In the news…

-  A liberal vandalized a statue of Ronald Reagan.  A witness saw a suspect tie something around the top of the statue and the other end to the front of his vehicle. The witness said the suspect then got into his vehicle and put it in reverse in an attempt to pull the statue down.  The statue debuted last month during a dedication memorial to celebrate the former president’s 100th birthday.

- A Democratic legislator running for reelection in New York’s Monroe County has been immersed in controversy after naked photos of the legislator appeared on a website he uses for both personal and professional reasons. C. Sephen Eckel has admitted to posting the photos, and defends his right to do so as art.

-  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a higher percentage of Americans is living in extreme poverty than they have ever measured before.  In 2010, we were told that the economy was recovering, but the truth is that the number of the “very poor” soared to heights never seen previously.

-  The largest banks are larger than they were when Obama took office and are nearing the level of profits they were making before the depths of the financial crisis in 2008, according to government data.  President Obama has called people who work on Wall Street “fat-cat bankers,” and his reelection campaign has sought to harness public frustration with Wall Street. Financial executives retort that the president’s pursuit of financial regulations is punitive and that new rules may be “holding us back.”  During Obama’s tenure, Wall Street has roared back, even as the broader economy has struggled.

-  Is Obama authentic?  Half liberal white, half Kenyan.  No slave blood, no inherent love for the USA.  Herman Cain’s mother was a maid, father worked 3 jobs.  They bought a house, raised educated kids.  An American success story.   Herman, 100 percent black, slave blood, hated by the left because he dares think free and be free- choosing conservative values over the poverty pimp democrat party.  Thus the lynching by racist liberals, who DEMAND he get on the democrat plantation where they can USE him.

Courtesy:  John Paulus

_______

… too bad 3 years of Obama and Democrat “benevolence” have destroyed you.  It’s not too late to turn back to the days of Reaganomics when American pride, will, and ingenuity helped guide us to prosperous times.

While Obama promises to transform and change America, we think how his change has ruined a once mighty and dynamic nation.  While Democrats play politics and put power before the country, we see how they have weakened and divided us.

This Fourth of July we pray that our misguided nation correct the mistakes it made in 2008 and returned to mature and disciplined government.

_____________

As the great Ronald Reagan said, “You can run, but you can’t hide.”  Osama bin Laden is said to have been killed in Pakistan last week and that the United States has the body and has confirmed it to be Bin Laden.

Osama bin Laden, hunted as the mastermind behind the worst-ever terrorist attack on U.S. soil, has been killed, sources told ABC News.

Specific details of how and where the al Qaeda mastermind was killed were not immediately available, but sources said U.S. forces have the body and DNA testing confirmed that it was bin Laden.

A national security source said that bin Laden was not killed in a drone strike, but declined to go into details about the forces that killed him.

“This is a terrific day for America and quite frankly the whole world that cares about winning the war on terror,” former Bush chief of staff Andy Card told ABC News. Card said the news is “particularly significant” for the intelligence community.

“They’re the ones who kept their nose to the grindstone and worked very hard to allow this day to be realized … finally,” he said.

His death brings to an end a tumultuous life that saw bin Laden go from being the carefree son of a Saudi billionaire, to terrorist leader and the most wanted man in the world.

___________

Wayne Allyn Root, a former vice presidential nominee for the Libertarian Party, writes from Henderson. His column appears every other week.

As former President Ronald Reagan might have said, “Obama, there you go again.”

The current occupant of the White House claims to know how to create jobs. He claims jobs have been created. But so far the score is Great Obama Depression 2.2 million lost jobs, Obama 0 — a blowout.

Obama is as hopeless, helpless, clueless and bankrupt of good ideas as the manager of the Chicago Cubs in late September. This “community organizer” knows as much about private-sector jobs as Pamela Anderson knows about nuclear physics.

It’s time to call Obama what he is: The Great Jobs Killer. With his massive spending and tax hikes — rewarding big government and big unions, while punishing taxpayers and business owners — Obama has killed jobs, he has killed motivation to create new jobs, he has killed the motivation to invest in new businesses, or expand old ones. With all this killing, Obama should be given the top spot on the FBI’s Most Wanted List.

Meanwhile, he has kept the union workers of GM and Chrysler employed (with taxpayer money). He has made sure that most government employee union members got their annual raises for sleeping on the job (with taxpayer money). He made sure that his voters got handouts mislabeled as “tax cuts” even though they never paid taxes (with taxpayer money). And he made sure that major campaign contributors collected billions off government stimulus (with taxpayer money).

As far as the taxpayers — the people who actually take risks with our own money to create small businesses and jobs and pay most of the taxes — we require protection under the Endangered Species Act.

You won’t find proof of the damage Obama is doing on Wall Street, but rather on Main Street. My friends are all part of the economic engine of America: Small business. Small business creates 75 percent of new jobs (and a majority of all jobs). I called one friend who was a wealthy restaurant owner. He says business is off by 60 percent. He’s drowning in debt. He won’t last much longer. His wealth is gone.

I called another friend in the business of home improvement. He says business is off 90 percent from two years ago. My contractor just filed personal bankruptcy. She won’t be building any more homes. The hair salon where I’ve had my hair cut for years closed earlier this year. Bankrupt. But here’s the clincher — ESPN Zone just closed all their restaurants across the country. If they can’t make it selling cheap food and overpriced beer with 100 big screens blaring every sporting event on the planet to a sports-crazed society, we are all in deep, deep trouble.

