COMMON SENSE

I recently received an email that contained a letter/discussion to Glen Beck. It deserves wide distribution & I am putting it here. These are not specifically my words, nor do I fully agree with each idea totally; however, the gist of it I fully agree with.

The following letter, read on Glenn Beck's show, is rapidly circulating around the country. Americans everywhere identify with this 53-year-old woman. She has given us a voice. Once you read this, you will want to forward it to all of your friends...

GLENN BECK: I got a letter from a woman in Arizona . She

writes an open letter to our nation's leadership:

I'm a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican

Party represents my views or works to pursue issues

important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me.

There must be someone. Please tell me who you are. Please

stand up and tell me that you are there and that you're

willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now. You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would horribly feel so disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut job am I? Will you please tell me?

Well, these are briefly my views and issues for which I

seek representation:

One,

illegal immigration.

I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I'm not a racist. This isn't to be confused with legal immigration.

Two,

the TARP bill

I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you no, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.

Three:

Czars

I want the circumvention of our checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution and honor it.

Four,

cap and trade.

The debate on global warming is not over. There is more to say.

Five,

universal healthcare.

I will not be rushed into another expensive decision. Don't you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night and then go on break. Slow down!

Six,

growing government control.

I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real obligations. Why don't you start there.

Seven,

ACORN.

I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our

2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on

every real estate deal that closes. Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census over with our taxpayer money. I don't trust them with our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.

Eight,

redistribution of wealth.

No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always

worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs. That is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor

person. Why do you want me to hate my employers? Why -- what do you have against shareholders making a profit?

Nine,

charitable contributions.

Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.

Ten,

corporate bailouts.

Knock it off. Sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we'll be better off just getting into

it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. Have you ever ripped off a Band-Aid? We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.

Eleven,

transparency and accountability.

How about it? No, really, how about it? Let's have it.

Let's say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please try -- please stop manipulating and trying to appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop

sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your

criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.

Twelve,

unprecedented quick spending.

Stop it now. Take a breath. Listen to the people. Let's just slow down and get some input from some non politicians on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed reading our bills into law.

I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I'm busy. I'm busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.

I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not. It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust

me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot. There is such urgency and recklessness in all of the recent spending. From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have

to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on you to bring our concerns to Washington . Our president often knows all the right buzzword is unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don't want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we're morons. We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented. You think we're so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work, pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone and we are now looking up at you. You have awakened us, the patriotic spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will

represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the

polls on voting day to usher you out of office. We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish. We didn't ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in

violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you

will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us when he will rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.

Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don't care. Political parties are meaningless to us. Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you. If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole damn congress if need be one by one. We are coming. Are we

coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming. We the people are

coming.

"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."-Margaret Thatcher

"There are two ways to conquer a nation. One is by the sword. The other is by debt."-John Adams

JAPAN SURRENDERS ABOARD THE USS MISSOURI

It took me less than 5 minutes to find this information on line. Maybe the President should spend a little time researching what he says (Japanese Emperor signed surrender) The Emperor was nowhere in the picture.

Surrender of Japan, Tokyo Bay, 2 September 1945

Japanese representatives on board USS Missouri (BB-63) during the surrender ceremonies, 2 September 1945.

Standing in front are:

Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu (wearing top hat) and General Yoshijiro Umezu, Chief of the Army General Staff.

Behind them are three representatives each of the Foreign Ministry, the Army and the Navy. They include, in middle row, left to right:

Major General Yatsuji Nagai, Army;

Katsuo Okazaki, Foreign Ministry;

Rear Admiral Tadatoshi Tomioka, Navy;

Toshikazu Kase, Foreign Ministry, and

Lieutenant General Suichi Miyakazi, Army.

In the the back row, left to right (not all are visible):

Rear Admiral Ichiro Yokoyama, Navy;

Saburo Ota, Foreign Ministry;

Captain Katsuo Shiba, Navy, and

Colonel Kaziyi Sugita, Army.

(Identities those in second and third rows are from an annotated photograph in Naval Historical Center files.)

Photograph from the Army Signal Corps Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

Online Image: 95KB; 740 x 610 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

VICTORY!!!

The President just stated that Victory in Afghanistan is not really necessary. So, why are we committing US forces and material in that war effort? If not to win or at least to pacify the terrorists, than we should not be there at all. Further, if Victory is not the goal, than the President needs to provide a clear statement why we are there and allowing our people to be killed.

