The Young Republican

I am an Olympics junkie…there I have said it. I love watching Beach Volleyball, Swimming (even Synchronized Swimming) The Redeem Team, Men’s Waterpolo, Women’s Rowing. But I especially love gymnastics. Put me in front of the gymnastics in Summer Olympics or Figure Skating in Winter Olympics & I’m happy. Who cares if it is waaaaaaaaaaaay past my bedtime.

But in watching the Olympics, and world events as they unfold, I have noticed an interesting history line. And this may sound biased, but if you have been paying attention, then you know…..more often than not, the American girls are getting hosed.
Women’s gymnastics has always been the ultimate in Summer Olympics, in grace, beauty, & power, ever since Nadia & Mary Lou tumbled & flipped to their gold medals.

But now I am watching the women’s gymnastics & I am thinking about the reflection of the world today. The Chinese women won the Team Gold, but let’s face it – they cheated. Unless they are counting in some type of Chinese dog years, a young girl who qualified for the Junior Championships last year, with an age limit of 14, cannot possibly now be 16 in this Olympic year, a requirement. But hey, since the Chinese government supplied “passports” then all of the ages are correct. There is one definite age-rule discrepancy on the Chinese team, and one more that is highly suspected. Doctors have even said there is no way some of the girls are 16. We know the Chinese take the athletes from home at the age of about 2, and the athletes see their families about once a year. If you make it, your family gets a house, a car, a nice life. If you don’t, you go home in shame.

Remember years ago when the Soviet Union of old dominated in the sport. They took medal after medal as the Soviet gymnastics juggernaut, and also the Communist Romanian women’s team, ran over everything in its way, with the one exception of Mary Lou Retton. The Soviets of old had a gymnastics machine, taking children from homes & turning them into champions, away from their families, sometimes for years. The Soviets sacrificed the youth & bodies of their athletes to win glory on the world stage & no one, even the judges, doubted their dominance. Losing was not acceptable. Normalcy was not expected.

Flash forward 20 years. The Soviet machine has broken down. The Communist dictatorship which was demanded perfection form its athletes & stripped them of normal childhoods has now become Westernized. The country that produced the gymnastics dynasty can barely scrape together a few bronze medals. The Romanians who once produced Nadia Comaneci cannot stop their athletes from texting on the sidelines. The former powerhouses are more interested in having the lives of teenagers, with boys, clothes, & social lives. Without the power of the communist government, the National teams cannot control every aspect of their athletes’ lives.
Normalcy & the freedom to be a kid seem to win out over strong arm discipline. The American women succeed because although they dedicate their lives to the sport, most of them still have close families, friends, and many, like Shawn Johnson, even attend regular schools.
The Chinese of today have become the Soviets of yesterday. Dominate, cheat, whatever it takes to win. They have put on a games that may look spectacular on the outside, but on the inside - age discrepancies, pollution, factory closings, lack of water in the countryside, & spies everywhere.

And the American girls do not seem to be well-liked by the international judges. Over & over, the commentators mention deductions during a Chinese routine & point out mistakes (like FALLING for goodness sake!!!) & the Chinese come up with a medal. If you have watched it is pretty obvious. Even the commentators, who usually have good things to say when any gymnast is good, cannot believe the “help” the judges are giving to the Chinese women’s team. (I’ll take bets on whether, before this is all over, it’s George Bush’s fault).
It’s definitely a miracle Nastia Liukin won the all-around. The Chinese fall, make mistakes, and seem to win anyway on reputation alone.
So I guess it takes total domination, lying, cheating, & a little help from the judges to truly dominate the sport these days.

At least the Soviets dominated without the cheating. But what it comes down to, for anyone with a brain watching some of these events – we got robbed.

OH – and one thing more. As the Russian gymnastics team limps along, lackluster & feeble compared to the old days, a metaphor comes to mind: Russia & its “leader” Vladimir Putin, having limped along & become lackluster in the past decade, & are now wishing to reassert their power of old. As we look on from the sidelines, we see the a Russia yearning for the days of old, not content to become a pale imitation of what it once was. If it takes dominance, repression, iron tactics, and apparently even invasion, it seems the Russians are determined to cast-off that faint glow of Westernization & recreate the Soviet of old times. I wonder where we will be in London in 4 years. I wonder what the Russians & the Chinese will look like. And I am not talking gymnastics, either.

