There is no threat against Christmas

Sadly this “war on Christmas” bs that was begun and propagated by Bill O’Reilly on Faux News seems to have seeped more and more in the beliefs of many mainstream Americans. The reality is there is no one that is out to destroy Christmas or take Christ out of it. The Grinch is a character in my favorite Christmas cartoon but he doesn’t exist.

So what do they love to use as evidence. Some say the word Christmas can’t be used in schools. Seriously? If you have ever been in a school public or private this time of year, you know that just isn’t true. Most years I attend a Christmas party that usually has a High School Choral for entertainment. Yes a public school. They sing Christmas songs, yes some about Santa Claus and Snow and Chestnuts but some about silent nights and angels singing as well.

The next one is the use of the greetings Happy Holidays or Seasons Greetings. I was raised Catholic, I still have Christian beliefs, and yes I know what Christmas is about and remember it as such. Most times I do wish people a Merry Christmas. But I am not arrogant enough to believe that all should believe as I do. So I do wish some Happy Holidays and some Happy Hanukah when I know they are of Jewish faith. That doesn’t mean I am trying to take Christ out of Christmas anymore then wishing Canadians Happy Thanksgiving in October means I think the 4th week in November isn’t a better time for it.

Yes I have found it annoying that a few that don’t respect our beliefs have used the courts to limit nativity scenes on government property. But you know what, this has been going on for decades and those displays have just moved down the street in just about every town in America. Christ wasn’t taken out of Christmas anywhere.

My point is, my faith is strong enough to know that no man or men or organization or company have any chance of taking God or Jesus out of anything successfully especially Christmas. When I see Happy Holidays or Seasons Greetings, I take those words to mean most likely how they are intended, polite well wishes to everyone, not just those who believe one way.

Why the President will be re-elected.

1. The auto bailout- 2 million jobs and the economy of at least 8 states have been improved dramatically by this one action of the President. Romney will regret the headline “let the Detroit go bankrupt” for the rest of his life. Even though he is trying to distort his record on this at the last minute, the headline and the video of him confirming this stance is haunting him.

2. Are we better off then 4 years ago- To most Americans the answer is clearly yes. If you have investments, wall street has doubled. If you are on Medicare the prescription loop hole closing is saving you money. Though too many are still unemployed, people are forgetting the millions that now have jobs that either they didn’t have or were at risk of losing 4 years ago.

3. Casual Voters-The vast majority of American voters are not as plugged into the day to day world of politics. Though it is often easy for misinformation and changing ones positions to work, Romney has done it at such a pace that even the most casual have seen it and recognized it for what it is. A man who will say anything and believes apparently nothing.

4. The country is evolving- Attitudes are changing. The vast majority of young people do not have the same beliefs on race, and homosexuality that even their parents had. Hate, fear and division not only doesn’t work with casual voters it causes a backlash.

5. Women- Too many Republicans have sad out loud what they really think of women. The fact that Romney hasn’t distanced himself from the comments of Aiken and Murdock that it will be very hard for most women to pull that level for any Republican.

6. Voter Suppression-This is perhaps the biggest backfire in the history of Presidential politics. 4 years ago there was “history” there was “change” there was major excitement and motivation that helped Barack Obama get elected. There was genuine concern that would not be there at the same levels this time. Then came voter suppression efforts and people began to believe someone was taking away their vote. This caused the biggest change in mobilization and motivation perhaps in history. The lines at the early voting venues have been unbelievable. By trying to stop these people from voting the Republican party instead increased the numbers likely to vote by a significant margin.

7. Likeability- The sleaziness and the dishonesty of the Romney campaign has not gone unnoticed. It makes many voters ill just to see his face. Compare that to President Obama and people genuinely can’t help but to like the man personally even if they don’t always agree with him.



The polls have been consistent in one thing. President Obama will win this election. Yes there has been a blip here or there but never has Romney been in the lead in the Electoral college. Romney’s side of course isn’t going to say that, they need to keep their base motivated to vote, The Obama campaign doesn’t want to say that because they don’t want their voters not showing up because it’s a done deal. The media surely won’t say that because they want you to keep watching the news and they want the advertising revenue. Of course it’s important to still vote. But there will be no surprise on election day. President Obama will get 4 more years.

Honesty Matters

I am frankly disgusted by dishonesty. We don’t put up with it from our friends, our families, or coworkers or anyone else in our lives yet when it comes to politics Americans repeatedly ignore dishonesty.

There are so many excuses for this none of which are valid. The most often one is “all politicians lie.” Do they, in actuality? They all put their own spin on things, they put their record in the best light possible. But to outright lie is completely different and has much worse consequences. For example on a resume most of us have tried to find the right words to make our experiences and abilities sound as good as possible, but if we cross the line and make up job experience and knowledge, the chances of disaster should we get that job are quite high. When we ignore the lies of politicians vote for them anyway, we are rewarding them for doing so thus encouraging others to do so in the future.



