How in the name of all that’s holy did he ever get confirmed in the first place?
If there is any real good news in all of this insanity
it is that it is so truly nutty, maybe everyone will be able to see it for the basket case it really is.
If a vast majority of the
American people don’t see through the smoke and mirrors and promises of spending our way into prosperity, then we truly do deserve
the government we get.
Obama says the previous administration ran up the deficit from a surplus to $1.2 trillion.
So how will Obama
“change” things?
He’ll run the deficit up to $9 trillion – with a “T.”
That’s change, isn’t it?
Our government welfare programs have created a nation of dependency, people who would rather collect
a few dollars in relief than they would work for their pay.
I could fill this newspaper and more with all the problems government interference
has caused. Now we want more?
Obama says he will help “reduce” costs by spending $600 billion on health care, for example. That’ll
cut costs, won’t it?
There was a little “good” news this week as housing sales rose a slight five percent in February and a two-week
stock market rally continued with the biggest day it has had in months.
But with some five million more homes in the inventory than
there are buyers, we haven’t seen the bottom yet.
Monday’s 500-point rally on the Dow was after an announcement the government was
going to buy up $1 trillion worth of “toxic” assets, letting “private” capital pick up ten percent while the government – read that
taxpayers – absorbs the risks.
But that’s another $1 trillion on the deficit side. ‘Scuse me, it’s only $900 billion. Phew.
The Congressional
Budget Office estimated that the total deficit for all of this spending will come to more than $9 trillion – again, with a “T” – over
the next decade. And that was before the latest trillion.
Am I missing something? Did Obama really say that the way to a “real
and lasting prosperity” is by going into debt up to our eyeballs – and our kids’ and our grandkids’ eyeballs for generations to come?
On
CBS “60 Minutes” Sunday, he also defended his embattled Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, you know, the boss of the IRS who couldn’t
figure out how to pay his own taxes.
It’s the same Geithner who expressed dismay at
You see, if government “invests”
in energy, education and health care, that will provide a “firm foundation,” don’t you know.
We have seen the wonderful job government
has done in everything it has tried.
Remember Katrina? No, boys and girls, the problem was not that President Bush “didn’t care.”
It was because we entrusted disaster relief to a bureaucracy and they did what bureaucrats do. They made new rules while people suffered.
To
find new sources of energy, government has blocked offshore drilling, exploration in Alaska and nuclear energy ad nauseam.
Our health
care system is in a mess precisely because of government and a health insurance industry that sold us on a bill of goods that they
could reduce our “out of pocket” costs.
Education used to be the best in the world, run by local school boards directly responsible to the parents. Now we have “Robin Hood,” “No Child Left Behind” and other meddling from above and we are falling far
By JIM STREET
Ed & Pub
Getting dizzy yet? I am.
President Obama proposes a $3.6 trillion budget this year. To borrow a phrase from
Bret Beier of FOX News, “that’s trillion with a T.”
In his radio address last week and his press conference this week, Obama said this massive program, which can only be financed through humongous debt and runaway inflation, will be “a firm foundation of
SANDERSON – Funeral services were yesterday, March 19, at St. James Catholic Church here for Trinidad Marquez Valles Olivares, 86,
of Sanderson who died Sunday.
Father Gilbert Rodriguez presided and burial was at Santa Rita Cemetery.
She was born in Sanderson on
April 30, 1922, to Paulino Valles and Espiridiona Marquez and married Isidoro P. Olivarez on Jan. 6, 1944 in Sanderson, all of whom
preceded her in death.
Also preceding her in death were four brothers, Manuel Valles, Genaro Valles, Paulino Valles, Jr., and Francisco
Valles.
Trinidad is survived by two sons, Pedro V. Olivares and Isidoro V. Olivares, Jr., both of Sanderson; three daughters, Alicia
O. Salasar, Rosario O. Fuentes and Amparo O. Salizar, all of Sanderson, three sisters, Estela V. Ramos of Turlock, CA, Ladislada V.
Suchil of Andrews and Rita V. Castillo of Odessa, 20 grandchildren and 51 great grandchildren.
Trinidad Valles Olivares
Trinidad Valles Olivares
The story of the Good Samaritan is a wonderful example of this.