THE ALLIANCE FOR NORTH CAROLINA…GET THE WORD OUT TO STOP THEM….wait…..where are they?!

A non-profit 527 group known as The Alliance for North Carolina (originally formed as the “Pioneer Majority”) has begun running its ads as the race for governor & the state races heat up. This is a 527 Group which is funded (exclusively from what I can see) by the National Education Association (NEA), which is a Teacher’s Union group, as well as the Democratic Governors Association (DGA). This is not mentioned, of course, nor is Bev Perdue, in their commercials. They claim to be “independently communicating” with the citizens of NC. Both the NEA & DGA are ALSO 527’s, both located in Washington DC. They have no outright connection to NC. It appears to me that in order to make the ads look like this is a group of concerned North Carolinians looking out for all, the aforementioned NEA & DGA funneled their funds to this newly created “Alliance for North Carolina”.

The funds were distributed to:

* Nexus Strategies in Raleigh. This is a political consulting firm whose Principal Partner, Scott Falmlen, claims to have led the 2006 effort to expand the Democratic majority in Raleigh & was Exec. Director of the NC Democratic party from 1999-2005. The amount of $10,000 was paid to Falmlen’s firm, who serves as the Alliance for North Carolina’s spokesman.

* Sandler, Reiff & Young, a law firm in Washington DC. J. Sandler serves as General Counsel to the DNC. J H Young led the recount effort for Gore in FL in 2000 & is even portrayed in the ridiculous HBO movie “Recount”. My take on this firm is that it exists basically to file lawsuits against Republicans for every type of election law infraction, real or imagined, & to defend Democrats against them. Their website describes them as a firm dedicated to interpreting election law. They are definitely a Washington DC powerhouse. They were paid $5000.

Interestingly enough, the Washington DC address of the “Alliance for North Carolina” & the address for the Sandler, Reiff, et al., law firm are identical. The RALEIGH ADDRESS which is noted on the Alliance for North Carolina’s website is a MAILBOXES ETC address located at 514 Daniels St in Raleigh.

* Buying Time, a Washington DC PR firm, which was paid $450,000, presumably to create the ad.

The funds for this ad were transferred to the Alliance for North Carolina by the NEA & DGA, to the tune of $750,000. The NEA gave $250,000 & the DGA gave $500,000. So the Alliance for North Carolina has another $300,000 as of 7/28/08, possibly more by now, to spend.

The Alliance for North Carolina appears to be North Carolinian in name only. Most of it is operated by Washington DC Democratic insiders. But they have nice pictures of NC scenery on their website!

But hey, they are all just an independent group speaking independently to the citizens of North Carolina on important issues!

It appears the Raleigh address (the “Mailbox’s etc” one) is mainly for the website & the suckers who think this group gives a rat’s rear-end about NC. It is a Teacher’s Union & a Democratic Governors group, trying to get a Democrat elected governor in this state.

The first ad, which can be found at its website at www.theallinacefornorthcarolina.com , deals with several issues The ad calls for higher wages for NC, free tuition at Community Colleges & then has a vague reference about “ending perks for politicians”, although I wonder what our current governor would think of that last one. It is against campaign finance rules for a 527 to run ads for or against a candidate running for office, although they are permitted to run “issues” ads that reflect positively or negatively on a candidate. The ad also gives Pat McCrory’s phone number because he is on the wrong side of these issues. By giving out the phone number & urging citizens to call McCrory, the Alliance gets around that rule. But let’s face it, most people do not know this group, do not know the affiliations they have with the Democratic Party, & won’t dig deep enough to find out. There are probably a great many people fed up with our Democratic governor & with Teacher’s Unions who will never know they funded the ad to promote their own agenda, not to watch out for the schools & workers of our state.

My own personal opinion on the “Free” Community College is that not only would it be a bureaucratic nightmare to institute & run such a program, but the idea of “free” has a connotation that the Community College teachers are working for free, which I can say is probably incorrect. Teachers must be paid, books must be purchased, building maintenance is a necessity, and the list goes on. There is no such thing as “free” Community College.