Another excuse is “people don’t want to know the truth, they want to hear what they want to hear.” This is often used as a reason for the existence of Fox News. Clearly this organizations ratings are too high to believe that everyone that watches it is stupid enough to believe it is actually “fair and balanced” Hundreds if not thousands of times Fox News has been caught blatantly reporting falsehoods, yet people still watch it, every day excusing them for the lies they have reported. Not wanting to believe the truth. This rewards Fox News for acting as they do.

This nation reelected a President who either by his own fault or the fault of those around him told the country and the world we must go into a war because of weapons of mass destruction. The vast majority of the country knew by the time of his reelection that wasn’t true. But they ignored it they didn’t want to know. The consequences, over 4000 American service men and women killed. 10’s of thousands wounded. Lack of trust by basically the entire world including our allies. Yet we ignore these consequences because “we didn’t want to know?”


Now we come to this election. We have a man Mitt Romney that has been documented by every independent fact checking organization to be out right lying again and again. He was once pro choice, he is now pro life, he has spoken again and again of a 20% tax cut across the board which is 5 trillion, yet in a debate he stood their with a straight face and repeated he proposed no such tax cut. He claims he worked across the aisle as a Republican Governor with a democratic legislature when the reality is he vetoed that Legislature 800 times and was overridden 800 times. He claims he is against Obama Care when in fact he passed about almost the exact same legislation as Governor. He claims he is pro coal when he stood in front of a coal plant bragging that he shut it down.

You can say all you want about President Obama, you can be disappointed in the speed of the recovery, you can even disagree with some of his policies, but what no one with an eye for the truth can say, is that he has ever been dishonest with the American people and the world in any way. He has stood by his convictions and his beliefs.

You cannot say that about Mitt Romney.

Vote for Mitt Romney if you choose to, but know this, because of his dishonesty frankly you a voting based on “wanting to believe” rather then any actual facts on how he stands on any issue. Because what he says changes depending on what he feels he needs to say to win that day, that week.

Our nation survived 8 years of a dishonest Administration at great cost. Do you really want to take that risk again?

Making political hay out of tragedy.

Did Democrats use 9/11 against Bush?

Did Democrats attack Reagan for the 200 Marines killed in Lebanon?

The answer is of course a resounding No!

But Republicans are not like Democrats they will use any tragedy and twist it to criticize, accuse, and try to make political gain.

FACT: What happened in Benghazi is a tragedy. Fact: 4 Americans were killed. Fact: It happened on a very confusing day where demonstrations were taking place all over the world over a video. Fact: The President did call it a Terrorist attack the next day. Fact: Unlike wannabe Presidents the actual Commander in Chief has to base decisions and take action based on the facts, not emotion, not what is politically easier or what sounds good.

Fact: This President has a record that is unmatched by ANY President when it comes to bringing terrorists to justice. This President has in fact sought out, captured and or killed more Terrorist leaders in 3 years than any other President did in 8.

Fact: the world trusts America again under President Obama’s leadership. Fact: While other Presidents pounded their chest and threatened, with no results. Dictatorships decades old have fallen under this President’s watch.

Fact: People cheer this President and America in places they used to burn our flag.

Fact: President Obama ended a war that the world was lied to by President Bush to start.

Fact: President Obama is ending the longest war in our History.

Fact: This man is truly the leader of the Free World. Others are bad arm chair coaches.

Republicans should start acting like Americans again and stand by our President to help bring the culprits to justice instead of your sniveling over how and when the word “terrorist” was used.

Romney: A truly despicable human being

The video that hopefully most Americans have seen by now truly show the kind of man Mitt Romney is. Born into privilege, made wealthy stepping on the backs of working Americans and then showing total disdain for those not as fortunate as him.

There were many people he called irresponsible freeloaders in that video. Not just the many elderly who survive on Social Security Checks and Medicare, not just the poor. not just the disabled, not just the millions of Americans who got a college education with government grants and loans.  How about the those that have ever found themselves unemployed,  found their health insurance doesn't cover their bills, through no fault of their own. How about the thousands of business men who get SBA loans every year to start or keep their businesses a float.  The banks that got a bail out, the auto industry that exists still today due to Government money, The veterans who depend on the government for health care, the victims of flood, hurricane, fire and other disasters. The farmers devastated by drought.

But there is a group of people that find Mitt Romney's words the most despicable of all. These are the thousands of people that had good jobs, security, health benefits, pensions and did everything they were supposed to do. Their only mistake that put them on Romney's dead beat list?  They worked for a company that was bought by Mitt Romney and Bain Capital. Mitt made millions while these people lost everything, pensions, health care, their very jobs. Mitt personally was responsible for putting these people on various forms of government assistance. Yet he calls them irresponsible?

