Category: Government

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By now you’ve heard…

Phyrewall 2014 Nov 06

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ve heard that the Democratic Party has lost control of the Senate. They lost control of the House a while ago. Now it looks like the people have spoken again.

I for one am glad to see it. 

Personally I’d hoped that The President would take notice and realize that this was the voice of the American people. I’d hoped that he would take it as a sign that We the People aren’t behind his agendas and that he couldn’t bully us or Congress into compliance.

Then I listened to his press conference yesterday. 

WOW!

Sad to say, The President still doesn’t see that deeply unpopular policies lead to loss of votes. Heck, all The President had to do was look at the Bush years. But apparently, he’s not one to pay much attention to history.

President Obama

The President will in all likelihood spend the remaining two years of his term as a lame duck. I doubt that he will be able to reconcile the rift that he helped to create between himself and the Republican party.

I do expect a flurry of activity on the part of the outgoing Congress designed to make the next Congress’s job much more difficult. I suspect that the Democrats will attempt to enact laws, change rules, and put various regulations in place to thwart any speedy changes when Congress resumes session in January.

Once those obstructions are cleared, I expect that we’ll see many new laws and modifications of old laws which will make the Republicans look like they’re very productive. The problem is, a lot of that “work” will probably be stuff the House voted on and sent to Harry Reid which then sat on his desk for who knows how long.

While the transition is going on, I expect The President to sign everything he can get his hot little hands on into law under executive privilege. 

I know, The President supposedly hasn’t used his executive privilege as much as his predecessor, but it’s not the NUMBER of times it’s the character of the use. Bush could have issued executive order that the White House toilet paper must be linen not paper. (That would be extravagant and wasteful but not criminal) The President has used executive privilege in ways that come very close to violating the Constitution.

CNN

So absolute numbers of Executive orders doesn’t really capture the tenor of the orders themselves, and is therefore an invalid measure.

I know, that will come as a surprise and disappointment to the talking heads in the Main Stream Media.

I’ve been enjoying the show the MSM has put on over this rout of the Democratic Party.

Watching Al Sharpton’s inarticulate grunting on MSNBC is worth having to throw my TV out after sullying it with MSNBC’s broadcast.

CNN was hysterically funny and their talking heads were stunned almost into silence as state after state reported Republican victories in Congressional seats and Gubernatorial races.

FrancesSalerno1 2014 Nov 06

I can understand the stunned silence, after all if you really believe that America is such a dark and terrible place it’s pretty much inconceivable that the party representing the right hand of Satan and all the ills besetting the country would be voted into office.

In some ways I almost feel sorry for the democrats.

They really, took a …. Well you know.

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Election Day!

Gadsden Flag

Just a few more hours and the mud slinging will stop.

I don’t think mud slinging is a strong enough term, outright character assassination is more what these people are doing.

I’ll be very glad when all this is over. 

I’m heading out to vote this afternoon and then I think I’ll come home and watch movies all evening. 

I do wish I had a Gadsden flag T-Shirt. I think it would be appropriate to wear to the Polling place.

Even though this is a stinky election, please everyone go vote! Make your voice heard. It’s important to make our politicians hear us, especially when they get as deaf to their constituents as this lot have.

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Bullet Dodged – Ebola in America appears under control

ebola

Not that my faith in our Government response is restored.

I’m glad that those who tested positive for ebola are on the mend.  I’m glad that the folks in TX don’t seem to have an outbreak on their hands.

Even though there is a Doctor in NY that tested positive for the disease. He was self monitoring as he was supposed to do. He was perhaps a little lax in that he was feeling a bit puny, but honestly I can see him perhaps chalking the fatigue up to jet lag. Once he realized he was symptomatic, he did the right thing.

I think I would have preferred that he be held in a quarantine situation, even if it was a home quarantine for the incubation period of the disease. On the other hand, were all travelers from affected areas banned, we’d have never had the issue in NY or TX in the first place. 

All that being said, we’ve been lucky. If ebola was more contagious, or airborne we’d be looking at a very different situation.

The best thing to happen from all of this insanity is that questions are being asked.

Procedures and policies are being reviewed and perhaps this whole event will serve as a reminder that our ability to travel the world in just a day or two does come at a price.  I’m happy to see that our airports are increasing their readiness for the possibility of contagious diseases. It’s prudent, reasonable, and serves to protect not only Americans but also international travelers from all countries who may be changing planes at one of our airports.

I was recently talking with friends who travel internationally often.

I’m not talking about travel to Europe or Japan. I’m talking about travel to tropical countries where there are diseases that can really do you harm or kill you.

Most of my friends don’t give it a thought. They don’t even discuss these trips with their doctor either before they leave or after they return. I’ll grant you, for some of these tropical diseases there are no vaccines, but for many there are.

When I travel on a dive trip, I’ll typically call my doctor, tell him where I’m going and ask if there are any boosters or vaccines I should have before I go.  A day or two later my Doctor calls me back and either says I’m good to go, or I should have X, Y, & Z updated or administered. Since I’m usually working with a long lead time prior to the trip, I’ve got plenty of time to get to see the Doc and have the vaccine or boosters at full effectiveness before I leave. To me, this is simply common sense. Apparently, lots of people don’t think about it.  

Heck, I even have a copy of my vaccination record in my passport. I figure if’ I’m taken ill while traveling, at least the local physicians might be able to eliminate the diseases I’ve been vaccinated against while they’re trying to figure out what’s wrong. Again, it’s about planning for the worst and generally having the best of possible situations.

ZombieApocalypse

After chatting with my friends, several of them decided to check with their doctors prior to their next eco-trips.

I hope that more people are paying attention to their vaccinations, and to their travel destinations. Unless you’re someone that can render aid to a disease stricken area, you have no business going there. Change your plans, why risk catching something or bringing something back? 

On the other hand, if The Zombie Apocalypse has to start anywhere, I hope it starts in TX.

Those folks are good shots, well armed, and I doubt seriously the Zombies would have a chance!