Inner Banks Philosophy

Barack Obama wants to save America by "fundamentally transforming" us.

"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." - - H. L. Menken.

A Conservative Viewpoint - America Becoming More Pro-life

Article by Bob Steinburg
- Edenton, North Carolina: Cradle of the Colony

My wife and I hear repeatedly there is nothing like having grandchildren. We enjoyed “almost” every moment of raising our two sons and hoped that one day they too would experience parenting. That day will soon arrive. Our youngest and his wife are expecting their first child in January: a girl. We are finally going to become grandparents.

When our children were born, I was fortunate enough to have a ringside seat to witness both miracles. Anyone doubting if there is a God need only witness childbirth to become a believer. And for me, life begins at conception. We fell in love with our grandchild the first time we saw her ultrasound. Our love for that baby grows exponentially with each passing day.

My wife, Marie, and I were unaware of the sex of our own babies before they were born in the ‘70s. With today’s technology parents know the gender after the 16th week of pregnancy. In fact, today there isn’t much left to the imagination. This makes wrestling with the decision on whether to abort one’s child or not all the more gut-wrenching, except, perhaps, for those who are victims of rape or incest.

We now know a baby’s heart, digestive system and spinal cord begin to form four weeks after conception. At the end of eight weeks the heart is functioning. At 12 weeks the baby is in a recognizable form. Throughout months five and six hair develops and the mother can sense her child’s occasional hiccup.

By month seven the baby weighs approximately 3 ½ pounds and could survive as a preemie. During the final two months of pregnancy the baby is extremely active, adding weight right up to delivery day.

There are 1.3 million abortions performed annually in the U. S. Fifty-seven percent occur in the first nine weeks. Twenty percent of babies aborted are between nine and 10 weeks (when the heart is functioning) and 22 percent from weeks 11- 21 or later when the baby takes on recognizable human form. It is easy to understand why abortion continues to be one of the most divisive issues in America.

In many years of church volunteer work through outreach and pastoral care, I can’t recall ever hearing of someone pro-life becoming pro-choice. Conversely, I have heard of individuals who were pro-choice and are now pro-life. One such person is former Planned Parenthood Director Abby Johnson.

Up until recently, Johnson worked at a clinic in Texas where she assisted women in getting abortions. She told Fox News that she had never previously witnessed an abortion. A physician asked her to assist in performing an ultrasound guided termination procedure. The mother was 13 weeks pregnant. Johnson viewed the monitor and saw a baby’s full side profile face to feet. She then said she witnessed the baby “fighting for its life by trying to shield itself and move away from the probe.” That was Johnson’s last day in the clinic. She has become a staunch pro-life advocate.

Johnson is not alone. For the first time since 1995 polls show that a majority of Americans identify themselves as pro-life. A recent Gallup Values and Beliefs survey showed 51 percent pro-life, 42 percent pro-choice. That’s a shift of seven to eight points from just one year ago. It appears this is one more issue in which the Democratic liberal elites are becoming out of step with the views of a majority of Americans.

No where has abortion had a more devastating impact than on the black community. Since 1970, more than 50 million surgical abortions have been performed in the U. S. While childbearing black women account for only 13 percent of the total female population in the age group of 15 to 44, they underwent 36 percent of all abortion procedures.

In addition to the moral debate, some suggest abortion has wreaked untold havoc on our economy. Dennis M. Howard, president of the pro-life group Movement for a Better America calculates abortion has cost the U. S. $35 trillion in lost Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Others suggest that had it not been for abortions, the government money spent on welfare, food stamps and other entitlements would be many times more than what it is today. That is a pro-abortion argument that is unsettling to me. Since the welfare reform of the `90s and with its accompanying full employment economy up until two plus years ago, welfare benefits continued to be low.

We should never hail aborting children as a cost saving measure anymore than we would consider euthanizing the elderly by denying them care as a way to control healthcare costs. Job creation can cure most of this nation’s fiscal maladies.

I don’t know whether the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion will ever be overturned. But I do know this. A society cannot call itself civilized when it fails to take every precautionary step to protect the sanctity of life at any stage. As a Christian, and perhaps even more importantly as a member of the human race, there are few exceptions that could lead me to believe otherwise. To that, my new granddaughter, just weeks away from delivery, says, “Amen Papa. Amen!”

The American public has never been as pro-choice as the press has tried to claim that it is. My only caution with Bob's article is the difference between being pro-life and the insistence that a woman has no right to control her own body. I don't think that the summary term means that Americans are as adamantly pro-life as Bob, or some in the pro-life community, want to believe now. There are some in between positions that still require clarification because they have compelling moral support.

Pro-life extremists have insisted on opposition to the 3 day pill which stops implantation for up to 72 hours after the egg has been fertilized. Since it cannot attach to the mother it cannot start to grow in the womb. They consider this murder too. Most Americans don't consider it murder since 50% of fertilized eggs do not attach naturally. Does that mean they are pro-life or pro-choice?

