As Tom Petty once sang...

I won't back down.

No, I won't back down. Seriously. What am I not backing down from? The positions I take on the issues that are facing our nation as I type this. I am fired up. More fired up than the SEC cheerleaders can get a sold out stadium during the Iron Bowl fired up. I have this passion and desire that burns deep within me. There are so many things going oh so wrong and for so long you and me have sat on the sidelines just waiting for someone else to make a difference. We as a country have become apathetic to the problems that surround us. No more. I am not sure where things are heading for me but I am getting ready to become actively involved in something that I hope can make a difference in my life and my childrens lives.

I have sat by this past week and heard the Sotomayor hearings and they make me sick. This is not and I repeat not about partisian politics. I have laid my Republican identifier down and I am purely a conservative. Party labels do not concern me but the positions on issues does. that being said I honestly don't think that politicians have the ability to do anything for those of us who voted them in but I still support those based on fiscally and socially conservatives.

So Sotomayor will be a shoo in as a Supreme Court judge. This is a slap in the face to our founding fathers who gave up their lives for our freedom. This is a lady who has no use for the laws and the constitution but instead believes that it is her job to legislate from the bench and not to interpret the constitution. This is someone who has claimed to have mispoken on more than 7 occassions the same thing but oh no, we shouldn't believe what she claimed to believe in those 7 speeches, she just misspoke each time. It's hog wash. She's putting on a show and she's sticking to her script because she knows she's got it.

This is a lady who practices descrimination not only in her personal life from the words she has spoken but also in her personal profession. This is a person who descriminated not only against whites but hispanics. I would like to know what test would have questions that were on there that made the test descriminatory to blacks. Seriously, what questions would be biased to whites/hispanics? To me that's insulting the blacks. That's saying that they are to stupid to pass a test without having a grading curve in there. It's disgusting and makes me want to vomit.

This is a lady who doesn't just believe that emmiment domain is for the government to take YOURS and MY properties but ruled as an appellate judge that it is okay for a governing body to take OUR property and give it to private enterprise. So just think of that while you're sitting all cozy in your house. Nope that's not your local government trying to take your property to widen a road; they are there to take it to give to some big business that will use your property for their own gain and I'm sure someone in the county will have been paid along the way to make it possible.

The sad realization is that this is only the beginning. She will be voted in to the highest court in the land and will be there for life. This is a slap in the face to our founding fathers. This is a slap in the face for anyone who has given their life for our freedom.

On the other hand we have this disgustingly smug man who pretends to run the country while he's out galavanting across the world. I mean seriously. Shouldn't he be required to at least spend 1 day a week in the office? Wait... maybe that'd only make things worse. He's been going around the world and has still managed to put together these country changing bills into play. The wonderful Cap 'n Trade passed the house which I pray to God that it doesn't go any farther. This is one bill that is the largest tax increase we have ever had as a nation.

He has now decided to go and screw with health care. I wonder if he will even say anything regarding the congressional budget office that came out this week, after studying the bill, and said that if this is passed within 10 years the country will go 289 BILLION DOLLARS in debt from it. The only way to cut this cost is to #1 raise taxes yet again or #2 start reducing the care to Americans. Your sick and dying? Oh gosh darn, you were only going to live another 10 years any way, we're just going to curtail your prescriptions and curtail your life span.

I am not an eloquent typist. I don't always formulate my thoughts together in the best way or the most understandable way but I am on fire. I have a passion deep in my soul. If something is not done then my children and your's will pay for the mistakes of these evil men we have elected.

I encourage you to read Glenn Beck's new book "Common Sense" and then I urge you to read Thomas Paine's "Common Sense". If you look at what Thomas Paine wrong those 2oo and something odd years ago what he was going through is eerily similar. Our freedoms are being taken away from us. Somethings congress can change over the course of a few terms but the changes that are being made right now are not easily undone. They will be here and impact us for a lifetime.