McCrory, for his part, has put forth the idea that private businesses working together with Community Colleges, along with tax incentives, would be a great way to promote Community College attendance and give NC the viable, well-trained workforce which is necessary to thrive.

The McCrory campaign did cry foul on this group for improper disclosure, but the group was found to have done no wrong by the State Board of Elections.

You can find some of this at the Raleigh News & Observer site, but..

I’ll have more on this as it warrants…..TY

BHO’s latest ideas…..

He wants the government to commandeer the legitimate profits of a PRIVATE COMPANY, take said profits, & redistribute the money to private citizens.

Exactly what country does he think we live in?

His campaign adds claims he will do this…so, obviously he believes his voters are not astute enough to understand that #1) the President does not have the right to tax, #2) congress cannot choose a single industry to arbitrarily tax, & #3)there is no such precedent in our tax history, unless it is deeply buried, regarding a “windfall profits” tax (although a congressman from PA has advocated congress appointing something called a “reasonable profits” board).

The idea that a single person can say he will forcibly take profits from a legal company & give it to people as he sees fit is completely un-American & anti-capitalist.

I would love to see the reaction of the shareholders to this tidbit. So listen up, people with 401K’s, retirees, anyone with a mutual fund, or persons who make any type of stock investments. A candidate for President has just announced he wants to commandeer the profits of companies you most likely have a stake in.

And listen up all companies doing business in this country or thinking of doing business in this country: a candidate for President of this country has announced he will commandeer your profits if your profits get too large.

Be warned.

COMING UP…….

Don’t forget!!! The Greater Greensboro Republican Women’s Club Wine & Cheese

YR’s, get to know the women of the party, & also get to meet & chat with some of the candidates one-on-one. Usually before the event, there is an opportunity to ask some questions & and talk to some of the candidates for a few minutes.

And you get to hear the usual speeches of course.

Date: Sunday 8/24

Time: 5 – 8pm

Place: Starmount Forest Country Club

Price: $30 pp

Contact: Betsey Gravitte 665-9053 to reserve a spot by 8/15

I WON”T VOTE FOR SOMEONE THAT UNDERESTIMATES MY INTELLIGENCE…

Campaign speeches that are often given by Sen BHO while he is pandering to possible voters run from the absurd to outright BS. I listen & think, does anyone really believe any of this? So when you are accused of being a warmonger, a hater, against change, racist, on the side of big oil, stupid, intolerant, against the poor, and everything else they can think of because you won’t vote for BHO, think of your answers as to why you won’t. It can’t just be because he is a socialist or unqualified or a generalization such as that. Come up with some real concrete reasons. We’d love to hear them. Here is mine…

I won’t vote for anyone that thinks I am a moron.

* Warren Buffet once used the example of his secretary making about $60,000 paid a higher tax rate than he did with his millions. BHO latched on to that & in his constant class warfare tirade against the evil CEO he has mentioned it in his speeches. He constantly berates the evil CEO’s earning millions and getting tax breaks. But what he fails to mention is that the secretary is paying a %30 income tax rate, while a CEO such as Buffet with stock plans & investments pays a %15 or so capital gains tax rate. Apples & Oranges. If a CEO is paid straight salary-for-work in the millions, which is rare, he will pay a high tax rate. If a CEO has stock and investments, he pays a capital gains tax rate (although BHO has promised to double that).

If you look at liberal blogs most people do not know this. They enjoy the class warfare of demonizing the evil rich (the top 10%, by the way, pay 70% of the taxes). Or they are too busy whining to look all of this up. BHO also fails to mention that almost any American with a retirement plan owns stock & is subject to capital gains taxes on it. Raising the capital gains tax is therefore not just “taxing the wealthy”. (BHO loves to take CEO’s to task for raking in those millions but he never mentions the millions that his friends & supporters like Oprah Winfrey & Tom Hanks rake in.)

I won’t vote for anyone who thinks I can be manipulated into believing this class warfare crap or who thinks I am too stupid/lazy to learn the tax code info for myself.

