If it walks like a duck....

...and quacks like a duck then guess what....IT IS A DUCK. Now if you read any of my previous post you know that I did not vote for Obama BUT that I was willing to give him a chance. A chance to prove to me that he was going to try to change the culture in Washington. A chance to prove that he can work with both sides of the aisle. A chance to prove that his "moderate" position he ran on after the democratic nomination was the true Obama. Well so far he has struck out on every single thing he has done. My patience is already being put to the test. Now dont here me wrong....I HATED DUBYA. So this is not a "the previous 8 years where great".

So let me present a little of what I call strike outs. Now in fairness not to appear as if I am just ranting...I am also going to put forth some things he COULD have done to "moderate" Washington and prove to the people like me(what I would call the majority of Amercians) that we aren't extreme left or right and what we want is someone who IS in the middle.

Strike 1 - First thing Obama does is to remove the ban that Bush imposed allowing tax dollars to go to out of country family planning organizations. Now for those of my readers who don't know what that means....basically it is Planned Parenthood just without the federal restrictions due to the fact it is out of the country.

Why this is bad - These international parenting organization do preform so VERY good things however they are pro-abortion places. Now this is not the "we are killing innocent babies" arguement however(thought it does apply). What these place have is the ability to do things not regulated by our government because they aren't part of our country. SO one example is this....texas teenager (17 years old)gets herself pregnant, doesn't want parents to know, she drives across the border to Mexico, gets herself an abortion and no one has to know! THIS IS A BAD THING. Instead of giving the parents the option to parent we are saying the government know better for our families than we do. What this also does it take MY tax dollars and put them to work on abortions.

Solution - Fund these organization, as they do preform good services as well, BUT require them to have to abide by our laws put forth at the federal level. So when a teenager wants an abortion she has to have parental consent. This would have been at least a step in the right direction because the extreme left aren't going to like this nor are the extreme right. This would have been a step towards the middle but instead Obama listened to and pleased those high power donors that got him elected.....but then are we surprised?

Strike 2 - Stimulus Package....Obama has proposed a package that will be a spending and tax cut package however the tax cuts are a smoke screen because they are payroll tax credits and you have to be working to be able to benefit from this.

Why this is bad - I think on the whole this is a good idea but it needs to be modified a little. The extreme left want MORE GOVERNMENT which means more taxes which means less money in my pocket to use how I see fit(ie giving to my church or other organization that help people) They don't want tax cuts because it means that they can't do as much at the federal level(which might I add I think is a good thing becuase I the federal government can't manage the money I give them now much less more). The extreme right ONLY wants tax cuts because it would shrink the governments ability to do more because they would have given back money(this is a smoke screen too because the government doesn't care if they have the money or not but that is a topic for another time). As it is right now the extreme left is getting everything they want because they don't have to give back money, they get more government programs, and keep themselves elected because that is what union labor wants!

Solution - The only true way to stimulate the economy is a combination of true tax cuts and true government spending. Go ahead and create these jobs by spending our tax money BUT don't smoke screen the tax cuts. Go ahead with the payroll tax cut but half it and take the other half and send people checks for the money. This would give the left what they want...more programs and give the right a little slice of what they want which is money back in their pockets. This way you are in the middle and you are stimulating the economy and you aren't playing to your extreme left while showing that there are people in this world who don't agree with MORE government. When you combine the two what you do is do more government for the time being to help get us back on track but with the tax cuts you will have less money in the future to continue these programs without restructuring the federal government which if you don't agree needs to be done you got your head in the ground.

Strike 3 - Increasing the power of organized labor. He has withdrew some of the restrictions placed on organized labor(unions) that the bush administration put in to place to help bring union labor more in line with the world economic line of labor.

Why this is bad - to explain this you have to understand unions and their history. Unions came to be because companies took advantage of their employees to help the bottom line(cutting wages and making work less safe instead of more) and make more profit for management and share holders. I don't think anyone would look at this and say a bad thing at the time. BUT now we have federal regulations in place to regulate safety and wages. WHY should any Tom, Dick, and Harry be paid 100K to screw in a couple of screws in to a car in a GM auto plant. This is not skilled labor and it is not worth 100K for Tom to be paid that much. What this does is undervalue skilled labor and college educated people. So thanks for making my degree worth even less than it is already worth. Also this hurts our competitive edge against foreign companies that DONT have to pay as much for non-skills labor.

Solution - Keep Union restrictions in place BUT force the federal government to put further restrictions on employers to further prevent what caused unions to happen in the first place. You could require a minimal amount of health care to be paid but the company to all full time employees, mandate vacation time be given(more than already given), or even require employers to pay for well checks/physicals on all employees. This would improve our workforce, productivity, and competitive cost with foreign companies.

So far Mr. Obama you have not fulfilled your promises about working to bridge the divide all you are doing is the politics in the same on manner. You are working only for those that funded your campaign and that isn't CHANGE!

Holy CRAP its 2009

Nine years ago it was Y2K and being in the technology field that was like dooms day. But the world didn't end and everything came out A.O.K from all that so here we are.....2009. Alot of people like to look back to the previous year and remember all the things that happened as a way of closing out the year and moving to the next. I have been accused of doing and being many things in my life but sentemental is not one of them and though I have SO much to be thankful for(nearly 5 years of marriage to the woman of my dreams, the birth of my Son, etc..) I am going to post a few things about this coming year. These are NOT resolutions!

"....and here we Go!"

I always try to draw inspiration and challenge from people around me of which I have high amounts of respect. Some of the influential people in my life, Crystal, Mom, Dad, Keith, Jeremy, Bryant to name a few. But in December I had a break through moment. Do you realize the smartest people in the world are readers! People that enjoy reading, learn from reading, get ideas from reading! Most of these people could care less about TV....give them a good book. Me I hate reading. I always figured why use my imagination(that takes work on my part) when I can let the writers of TV shows do that part for me and I can get to the entertaining part by just enjoying it. But in December I was rocked a little on this feeling. Due to a work trip i got an opportunity to witness a very smart man and his library. Gene Parr is a Campus Minister at Morehead State University in Kentucky. This man literally has thousands of books. I don't mean he has a couple book cases full. when you grew up did you watch Beauty and the Beast.....do you remember the library in that story...that is what I mean. Gene is also one of the most enjoyable people to talk to and you can just tell he is a VERY VERY Intelligent God fearing man. I was inspired by this to commit to get past this hatred I had of books. So with my wife sitting in the living room with me I told her my plan. I am going to read 6 books (non-fiction) over the course of the next 12 months. Now for me this is a huge huge goal because i am the worlds slowest reader and combine that with my lack of desire I have had....it is a lofty goal but to this point i am actually getting to a point where I can say I am enjoying and looking forward to my morning time of sipping coffee and reading my book. Hopefully this is going to translate in to me being a smart God fearing man, husband, and father. More details to come later but I will post my reading list, at least as it is right now, and then hopefully this will give me some stuff to blog about as the year goes on....

Unchristian(reading right now)
UnChurced
Whats so Amazing About Grace
Calvinism - A southern baptist dialog
(to be named later)
(to be named later)