Family and politics

I just got home from a wonderful grill-out with family, some of whom I have not seen in almost 5 years, many of them that--I am sad to say--I don't know real well.  I always hesitate talking politics with...well, almost anyone.  With people that I respect because I am afraid that I will come off as unintelligent or uninformed and with those who I know have different values than I do, because I am afraid that when engaged in a conversation about values, I will disintegrate into defensiveness.

Neither one of these fears came true tonight as we carefully danced around the issue of politics, trying to identify the political beliefs of those around us.  We are a pretty diverse group-- including a well-known, retired physician, college students, a stay-at-home mom, several small business owners, a couple dairy farmers, a cardiologist and two veterinarians--so we are sure to disagree on at least a few issues.

Our conversations did not run too deep or get too political.  We wanted to enjoy a little long-overdue family time.  However, it got me to thinking:

How do you disagree with someone about politics?  How do you talk politics with family and friends?  I think it's important to have these conversations and it's important to have mature conversations.  Enough with the ridiculous facebook posts or silly little bumper stickers and signs. Let's be adults.  Let's do some research.  Let's look at the facts honestly.

We need to have intelligent discourse.

And how do we do that?  Learn the facts.  Then, and only then, can we have intelligent discourse on the issues.

This doesn't mean that once we have all the facts we will necessarily see things this way or that way, but it will give us a foundation to make our own judgement based on truth.

"It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence".
                                                                              -William K. Clifford

Happy researching!

I've seen the "Planned Parenthood" anti-Romney campaign ad for the last time!  I can't stand it.  The ad shows a short video clip of Romney saying: "...planned parenthood, we're going to get rid of that."  And while that quote is 100% true, it is taken a little out of context and is misleading.

Why?

Romney was answering a question about how he planned to reduce the deficit.  His whole quote is:

"The test is pretty simple. Is the program so critical, it’s worth borrowing money from China to pay for it? And on that basis of course you get rid of Obamacare, that’s the easy one. Planned Parenthood, we’re going to get rid of that."  (KSDK)

That comment created quite a commotion and liberals and Planned Parenthood attacking his remarks.

Romney clarified his comment by saying, "Planned Parenthood is a private organization. What I want to get rid of is the federal funding of Planned Parenthood," (Huffington Post)

According to the Romney campaign advisor, Eric Fehrnstrom: "He singled out some areas of the budget he would eliminate or curtail, all in the name of achieving a balanced budget.  It would not be getting rid of the organization. They have other sources of funding besides government operations, but in order to achieve balance, we have to make some tough decisions about spending." (CNN)

Romney never said that he wanted to close up Planned Parenthood, in fact, I don't think he could do that  because it is a private entity.  He just said that in light of our deficit, he plans on cutting federal funding for Planned Parenthood.  

I would imagine that he would cut federal funding for this organization not only to help control the deficit, but also because Romney is against abortion.

I am too, but that's another post for another day.  However, please go to Planned Parenthood-"abortion is a safe and legal way to end pregnancy".  To make it easy on you, read the 2 sentences below.  They are the first two paragraphs on the Planned Parenthood abortion website:

"There are two kinds of abortion in the U.S. — in-clinic abortion and the abortion pill.

Abortions are very common. In fact, more than 1 out of 3 women in the U.S. have an abortion by the time they are 45 years old."

Makes me sick.  I would cut federal funding for a program that basically tells women that abortion is not really a big deal; that they "are very common."  That it's "safe and legal."

And according to the Planned Parenthood website, "vacumn aspiration is usually used up to 16 weeks after a woman’s last period"

Here is a 16 week old fetus.  Courtesy of WebMD:



Baby's eyes can blink.  Fingers and toes have fingerprints.  It sure looks like a life to me!

Who is Ryan?

I have been trying to decide how I will "ease" into this blog-there is so much information out there and so many issues that I want to investigate, however everything just seems too daunting to take on as a first post.  However, I think I may have found a subject for my first real blog post: Paul Ryan.