For nearly two thousand years - during the period of the pregnancy in which the potential child was an embryo (after implantation but before it became a fetus - roughly 40 days) Christians did not consider it a human being yet. Some Christians still do not, though this has ceased being the prevailing opinion among believers. Still a huge percentage of the American population who disagree with abortion do not see terminating an embryo as abortion or murder since 50% miscarry naturally anyway. Are they pro-life or pro-choice?

Some polls show that after the point of viability, a period when most fetuses can survive outside the womb but during which our laws do not yet consider them human beings, abortion is opposed by between 70% and 80% of Americans (including a majority of those who support abortion in most cases). Are they pro-life or pro-choice?

During the period after the transition from embryo to fetus but before viability, most Americans still support abortion in the cases of rape and incest. Are they pro-life or pro-choice?

The term pro-life is a meaningless term. The term pro-choice is a meaningless term. This issue is far more complex than either side wants you to believe.

Most Americans do not have a clear understanding what either term means because you really need nine different terms to define the common moral positions that are taken by significant segments of the American population. Two terms cannot clarify these nine clearly different positions. What we get is confusion. This confusion simply creates extremists on both sides who don't care about any position but their own. They spew vitriol at anyone who dares question their moral superiority.

You will notice I have not even begun to address the pragmatic consequences that Bob has addressed above. Sorry Bob, but I think those pragmatic consequences are useless issues of discussion when the terms you are using are meaningless to start with.

I have stopped presenting my position on what some call abortion because the extremists on both sides use their definition of pro-life or pro-choice to rail against my character. I will point out that though I consider myself pro-life I am aware that close to half the pro-life movement despises me and nearly two thirds of the pro-choice side despises me. Good luck on making sense of this issue when the only two terms permitted cover nine different meanings. The discussion has become one of babbling incoherence.

Inner Banks Philosophy

"If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival."

"There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."

-- Winston Churchill

Inner Banks Humor - Politics

Q: What's the real problem with Barack Obama jokes?

A: His followers don't think they're funny and the rest of us don’t think they're jokes.

Inner Banks Humor - Politics

Thanks to Lucianne.com.

A Conservative Viewpoint - A Plan For Creating Jobs Now

Article by Bob Steinburg
- Edenton, North Carolina: Cradle of the Colony

Anyone who has ever experienced unemployment understands the pain, depression and the feelings of inferiority that often accompany it. For the employed or retired, reading jobless numbers in the newspaper can’t possibly have the same impact as those living the nightmare. We read the numbers, shake our heads and then turn to the sports page. Life resumes its normal routine.

In February, 1976, my 52-year-old father found himself unemployed for the first time. Dad had worked only two jobs. He seldom missed a day. I remember him telling us, “It doesn’t matter if I’m not feeling tip-top today; my employer is expecting me to be there. That’s what he is paying me for.”

With that same kind of “can do attitude,” Dad hit the pavement and began knocking on doors. Day after day the results of his efforts were the same: no jobs available.

By July we could see a visible change in my father’s health, not to mention his morale. Both were declining rapidly. We would try to cheer him, but depression was starting to rear its ugly head. The continued rejection also was killing him.

The Miller Brewing Company was opening a plant only 15 miles from our upstate New York home. Our local newspaper informed readers in early November that the new employer would be taking applications the next Tuesday. I sensed Dad’s spirits lifting.

I planned on going with my father to lend moral support. It was bitter cold that Tuesday. The wind was blowing and the snow was beginning to fall. We arrived three hours early only to find a line of applicants already stretched as far as the eye could see. After parking, we took our position at the end of the line, inching forward ever so slowly. I remember looking at my father and thinking, how did things ever come to this? We were both numb from cold and despair by the time we entered the building.

On the way home, driving through what by now was a blinding snowstorm, my Dad turned to me, touched my arm and said, “Bobby, they are going to hire me. I’m a good man.” “Yes Dad, you are and they will,” I replied, while at the same time feeling not quite as certain that our prayers would be answered.

Across the country the devastation of unemployment is being felt everywhere. Many of these victims are men and women in their 40’s and 50’s. At Domtar’s paper mill in Plymouth, NC, a factory that one time employed upwards of 2,500 people, many furloughed employees have all but given up hope. These are good folks who literally have no where to turn for work. They can’t sell their homes and their nest eggs are being exhausted to meet day-to-day living costs.

There are currently some 520 plus workers who remain at Domtar and they must be holding their breath. Over the next several months those numbers will be whittled down to about 360. In a cruel twist of fate, some of those previously employed at the Plymouth mill, moved to Franklin, Va., to go to work for International Paper. That plant will be permanently closing its doors early next year.

With millions of American jobs lost over the last decade and more, action needs to be taken that can quickly turn this situation around and fast. One possible solution that would have an immediate impact on our economy would be to make the U. S. a Corporate Income Tax-Free Business Zone. Almost overnight corporations, small and large, would invest in expansion and equipment and begin hiring. Jobs currently overseas would begin to shift back home because doing business domestically could suddenly result in lower costs.