It is obvious that I am not (and have never been) a supporter of the new President's goals and agenda, but this series of events (pronouncements) needs to be evaluated by everyone. If there is no clear cut goal, then there is certainly no strategy, or even a planned exit for the US. Oh wait, someone was severely criticized for having no follow on or exit plan from Iraq which was used against him during the last election.

NORTH KOREA SOLUTION REVISITED

So, now the Foreign Policy experts in the Administration have figured out how to handle North Korea. They are putting together a package of incentives to entice the North Koreans into giving up their nuclear ambitions and rejoin the disarmament talks. It seems to me that the US has visited this idea many times before with no positive results. Naturally, they know that things will be different this time because we, the US, have admitted all of our previous mistakes and want to be friends. And, the North Koreans will see the errors of their ways and will want to be friends as well.

Now, if you think that this oft tried approach will somehow work this time, then, I will also want to sell you some lower Florida swamp land that is sometimes dry and absolutely does not have any vermin (alligators or giant flying insects) living there.

Oh well, if this doesn't work, then lets move on to Honduras or Iran, or even we could restart Iraq again. Then tell the Israelis to give up more of their hard fought land again. Where is Pee Wee Herman when you need a stronger presence?

IMPRESSIVE

Even though my biggest concern with the Obama Administration is founded in grave concerns over the lack of effective foreign policy, the following bits should also show cause for concern as they are indicators of serious lapses in judgement.

If George W. Bush had made a joke at the expense of the Special
Olympics, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom , a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing
videos of his speeches, would you have thought this embarrassingly
narcissistic and tacky?

If George W. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had visited Austria and made reference to a
non-existent 'Austrian language,' would you have brushed it off as a
minor slip?

If George W. Bush had filled his cabinet and circle of advisers with
people who cannot seem to remember to pay their own income taxes, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to "Cinco
de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the fourth of
May (Cuatro de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again,
would you have winced in embarrassment?

If George W. Bush had mis-spelled the word advice would you have
hammered him for it for years like when Dan Quayle was when he spelled potatoe as "proof" of what a dunce he is?

If George W. Bush had burned 9,000 gallons of tax-payer funded jet fuel
to go plant a single tree on "Earth Day", would you have concluded he's
a hypocrite regarding environmental issues?

If George W. Bush's administration had okayed tax-payer funded Air
Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter
in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wondered whether they actually "get" what happened on 9-11?

If George W. Bush had been the first President to need a teleprompter
installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you have
laughed and said this is more proof of how he inept he is on his own and
is actually being controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?

If George W. Bush had failed to send relief aid to flood victims
throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans , would you want it made into a major ongoing political
issue with claims of racism and incompetence?

If George W. Bush had ordered the firing of the CEO of a major
corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so,
would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had proposed to double the national debt in one year,
which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, would you have
approved?

If George W.. Bush had then proposed to double the debt yet again
within the following 10 years, thereby putting your children and
grandchildren in such massive debt that it threatens the national
treasury, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had reduced your retirement plan's holdings of GM
stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM, with no
constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had spent hundreds of thousands of tax-payer dollars
to take Laura Bush on a 'date night' to a play in NYC, would you have
approved?

So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant
and impressive? Can't think of anything? Don't worry. He's done all this in a mere 5 months -- So, you'll have three years and seven months to come up with an answer. Naive, incompetent, and uninformed American voters did this to themselves.

Americans are starting to wake up. Let's hope it's not too late.

ATTACKED?

Several US Government web sites have been subjected to cyber attacks that forced them to become inoperative. According to some news sources (FOX for example), these attacks were engineered by North Korea. Additionally, several South Korean government sites were also forced to shut down by the same source. This just after numerous Missiles were fired by North Korea which was in violation of international law.

What has been the US response? So far--- NOTHING!!

If the US had a real foreign policy group in charge of US security, there should have been some action to counter the attacks and maybe, seems silly I know, some retaliation.

But, remember, the President is in Europe making new friends and giving more concessions to potential enemies; The Vice President is busy making wild statements about Israel; and our Secretary of State has a broken elbow that does not allow her to do anything. And people still make wry remarks about Californians with fuzzy brains. And, of course, the Jackson funeral was much more important. I guess one must set proper priorities.

Finally, when do we declare that the attacks on the US and its Allies are acts of aggression, sometimes called WAR?

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY

Remember this?

Please don't forget it!