I’ve polled all my friends who own small businesses — many of them in the Internet and high-tech fields. They all agree that in this new Obama world of high business taxes, income taxes, payroll taxes, capital gains taxes, and workers compensation taxes, the key to success is to avoid employees. The only way to survive as a business owner today is by keeping the payroll very low and by hiring only independent contractors or part-time employees provided by temp agencies.

The days of jobs in the private sector with big salaries, full benefits, and pensions are over. We’ve all seen where those kinds of jobs get you as a business owner — in Bankruptcy Court or surviving on government welfare like GM and Chrysler. Or in the case of government itself — completely insolvent, but surviving by ripping off taxpayers and fraudulently running printing presses at the Fed all day and night to print money by the trillions.

Unfortunately, small businesses don’t have the power to impose taxes or print money. So unlike government, we’ll just have to cut employees and run lean and mean.

It has now become clear that, outside of the burgeoning field of Census takers, there will be no major increase in new jobs for years to come. Outside government, Obama has created a wasteland of economic ruin and depression that looks much like the landscape of Mel Gibson’s first movie “Mad Max.” Without a printing press in Obama’s world, you’re just plain out of luck.

The days of believing the Obama propaganda about a jobs recovery are over. The trillion-dollar corporate handouts (neatly named “stimulus”) may have kept big business in the money for the past 18 months, and artificially propped up the stock market, but small business is the real canary in the coal mine.

My small business-owning friends aren’t creating one job. Not one. They are shedding jobs. They are learning to do more with fewer employees. They are creating high-tech businesses that don’t need employees. And many business owners are making plans to leave the country. In a high-tech world where businesses can be run from anywhere, Obama has a problem. His one-trick pony — raise taxes, raise taxes, raising taxes — is chasing away the business owners he desperately needs to pay his bills.

So who is going to pay Obama’s taxes? Not his voters. They want government to pay them. Who is going to create Obama’s jobs? Not his voters — they’ve never created a job in their lives.

So what is Obama going to do? Maybe he can get Pamela Anderson on the line.

Who can disagree?  I certainly can not.

__________

A Fourth of July video blog from John Paulus.

___________

I wish I could wish each of you a Happy 4th of July, but I can’t.  Sadly, there’s not much to celebrate- this isn’t the America that I once knew, loved, and defended.  Political posturing and liberal ideology now trump what is in the best interest of our country.  No longer are politicians motivated to do what’s in the best interest of their constituents, but rather what’s in the best interest of radical groups and unions.

You know that a nation is lost when a President can celebrate unemployment dropping from 9.7% to 9.5% and proclaiming that the economy is improving while ignoring that the dropped was a result of 650,000 citizens quitting looking for work.  125,000 more jobs were lost last month, nearly 10,000,000 (10 million) since 2008.  7.8 million jobs are said to be lost forever- Vice-President Biden admitted that many jobs will be lost forever.

The stock market fell 10% the last quarter- the biggest drop since October of 2002.  Small businesses and major corporations are not hiring.  Many CEO’s and business owners cite declining profits for not hiring more workers, meanwhile the Left in this country continue to attack profits as the root of evil- the very profits that motivate businesses to hire.

The state of Illinois has stopped paying its bills, because it’s run out of money, and yet the legislature refused to cut spending.  The Governor is proposing to borrow $3.5 billion ($3,500,000,000) to cover the state’s generous pension payments.  Meanwhile, the state’s unions refuse to renegotiate their contracts with the state.  This is liberalism. This is what is causing are failures.

In six months, we are about to get hit with the biggest tax increase in American history and this will not bode well for small businesses looking to survive or the unemployed worker hoping that a job will be created for him/her.

In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families. These will all expire on January 1, 2011:

Personal income tax rates will rise. The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed). The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent. All the rates in between will also rise. Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates. The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:

- The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%
- The 25% bracket rises to 28%
- The 28% bracket rises to 31%
- The 33% bracket rises to 36%
- The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%

Higher taxes on marriage and family. The “marriage penalty” (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of income. The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child. The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level. The dependent care and adoption tax credits will be cut.

The return of the Death Tax. This year, there is no death tax. For those dying on or after January 1 2011, there is a 55 percent top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes and a retirement account could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones.

Higher tax rates on savers and investors. The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in 2011. The dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6 percent in 2011. These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013.

It’s a sad day in America when the number 3 most powerful person in the country tells the American people that unemployment checks are the fastest way to create jobs, but somehow that’s what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi believes.  In a weird way, I agree.  Putting money in the hands of the American people rather than government is the fastest way to create jobs.  I guess that’s why the Republicans had proposed removing income taxes for anyone making under $70K and year or $120K for couples rather than passing a $800 billion stimulus bill.

I feel badly for my country.  She had the potential to continue to be great.  To continue being the beacon of freedom and the economic powerhouse that she once was.  Unfortunately, our leaders today apologize for her greatness and explain that we can no longer be that “arrogant” leader that “takes advantage of other countries” and we can longer “impose” our greatness.  How I long for the days of Ronald Reagan when being a proud American was honorable and flying the American flag was not frowned upon.  How I miss the days when I needn’t be  ashamed and could be proud of our greatness.  As the Fourth of July approaches, I pray that our nation will find us another Ronald Reagan to lead us out the darkness we have entered.

____________

99 years ago today one of our greatest Presidents was born  in Tampico, Illinois. Ronald Wilson Reagan believed in the greatness of America and of its people. Reagan believed in uniting a nation rather than dividing its people.  He believed that freedom was a God given gift that deserved to be protected and that all of His children should not be held hostage by government.

As our 40th President, he took our nation from the depths of a crippling recession while ending the Cold War.

On what would have been his 99th birthday, let’s remember him for what is likely his greatest speech:

_____________