Other benefits of “ash-canning” this tax would include an increase in stock prices and corporate values due to anticipated higher corporate earnings. Products made in the U. S. will suddenly become more competitive with those produced by nations with higher corporate tax rates. We would begin to see a dramatic investment in “green” technology with the creation of new industries that can help foster our energy independence without holding our economic sector hostage to the impracticalities of the pending cap and trade legislation that passed the House and awaits action in the Senate.

Corporate tax repeal would mean there would be approximately $1.8 trillion less in the U. S. Treasury over the next five years. While this figure may seem extreme, compare it with the $5 trillion in deficits that would result from President Barack Obama’s enacted and proposed spending initiatives; initiatives that have and will continue to do little to alter our staggering unemployment numbers. Getting folks back to work allows the formerly jobless to not only support themselves and their families, but to regain their self respect.

For weeks after my father submitted his application to Miller we heard nothing. Dad kept saying, “They’ll call, you just wait and see.” On Dec. 31 my father was stricken with a fatal heart attack. On Jan. 2, the phone rang. When my grieving mother picked it up, the call was for my Dad. It was the Miller Brewery requesting he report to work the following Monday.

My Dad was right.

Bob is right. This is a powerful article and I hate to reduce the impact by changing the subject, so I will make one quick point in hopes that it emphasizes his great article rather than detracts. Bob is not alone among those economists and tax experts who understand how to bring a country out of a recession, or a depression. This plan would have dramatically positive benefits for America. What is sad is that for so many, like Bob's father in an earlier recession, the fix will come too late if the Democrats have their way.

Nothing that the Barack Obama regime has done makes sense. Like FDR, who took a recession and turned it into a permanent depression. It took World War II to bring us out of the disaster FDR created. Obama advisors are burying our nation in debt. Henry Morgenthau, Jr., FDR’s own Treasury Secretary conceded the abject failure of the New Deal spending programs.

Morgenthau's summary, “We have tried spending money. We are spending more money than we have ever spent before and it does not work… I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job, I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises… I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started . . . . And an enormous debt to boot!”

It appears that neither Barack Obama nor his economic advisors, Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner, ever read history. Or, at the least, they do not understand it. They are recreating every mistake the New Deal made. How many will die in the war that will be needed to bring us back to economic sanity?

Inner Banks Humor - Politics

"... the U.S. is putting its alliances 'on a firmer footing' and has 'reasserted our leadership in the region,' the White House said in a statement ..."

Yeah. Right! Obama wants to prove he can humiliate America in every region of the world. No other world leader bowed to the Emperor. Obama wanted to be the first. And he was. He was the only one. Is that what his followers mean when they call him "the one"?

Does Obama asserting his subservience to the Emperor not fill you with pride? Or is it some other emotion you feel?

Inner Banks Philosophy

"In the string of amazing decisions made during the first year of the Obama administration, nothing seems more like sheer insanity than the decision to try foreign terrorists, who have committed acts of war against the United States, in federal court, as if they were American citizens accused of crimes."

- - Thomas Sowell

A Conservative Viewpoint - Status Quo Not Good Enough

Article by Bob Steinburg
- Edenton, North Carolina: Cradle of the Colony

Last week the U. S. Department of Labor reported that the nation’s unemployment rate now stands at 10.2 percent. It’s a tough time to be out of work. There are 6.1 unemployed workers competing for the few job openings nationwide that become available. Unemployment is expected to remain high throughout next year.

Nowhere are unemployment and the lack of economic opportunity more visible than in northeastern North Carolina. Sadly, this is a bad situation that has been made worse by the recession.

Economic depravation has become the norm in the Albemarle, instead of the exception. Unfortunately, there are those self-serving and in some cases impotent “follow the leader” legislators, that contribute to our economic morass. Legislators throwing the dog a bone once in a while should no longer be accepted as manna from heaven by any self-respecting, God-fearing, family-loving resident of this region. The continuing absence of meaningful economic opportunity is not just a fiscal issue, but a moral one.

Recently I attended the 2009 Northeast Legislative Summit luncheon in Elizabeth City. It was hosted by the chambers of commerce from Elizabeth City and Pasquotank, Currituck, Edenton-Chowan, Perquimans and Gates counties.

The state legislators in attendance included Rep. Bill Owens (Camden, Currituck, Pasquotank Tyrell), Rep. Tim Spear (Chowan, Hyde, Dare, Washington) and Sen. Ed Jones (Bertie, Chowan, Gates, Halifax, Hertford, Northampton, Perquimans). Sen. Marc Basnight and Rep. Annie Mobley also were invited but unable to attend. All are Democrats.

It became obvious during the question and answer period that Owens was the unofficial spokesperson for the group, with Spear and Jones frequently deferring to him for answers or specifics.

