Money Down the Drain

My local school system is paying the price of mismanaging funds. The have built a new school board building, a new high school, two new elementary schools, two new middle schools, and are in the process of another high school.

They have also wasted money on a fingerprint time clock that they do not use. They are constantly changing curriculum. They also are cutting back all teaching incentives and making teachers pay for their own insurance.

Now, the state of Georgia has made some cutbacks (trying to be fiscally responsible). They have made some cuts in education (2%). My financially struggling county school system, that likes closed door meetings and has been firing teachers and teaching assistants left and right, finds itself having to cut back more.

The funny part is that they are paying a new principal for the new high school they have yet to build. They just hired an assistant curriculum director. They have hired plenty of other board positions.

Who are they going to fire? Teachers. They decided smaller classrooms were not worth saving money elsewhere, so they are going to combine classes and then fire teachers and more teaching assistants.

Here is where running a school is like running a business and unfortunately those running the school do not have any business ability. There are plenty of areas they could have fixed instead of doing what they are doing.

• Why not fire the principal without a job position.
• How about cutting school days back to four days instead of five
  
• Why not stop year long school periods and start school in September when the days are cooler and you do not have to run as much air conditioning
• Why not find better fund sourcing to pay for incentives that keep teachers instead of cutting benefits and chasing teachers away
• Use larger class sizes but put qualified teaching assistants in those rooms
  

I was a school bookkeeper a few years ago. I know where the money is and where it goes. Most of it if funneled back into the board office to help pay for the marble stair case.

I am just a little aggravated because this could affect my wife's job as a teacher. It causes her undue stress because our education system has become a bureaucratic mess.

Voucher programs and scholarships are a beginning, but what really needs to happen is for school systems to be abolished and let private industry come in and make advancements in education.

The money should then follow the student regardless of what type of school they attend.

As long as the federal government keeps a lock on education, our education system will get worse and our students (my kids) will get less from the wasted money used to support our government schools.

Bob Hope Cracks Me Up

You probably have seen this before. If not, it is a funny one-liner from a Bob Hope movie. Maybe the Democrats should view this more seriously because they are making this line from Mr. Hope a truth by not recalling Congress to vote on offshore drilling.

The latest news out of Turkey has a major oil line damaged because the Kurds are throwing more tantrums. The problem with their tantrum is that it is negatively affecting our oil prices. Oil is up because of the news.

Hello Congress - GET BACK TO WORK!

American Solutions

Pickens Plan

Jump On The Offshore Oil Drilling Bandwagon

They can go on vacation, and I did but had to adjust my budget. Now that school is back in session now, I can save enough for next year by setting aside enough money to supplement the 75% dedicated to my gas budget. Okay maybe I am fudging the numbers a little.

While I am saving money, Congress is on a recess, and Speaker Pelosi is traipsing across the U.S. plugging her new book. There is not anyway anyone could get her to call the House back into session (not while there is money to be made).

But what if she received a couple of million emails requesting that she call an emergency session of the House for the soul purpose of giving her fellow house members that chance to vote for drilling offshore. Haven't you heard? Mrs. Pelosi is telling her House Democrats that it is okay to say they will vote for offshore drilling so they can get re-elected.

This can't be a re-election ploy could it? Surely, the House Democrats would not say one thing and then do the opposite like their Republican counterparts, would they?

Well, in order to give her the right motivation, I am including a link to a site that will allow you to send an email to her office requesting for her to call the House back into session. Send Speaker Pelosi a message here.

The Senate Side of Things

You have probably heard about the Gang of 10 (why do senators feel that they need to address themselves as a gang? Why associate yourself with a name that refers to criminal activity?). I digress.

Have you seen the primary components to their proposal for our energy crisis? This is from a CNN report:

The major components of the proposal from the "Gang of 10" include:

• Expanding drilling opportunities off the East coast and Gulf of Mexico, which pleases Republicans

• Keeping a ban on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, a concession to Democrats

• Repealing a tax break for oil companies that Democrats have long called for

• Putting billions toward producing more alternative-fuel vehicles, in part paid for by the oil and gas industry

I can agree with the first two. Why can't they just stick with those two points and then work on the other two later? Why complicate things by telling Americans that to get the drilling we will also have to flip the bill for billions more in spending?

