Dale Terry

"Al-Qaeda ‘certain' to attack U.S. within months"

These comments are from the National Inteligence Director, William Blair and his comments were echoed by the Directors of the FBI and CIA. The heads of intelligence from the Dept. of Defense and State Dept. also were in attendance.

I'm not sure how to take this information. By stating it this so forcefully the Obama administration puts themselves in a pretty big vise. If an event is stopped before it canbe successful, it may look like they are on top of things. And if the terrorist plot succeeds, well we know what will happen then.

So, How does one prepare for an event like this. It is something a little different than taking an umbrella with you on a day where rain is forecast, just in case....

And I guess it comes down to each of us do we believe them? Will we change our way of living, or do most of us think that terrorism can't come to small town USA?

In the end, we probably have more to fear from the governments response than we do from the actual event. But maybe we should all do some investigative journalism to see if we can uncover the real reasons behind the comment and now the upcoming responses.

Will Defense stocks go up? Will we now hear calls to move troops to other countries? Or to bring them home? Is this just a head fake, to take our eye off the ball, to make us believe that the left is serious about homeland security. Maybe it just means that there will be more delays in airports.

Regardless, I will take the measures with a grain of truth and prepare accordingly.

So much talk in the news recently has been about the stunning losses that Democratic party has faced in recent elections. It is remarkable that in states that were decidedly in favor of Obama in the national election have moved away from the current administrations policies and voted against the norm.

Of course we all wonder if this is a harbinger of things to come. But it highlights a very interesting situation that we may all want to think about now.

The two major parties will not take the loss by either party lying down. The Democrats will began to move to the center at least in their stated goals by removing from debate major items of contention. They will now push bills that the Republicans will be more inclined to accept and make them bi-partisan. So in the end we get both parties to slip by another election cycle without true change, they will still be in power, one or the other. And we will continue to see more bloated bureaucracy and wasteful spending.

The solution to the problem is to open up the ballots to a third party or at least keep the two entrenched parties from being able to stack the deck by having an electorate that is majority independent.

So, if you agree, will you change your party affiliation? Don't be played for the fool again.

Just did a quick read on the 2010 budget. Here are some interesting facts:

First off, it isn't his fault, he inherited it, even though he has tripled the deficit in one year.

Between 2000 and 2007 median income fell by close to 2k per household. Let's create more of those high paying jobs!

But if you make under the government's income limits on it's thousands of programs, you and your family may qualify for:

An $800.00 tax credit on the payroll tax you pay in. This would be a permanent tax credit.

Expand and make permanent the child tax credit. Thousands per child and would be true tax credit. If you owe no taxes, you get a check.

Increase food stamp benefits, additional support to school lunch programs and WIC.

Increase funding for housing programs such as Section 8, a program that subidizes rental payments.

Increase funding for housing expenses such as utility bills.

Double the amount of money going to Head Start and Early Head Start.

Provide Home Nurse Visitation for Pregnant Women and Post Pregnantcy health Care

Permanent tax credit for College Costs

Provide no pay back opportunities for student loans.

Increase funding for grants.

Reduce/Reform Asset Tests for qualifying for government assistance

Sure would hate to be one of the millions of middle class Americans that are forced to combine incomes because they are married and fail to qualify. And since you don't qualify, have to work a second job to pay for those that do.

President Obama has once again showed which side of the fence he is on. Using the same twisted logic as he did with the union organizing bill, he now wants us all to save more money. but at a price.

The first bill was to allow labor unions to hold a vote if one person employed wanted a union and no debate was necessary. And you would be automatically enrolled, you had to opt out. Not to mention that your vote would be made public.

Now he wants your employer to provide access to retirement plans, in itself not a bad idea, but will automatically enroll you in the plan, with deductions coming out of your paycheck unless you opt out.

So he wants us to give more of our money to the thieves on Wall St. without a choice in the matter. It is clear that the contributions would be regulated in that you could not take out the money without penalty and would not be able to move the money to your choice of investments at your discretion. Not to mention the fact that Wall St. has not shown that it can be trusted with our money, since the recession of 2008-09-10....... and tech bubble and the market crash of 2000 can be placed at the feet of Wall St. with a little help from the Fed.

No, Mr President, you can't have my money.

I need your help in framing a comment on the 2010 Federal Budget and how it impacts all of us. Please read the post and give me your thoughts.

I was born in 1957, the fourth child of my parents. We lived in a small one thousand foot frame house that was warm because of the love in the home and cold because of the relentless pressure of life on us all. My father didn't graduate from high school but he was a self taught carpenter, mechanic and the original do it yourself guy. He enlisted in the Navy a long side of my 4 uncles and fought in the Pacific against an enemy that was sworn to destroy our country. Thank you lord for bringing them home safely when others did not.

My mother finished high school and was proud to have tested at two years college. She worked at retail stores until my father had a heart attack at age 42. He drove a truck those years; never home, but always a good provider. His heart attack caused him to be permanently disabled. He tried to work security and even had a paper route to provide for his family but was forced to discontinue working when a second and third attack put him and our family in dire straits. My mother took a job at the local factory to help with the bills, always able to make Sunday meals after church special.

We children all went to school, sometimes riding the public bus at 10 cents a ride, to riding our bikes to school or walking the two miles or so. We never caused any problems, just had a lot of fun with all the kids in the neighborhood. We stayed with a friend of my mothers when we were young and went to church more than one time a week. I probably was the lucky one; I had great sisters and a awesome big brother, got to go to the Salvation Army Boys Club after school each day. In the summer, we had a city pool to go to. We all went there, learned to swim and dive for a quarter and stayed out of trouble. As I got older I played sports year round. My brother was in high school and later college- on academic scholarship because we didn't have any money. My sisters both got married early, and started working on families. I remained in school and lived with my mother.

My parents had divorced a few years earlier. The strain of his disability, time, and falling out of love might have been the cause. My mother continued to work full time to support me and gave continued support to my sisters and brothers when they needed to come home for a few months or needed just a shoulder to cry on. I made the varsity in high school and my coach told me to buy new expensive basketball shoes. I told he we didn't have any money to buy shoes and he told me to find a way. I went home and told mom, literally the biggest event in my life at that time and she found a way to get the shoes. Instead of credit cards or assistance, my mother brought homework from a local plant and we would put together boxes of hinges for 20 bucks a thousand. It became our way of spending time together and paying for the occasional pizza or sports item. She also confided in me that my birth was not planned, that my parents had decided on having only 3 children because of the pressures our family was facing.

After high school I went to college on a combination of scholarships, Pell grants and student loans. Graduated, got a job, and we will talk about the rest in another post.

So tell me, how did I make it to that point?