A PICTURE IS WORTH 1,000 WORDS: WHERE‘S OBAMA’S DEBT PLAN?

President Obama's Debt Plan?

Courtesy of The Blaze Blog

Yet Another Plan to Reduce our Debt – Passable?

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UNACCEPTABLE: Military should be TOP priority!

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Military Life

What Washington doesn’t seem to get is while they are bickering, playing politics-as-usual, REAL people, REAL HEROES are in REAL danger and now are worried about whether or not they will get paid!

UNACCEPTABLE!

Anxiety in Afghanistan over troops’ pay if U.S. defaults

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told troops in Afghanistan on Saturday that it’s uncertain whether the U.S. will be able to pay troops on time in the event of a debt default, according to a story by the Reuters news agency.

After several troops at Kandahar Air Field expressed concern over the budget debate taking place in Washington, Mullen told them that Pentagon officials were working hard to plan for a potential default, the Reuters report says.

Mullen acknowledged that many troops lived paycheck to paycheck, saying, “… if paychecks were to stop, it would have a devastating impact.”

If anyone should go without their pay,
it is those in the Congress
and White House
that have not done their job!
Government is TOO BIG
and it moves TOO SLOWLY!!!

It’s TIME FOR A DC DIET!

SHOULD CHRISTIANS PARTICIPATE IN POLITICS? (via Citizen Tom)

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Can Christians involve themselves in politics without requiring Biblical conversion?

Should believers disqualify themselves from their civic duty to vote or run for public office because of their beliefs?

There are Christians who want nothing to do with politics. They consider it a worldly matter and much too underhanded. So they avoid having anything to do with politics. When there is nothing in the Bible to justify such an attitude that's a shame. Consider The Parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus told the parable to illustrate what it means to love our neighbors. He told of a Jew who had been beaten, robbed, and left to die. He told of the Samar … Read More

via Citizen Tom

National Popular Vote: Coming YOUR Way … No Electoral College?

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Almost 2 months ago, I ran across an article about the National Popular Vote (NPV). I was flabbergasted! I have since found a few more articles on the topic, but I confess frustration in my attempts to learn more! I have written multiple times to my state officials, to Rush, to Hannity, and to GB with not one reply! So, I’m posting what I have found. BTW … it is yet another breach of the Constitution, as I understand it! Former Article HERE Check out the info in the COMMENTS section, too!!!

“The function of the Electoral College has been debated for years, generally every 4 years, in fact! But it DOES have a clear and present purpose. “The Electoral College was established by the founding fathers as a compromise between election of the president by Congress and election by popular vote.’

“Equality is fundamental to representative democracy.[BUT America is a REPUBLIC - There is a difference!] Everyone’s vote should be equal when electing the president. Our current Electoral College system, grounded in state law, leads presidential candidates to concentrate their resources on voters in a handful of swing states, relegating the vast majority of the country to spectator status. FairVote advocates for direct election of the president, and has nurtured and supported the National Popular Vote plan to ensure that every vote for president is equally valued no matter where it is cast.”

ALEC Exposed: Rigging Elections

This article is part of a Nation series exposing the American Legislative Exchange Council, in collaboration with the Center For Media and Democracy. John Nichols introduces the series.

“Republicans have argued for years that “voter fraud” (rather than unpopular policies) costs the party election victories. A key member of the Corporate Executive Committee for ALEC’s Public Safety and Elections Task Force is Sean Parnell, president of the Center for Competitive Politics, which began highlighting voter ID efforts in 2006, shortly after Karl Rove encouraged conservatives to take up voter fraud as an issue. Kansas Republican Kris Kobach, who along with ALEC itself helped draft Arizona’s anti-immigration law, has warned of “illegally registered aliens.” ALEC’s magazine, Inside ALEC, featured a cover story titled “Preventing Election Fraud” following Obama’s election. Shortly afterward, in the summer of 2009, the Public Safety and Elections Task Force adopted voter ID model legislation. And when midterm elections put Republicans in charge of both chambers of the legislature in twenty-six states (up from fifteen), GOP legislators began moving bills resembling ALEC’s model.

“ALEC is also determined to ensure that citizens do not have the final say on who is elected president, an agenda outlined in such documents as its Resolution in Support of the Electoral College and its ardent opposition to the National Popular Vote project (which it has warned would “nationalize elections and unravel Federalism”). A related resolution encourages state legislatures to formally complain that an interstate compact to defer to the popular will “would allow a candidate with a plurality—however small—to become President.”” READ MORE

Endangered species?