The man who had been robbed would probably not have had anything to
do with a Samaritan under normal circumstances.
However, the Good Samaritan reached out to the injured man and broke down the walls
of division.
What America needs now are more heroes. When brothers help brothers, role models and mentors are born and the weak are
empowered to say “I am strong.”
Then they too become a helping hand.
Let’s not grow government but, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
said, “Let’s keep hope alive.”
Gina Parker Ford - CEO of Dental Creations, Ltd., a dental manufacturing company, and a successful attorney - is the National Eagle Forum Chairman for Judicial Reform. Mrs. Ford is immediate past chairman of the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. She serves on the American Family Radio Advisory Board of Central Texas, and she was both the former Republican Party of Texas Treasurer and Associate General Counsel.
The heartbeat
of charity is the passion of the volunteers.
Charity is a calling and not a job. It works nights and weekends. It is a human face
and not a government bureaucrat who tells you to come back tomorrow after you fill out the paperwork.
Charity empowers receivers to
believe that there is a power higher than themselves.
It demonstrates the love of God through the helping hands of volunteers. It
not only changes the receiver but it blesses the giver.
As children we are taught it is better to give than receive. The wonderful
feeling of giving makes us better people and builds character.
It teaches us to be selfless while compassionately reaching out a helping
hand to others and being a shoulder to cry on.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life that
no person can sincerely try to help another without helping themselves.”
Government is detached, cold and faceless. It may provide
someone in need a check and other “benefits” but it is not there to love him and help him build a better life for himself.
We grow
when others touch our lives. However, government enslaves those who become addicted to its benefits.
Eventually, government steals
a person’s dignity, identity and destiny and ultimately leaves him hopeless.
True community development comes when brothers help brothers
and when neigh-bors help neighbors.
The beauty of charity is that it destroys walls of division.
In fact, as part of his 2010 budget proposal, he has declared war on charity by proposing to cap the charitable deduction at the 28
percent tax rate while simultaneously increasing the tax burden on Americans in the top tax brackets.
These same taxpayers are also
major donors.
Obama told a press conference Monday that the change should not affect charitable donations.
But a study conducted by
Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy predicted that Obama’s budget would cause a $10 billion to $20 billion decline in charitable
donations per year.
This blow to charity could not come at a worse time since donations to charity are already down because of the
economic downturn while the need for the services provided by these charities is increasing.
President Obama speaks about community
and hope but these aspirations are mutually exclusive when “Big Brother” is the provider.
Instead, we need more God and less government.
While serving as chairman of a Texas state agency, I had the opportunity to meet some wonderful people who serve our state well but the motivation for service is not
By GINA PARKER FORD
Special to the News Leader
Through the ages, the church has lovingly responded to the call of God to be our brother’s
keeper.
The scripture in James 1:27 says, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and
widows in their trouble.”
President Obama is seeking to usurp the role of the church and have the federal government “Big Brother”
provide for the nation’s poor and needy.
ODESSA – Funeral services were Monday here for Humberto Rodriguez Peña, 73, a Sanderson native who died March 19. He had been in Sanderson
that day to attend the funeral of Trinidad Valles Olivares.
Burial was at Sunset Memorial Gardens with arrangements by Martinez-Smith
Funeral Home.
He was born in Sanderson to Sgt. Carlos and Genoveva Peña on November 3, 1935.
Peña was
a veteran of the US Army, enlisting on October 15, 1959, and serving at Ft. Ord, CA, Ft. McClenan, AL, and Ft. Hood.
He was honorably
discharged as a Specialist 4. On completion of serving on active duty, he enlisted in the US Army Reserve on February 6, 1962, served
in Odessa and was honorably discharged on October 14, 1965, maintaining the rank of Specialist 4.
He is survived by his wife of 46
years Olga C. Peña; one son Carlos E. Peña of Fort Knox, KY; four daughters, Cynthia and Joe Chapa, Veronica Fino, Eva and Danny
Segovia and Christina and David Gutierrez, all of Odessa; one brother, Guillermo “Willie” Peña of North Carolina; two sisters, Guadalupe
Zepeda of Odessa and Mary Martinez of Monahans; 13 grandchildren and five great grandchildren.