So for all of you who sit back and don't like the way things are heading please don't sit back and just be apathetic towards this. Step up. Make your voice be heard. Be loud. Scream to the top of your lungs. Things will only change if We the People take back our nation.

God Bless America!

The 4th!

I had a great 4th of July. Every year since my parents were at 1st Baptist Pleasant Grove they have gone to a 4th of July bbq at Archie Phillip's house in south Shelby County. It's not a house, it's just a farm. It has an out house, lake, an inside area with not much to it and I was told a trailer out on the property. He uses it to hunt and fish. The only thing is you have to throw the fish back. Any way, every year at the bbq they fire off an old timey cannon. It's the real deal.

In June Archie was in a car wreck and this past Wednesday had back surgery and is still in the hospital. I thought the bbq was canceled but apparently it wasn't. I found out Friday it was still on. He invites tons and tons of people. I think there were about 60 or so there and everyone was commenting on how few people had come. The kids (except for mine) were swimming in the dirty lake, fishing on the very large dock with hotdogs and just having a grand ol time. After every one ate they started firing the cannons. Now that was so neat to watch. Now let me tell you you had to plug your ears even from a distance because it was so loud. They fired it probably close to 8 times. It was authentic and hearing them fire it made me wonder how the confederates were able to hear the cannons go off over and over again and in rapid succession. Surely they were all deaf when it was over.

I loved the people there. They were southern. There were some there that were down right country. It was great. There were people from the church in PG and this year not as many came because Archie didn't have it announced in the church bulletin because of his surgery. I realized how much I miss good ol southern people. Yes, there were some there who weren't refined or who seemed to have not gone past the 8th grade... okay the 9th grade, but I remember how great southern hospitality is. They were so nice and so friendly and the kind of people who would give you the shirt off their back.

Mackenzie made fast friends with a very elderly couple. She tried to get my mom to take her out in the canoe but it wasn't happening. It ended up that Mr. Morris (that's his first name) ended up taking Mackenzie out in one of the boats to go fishing. She loved it! She was out there for almost an hour. She didn't want to come back in. Now earlier in the day Jackson, Mackenzie and I were fishing out on the dock. We used hotdogs and when I caught the first fish it dawned on me that I didn't have a clue what to do with it. Thankfully another man was there and he go the fish off for me and let Jackson throw it back in.

So like an idiot I put another hotdog on and throw the line back out. Low and behold I catch another fish. I decided if I was going to catch it then I had to take it off the line. In that brief moment I rationalized that if that man could hold the fish then by golly I could too. To my amazement I did it. I touched the little fish and took the hook out. I ended up doing it about 5 times for me and the kids. Thankfully there was a wash basin on the dock and someone was smart enough to have a big bottle of Joy in there for me to wash my hands with.

While we were at the dock my parents and Avery walked down. I heard guns going off and they had started the skeet shooting. Man I wanted to fire a gun so badly. I was told if I went to any of the men they'd be more than happy to let me fire a gun. I was a little shy and so I waited. I ended up talking to a great lady who is a teacher in Pleasant Grove. Her son is in the 4th grade and will also go to Deer Valley like Mackenzie. She and I became fast friends. She doesn't live too far from me either. Now she's about 10 years younger than my parents but I'm an old soul. I just naturally get along with people who are older than I am.

Oh and I finally shot a gun. The men were happy to let me. They tell me how to hold it and where the safety is. The gun seriously is almost as long as I am. It holds 3 shots. I get in my stance and shoot it off and it was so thrilling. They tell me to do it again but I said I didn't really want to because I wanted to hit something. So they pull the skeet. Now that is not something I wanted to try. First of all it's a moving target. I've never done that before. Second of all I don't want to be embarrassed when I miss it. So the skeet goes fly and I'm looking down the barrel of the gun and I pull the trigger. The skeet goes flying into pieces. I hit it! It was such a great feeling.