Finally, I found a FRIENDLY article – posted in RedState.com:

National Popular Vote Plan Would Hurt Most States

In support of the National Popular Vote State Compact, some states have already passed laws awarding all their electoral votes to the U.S. presidential candidate who wins a national plurality of the popular vote. This bad idea would be constitutional because Article II, Section 1, of the U.S. Constitution gives the respective state legislatures the right to appoint presidential electors. Congressional approval isn’t required. The Compact would take effect if states with a majority of the electoral votes pass it.

Proponents of the NPV plan are now making a push to persuade state legislators to enact it, arguing that polls show Americans favor electing our presidents by popular votes rather than electoral votes determined by each state. What proponents don’t mention is that 31 states would lose power in presidential elections under this plan. Nineteen states would lose more than 20% of their power, and ten states would lose more than 40% of their power.

The accompanying table shows the effect of NPV on each state.




GO HERE FOR MORE

On July 14, the California State Senate voted 23-15 in favor of the National Popular Vote bill. Last month it passed the California State Assembly by 51-21 margin and now goes to Governor Jerry Brown for approval. With his signature, California will become the eighth state (joined by DC) to enact the National Popular Vote plan. Together these states have nearly half of the electoral votes necessary to activate it and guarantee the White House to the national popular vote winner in the next presidential election — a reform FairVote research demonstrates is urgently needed. Now, think about who controls the larger populations, the cities, and you can see my reason for deadly concern! This is very, very dangerous. It abridges states’ rights AND disregards the Founding Fathers’ reasons for implementation of the Electoral College in the first place.

“On May 12 former Senator Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) was named a co-champion of the National Popular Vote (NPV) campaign to replace the historic, constitutional role of the states and electoral college in presidential elections with a purely democratic national popular vote.

There’s a new wrinkle in the old game of manipulating the outcome of elections: A single organization is behind a massive, well-orchestrated lobbying effort in virtually every state to restructure presidential election procedures. The wealthy California-based National Popular Vote (NPV) group is bent on reforming the way Americans elect their president via the requirements contained in the Constitution by hijacking the Electoral College in a way that perverts its original purpose of allocating electoral votes to states based on their population rather than disregarding the states and basing the winner on the purely democratic national popular vote.”

America was designed
as a Democratic REPUBLIC
Not a Democracy!

This is how it would work:

While NPV and its marketing line may sound good, their movement to have individual states enter into an interstate compact regarding how presidential elections are decided would make a fundamental change in the role of the Electoral College without the necessity of a formal amendment to the Constitution with its requirement of 38 states for ratification. The NPV plan would allow as few as 18 states entered into the compact to effect the changeover for the entire nation, because these 18 states currently have the 270 electoral votes which would constitute a majority in presidential elections. Once this compact has member states with 270 or more electoral votes, then a majority of electoral votes cast in an election would automatically go to the winner of the national popular vote, thus eliminating the role of state vote totals.

Relevant to the discussion is the U.S.Constitution! The Twelfth Amendment covers the process to be used in the election of the President and Vice-President.

In many ways, the constitutional separation of powers between the states and the federal government is being eroded. The Founders never intended that the states should become merely administrative appendages of the federal government, much less that the United States become a unitary, centralized, plebiscitary democracy. NPV would push America along that dangerous and originally unintended path.

I would still like to hear MORE from anyone who knows! The fact that it is very, “hush, hush!” confirms to me the underhanded nature of the purpose. I’m appalled to see Sen Thompson supporting this.

RUSH? SEAN??
MORE INFO PLEASE

Let’s Keep Our Priorities Straight

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Casualties for July 2011

“Continue to pray for all of our troops
and their safety.
Their daily sacrifices must not go unnoticed.”
SGT Koehler’s family

Army Master Sgt. Benjamin A. Stevenson, 36, of Canyon Lake, Texas, died July 21

Army Master Sgt. Benjamin Stevenson
July 21, 2011 ~ 36, of Canyon Lake, Texas; assigned to U.S. Army Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, N.C.; died July 21 in Paktika province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small-arms fire.

Army Staff Sgt. James M. Christen, 29, of Loomis, Calif., died July 19

Army Staff Sgt. James M. Christen July 19, 2011 ~ 29, of Loomis, Calif., serving during Operation Enduring Freedom assigned to 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii; died July 19 in Kunar province, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. Also killed was Sgt. Jacob Molina.

Army Sgt. Jacob Molina, 27, of Houston, died July 19

Army Sgt. Jacob Molina July 19, 2011 ~ 27, of Houston, assigned to 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii; died July 19 in Kunar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. Also killed was Staff Sgt. James M. Christen.