Owens, who is serving his eighth term in the House, is chairman of the powerful rules committee as well as the House Appropriation Subcommittee on Capital. He and Basnight, Speaker of the House Joe Hackney and Sen. Tony Rand not only drive the agenda, but find the means to finance it. The other elected Democrats that serve in the House and in the Senate are mere window dressing; puppets on a string who vote as the puppeteers instruct.

The legislators were upbeat when talking about economic progress beginning to occur in other parts of the state. There were but a few mentions of progress here. Spear even remarked that it would be some time before this region sees any major economic improvement. With all do respect to Mr. Spear; it’s already been decades. How much longer do we have to wait?

Spear cited several accomplishments for the folks in his district: Among them, fulfilling a request from Chowan County farmers requesting legislation to allow sage and cotton to be hauled in the same trucks. Another was a request from Hyde County on behalf of residents and businesses in Ocracoke wanting a unifying of the regulations governing the use of golf carts. I’m not certain how many jobs either of these initiatives created.

Spear also hailed a $26 million renovation of Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head and its temporary marine construction jobs as a sign of economic progress. When completed this pier is certain to be a tourist attraction, especially benefiting those businesses located close by.

The pier is located next to Democratic Nags Head Mayor Renee Cahoon’s rental cottages and within walking distance to a restaurant owned by Democrats R. V. Owens and Bobby Owens (Basnight’s brother-in-law), as well as a newly remodeled and expanded restaurant owned by Sen. Basnight.

The pier is being paid for by legislation that allows the project to use $10.5 million in stormwater funds as well as private donations and state grants.

Throughout the summit, guests heard this team of Democratic legislators tell us how important it is that we allow them to continue working together for us. If their success is to be measured by the regions economic synergy, the numbers reveal a much darker tale.

The N. C. Department of Commerce annually ranks the state’s 100 counties based on economic well being. The most distressed counties are designated as Tier 1, the next Tier 2 and the least distressed Tier 3. Here are our local state legislators and the tiers for the counties they represent:

Sen. Basnight (eight counties):
- Five Tier 1; three Tier 2
Sen. Jones (7 counties):
- Six Tier 1; one Tier 2
Rep. Mobley (4 counties):
- Three Tier 1; one Tier 2
Rep. Owens (4 counties):
- Two Tier 1; two Tier 2
Rep. Spear (4 counties):
- Three Tier 1; 1 Tier 2

If economic report cards were being issued for these legislators on their ability to create jobs and economic opportunity for the regions constituents, Basnight would receive a minus 2; Jones -6; Mobley -3; Owens even and Spear -3. All of the counties these legislators represent are economically distressed, with sixty percent of them among the poorest in the state. This is clearly unacceptable.

The most insightful exchange of the afternoon came when a commissioner from Gates County asked Sen. Jones when the economy might begin to improve in his county. Without batting an eyelash, Jones told the commissioner he really didn’t have to worry, because Gates is a Tier 1 county. That comment, perhaps, said more about the mindset our representatives have of accepting the status quo for northeastern North Carolina better than I ever could have.

What kind of Senator believes that being poor is a good thing because it assures that you will continue to receive government assistance in place of a life affirming job? Does Senator Jones, a former policeman who was always paid by government, really fail to understand the disaster of a region not being able to provide productive wealth creating jobs for its citizens?

Inner Banks Humor - Politics

Looks as though the President forgot something...again!


Thanks to Luciann.com for this great picture of our President honoring our war dead.

Obama Idolizes Islam

Doubt it? Click here. It is long, but if you really want to know who we have put into power over our nation, this will shock you.

Inner Banks Philosophy

Except from article by John Hawkins - November 10th, 2009 - Townhall.com

"Make no mistake about it, this generation is a generation of thieves and the people who stole their parents and their children’s money to make their own lives cushier are at it again. This time the target is their grandchildren." -- Evan Sayet

Throughout American history, generations of our countrymen took pride in leaving the country better than the one they grew up in. Their attitude about sacrifice was summed up by this classic quotation from Tom Paine:

"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace."

That is no longer the spirit that animates our leaders or much of our country.

Over Reaching And Over Reading

Article by Dr. Ada Fisher
- NC Republican National Committee Woman

One thing I have to give Mr. Obama credit for is he certainly knows how to run the gambling table with Pelosi as his muse. Whether this will bring him good luck or election defeats is yet to be fully seen.

The Obama Administration, like that of Richard Nixon, doesn’t have the involvement of voices of moderation or a seeming sense of the best financial interest of the country. Tackling a war as a litmus test which England, Russia and others before in Afghanistan found unwinnable and then failing to follow the advice of his own generals seems irrational from one with no military experience. Backing health insurance reform while morally right, at a cost of a trillion dollars and furthering a national debt owned by other foreign nations is dead wrong. Closing Guantanomo with no place to send these folks and putting them on US soil which may subject them to an already overburdened court system, where justice is too often denied and delayed, seems no solution. Don’t ask don’t tell in this administration may not seem to work; but choosing to ignore the voices of voters who uniformly support the Defense of Marriage Act when given a chance to vote is a concerning pattern.