*BHO loves to say in speeches & commercials that he (his campaign) has never taken any money from an oil company. Duh. It’s illegal for any political campaign to take $$$ from a company/business. Bet you can bet the farm he has taken donations from oil executives!!

I won’t vote for anyone who thinks I am too stupid to understand campaign laws & too lazy to check BHO’s facts.

SO there are a few reasons from me. What are yours???

I have been on vacation for a time, (Figure skating camp (ouch!) shopping in Mnahattan (ouch for my wallet!)& a cruise (fun!)) so the blog was twisting in the wind. But I have some new news, polls, opinions & more. please share & share alike. Mention this site to fellow Republicans young & old, hopefully they will enjoy th enews & views.
So here it is, the latest editorial I posted in the Guilford YR newsletter. It is a call to arms…..

I noticed something downtown when I returned from my recent vacation. Where the Miller Furniture Store was located (I understand luxury apartments will be built upstairs) the downstairs had huge red, white & blue posters announcing the “July 13th Opening of the Barack Obama Headquarters”!!!
As I was walking through Manhattan, not far from NYU (the belly of the liberal beast) a young female student approached my husband & myself & asked us if we “have a second for Barack Obama?” I answered that we were Republicans & therefore already made our decision. She said thank you & went on to the next person. I realize now I should have probably challenged her & began asking substantive questions about BHO’s policies & plans. I bet she knew less about his voting record than I do, but I was in a hurry to get to the Madison Ave shopping….
But these two events struck me, since it appears that the BHO express is running over the Straight Talk Express. These are the times that I get down, because I just don’t see our side with the same enthusiasm, on a National level anyway. There seems to be a great deal of malaise among some Republicans. Perhaps some feel it’s too early to use all of our energy, perhaps some are not enamored of Senator McCain, perhaps some are angry with the behavior/spending of our party. But the Obama group is out there & so far, they are annoyingly enthusiastic. But we also know that their candidate is full of …..wait I don’t think I can say that in a family newsletter. Seriously, though perhaps the problem is we thirst for a change in our party. In the survey question I asked “does it take a Jimmy Carter to get a Ronald Reagan”, interestingly, almost half (47%) felt that electing Barack Obama would be disastrous enough to produce a second Reagan revolution, and therefore not all bad. 53% said Obama would be too disastrous & risky.
So there is at least consensus that an Obama presidency would be an unqualified disaster, either way. But it is up to us, as YR’s to harness both the negative & the positive energy towards electing Republicans at every level. Think about what the guys overseas in Afghanistan & Iraq deserve. Think about the Supreme Court. Think about small businesses with double the payroll taxes. Think about your investments with double the Capital Gains tax. Think about you having to be responsible for bailing out other’s mistakes. Can we really afford that? And by the way, I think it would be great fun to infiltrate the Downtown Obama headquarters & see what is going on. I bet they have no idea what their candidate stands for. Any takers?

Senator Obama has portrayed himself as an above the fray politician who is definitely in tune with the common man.

The Democrats have made a living portraying themselves as the champion of the lower class & I think John Kerry tried to convince people he felt the pain of the poor. Wait, no that was Bill Clinton.

The people being hurt by high gas prices with no end in sight are definitely the lower classes, the blue collar workers, and even the Middle Class, who might have kids in college, or just work hard to give their kids the benefits they did not have. The Democrats (& few stubborn Republicans who will either come around or be voted out of office) by & large are the single obstruction to drilling for our own natural resources, our own oil & coal. They are beholden to hysterical environments who do not back up their claims with any type of science or realistic solutions.

And they only thing they will be stopping is not some mythical global warming…they will bring the American economy to a screeching halt & destroy capitalism.

IF the Democrats really care about the American economy & the plight of the Middle Class worker, they will stop obstructing the measures that will give us the relief our country needs.

We all know about offshore & ANWR, even nuclear, but if you want to check out some of the newer technologies, try coal gasification, a new technology which is making big strides. The US DOE has a site which explains this up & coming technology….it’s a good thing to quote Martha Stewart. Especially since we have more coal in the US than China has tea. The first plants are up & running so check it out. You can tell your liberal environmental friends this is better technology than windmills & water – and definitely more realistic.

