Jenn November 11th, 2008
Barack Obama’s Executive Orders - Associated Content
The AP ran a story today describing President-elect Obama’s intentions of quickly signing a number of executive orders to reverse Bush administration policies. In particular, issues regarding life will be at the top of his list. Here is an excerpt:
Some of the first executive orders will no doubt be pleasing to some of Barack Obama’s feminist supporters and will anger pro life supporters. Barack Obama will lift the restrictions on foreign aid to abortions that were imposed by President George W. Bush. Obama will also lift restrictions for federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.
Jenn November 11th, 2008
Tonight I participated in a focus group funded by a “Republican leaning” group to discuss views on possible health care proposals. The fundamental problem with all of them was that they opened the door for more government involvement in your personal health care decisions. It sounded good to some of the participants to make it a law that all children must have health insurance. When I pointed out that this meant that the government could now dictate that your children must have all immunizations ( I am a big fan of immunizations , by the way - not opposed to them) if they were providing health care for your children and would have greater influence into your decisions, some of the participants changed their mind. It is amazing how liberal ideas seem good because they seem compassionate, but because they increase the role of government in our lives liberal thinking often drags other moral issues and into the mix, giving government more authority in the life of a child than the parent. The moderator kept stressing that many of these ideas were sponsored by Republicans. Nonetheless, all involved some type of government mandate, increased spending, and infringed upon the free market.
I think we may see Republicans, in the name of bipartisanship, starting to compromise Conservative values on some of these soft issues that tug at the hearts of well intentioned people and jump on the Obama ship.
Interestingly enough, the proposals contained some of John McCain’s, some of Barrack Obama’s, and at least one of Mitt Romney’s. The closest thing to what I would consider a Conservative proposal was a tax cut for small and middle sized businesses that offer health insurance to their employees. If this is the current reflection of Republican thought from our representatives and senators, we are in for at least two, if not four years of liberal policy.
On an interesting note, the moderator commented that people in the Pittsburgh group had expressed a greater confidence in the current state of health care in the United States. Every member of the group indicated that he or she felt that despite its shortcomings, Americans had the best health care of any nation.
Jenn November 11th, 2008
Chuck brought the kids out for a quick trip last night. The kids seemed pretty excited to be in Pittsburgh (who wouldn’t be excited to be in Pittsburgh?). We took a trip to the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum today before they had lunch and headed back to Cleveland.
A couple of the highlights were watching William learn how to whistle and watching Elisabeth give Buddy some very perplexing looks.
Jenn November 8th, 2008
To help me move on from pre-election mode, I decided to re-do my blog theme. In addition ot replacing the theme, I have totally revamped the photos page. You will now be able to view more of my photos without going out to Flickr.
Jenn November 8th, 2008
President-elect Obama in Beaver, PA (Aug 2008)
I have tried to blog about the election results several times and each time I have come up empty. Obviously, I am disappointed with the results. However, I am not hopeless. This is a democracy and however convinced I am that John McCain was a better choice, the people have spoken. So here is what you can expect out of my political blogging during the Obama-Pelosi rule:
- I will not take cheap, baseless shots at the new president.
- I will give his ideas a chance to work when it comes to the economy and even health care.
- I will not ignore his policies when they compromise the morals of the country, like abortion.
Although I think issues like the economy and health care can have an impact on the moral fabric of our country they are not in the same category with issues like the Freedom of Choice Act or using taxpayer funds to pay for abortions.
On Friday President-Elect Obama held his first press conference. He made a thoughtless comment about former First Lady Nancy Reagan. He later called and personally apologized to her. We have to allow him to make mistakes like that and learn from them without villainizing him if we want to move on and see any progress in our country. He will make more mistakes, but we owe him the respect of the benefit of the doubt. If things do not go well for the new president, America will speak again in four years and the Democrats will lose their control of the house. Until then, we watch and wait.
Jenn November 4th, 2008
The media will start flashing ostentation headlines like “Landslide” as the 5:00 PM exit polls are released. Do not pay attention to those polls! Remember 2004? It looked like Bush was all washed up. Democrats tend to get better daytime turnout and Republicans tend to vote after work. Ignore those polls and go vote for John McCain!
Jenn November 4th, 2008
Free Starbucks Coffee On Election Day After Illegal Ad - News Story - KIRO Seattle
Starbucks was in violation of a federal statue for offering people a gift for voting. To correct the problem, anyone who asks for the free tall coffee will be given one.
Jenn November 4th, 2008
Political Blogs, Conservative Blogging, Republican Bloggers, The Politics Blogspot: Townhall.com
The same city that booed Santa Claus is back at their tom-foolery. Democrat poll workers have thrown minority (Republican) poll workers out of six polls in Philadelphia. The same thing occurred in 2004, when one Democratic poll worker intimidated a Republican poll worker with a gun. A Pennsylvania judge has previously ruled that this activity is illegal and is punishable by jail and a fine.