If you disagree or attack President Obama his color shield is silencing those who most need to speak up and say how his taxes are killing off our businesses and harming many black as well as destitute communities. Obama’s wanting to be all things to all people, may leave each of us with little or nothing for ourselves. Though it is nice to have a seemingly model family in the White House, it would be nicer to come up with public policies that get people off the public dole and on their feet without prolonged subsidies courtesy of the taxpayers who themselves are having trouble making ends meet.

If the Republican Party is to be effective, it can not wallow in negativism. Our responses to problems must not only feel the pain of our citizens but offer a healing balm which will allow bodies to heal from inside out. We call that Individual Responsibility. The party must be future focused as a standard bearer for freedom, democracy and the US Constitution - where we put citizens first.

Those who think Virginia and New Jersey 2009 elections are telling are correct. But what they are telling is that Independents' ranks grow strong even though they are so far unwilling to form their own party. It also notes voices of moderation which put people first and hold firm to principles have the best chance of governing, not those who are inflexible or forget the business of America is business as Hoover said.

Less we forget, when all is said and done, it’s still about the Economy stupid.

Dr, Fisher is a physician noted for her practical solutions for delivering cost effective medical care. She can be reached at DrFisher@GETADOCTORINTHEHOUSE.com

Is Obamacare Destructive To Blacks And The Poor?

Article by Dr. Ada Fisher
- NC Republican National Committee Woman

The praise being heaped on the House of Representatives passage of the proposed trillion dollar Health Care fiasco isn’t going to help those it intended and will leave over 15 million uncovered. The Republican response was late and inadequate and the current bill as well as the national unwillingness to tackle the real problems will leave those few remaining with jobs over taxed, compromise businesses in forcing them to provide services that people should purchase in the free market, drive many black and solo practitioner doctors out of small towns and possibly out of business, increase the numbers asking for service with no impact on training providers to give that service, and the list goes on.

Jon Stossel did a wonderful piece on socialized health care which may have led to his departure from ABC with a little pressure from those pushing for the same. The essence of his findings is the lines grow longer, the wait increases, the services diminish in availability and quality and the socialized medicine practitioners are fed up in Canada and elsewhere. Do you want to join Michael Moore in Cuba for your care? Massachusetts put in place a system which covers everyone and increasingly finds that they can’t afford the cost so don’t frown if a request for a bail-out becomes imminent.

The French have an intriguing system of over 200 insurance companies which pay on time, lets folks chose their practitioner and seems to modulate cost to a small degree. Insurance companies are held accountable but so are patients who continue risky behaviors.

But you know the most disturbing part of the House bill is the more than $400 billion dollars due to be cut from Medicare and Medicaid which covers those in nursing homes, the handicapped and a lot of poor folks. By the way, every American can get health care under the Hill Burton Act; however knowing how to access it seems to have alluded many.

The new House bill will give more than emergency coverage to those illegally here pushing citizens further to the back of the line. Elective procedures which aren’t life threatening except maybe to a fetus, will be covered while we watch the swine flu delivery debacle demonstrate the government often doesn't adequately deal with health care delivery. Our politicians want us to believe the same nonsense that the electric companies told us advising if we conserve, our cost will go down. The reality is if you do conserve, profits will decrease and an upward rate change will be requested.

Last week Walgreens' refused my Meloxicam and my Protonix has been on hold for a year because the insurance companies don’t want to pay for them. Meanwhile my joints ache and my reflux backs up. The first rule of insurance reform has to be that insurance companies and the government can’t deny coverage for legitimate prescriptions given by a licensed practitioner. But the new House bill will let the insurance companies and government continue practicing medicine without a license.

Next time you get sick, call the government, not your doctor and let’s see what you get.

Dr, Fisher is a physician noted for her practical solutions for delivering cost effective medical care. She can be reached at DrFisher@GETADOCTORINTHEHOUSE.com

A Conservative Viewpoint - Independents Swing Right

Article by Bob Steinburg
- Edenton, North Carolina: Cradle of the Colony

Democratic pundits and spin masters tried to put on their best face the day after the GOP’s stunning victories on Election Day. Governor –elect Bob McDonnell led the way to a Republican sweep in Virginia while GOP challenger Chris Christie defeated incumbent Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine in New Jersey.

President Barrack Obama had personally campaigned for McDonnell’s opponent Creigh Deeds as well as for Corzine, making multiple appearances with both. The magic that was Obama’s one year ago was no where to be found this time around. Voters rejected both Democrats.

Conservatives from both parties turned out in mass to support the GOP. Independent voters, who one year earlier played a pivotal roll in returning the Democrats to power, have, for now at least, shifted their allegiance back to the right. Exit polling revealed that one third of those who cast votes in Virginia and New Jersey were independents.