Do they really believe that the oil companies will lower prices if they have to pay an additional tax? Do they not understand the gas prices will stay higher becuase the corporations will make price adjustments to cover the new taxing? Do they not understand that the consumer will be paying for the taxes?

Yes, they fully understand this but so many people (consumers) are blind when it comes to understanding who really pays corporate taxes. There is not one corporation that will allow its profits to be compromised by government taxes.

My solution

• Why hasn't President Bush not called together some of the great corporate minds in America for counseling in how to fix our problems. Why not get problems solvers like Warren Buffet, Boone Pickens, Bill Gates and other great corporate leaders to come together and come up with real solutions? Have you seen Pickens suggestions: Pickens Plan
  

• Congress should be called back into session by the President. The Republicans are dropping the ball again, and this is just more proof that the Republican Party is seriously experiencing in a leadership vacuum!

• Make Iraq begin to pay for our troop support with oil.

• Give tax incentives to oil companies who come up with better alternate fuel sources.

• Pass the FairTax - never miss a chance to plug a good idea.
  

Resting on Their Laurels

Since Speaker Pelosi decided to go ahead and go on vacation, the GOP finally decided they should do something. Where have they been, and where are all of them? If it is that important, why are just a few there?

The Democrats left on vacation because getting re-elected is more important that making a difference in our current gas problems or any other meaningful legislation. Other than renaming parks and post offices, what legislation have they dealt with this session? And they wonder why Congress has a lower approval rating than the President.

Of course, the President is sitting on his hands saying that calling the Congress back into session would be useless. What happened to his bold leadership that defeated the Taliban so handily in Afghanistan (something the Russians could not do in years and years of fighting)?

Again, I harp on leadership and the lack of it. The drug induced sixties and seventies and the sexual revolt of the eighties has produced a group of lazy, empathetic leaders who are afraid to take any stand because standing means getting back on their feet which may be dangerous because the drug effects may still be lingering.

Okay, that is mean and uncalled for and not Christi-like but we need leaders not a bunch of babies.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;1 Cor 1:18-27 (NKJV)

Conventional wisdom has been turned upon its head. The scary thing is that our elected leaders are so in love with the current way things are run that they are blinded by words of crack-pots that they are calling experts.

Just at the mention of drilling off-shore the climbing oil prices stopped. Just at the hint of doing something about it the prices began to drop. But what happens now that the talk is over?

The Republicans are grasping for straws long enough to stick out into the air so they can get one final breath before they drown in their failures.

I have to be honest. I really do not want the Republicans to fail, but they are not giving me any hope. John McCain is probably a good leader, but has he called the President and demanded a recall of Congress? Is he taking advantage and using this recess as a chance to lead?

Senator Obama is too busy receiving all the praise due to God. Here is a revamped photo his election seal (read the Latin which says something like - Alas, I believe I am the Coming of God), and no I did not come up with this - thank Neal Boortz:

In all seriousness, I understand more now about the verse above. We have become worshippers of man. We have become too accustomed to believing that man's wisdom and accomplishments are enough to pull us through any predicament.

Earthly wisdom is so simplistic. No wonder people fall so easily for the looks and words of those who say little and do less.

We have forgotten God in this process. Paul spoke a simple message and let God make up the difference. When he did so the people of Corinth were persuade not by elegant speech and persuasive wisdom but by the true power of God.

We need to once again trust in the power of God and not the wisdom of men. My hope rests in Him.

Nothing I have accomplished is worth resting for. So I ask, why has Congress taken a rest?

Why The FairTax Matters Now

The closer we get to November the closer we get to more taxation.

I say this for both candidates. Why? Both have plans to increase spending in federal government. Sen. John McCain wants to cut taxes while doing so. Sen. Barack Obama wants to increase taxes on small business (the greatest contributor to our economy) and in other places.

Why not decrease spending? Why can't they cut spending and get rid of pork spending? Why can't they stand up and be a real leader who advocates real answers?

I was reading a paper in the FairTax this morning from The Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University: Taxing Sales Under the FairTax: What Rate Works? By Paul Bachman, Jonathan Haughton, Laurence J. Kotlikoff, Alfonso Sanchez-Penalver, and David G. Tuerck. Their bios are on the research paper.

Through their extensive calculations, they found that by implementing the FairTax, the worst thing the Federal Government would have to do is cut spending, and this was not likely to happen becuase the FairTax would generate enough new revenue to cover the government's current needs.

