Reader Comments
Issue 129 - April 8, 2009

Editor: As a retired government employee for the Department of Veterans Affairs, I spent many years watching and participating in wholesale spending of taxpayers hard earned dollars. There were times when there were hiring freezes but in all my years as a Psychologist out in the "field" medical centers or during my tenure at VA Headquarters there was always plenty of money to waste and spend. Citizens of the US would go insane if they knew how much time and money was wasted each day in the federal government. I generally agree with Devine and his take on “Transformational Obama Budget.” I think the major point I disagree with him is the oversight of the government’s waste of precious time and money. I think we could recover millions of dollars if not more by forming squads of persons whose main job would be to control unnecessary government spending rather than spending up the entire budget by the end of the fiscal year. As incentive perhaps the money saved could be held over for the following year. Perhaps bonuses could be given to those who save taxpayers money and resources. Government agencies and workers forget who they serve and who their bosses are. The same holds true for our president. When we elect a president do we automatically give the elected president a blank check on spending and imposing their beliefs upon us or should we hold their feet to the fire in upholding the constitution of this great land? Is their expertise granted simply by election or Senate approval? Perhaps the heart of our problems comes from abuse of power and failure to uphold the Constitution. A dozen Obama's would not be able to transform what needs to be transformed. As always we pay dearly to provide a training ground for those lacking experience. And we pay them grand salaries for this and give them carte blanch. James W. Frock, Ph.D.

Editor: Regarding “Transformational Obama Budget,” hammering on Obama and Congress' spendthrift stimulus package on the basis that the money is going to the wrong places and it's too much etc. is the wrong tact whether you are talking to Conservatives or to the public. Obama and the Dems biggest threat to the USA is convincing an ever larger number of voters to count on the government to be responsible for life's basic needs. The government can provide for these needs only by taking the wealth from a shrinking number of productive individuals. When the number of productive individuals shrinks enough, the system, the culture, the economy collapses. Nobody gets any wealth if there ain't any. Obama's policies are wealth destroying, pure and simple. If the only outcome of his policies was some redistribution of wealth, that could be reversed sooner or later, but the problem is the massive redistribution of wealth that Obama proposes will reduce the production of wealth and destroy what wealth there is. Charles E. Steber, Atlanta

Editor: Regarding “Transformational Obama Budget,” NOW you want to pretend to do something about the Marxist Obama??? Please... Mark-John Kasperek, Minneapolis

Editor: As “Transformational Obama Budget” demonstrates, Obama is on the road to renaming our great country the United Socialist America. I was impressed by that young college student who was proud that she pays for her college education, not the government. It reminded me of when I was in college in the 70's.I grew up with the understanding the harder you studied, the harder you worked, the more you strived, the more opportunity was there for you. It was a personal choice...some accepted the challenge, others chose not to. My father believed in this great country...he was a legal immigrant who came here during the mid 1920's...even through the great depression he found the will to succeed....he put himself through school, worked hard, fought for this great country, got married, had 6 children, worked 18 hours a day, seven days a week to put his 6 kids through the best schools, because he knew education was the key to success....without ever taking a dime from the government...call it Italian pride. He instilled in his children tremendous values that many people today can't even spell...determination, responsibility, respect, consideration, courage, and most importantly, integrity. I grew up in a world that if you couldn't afford it, you didn't have it. If you wanted it you personally worked harder to get it. There was no such thing as entitlement. I could go on and on, which I will at some point, but for now, I think you get my point. I know my father, who passed away 4 years ago, would be devastated to see what Obama and the liberal Congress has done to our United States of America....our land of great opportunity and freedom. Thank you, sincerely, Mary Genovese Capaccio

Editor: Regarding "Transformational Obama Budget" will there now be a "Bail Out" for Unemployed Ex-Felons? John Lillpop