An October Rasmussen survey found that 30.3 percent of voters nationwide identify themselves as independents or unaffiliated; 31.9 percent say they are Republicans and 37.8 percent Democrats. Clearly neither major party can win without significant support from independents. The survey also found that 82 percent of independents feel that fixing the economy and creating more jobs should be the top priority of government.

Exit polling in Virginia revealed that 85 percent of voters are very worried about the economy, while 89 percent of New Jersey voters had similar feelings. Voters in both states by a margin of 49-21 expressed more concern about the economy than health care.

While the recent election results may not be a personal referendum on Obama, they certainly prove he had no coattails. That fact could have a profound influence on Blue Dog Democrats facing reelection next year, as they ponder their upcoming vote on health care.

The White House rebuffed any suggestion from pundits and Republicans that the GOP juggernaut last week reflected negatively on the president and/or his agenda. However, Obama spokespersons were nowhere to be found on election night as early returns began to suggest this would be a bad night for Democrats.

White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod, one of the administration’s lead attackers of Fox News, interestingly climbed out of his trench the next day to grant an interview to the very network he has relentlessly ridiculed. Axelrod told Fox that Obama wasn’t paying that much attention to poll results but rather remains more focused on the important issue of creating jobs.

October’s unemployment numbers were released late last week by the Labor Department and the news is not good for Obama, the Democrats or their massive federal stimulus bill. The enormous amount of money spent to date was supposed to insure the jobless rate would not exceed eight percent by the end of this year.

Last month, the U. S. economy shed another 190,000 jobs. Unemployment now stands at 10.2 percent for the first time in 26 years. It is projected to climb even higher in the coming months. The $1.2 trillion health bill soon be voted upon in the House is a risky and uncertain move in this economic climate that very well may exacerbate job losses while inflating America’s already staggering debt.

For a party that was supposed to be all but dead after their shellacking in 2008, this near corpse is suddenly showing astonishing signs of life. The GOP was thought by many on the left to be a relic that could only be a future factor in the Deep South where conservatism still reins supreme. Last time I was in New Jersey, I don’t recall seeing any grits on the menus of my favorite eateries. In spite of those who interpreted last year’s election results as some sort of seismic ideological shift to the left, its time for a dose of reality. America was center right then and its center right now.

The historic candidacy of a charismatic black American running for the presidency, coupled with the immense unpopularity of President George W. Bush, created an environment in which the stars aligned and the tea leaves predicted there would be change. Yet Obama’s opponent, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who ran a horrible campaign, still managed to lose the election by only seven points. It is reasonable to assume that McCain might have won had the financial markets not collapsed just weeks before Election Day.

In a nation where conservatives out number liberal/ progressives by two to one according to a recent Gallup poll, the ideological makeup of the nation hasn’t changed all that much. Yet, Obama and the left are governing as if it has.

While the Democrats have made much ado about their victory last week by Congressman-elect Bill Owns in Upstate New York, it is worth noting this. Throughout his campaign Owens told voters he felt the public option had no place in the health care reform bill. He also said he was opposed to cutting Medicare benefits, taxing health care benefits and increasing taxes on the middle class. After his swearing in last Friday, his press release confirms he will do none of the above, shifting his positions completely. How is that for honesty and integrity from our newest Democratic member of Congress?

There is a revolution brewing in America and it’s not being fought by those on the left, but rather those in the center and on the right. It is these individuals who feel they’ve been set adrift by the officers and crew aboard the floundering S.S. Ship of State. As she continues her list to port, Capt. Obama and those under his command had best heed the warnings to right the ship, or risk sinking to the bottom in next year’s crucial mid-term elections.

The American populace continues to be gulled by Democrats campaigning on one set of values and then abandoning those positions immedidately after election. As Bob noted, that is exactly what Owens did in New York this year. Last year, though Obama campaigned on fiscal sanity and ripped Bush for his shortcomings in that area, the first thing Obama did after election was triple the national deficit in defiance of his campaign promises.

Bob notes the unpopularity of George W. Bush but fails to note the reasons he is so disliked. Bush was disliked from both the left AND the right. Few ever note that fiscal conservatives were outraged at Bush for his socialist big government actions and his irresponsible wasting of money. Libertarians despised him for his grasping for executive power and undercutting our Consitution, even as he professed to be a Constitutionalist. Incredibly, socialists were outraged because Bush was not sufficiently supportive of every big government program irrespective of its cost. Bush had the amazing ability to find a position that everyone despised. Somehow he thought that would bring people together, I guess. I can't imagine any other reason for his incompetent actions. What he actually did was traitorously abandon those who elected him while being viewed as a charlatan by those he tried to join on the left. Fiscal conservatives and libertarians abandoned the Republican Party in droves in response.

These people are not true independents. They are currently independents because they feel they have been deceived by the "compassionate communist" wing (actually I think they like to call it "compassionate conservative" even though there is nothing conservative about the belief) of the Republican Party. They felt unwelcome in a party embracing such deceit. What actually happened is that as they were driven out of the Republican Party, they dramatically changed the composition of Independents in our nation. Right now, over half of all conservatives have left the Republican Party and are registered as Independents.