When I walked back up underneath the huge outdoor covered picnic area my dad asked how I liked it. I said "I know what I want for Christmas this year." You know I don't think I was really kidding. I've always said I thought I'd be good at hitting targets. I would love to go to a shooting range and target practice. Now I think I'd love to go hunting. My dad certainly knows enough people up here who go hunting and I was told by many I could go any time. I am seriously going to take people up on that offer.

So the day was fun, we made friends and it was hot. We came home and the older kids went to the pool with dad while I took a shower and fed Avery. By the time they came back we cooked out. It was the perfect way to spend the 4th.

Today we went to church and I heard just about the best sermon ever. Now to begin with the music in the service was amazing. I loved the patriotic songs, the 18 year old banjo player who did a melody of those songs and the recogniztion of those in the armed forces and the choir singing each of their branches songs. The sermon was dead on. It was as about political as you can from the pulpit without breaking "the rules". Dr .Wood was dead on and used the passage of the Bible from Amos 7:1-9. He compared us to Israel (from back in the Biblical days). He referenced a study a man did back in the 50's or 60's comparing the Roman and Greek Empires and their rise and falls. They both went through the same exact cycles and America has gone through the same exact cycles except for the final 2. When I'm not so tired I am going to get the man's name and pull up the study and all of the points and post it on here. It is scary.

Wake up people. God has patience but can only sit and watch for so long. He can only cry out to our nation so many times and sit back while we ignore His calls. Our country was founded on religous freedom. Our founding fathers and president after president have said over and over again that without God can our nation be run. That God has to be apart of things. Now I'm not one to say we have to shove Christianity down the throats of Americans but our nation was built on "In God We Trust" and not in the Koran we trust, or Allah we trust, or some false God.

I am so fired up over the sermon today. So many of the points I tried to make on here the other day or thought about making he made them and so much better than I ever could have. I wanted to start standing up and yelling Amen again and again during the sermon. Focus on the Family is urging each church to have the members pray each Sunday for 5 minutes for our nation and nations leaders. I hope this is something that is done through out the entire country. I truly believe if enough can rise up through prayer and activism that we can make a difference and change the path of our nation.

The elections in 2010 are crucial. If the socially and fiscally conservatives don't take back the house and the senate I am afraid that any hope is gone. This is not some dire message or threat or me saying I'll leave the country if so and so is elected like all those dumb celebrities said about Bush. This is real. This is my life, your life, your childrens lives and your grandchildrens lives at stake.

Where Is This All Heading? Not to a Very Good Place

I have been so busy lately between work and the kids that I haven't had time to do much but sleep, eat and change diapers. I really miss my XM radio and listening to Fox and Friends each morning but I LOVE the local talk radio in the morning here. It's the Steven and Leah show on WERC. Between the morning show, Rush Limbaugh if I leave work to grab a bite to eat and the Glenn Beck Show replay on the way home from work I am able to stay up on my politics.


Cap and Trade
I am scared out of my mind right now. For those of you liberals who think that it's the programs I listen to that are scaring me and that there isn't any true reason to be alarmed you have fallen and hit your head one too many times. The Cap and Trade bill that passed the House last Friday was not reported on any of the evening news programs Friday night after it passed. It is the biggest tax increase ever passed and no one reported on it. Before it passed none of the networks, except Fox News, did much reporting on it. This is a massive bill. There are so many little hidden things in it that impacts everyone and no one is reporting it. I wonder why? It's because those in charge have put everything on a fast track to go to a socialist government.

The entire bill has been touted as making things greener and better for the environment. So in a way to make people use less energy I guess they have decided to charge fees/taxes on the utility companies when users use more than xxx amount of power, etc. Who is that cost going to be put on? The consumers. Me and you. For a President and the majority group right now who have always helped those who are poor, chose not to work, are on welfare, etc. this is doing nothing but hurting them ten fold. It may not be called a tax but any time new mandatory charges equalling $800 billion a year that will 100% be passed on to the Americans is a tax.