Editor: Even before I read "Transformational Obama Budget," I already know this administration is the one of the Con artist. I just hope the Republican Party finds someone with the MOXEY to stand up to the vehicle they are amassing to destroy the American people. They have already made a mockery of our treasury and our democratic voting system. You guys in Washington, who are supposed to be able to do something, are doing nothing. You should be going after their Chinese investors whom have set up under the Democrats. Why hasn't there been a thorough background check of Obama's birth. He isn't even American, and if through some loophole he is why is it he has this much latitude in destroying our country? John Elliott, Palmetto Florida

Editor: I thought "Transformational Obama Budget" was quite informative. I just pray to God that millions of people will read it and pause over the direction we are headed in. To me it is simply logical thinking that when you spend trillions and trillions it will massively increase the deficit unless you tax, tax, and more tax. One thing you did not bring up, but I am sure you are aware of, is that when Obama says health care for all he means for all. The amount we spend yearly on health care, education, law enforcement, incarceration, and social services for illegals is astronomical and if the liberals succeed in passing the amnesty program, which they may, we haven't seen anything yet. April 15th will no doubt be the best day so far for tea parties Well Donald keep up the good work, guys like you are exactly what we need to, hopefully, turn this thing around. Sincerely, Ed Dost

Editor: I'm appreciative that you came up with "Conservative Battleline Online". This e-communication is very much on target subject-wise and obviously appropriate for the current time. Indeed, I became overwhelmed with a sense of great joy to have received it from you. The articles abound in lofty imagination and written with reliable and precise information. Your essay on, "Transformational Obama Budget" is praiseworthy and Bob Barr shows his usual exuberance of splendid wit and satire in, "Nationalize Baseball Too?" Your editorial talent is obvious. I am going to put this journal in the list of my contacts. With personal regards, Sincerely, Qamar Khan

Editor: Bob Barr's piece “Nationalize Baseball Too?” is well thought and well written. However, we all know that that Congress has no place in baseball or any in other private business, including banking and finance. When as conservatives are we going to cease describing the problem and begin to address the cure? Mr. Barr is an attorney. Why aren't legal challenges to nearly everything the Obama administration is doing being mounted now? Where is our "ACLU" or our "Amnesty International", to name but a couple of socialism's rear guard forces? Where's the conservative ACORN, Obama's answer to the Soviet Union's shock workers? We need to run real interference to these people and it's not happening, at least not visibly. We're all sitting around telling ourselves how bad it is -- and doing nothing to stop it. Jeff Dover

Editor: Regarding Bob Barr’s “Nationalize Baseball Too?” I could not agree more! Although I could care less about professional sports, we didn’t elect these people to concern themselves with this BS. I never even heard of this guy until I saw him being questioned by a panel of elected people on c-span. (Yeah, I don't call them officials). Thanks, Chris Digrazio

Editor: Great story by Bob Barr on “Nationalize Baseball Too?” I agree with him. Maybe the Feds know that if they do their investigation into the people that truly have benefited from our economic woes and had a major role in creating the problem, they would have to arrest some major players in our government. Better to deal with the abuse of steroids. Ha. Rhonda Linders, Vatterott College

David Keene's "Why Read the Laws" is an excellent explication of the problem with this Congress, and that problem is irresponsibility coupled with nonaccountability. Anyone, much less a whole legislature, who cannot bother to read the information about that or whom he's claiming to be for or against, should not be voting! What else can Congress legitimately be thought to be paid to be doing? Furthermore, that which is true, right, moral, can be stated simply. If it takes 1000 pages to write a law, how many pages of regulations will it take to impose it? And how far will it be perverted by the time all the regulators get through the writing they don't bother to read? Washington has become like a "Mad" magazine, suggesting the nonchalance of the idiotic Alfred Newman's, "What? Me Worry?" Mr. Keene's proposed bumper sticker: "A Congressman with a vote is more dangerous than a redneck with a gun," is excellent. Another, I'd suggest is "Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!" Ecclesiastes 10:16. We have a collection of children now running our nation, men and women cheerfully fiddling while America (and the world) burns. Thank you, Judith Richie

