Who is John Hagee?
Senator Obama has renounced Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his 20-year pastor. The counter attack from Obama supporters upon McCain is the endorsement of Pastor John Hagee from San Antonio, Texas.
Pastor Hagee has stated that he thinks God permitted the Holocaust in order to force Jews back to Israel. Presumably, such an interpretation of Scripture makes Pastor Hagee an antisemite.
That's ridiculous! And if you know anything about John Hagee -- preposterous!
Any student of bible prophecy recognizes the profound signficance of the Jewish regathering in their ancestral homeland, the "Promised Land" from God to Moses.
Furthermore, Pastor Hagee founded and leads a group titled "Christians United for Israel."
Click on the link to the website and show me a better friend to our Jewish pethren. |
Before reading Laura Ingraham’s Power to the People, I complained that our political system produced pitiful options in Presidential elections. It seemed the higher the office, the more compromised, tainted, spoiled and contaminated the candidate.
Laura’s book reminded me that we are the system. Each a small voice, perhaps, but the system is us, collectively.
So, am I doing my part?
I’m desperately hoping for John McCain, but besides my vote he’s going to get whatever influence I can exert. Phone calls, letters, emails, petition drives – shout from the balcony to make sure he secures our borders, defends our land, appoints judges who read the law, and spends tax dollars with the frugality of Western Hillian.
Senator Obama has the oratory skills of a tent-revival evangelist. If he should be elected, I’ll pray harder and petition all the more.
I don’t want the federal government running health care, delivering taxpayer-funded college educations, and the vast assortment of Mother Government notions. I’m fearful of Senator Obama’s initiatives because his earliest campaign advertisement decried the difference in CEO salaries from that of line works – as if the President is going to set salaries in private businesses! Wonder how his pal Oprah would like that?
Senator Obama is misleading. He will certainly have talked us into recession by November. None of us feel that we’re better off today than eight years ago because our appetites increase a lot faster than our incomes. He stirs discontent and paints an illusion that he can change it.
Those of us older than him vividly remember Gary Hart’s new ideas. In debate, Walter Mondale elicited the Wendy’s commercial tag line of the day --- “where’s the beef?”
What are the specific changes that Senator Obama would ping about? Raising taxes on the wealthy?
If Bill Cunningham is spewing truth, the top 1 percent currently fund 30 percent of our federal treasury. The top 5 percent provide 65 percent of the revenue.
They’re already paying a higher rate on a higher amount and producing an inordinate share of tax revenue. Taxing them more means less money in the exchange of goods and services that trickles down to the other 95 percent of us.
President Bush’s legendary tax cut “for the rich” raised treasury revenues dramatically. Just Google “Bush tax revenue” and you’ll find reports such as this one (from no less a Bush hater than the New York Times, July 13, 2005):
The Congressional Budget Office estimated last week that the deficit for the full fiscal year, which reached $412 billion in 2004, could be "significantly less than $350 billion, perhaps below $325 billion."
The big surprise has been in tax revenue, which is running nearly 15 percent higher than in 2004. Corporate tax revenue has soared about 40 percent, after languishing for four years, and individual tax revenue is up as well.
Most of the increase in individual tax receipts appears to have come from higher stock market gains and the business income of relatively wealthy taxpayers. The biggest jump was not from taxes withheld from salaries but from quarterly payments on investment gains and business earnings, which were up 20 percent this year.
Within the Bush years we’ve experience financial jolts of 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, numerous Florida storms, and funded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. You’d think we’d all be in soup lines by now but we’re not. Get off it, Democrats, things aren’t as bad as you contend, and unspecified “change” is not likely to spur the Utopia you infer.
What I’d like in a President
First, he needs to lead the campaign for revisions/updates to our Constitution. Court rulings have become social decrees instead of legal interpretation. Most hideous is the “separation of church and state” fallacy, which I decry in a separate article.
But here’s another example.
The Second Amendment provides individuals the right to own lethal weaponry, the same as a militia. In the musket rifle era, okay. With today’s technology, however, it’s prudent to distinguish sporting firearms from self-defense hardware from military weapons. With registration, law-abiding citizens can own either of the first two but not the latter.
Better to hash this out in public forum than to leave nine justices to their own imaginations!
Voting Right Revision
Who do we blame for “one man (or woman) one vote?” Perhaps there was no better idea at the time but in today’s world our votes should be weighted in accord with our tax payment.
Hold on to your blood-pressure medicine.
Remember that early in our history only land owners voted.
If I’m among the 1 percent who fund 30 percent of the treasury, I expect a bigger say. What corporation confers similar authority to a minority shareholder from that of a majority one?
The problem with passing such an amendment, however, is that the deadbeats all have a vote. Call it government-by-fatcat, if you like, nevertheless, it’s an idea worth pursuing. We have the technology to make it possible.
Why I’m Voting for McCain
I’m voting for McCain largely because when he claims a juicy job such as serving in the U.S. Sentate constitutes “public service,” I reflect upon 2 years in solitary confinement and better than five total as a POW and realize he’s earned the limo rides and privileged life-style. He’s a proven patriot.
He criticized the Rumsfeld-orchestrated Iraqi War and when/if he sends yours or my loved ones into harm’s way we know that his two sons have also served.
He has my utmost respect, though certainly not my agreement on even several key issues. I’ll work with him on those issues, or accept his leadership.
|
<