Now is the greatest moment to push for tax reform. If we do not, they will continue to use our taxes to manipulate the vote to create an even greater negative impact on our future economy.

Rep. John Linder says this about our future:

"Like all the great nations and societies of history the United States is rapidly coming to the end of its existence as a great and powerful country. The shackles of our nearly 70,000 page tax code are making us less and less able to compete in the global economy. Our tax on capital is cutting our businesses off at the knees. Our highest earners have half their income confiscated by the IRS. All of these taxes along with the cost of complying with nearly unfathomable tax regulations put us at a severe disadvantage as competitors in the global economy since these expenses must be added to the price of the goods and services we sell." (Read More)

I want my children to know a great America. What do you want? Email your representatives today and demand a Fair Change - the FairTax.

Reversing the Greatest Threat Against America

"Our "island" or "lone ranger" mentality is beginning to change. Our Justices...are becoming more open to comparative and international law perspectives." - Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, 2003

The more examples I read from Justice Ginsberg's decisions the more I believe she should be impeached from the bench. Time after time she uses international law and opinion to overrule the majority hopes and law of our nation. Ginsberg and other liberal judges are now seeking the advice of the United Nations - the most corrupt and unethical organization in the world, as a means of justifying their opinions. These Justices have fallen into the truth that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The threat against religion was started by radical views from Supreme Court Justices who no longer use our Constitution or the popular majority of Americans as a means of rendering decisions. A frightening trend was started back in 1947 with a man who pulled the new "religious litmus test" out of thin air by misquoting Thomas Jefferson.

Justice Hugo Black's uneducated and improper undermining of the establishment clause has become the slogan for those who would rid America of its Judeo-Christian heritage. Here is proof: Show me anywhere in the United States Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution the phrase - "separation of church and state." You can't because it does not exist. It is a misquote from a letter that the then President Jefferson sent to a concerned baptist contingent that was afraid one form of Christianity may dominate the freedom of the others.

It was never intended to separate Christ from government! The establishment clause means one thing and one thing only: the government cannot set up a church nor limit the work of the church.

Judge Black is the first among many since that time to begin to twist our laws and Constitution to fit their desires or to fit into their pseudo-Utopian ideal about melting into the international arms of brotherhood. This thought process has only been around for the last 65 years of over 230 years of American history.

If our Founding Father's had intended anything different, why did they work so hard in trying to prevent this very mess from happening. Thomas Jefferson, two days after writing that letter, went to church. Do you know where? He attended church in the United States Capitol where church services were held until just after the Civil War!

Jefferson also wrote the first plan of education for the city of Washington which included using the Bible and a hymnal as the primary books to teach reading to students. He also suggested paying a Catholic missionary to reach out to the Indian tribes in order to bring Christ to them and pay those missionaries from public funds!

It was our Founding Fathers that established the chaplaincy corp and paid them to travel with our troops. How in the world can anyone who reads history see our Founding Fathers as ever wishing to separate God from governing?

If we are to reverse these trends

• We need to re-educate our students with the truth about our Christian heritage. We cannot hide from it because it is our history.
• We need to pass a law the restricts the Supreme Court to using only our laws and our Constitution as the only means for interpreting our laws.
• We should impeach judges who continually abuse their positions and who are continuously overturned (bye-bye Ninth Circuit).
• We should abolish our current federal judicial system under the rules of the Constitution and redesign it to work properly under our laws.
• We should ask Congress to pass a law insisting, as Newt Gingrich suggests, "on the centrality of "our Creator" in defining American rights, the legitimacy of appeals of God "in public places," and the absolute rejection of judicial supremacy as a violation of the Constitution's balance of powers."
• We should become very, very, very active in contacting our Congressmen and the President any time the courts over step their boundaries.

Seem extreme? Well, those who are supporting opposing views are that active and they continually win support and victories as we sit on our hands and pray for God's intervention.

Have we forgotten that God has given us a mouth? Did not God have this same discussion with Moses? If we do not act and act now, our freedom will be gone. Do not wait until it is too late, we are already on a slippery slope and a fully controlled Congress and Presidency by the Democrats will have diverse affects that may take too many years to reconcile.

If anything, start praying about how God would want you to be involved and start acting. You are the link to change. Remember, we can do all things through Jesus Christ who is our strength!