Army Staff Sgt. Kenneth R. VanGiesen, 30, of Erie, Pa., died July 18

Army Staff Sgt. Kenneth R. VanGiesen July 18, 2011 ~ 30, of Erie, Pa., died July 18 in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his convoy with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to 131st Transportation Company, 213th Area Support Group, Pennsylvania National Guard, Williamstown, Pa. Also killed were Army Sgt. Edward W. Koehler and Army Sgt. Brian K. Mowery.

Army Sgt. Edward W. Koehler, 47, of Lebanon, Pa., died July 18

Army Sgt. Edward W. Koehler July 18, 2011 ~ 47, of Lebanon, Pa., died July 18 in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his convoy with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to 131st Transportation Company, 213th Area Support Group, Pennsylvania National Guard, Williamstown, Pa. Also killed were Army Staff Sgt. Kenneth R. VanGiesen and Army Sgt. Brian K. Mowery.

Army Sgt. Brian K. Mowery, 49, of Halifax, Pa., died July 18

Army Sgt. Brian K. Mowery
July 18, 2011 ~ 49, of Halifax, Pa., died July 18 in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his convoy with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to 131st Transportation Company, 213th Area Support Group, Pennsylvania National Guard, Williamstown, Pa. Also killed were Army Staff Sgt. Kenneth R. VanGiesen and Army Sgt. Edward W. Koehler.

Our deepest sympathy and most profound gratitude
to the families and loved ones
of these brave men
and all who put their lives on the line
for FREEDOM.
Certainly, they represent the BEST of AMERICA!

Have We Lost the Power to Rise Above?

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Purpose or Tantrum?

Thick and dark, intangible and seductive,
The streaming fingers of hopelessness
Seep around our ankles, oozing, grasping,
Like a rising tide of quicksand.

Groups and clubs of purposeless people,
Empty, they do not understand it’s goal:
To steal, to kill, and to destroy each one,
Systematically, methodically, in broad daylight.

Understanding, we lack the will
To stand against this thickening mass;
We think like victims, helpless against such a foe.
Who will stand, who will light the way?

Have we lost the power to rise above,
Are we helpless and therefore doomed to drown,
Too weak and lazy to scream and shout,
Kick and stomp our way to personal freedom ?

Does The “General Welfare Clause” Authorize The Redistribution Of Wealth? (via Samuel at Gilgal)

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“If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one.” Madison saw, in principle, the causes of the economic decline of our country over the past eighty years.

The “General Welfare Clause” of the Constitution has served, incorrectly, as an excuse for secular progressives to expand the number of government programs, entitlements, and regulations all in the name of the “general welfare” of the people. Perhaps you are unfamiliar with this much abused section of the Constitution: The " … Read More

via Samuel at Gilgal

National Debt Crisis Tea Party

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It’s about time we hear straight talk on the subject!

WE-THE-PEOPLE RESPOND:

“I have not yet begun to fight!”

CPT John Paul Jones

John Paul Jones (July 6, 1747 – July 18, 1792) was the United States’ first well-known naval fighter in the American Revolutionary War. Although he made enemies among America’s political elites, his actions in British waters during the Revolution earned him an international reputation which persists to this day.
During his engagement with HMS Serapis, Jones uttered, according to the later recollection of his first lieutenant, the legendary reply to a taunt about surrender from the British captain: “I have not yet begun to fight!”

The question is not what WE-THE-PEOPLE want, but rather, how to achieve our goal. The two party system only works when the electorate is well and fairly informed and takes advantage of the right to VOTE at each and every opportunity. What has happened to bring us to this precarious point?

APATHY


COMPLACENCY


LAZINESS

So obviously, it will take WORK and INVOLVEMENT to regain our VOICE in this democratic REPUBLIC. If you are willing to work and be involved, spread the word to neighbors, family, co-workers, people at the grocery market, at the hair dressers, at the car shop, wherever you go … Then, show up at the polls! It boggles my mind that rarely does even 50% of the eligible electorate bother to vote. SHAMEFUL!!!! Can we change this? YES, WE-THE-PEOPLE CAN!!!

Related articles:

I’m Sick …
Mr. President; THE SILENT MAJORITY WILL BE SILENT NO MORE!!!

Tweet-Ring Circus – Obama is Ringmaster!

Words cannot express my frustration this evening at the asinine circus we call Congress and the show of lies being performed! It causes me to feel ashamed at the lack of integrity and courage seen by the whole world!

President Obama’s debt-ceiling tweets
prompt an ‘unfollow Friday’