The political gurus who sell their expertise in rigging elections just have not updated their mathematical equations to reflect that change.

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A Growing Rage

by J. D. Pendry - Sergeant Major, USMC, Retired

Jimmy Carter, you are the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home, and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You're the "runner-in-chief."

Bill Clinton, you played ring around the Lewinsky while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses to the USS Cole and the First Trade Center Bombing and Our Embassy Bombings emboldened the killers. Each time you failed to respond adequately, they grew bolder, until 9/11/2001.

John Kerry, dishonesty is your most prominent attribute. You lied about American Soldiers in Vietnam. Your military service, like your life, is more fiction than fact. You've accused our military of terrorizing women and children in Iraq .. You called Iraq the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, and the same words you used to describe Vietnam. You're a fake! You want to run from Iraq and abandon the Iraqis to murderers just as you did to the Vietnamese. Iraq, like Vietnam, is another war that you were for, before you were against it.

John Murtha, you said our military was broken. You said we can't win militarily in Iraq. You accused United States Marines of cold-blooded murder without proof and said we should redeploy to Okinawa. Okinawa, John? And the Democrats call you their military expert! Are you sure you didn't suffer a traumatic brain injury while you were off building your war hero resume? You're a sad, pitiable, corrupt, and washed up old fool. You're not a Marine, sir. You wouldn't amount to a good pimple on a real Marine's ass. You're a phony and a disgrace. Run away, John.

Dick Durbin, you accused our Soldiers at Guantanamo of being Nazis, tenders of Soviet style gulags and as bad as the regime of Pol Pot, who murdered two million of his own people after your party abandoned Southeast Asia to the Communists. Now you want to abandon the Iraqis to the same fate. History was not a good teacher for you, was it? Lord help us! See Dick run.

Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Carl Levine, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, Russ Feingold, Pat Leahy, Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, the Hollywood Leftist morons, et al, ad nauseam: Every time you stand in front of television cameras and broadcast to the Islamic Nazis that we went to war because our President lied, that the war is wrong and our Soldiers are torturers, that we should leave Iraq, you give the Islamic butchers - the same ones that tortured and mutilated American Soldiers - cause to think that we'll run away again, and all they have to do is hang on a little
longer. It is inevitable that we, the infidels, will have to defeat the Islamic jihadists. Better to do it now on their turf, than later on ours after they have gained both strength and momentum.

American news media, the New York Times particularly: Each time you publish stories about national defense secrets and our intelligence gathering methods, you become one united with the sub-human pieces of camel dung that torture and mutilate the bodies of American Soldiers. You can't strike up the courage to publish cartoons, but you can help Al Qaeda destroy my country. Actually, you are more dangerous to us than Al Qaeda is. Think about that each time you face Mecca to admire your Pulitzer.

You are America's 'AXIS OF IDIOTS.' Your Collective Stupidity will destroy us. Self-serving politics and terrorist-abetting news scoops are more important to you than our national security or the lives of innocent civilians and Soldiers It bothers you that defending ourselves gets in the way of your elitist sport of politics and your ignorant editorializing. There is as much blood on your hands as is on the hands
of murdering terrorists. Don't ever doubt that. Your frolics will only serve to extend this war as they extended Vietnam. If you want our Soldiers home as you claim, knock off the crap and try supporting your country ahead of supporting your silly political aims and aiding our enemies.

Yes, I'm questioning your patriotism. Your loyalty ends with self. I'm also questioning why you're stealing air that decent Americans could be breathing. You don't deserve the protection of our men and women in uniform. You need to run away from this war, this country. Leave the war to the people who have the will to see it through and the country to people who are willing to defend it.

Our country has two enemies: Those who want to destroy us from the outside and those who attempt it from within.

Semper Fi!

Pelosi's Jet

I think I know where we would get some money for a new healthcare plan! The Jet pictured above is the USAF C-32, Boeing 757, that MADAME PELOSI uses to go home each week.

Madame Pelosi wasn't happy with the small USAF C-20B, Gulfstream III that comes with the Speaker's job. (You know, the kind of jet corporate executives use.) Oh no. Madame Pelosi was aggravated that this little jet had to stop to refuel. So she ordered a Big Fat 200-seat USAF C-32, Boeing 757 jet that could get her back to California without stopping!

After she works her standard 3 days a week, this gas guzzling jet gets fueled and she flies home to California, cost to the taxpayers of about $60,000, one way! Unfortunately we have to pay to bring her back to start the next week of her grueling 3 day a week job. Cost to us another $60,000.

Folks, that is $480,000 per month and that is an annual cost to the taxpayers of $5,760,000. No wonder she complains about the cost of this war....it might cramp her style and she is styling, on my back and yours. I think of the military families in this country doing without and this woman, who heads up the most do-nothing Congress in the history of this country keeps fueling that jet while doing nothing.

