side with America, the failure to aggressively stand up to Iran’s and North Korea nuclear program, the decision to side with ousted Marxists in Honduras, the slap in the face for Great Britain over the Falklands, have all contributed to the image of a US administration completely out of its depth in international affairs. The Obama administration’s high risk strategy of appeasing America’s enemies while kicking traditional US allies has only succeeded in weakening the United States while strengthening her adversaries.

He’s Confused on National Security:

From the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to the War on Terror, President Obama’s leadership has been muddled and confusing. On Afghanistan he rightly sent tens of thousands of additional troops to the battlefield……after waiting 60 days to finally do it. At the same time however he bizarrely announced a timetable for the withdrawal of US forces beginning in July 2011. YOU DON’T DO THAT! Letting the enemy know when you’re leaving is only going to give them the amount of time they have to wait out before you leave and overrun the country again. On Iraq he has announced an end to combat operations and the withdrawal of all but 50,000 troops despite a recent upsurge in terrorist violence and political instability, and without the Iraqi military and police ready to take over and lacking the training and motivation to do so. In addition he has ditched the concept of a War on Terror, replacing it with an Overseas Contingency Operation, hardly the right message to send in the midst of a long-war against Al-Qaeda.

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Finally…Barack Obama has made it clear he does not believe in American greatness, and I say this because time and time again he has been apologizing for his country. I find it hard to believe that someone with these values and the fact that America exceptionalism is great! We ARE the only world Superpower and he needs to lead the world with this force and conviction that America is great and she will not bow to others. His weak leadership both at home and abroad against the setting of economic uncertainty and an increasingly hostile world post 9-11 is not the kind of leadership we need. America at its core remains and will remain a deeply conservative nation who cherishes its traditions, founding principles, and its deep seated love for freedom.

As Most of you know, the state of Arizona just recently passed a new law to combat the growing problem with our border security and border enforcement. Now as most of you who watch the news have seen, there are  states in the Southwest that are looking at protesting this move via not doing business with Arizona.

Instead of applauding Arizona’s step forward , the Obama Administration has stirred up its wasp nest of activist that think what they did was wrong and that it promotes racial profiling. This is not the case actually and I’ll show you exactly what the bill says and show the proof that A: It’s widely supported and B: DOES NOT racially profile any race whatsoever.

The law makes it a state misdemeanor crime for an alien to be in Arizona without carrying registration documents required by federal law,^[15] and requires police to make an attempt, when practicable, to determine a person’s immigration status if there is reasonable suspicion that the person is an illegal alien,^[16] during a police stop for some other offense.^[17] Police may arrest a person if there is probable cause that the person is an alien not in possession of required registration documents;^[15] a person arrested cannot be released without confirmation of the person’s legal immigration status by the federal government pursuant to § 1373(c) of Title 8 of the United States Code. A first offense carries a fine of at least $500, and up to six months in jail.^[15] A person is "presumed to not be an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States" if he or she presents any of the following four forms of identification: (a) a valid Arizona driver license; (b) a valid Arizona nonoperating identification license; (c) a valid tribal enrollment card or other tribal identification; or (d) any valid federal, state, or local government-issued identification, if the issuer requires proof of legal presence in the United States as a condition of issuance.^[16] SB1070 also prohibits state, county, or local officials from limiting or restricting "the enforcement of federal immigration laws to less than the full extent permitted by federal law" and provides that Arizona citizens can sue such agencies or officials to compel such full enforcement.^[16][18]

In addition, the law makes it a crime for anyone, regardless of citizenship or immigration-status, to hire or to be hired from a vehicle which "blocks or impedes the normal movement of traffic." Vehicles used in such manner are subject to mandatory impounding. Moreover, "encourag[ing] or induc[ing]" illegal immigration, giving shelter to illegal immigrants, and transporting or attempting to transport an illegal alien, either knowingly or while "recklessly" disregarding the individual’s immigration-status,^[19] will be considered a class 1 criminal misdemeanor if fewer than ten illegal immigrants are involved, and a class 6 felony if ten or more are involved. The offender will be subject to a fine of at least $1,000 for each illegal alien so transported or sheltered.^[19]

On April 30, the Arizona legislature passed modifications to the law, that were signed by Governor Brewer, with the amended text stating that "prosecutors would not investigate complaints based on race, color or national origin."^[20] The new text also states that police may only investigate immigration status incident to a "lawful stop, detention, or arrest".^[17] Another modification to the original bill indicated that violations of local civic ordinances may give local officials reason to question immigration status

Source: Arizona Law SB1070 – Immigration Law of 2010

Another interesting fact is that a recent Rasmussen Reports Poll indicated that 60% of Americans actually supported the legislation. While overall support for it is surprisingly high, Obama took the opportunity to criticize it and call it ‘misguided’ and that it ‘undermines basic notions of fairness’ …I’m pretty sure that being an Illegal immigrant you are not granted nor did you earn the rights and privileges that Americans have in this country. Ultimately what i see here is Obama’s failed goal to tackle this within his first 100 days…so is this another broken promise from the President? You bet cha! but by now , we should be use to getting let down and being feed what we want to hear but no action ever happening.