Today in the break room at work the local TV station was airing Obama's visit to Council Bluffs, in which he made a few references to Mitt Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan.  I've decided that I want to learn about him...and that means you will too!

                                                      Introducing: Paul Ryan

Experience: 
Paul Ryan is serving his 7th term as a member of Congress

Committee assignments: 
Paul Ryan is the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee On the Budget and a senior member on the House Ways and Means Committee, which focuses on the tax code, health care and social security.


Why Ryan? What's his plan?

Paul Ryan has created a budget plan, The Path to Prosperity, in which he addresses how we can put America back on the path to economical prosperity.

Watch this youtube video called The Path to Prosperity (Episode 1).  In this 3 minute video, Paul Ryan outlines America's two futures: increasing governmental growth and unsustainable spending vs. governmental reform under the republicans plan.

If you haven't clicked on the link yet, do it.

But if you are too lazy to do that, below you will find a contrast between the President's budget and Paul Ryans' plan, The Path to Prosperity.

A Contrast in Visions

The President’s Budget   The Path to Prosperity Spending Net $1.5 trillion increase relative to current policy Cuts spending by $5 trillion relative to President’s budget Taxes Imposes a $1.9 trillion tax increase; Adds new complexity and new hurdles for hardworking taxpayers, making it more difficult to expand opportunity  Prevents President’s tax increases; Reforms broken tax code to make it simple, fair, and competitive; clears out special interest loopholes and lowers everybody’s tax rates to promote growth Deficits    Four straight trillion-dollar deficits; Breaks promise to cut deficit in half by end of first term; Budget neverbalances  Brings deficits below 3 percent of GDP by 2015; Reduces deficits by over $3 trillion relative to President’s budget; Puts budget on path to balance Debt Adds $11 trillion to the debt – increasing debt as a share of the economy – over the next decade; Imposes $200,000 debt burden per household; Debt skyrockets in the years ahead Reduces debt as a share of the economy over the next decade; Charts a sustainable trajectory by reforming the drivers of the debt; Pays off the debt over time Size of Government  Size of government never falls below 23 percent of the economy, making it more difficult to expand opportunity Brings size of government to 20 percent of economy by 2015, allowing the private sector to grow and create jobs National Security  Slashes defense spending by nearly $500 billion; Threatens additional cuts by refusing to specify plan of action to address the sequester; Forces troops and military families to pay the price for Washington’s refusal to address drivers of debt  Prioritizes national security by preventing deep, indiscriminate cuts to defense; Identifies strategy-driven savings, while funding defense at levels that keep America safe by providing $554 billion for the next fiscal year for national defense spending Health Security Doubles down on health care law, allowing government bureaucrats to interfere with patient care; Empowers an unaccountable board of 15 unelected bureaucrats to cut Medicare in ways that result in restricted access and denied care for current seniors, and a bankrupt future for the next generation Repeals President’s health care law; Advances bipartisan solutions that take power away from government bureaucrats and put patients in control; No disruption for those in or near retirement; Ensures a strengthened Medicare program for future generations, with less support given to the wealthy and more assistance for the poor and the sick

There is so much more info out there I've just got to read, but I think I'll leave you with this:

In response to President Obama's 2011 State of the Union Address, Ryan said We face a crushing burden of debt," Ryan said. "The debt will soon eclipse our entire economy and grow to catastrophic levels in years ahead."  According to Politifact.com, this is right on.  According to the article, the American GDP is 14.745 trillion in 2010 and debt was 14 trillion at the beginning off 2011.  That's pretty darn near close to an eclipse, eh?

For starters: The Declaration of Independence

Let's start at the beginning: the Declaration of Independence.  Emphasis my own.  

Declaration of Independence

Drafted by Thomas Jefferson between June 11 and June 28, 1776

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. -- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refuted his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred. to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. --And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

--John Hancock