Check out the website here:

http://www.fossil.energy.gov:80/programs/powersystems/gasification/index.html

Theresa’s thought of the day….
Senator BHO mentioned in a speech a few weeks ago that Iran, Venezuela, & Cuba were “tiny” countries & therefore did not pose much of a threat to America. He also mentioned the Soviet Union had been much larger & was therefore more of true threat.
Hhhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmm.

#1. Wasn’t Germany like, smaller than Montana? (And they started two of the big ones)

#2. A little more seriously, The Soviet Union was smart enough to subscribe to the “MAD” theory – mutually assured destruction. The Cold War was fought on satellite territory, and both the US & USSR realized a first strike by one would mean the destruction of both

*newsflash* *newsflash* *newsflash* to Obama:
Iran’s President Ahmadinejad does not really care if downtown Tehran & everyone in it is blown off the face of the earth if they can destroy Israel, her friend the Great Satan (that’s us, by the way) or any other Western country in the process. He thinks destroying the Great Satan is enough of an accomplishment to put him in the history books for a thousand years.
We were lucky the USSR did not have the President of this “tiny” country at its helm.

NC Democrats, led by State Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand are spearheading legislation that will REQUIRE EVERY SINGLE UNDERGRDUATE STUDENT IN NC COLLEGES TO TUTOR/MENTOR PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS IN ORDER TO GRADUATE.

I added the caps because although this may sound nice, it is just another government program disguised as a sweet way for college students to help younger kids. But let’s take a little look …..

*The program will also require Private Colleges to participate or lose their state funding.

*It is social engineering…Rand mentions that some children in public schools do not have families or have families that will not help their kids, & this will help solve that problem.

*The program will require 20 hours per semester. How do the college students get to the school? Do they drive themselves? What if they do not have cars? Do the school kids come to the college? Who pays for the transportation?

*Most tutors who spend time on elementary & other public school campuses & all teachers, cafeteria workers, etc have to undergo a background check. Who will pay for that, or do we just let all college students free reign with the young kids?

*Who monitors the sessions & how much do we pay them?

*Who tracks the hours, ensures there are enough to graduate, etc.?

* Additional fuzzy math: College students have 15weeks per semester, but one week is usually spent in exams, 1 on break, & there are also midterms. That leaves 12 weeks available. School kids have testing, teacher workdays, vacations & such which do not coordinate to college schedules, which leaves about 10 weeks available per semester for this activity. So it’s 2 hours a week. Not such a hardship right? Unless you are an athlete on a scholarship, travelling with a sports team, doing a work-study job, and required to maintain a certain GPA to stay on the team. Good luck finding two additional weekday hours that coordinate to public school schedules.

On the surface this may sound like a nice idea, but I guarantee you by the time the government finishes with it, they will be creating a whole separate department in the education system to coordinate it, paying teachers extra run it, and the man hours to handle the logistics will pile up.

And it is totally unnecessary. All of the state’s public universities already have voluntary service programs & many majors have internship requirements. Private colleges also have such projects available to students.

Forcing students to be mentors/tutors is not a good idea. Although most students might do a good job, after 9 years of teaching college here are two facts:

#1 Not every college student should tutor. Some of them have an atrocious command of the English language & spell worse than 5th graders.

#2 Like it or not there are some mentally disturbed college students. Some are on psychiatric medication. There are also the tragedies such as VA Tech.

These are few, but they do exist. And let’s face it, many college underclassmen simply do not have the maturity to be good role models. Some are great. Some are self-centered and will resent this forced mentorship.

This program is a bad idea. Better to give individual schools financial incentive to partner with the private sector to allow students to volunteer. One incentive for students – it will help their resumes & their GPA’s. In my experience, many students do want to do extra work – whether for extra credit, work experience, or because it is the right thing to do.

Read the post about Bev Perdue’s education program & start adding up how much the Dems want to cost us - & this is just higher education. Can you imagine what they want to spend on public schools?

Here is a link to the News & Observer article

http://www.newsobserver.com/print/thursday/city_state/story/1088640.html

Does anyone have any thoughts? There is an additional aspect of this bill that I wonder if people will pick up on….

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