Madame Pelosi wants you and me to conserve our carbon footprint. She wants us to buy smaller cars and Obama wants us to get a bicycle pump to properly inflate our tires.

Keep in mind the figures above do NOT include cost of plane, maintenance or crew... just fuel! One wonders what her total package cost us?

And she wants to tax our IRA's & 401 K's for health care!

Christmas In Windsor - Horse Drawn Carriage Ride

Click on picture for full size image.

Inner Banks Philosophy

"Vote: The instrument and symbol of a free man's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country." -- American author Ambrose Bierce

A Conservative Viewpoint - Health Reform On 50 Pages Or Less

Article by Bob Steinburg
- Edenton, North Carolina: Cradle of the Colony



The recent announcement by International Paper Corporation that it is closing its Franklin, Va., plant is having a devastating effect not only on the 1,100 workers who will eventually lose their jobs, but throughout the area. That includes the historic Albemarle region of North Carolina.

Management cites the declining demand for its products, including stationary as the primary reason for closing the venerable mill. Looking at the amount of paper being used by Congress to write its proposed health care bills, International Paper may want to reconsider.

The $894 billion 1,990 page House bill was rolled out last week. If it passes, benefits will be extended to tens of millions of individuals who currently lack coverage. Contained within these four reams of paper are new restrictions on the insurance industry as well as a government-run option to compete with private insurers.

Everyone will be required to have insurance or pay a 2.5 percent of income penalty to the government. An individual with an adjusted gross income of $60,000 choosing not to purchase health insurance would be fined $1,500. If coverage is unaffordable, (as determined by the government, not us,) hardship assistance could be available.

Employers also will risk paying huge penalties if they choose not to provide their employees with health insurance. Companies with a payroll of less than $500,000 will be exempt. Others will pay eight percent of their total payroll in penalties. An $800,000 payroll would mean a check to Uncle Sam for $64,000.

When thinking about whether to ask your congressional representative to support this bill or not, consider the following: Congressional budget experts have said that the government option won’t result in any consumer savings over private plans. In fact, the government coverage will actually cost more.

The approximately 10 million seniors and the disabled who are currently covered through Medicare Advantage (MA) plans won’t like some of the changes this bill has in store for them.

Also known as “Part C” of Medicare, this plan has been offering coverage since 2003 that meets or exceeds the standards originally set by Medicare. The new House bill will reduce MA payment benchmarks over a three year period that likely will result in less care for seniors. In rural areas, depending on the MA plan one is enrolled in, current providers there may soon disappear. With $400 billion in Medicare cuts over the next 10 years, seniors and the disabled have plenty of reasons for concern.

The neighborhood pharmacists can’t be pleased with this legislation either. As a cost saving measure, the new government plan will use mail order facilities to fill your prescriptions instead of the pharmacist down the street you’ve known and trusted for years. For many, that’s not a comforting thought. With almost half of the nation’s population taking at least one prescription drug, these drug warehouses may soon be in charge of filling your prescription.

A recent Gallup survey found that 87 percent of people with private insurance and 82 percent of folks on Medicare and Medicaid say the quality of their health care is excellent or good. That presents Obama and the Democrats with their biggest dilemma in mustering up the votes necessary to pass this bill. During a roundtable discussion last week, Newsweek reported that the two pollsters who conducted a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll said that, “most Americans are convinced that covering the uninsured will require some sort of sacrifice on their behalf, and most people simply aren’t prepared to give up anything to ensure that everyone has access.”

That certainly does not sound very altruistic. Perhaps it has something to do with a horrible sense of timing and priorities on the part of the government. The folks at home are hurting; struggling to make ends meet just to put food on their tables and take care of their everyday expenses. Unemployment is almost 10 percent and the national debt is exploding.

The stimulus program has produced little in the way of visible results, furthering a lack of trust in government solutions. Most say it hasn’t improved their lives. If you live in eastern N. C., working (if you’re lucky) two or three jobs that all pay less than the minimum wage, its hard to feel like Kris Kringle when the government reaches deeper into your pockets while whispering, “It’s all for one and one for all.”

For those opposed to this bill, cost is a huge concern. In spite of what Democrats say about this bill not adding to the budget deficit, it’s not true. It only appears that way because for the first five years surpluses will be built by frontloading revenues. Costs won’t begin until the second five years. This bill includes $700 billion in new taxes that can only create a further financial burden on those individuals and small businesses currently struggling to survive.

Do we really want our health care run by those that can’t even produce enough swine flu vaccine to go around and has brought Medicare and Medicaid to the brink of bankruptcy? Do we really want the government controlling one-sixth of the nation’s economy?

I support reform that will allow those with pre-existing conditions to purchase insurance at comparable rates as those without. I also support allowing insurance companies to cross state lines to compete everywhere, driving down premiums. In addition I’m behind aggressive tort reform to help contain spiraling costs. A health bill simply addressing these issues could be written on less than 50 pages. While that won’t do much to help out the troubled paper industry, it will produce a bipartisan bill that we can all read, understand, afford and support.