Did you know that there is a little provision in the bill that calls for any time anyone wants to sell their house they have to get approval to do so? It has to be signed off on as energy efficient, etc. For instance if you have outdated appliances then the government can tell you too bad you can't sell your home the way it is because it's not eco or whatever friendly. So before you can sell your house you have to upgrade. That should be a decision between a seller and his buyer. What also makes it horrific is that by giving the government that much authority then they really could make it difficult for people they just don't like to get approval to sell their homes, etc.

So for you, those liberals out there, just remember that when it comes time for you to sell your home this next time, that you will have to pass a government inspection and YOU may be told to fix a b and c before you can do so. Do you really want the government telling you if you can sell your house or not? And what about those who are less fortunate and can't fix up their house to standard.

That's what's so great about buying and selling now. Someone has a property that could use updating certain things and a buyer who loves that comes in and buys it to do it himself. That's just one instance. If this passes the Senate we are in big trouble. Watch out people.

Universal Healthcare

So you want universal healthcare? You think everyone should have the same access to healthcare? You think this new healthcare bill would be great for everyone and help those who aren't insured. Not so much. The new bill does not provide provisions for those who earn less than a certain amount. I *think* a family of four had to earn more than $31k to be eligible for healthcare under this bill. If you earn less than the minimum and do not maintain your own coverage then you will be fined. Each time the government checks for coverage and you don't have coverage you will be fined.

The bill specifically states that except for the start up cost that the taxpayers will be paying the program will be completely self supporting. The bill states the program will support itself from the fines received from those who don't have healthcare coverage and the new tax revenue they will receive from taxing the healthcare plans individuals have. Right now healthcare premiums are not taxed. I believe it is called the Cafeteria Plan (never understood why it was called that, it always makes me think of food).

Also under this plan businesses will lose tax incentives for offering healthcare plans to its employees. It's essentially going to be penalizing companies for offering healthcare to employees. Then employees will start dropping their healthcare plans and we, yes, you too, will be forced to get the government's healthcare coverage. Our ability to choose will be gone. When you take away the ability for people to make their own decisions it is called Socialism.

So this plan that will penalize companies and essentially effect the hardworking peoples insurance will not even help some 40 million Americans who are now not covered. The plan will make money off of those are in the lower income brackets by fining them.

Of course the administration says nothing will change blah blah blah. It will. Once the government gets involved it will start dictating how patients are treated, etc. This has happened in Canada and Great Brittain. In Canada there is an 8 month wait to get a colonoscopy. They have an 13% higher rate of colon cancer because problems are not being diagnosed early enough because of the long wait for the colonoscopy. They have an 12% higher death rate from colon cancer because the Canadian government does not allow Dr.'s to treat the patients with the top 2 colon cancer drugs because of the cost. This will start happening to us American's if we let the government get a hold of healthcare.

Community Organizer

I was on my way home this week listening to Glenn Beck and he made such a great point it had me "amen'n" in the care but scared me at the same time. A community organizer is someone who goes into the community wanting change. They hit the community with new ideas/policies/change fast and hard. In my mind they are usually not always on the up and up and not people I'd want to deal with. What Obama is doing now is being a community organizer. He is hitting the house with so many new bills and ideas it's overwhelming. The public is being told so often how horrible everything is and being force fed so many new plans and ideas all day long that at the end of the day most Americans are going to be so tired of hearing it all and not understanding it all and will get to the point that they too agree things are so bad and any change has got to be better what we have now.

This is scary America.

So today, on the 4th of July, our nations birthday, please remember those who fought for our Freedom. They came to America to be able to make their own religious choices and to get away from a place that didn't let them make their own choices on certain things. When we celebrate the 4th next year where will we be? Will we be the same America where if I want to buy a house with old non-energy efficient appliances I can or a place where I'm on an 8 month wait for a colonoscopy and it's too late by then and I have cancer.

It's up to you. Please call your seantor and congressional leader. Let them know you say no to the liberal policies.