Yes I am repeating the same word 3 times in one post, but I can't think of a better one. Despicable

The Hypocrisy on Foreign Policy of Romney and the Right.

Are Americans really listening to what Romney and the right wing talking heads have been saying the last couple days? First off they like to use the words “apology and appeasement.” Both things that President Obama has never done. Not now not ever. The statement sent out by the American Embassy in Egypt before the violence escalated was as follows:

“The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims — as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.”

Where exactly is the apology? What exactly in that statement is as Romney says, “against American Values?” Is it not an American value to oppose religious intolerance, is it weak to state a belief that our very nation was founded on? What if this was about an anti Christian or anti Semitic movie, would this be considered a bad statement by the Republican’s then or is it only weak because it is aimed at Islam?

No one, not the President, not the State Department not even the majority of the Libyan people are stating it is ok to respond with violence to this trash. All have expressed such unequivocally. It is just as wrong as people bombing abortion clinics killing innocent people in the name of God.

A foreign policy of apology and appeasement they say. What they really mean is that this President actually tries to use diplomacy, understanding, communication and finding common ground when dealing with other nations. This includes all nations not just Israel. This as opposed to a chest thumping President who used cowboy diplomacy that resulted in two wars, the worst terrorist attack on our nation, and two nations he called the “Axis of Evil” deciding to protect themselves by developing Nuclear Weapons.

In addition I have been actually hearing Right Wing mouthpieces question the wisdom of supporting the ouster of the Dictator Mubarak resulting in Egypt moving toward democracy. Isn’t it the Republicans favorite justification for intervention in other countries to spread democracy? Democracy is messy, because the people choose who will run their country. It is in fact way easier to control a dictator. Yet it is and has always been our nation’s mission to promote democracy and the will of the people anywhere in the world. They criticize the ouster of Mubarak not because they have a democracy now that is less easy to predict their future, they criticize it because it happened during President Obama’s time in office.

Thank goodness a democracy wasn’t created that a terrorist group was voted into power, oh wait that did happen in Lebanon where Hamas took power in democratic elections. But that happened during Bush’s Presidency so that’s ok apparently.

The facts are this, America is exceptional, America is strong, America is the best hope for peace and Democracy around the world. But we must have leaders of vision, that other countries trust, and that are effective.

During this President’s time in Office, One war was brought to an end, another will end soon. More terrorists have been killed or captured in the last 3 years then the entire 8 years of the Bush Administration including Bin Laden himself. Our country has not been attacked by foreign terrorists on our soil, not even once. Long time dictators have fallen in several countries and others are on the brink. Our current President is cheered when he makes trips to other nations when the last President had to be snuck in, in the middle of the night.

Weak? Appeasing? Clearly not. The right word would be effective.

Why I Care About Politics.

Often I hear things like, “I don’t follow politics”….”I ignore all the political posts”,.. “all politicians are the same” “It doesn’t matter” … In short “I don’t care. “

But I do care.

I care because I love my country. The country that exists now, the country as it was in the past and the country that will exist in the future.

I care because I believe in truth, honesty, commitment and leadership.


I care because I cannot stand by while others lie, distort and just make things up for political gain.

I care because I listen to the words of Jesus Christ, "'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'"

I care because I believe our country is greatest when its not controlled by greed.

I care because I believe the richest country on earth should have equal opportunity for all.

I care because in that wealthiest of countries I believe that health care is in fact a right rather then a method to enrich people while others choose between food and medicine.

I care because I have seen what happens when all the wealth goes to the few and 99% are left out.

I care because I have seen a war based on lies told by a President and his administration, leading to the deaths of over 4000 young American Men and women and 10’s of thousands of Iraqi’s

I care because I have seen that cowboy diplomacy of the past leads to our country being less safe, building up more hate and mistrust around the world.

I care because I have seen the world celebrate strong leadership by American Presidents such as FDR, JFK and yes Barack Obama. That leads to a better world not only for American’s but the world.

I care because I don’t think our elections should be up for sale to the highest corporate bidder who can spend millions in secret spreading lies and mistruths and we allow them to do so.

I care because I don’t think our elected leaders should do things to prevent citizens from voting thus helping one side win.

I care because ignorance, hate and racisim must not prevail.

I care because I believe in the United States of America, Liberty and Justice for all and the Constitution.

So yes I am passionate. Yes I will annoy people with my frequent posts. No I do not believe that masses will suddenly wake up and change their vote. But if one person understands the facts that they didn’t before, If one person votes that wouldn’t have before, if one person even takes the time to listen and find the facts rather then ignoring all sides, then it has all been worth it to me.