– Ryan Price

Health Care Bill Passes Senate on Christmas Eve:

As most of you were out shopping for last minute Christmas gifts, our wonderful law makers in Congress were busy passing the Health Care Reform Bill by a margin of 60-39. Now It moves on to the House where they have to add their pieces and attempt to have it pass there as well as in the Senate in order for this to go into effect. Now trust me I don’t hate health care reform because there are honestly things i like in the bill. I think the denying of coverage for pre existing conditions is absolutely Un-American and should have been fixed years ago. Believe it or not there are people who keep their jobs and hate it for years simply because they need the health care to either pay for a child or spouse that might be sick.

Taking the super wealthy to pay for this is simply not an option. We need to find better ways besides taxing those who work their butts off in order to make 100k+ a year. The fact that it is going to save us 130 billion dollars and in a decade 1 trillion is simply not true. First off, that is under the assumption you push people off Medicare/Medicaid if not and both plans still exist them we have effectively added 1 more government run program to add to the debt.

Here’s a tip to Congress, instead of trying to BUY votes, try working together as a collective whole! Act as a congress of one not 60.

Attempted Terrorist Attack over Detroit:

When stuff like this happens, it tells you that our security still has numerous holes in it and that we are letting our guard down. This should be a big wake up call that we are by no means out of the woods by a long shot. The people on that flight should be counting their blessing that the guys leg got cooked and not the plane exploding in the sky over Detroit. Second of all, where was our wonderful intelligence on this, HIS OWN FATHER warned the Embassy about this in Yemen. Now granted this was not within our borders but we should expect our allies to have their security bumped up or at least at the gates with American destinations have tighter security getting on the flights. Our problem now is not solely directed at Afghanistan, its global and we best start paying attention because when we don’t and we take our eyes off the ball…that is when we’ll have another horrific attack on the scale of 9/11.

Protests erupt in Iran again:

Most of you remember the Iranian Elections earlier this year and the massive protests that erupted and subsequently claimed the lives of many young Iranians. While our president stood idle and turned a blind eye to it the rest of the world was standing behind them and urging them to claim the torch and bring them the freedom they have been denied for years. Well again, protests have broke out again and it seems more and more like we don’t care. Iran would not be a threat if the world pushed out the repressive rulers that abuse human rights and kill those who go against them. Iranians want the freedom and peace that the west enjoys…why is it so hard for us to give it to them!?

Ryan Price -

So President Obama ‘The first Pacific President’ packed his bags and went to Asia to mingle with the mother land of China as well as Japan. (Quite ironic he can quickly board a plane and go to Asia to thank them for bailing our asses out by buying up all our Treasury debt, but continue to drag his feet on Afghanistan, but that’s besides the point really). Everything seemed to be going well, paying a nice friendly visit to our ally Japan but low and behold:

Exhibit A:

Exactly what the hell is that, are you checking out his shoes or do you see a bug? What this clearly represents is that it was undignified and showed a lack of understanding on Obama’s part of the history between the two countries. Upright greetings have been done between the two countries since Douglas MacArthur and the US Occupation of Japan following World War II. This is also the same guy who’s wife tried to hug the Queen of England, as polite as we see that in America you simply do not do that under any circumstances, they are a different breed of people and a totally different culture. So here’s a tip Obama…do your research before you go about making an ass out of yourself. At least Bush was dignified enough to uphold the tradition that Japan and the United States have had for over 50+ Years.

Gun Control: A middle ground, this shouldn’t be a debate.

Some would agree that the gun laws in today’s America are pretty strict, right now to legally purchase a gun you must be of legal age, have no felony’s, and pretty much have a clean background and you can own anything from a rifle to a 9mm pistol. Unfortunately, as the old saying goes, it only takes one bad apple to ruin the bunch. Since events like Columbine, Jonesboro, and the recent incident in Ft. Hood, Texas. Gun laws have and will continue to get even more strict, problem is there are a few holes in the current laws that cause these things to occur. So Congress do us all a favor, fix and make the laws correct for the ones already in existence, we don’t need new laws on top of old ones. How does a simple middle class citizen figure this is such an easy fix but its so difficult for liberals and conservatives to at least work together on this.

CNN cuts Lou Dobbs lose – Is CNN in the bed with the White House?

Recently, Lou Dobbs appeared in an interview on Fox News with Bill O’Riley, during their discussion they discussed how he was given the green light to be free and open in his opinion over what he thought and believed. Recently there was a bunch of commotion over a comment over immigration that got taken out of context and recently his opinion on Obama’s poor performance in running the country and trying to fix our economy. The man was being honest and with an approval rating 30% less than Bush in his year in office at this same time, the proof is there. People are not happy. How does CNN react to this, under the table, they reprimand Lou Dobbs and subsequently release him from his contract. It has become apparent much like MSNBC that CNN would rather kiss the butt of the Liberal run White House than protect their opinionated tv hosts and let the people decide. CNN is Censoring anything bad about Obama and the white house is directly behind it… Ladies and Gentlemen…i let you decide.

Ryan Price –

Hi everyone,

I apologize for the late introduction but I have to friends who will also be contributing to this blog.  The first, a conservative, pro guns, pro life, less government kind of guy. He works in the same field as i do in IT and feels very passionate about his country – Nicholas Stehle

The second, a recent addition and a moderate republican – John Tweedle. John currently resides in Maryland and grew up mostly down the middle supporting causes on both sides of the political spectrum.

I welcome their opinions and all of us might not agree on everything but we sure believe that one thing is true…this country is running away and forgetting who the bosses really are…the American People.