Editor: Articles like “Warming God’s Sacrifice” by Dennis Avery are all good and well in having true science debunk the GLOBAL WARMING LIE, but the problem is that the information is NOT getting to AVERAGE AMERICANS. WHY NOT??? You guys need more EFFECTIVE VEHICLES to get the truth out to the general public!! You are smart enough to expose the lies. So why not figure out how to get the message out for ALL TO SEE??? If you manage to find a way, I'm sure to know about it, since it will be in not only my face, but in the faces of over 200,000,000 Americans who might even object to the Al Gore - Obama agenda before it's too late... James Gatterdam

Editor: Andrew Kavin has definitely hit the proverbial nail squarely on the head in his “Win the Culture”! I'm at a loss to grasp exactly how this happened. At age 68, I'm able to recall when it was not always so, when conservatives did spread value in art, in literature, in film, even occasionally in press and media. How did the left become so wealthy that they took over every means of communication? Why did conservatives permit the left's takeover of public education? Perhaps when Alexis de Tocqueville's observation ceased to be true, that "The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other." Without religious freedom, even extended to those "dangerous Christians," to quote the left, (and among those Christians I'm delighted to say I stand), how can there be any concept of liberty whatsoever? Nevertheless, thank you, keep up the good fight on every possible front, Judith Richie

Editor: Good article on “Win the Culture” by Andrew Klavin. We have let our guard down and I am just grateful there are educated conservatives such as him keeping their eyes on the ball and advocating for conservative values. Liberal universities and colleges are pushing their agenda on students these days. I'm 59 years old and recently went back to college to brush up on some classes and they tried to push the liberal agenda down my throat. I could see where this strategy could work with younger students less grounded in their ideals and values than myself. Amnesty will not bring liberals many votes in the 2012 elections but I often wonder if liberals are also using immigrants to intentionally destroy our culture. Of course I have no proof as to the latter but I am suspicious. Keep up the great writing and I will pay more attention to your work. Sincerely, Ed Dost, Port Angeles, WA

Editor: This movie “Fireproof” strikes a responsive chord with couples of all ages who want a mutually fulfilling marriage relationship. Good review by Mike D’Virglio. Bill Klein

Editor: Regarding Doug Edelman’s “Join the Tea Party” it seems we are all talking Tea, while all our congressmen, executive branch, and the federal courts are all making their decisions from a viewpoint reached by LSD! It's time for tea parties and open rebellion! Long live the Constitution! Dr. Micheal L. Goebel

Editor: GOOD regarding holding Tea Parties. Maybe we should be making noises to the effect that if MILLIONS of us would not file taxes until DC started listening to us we would get their attention-we should start now to let them know we want death tax repealed-we don't want UN taxing us-in fact let us cut back on what we give them-when all troops come home from Iraq they will need jobs-Do what Hoover -Truman and Eisenhower did and send illegals home -this is for starters-Ruth Amelang

Editor: I would like to see more and more of those tea parties mentioned by Doug Edelman’s “Join the Tea Party.” Of course they are never reported on TV, the only way we know about it is thru Rush Limbaugh, which I listen to all 3 hours a day and over and over as he keeps my sanity in check, Thank God for Rush. We cannot let up on those protests!!! We cannot let the government mingling into private businesses and take over private businesses or tell private businesses how to run their businesses. This is America not Venezuela. It is not a thing conservative Republicans do, but this is no ordinary time to stay away from protesting, we need to do so, WE NEED TO SAVE THE AMERICA WE TRULY LOVE for what it represents not what it is going to become!!! Sincerely, Sophie Couderc

Editor: You might be interested to know we are planning a Tea Party Rally for our county (Carroll) and a state-wide one on April 15th in Atlanta, GA. I believe we will have hundreds of people out. Our state-wide rally will be at the Capitol at 6:00 p.m. Carolyn Henderson, Carrollton, GA

Editor: Good article by young Matt Varvaro “Reject Conservatism or Bush?” Bush almost totally abandoned conservative beliefs and sold us down the river to the liberals more than any presidency in my 76 years of life that I know about. He was truly a disappointment for this conservative Republican. So we go with a McCain on much of the same liberal trail as a choice. It would be nice to see a conservative really be a conservative. Melvin Laws