A Different Kind of Christmas Poem

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,My daughter beside me, angelic in rest. Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,Transforming the yard to a winter delight.The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve. My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream. The sound wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t too near,But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.Perhaps just a cough, I didn’t quite know, Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow. My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,And I crept to the door just to see who was near.Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight. A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child. “What are you doing?” I asked without fear,”Come in this moment, it’s freezing out here!Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!” For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts.To the window that danced with a warm fire’s lightThen he sighed and he said “It’s really all right,I’m out here by choice. I’m here every night.” “It’s my duty to stand at the front of the line,That separates you from the darkest of times.No one had to ask or beg or implore me,I’m proud to stand here like my fathers before me.My Gramps died at ‘ Pearl on a day in December,”Then he sighed, “That’s a Christmas ‘Gram always remembers.”My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ‘ Nam ‘,And now it is my turn and so, here I am.I’ve not seen my own son in more than a while,But my wife sends me pictures, he’s sure got her smile. Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,The red, white, and blue… an American flag.I can live through the cold and the being alone,Away from my family, my house and my home. I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.I can carry the weight of killing another,Or lay down my life with my sister and brother.Who stand at the front against any and all,To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall.”"So go back inside,” he said, “harbor no fright,Your family is waiting and I’ll be all right.” “But isn’t there something I can do, at the least,”Give you money,” I asked, “or prepare you a feast?It seems all too little for all that you’ve done,For being away from your wife and your son.” Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,”Just tell us you love us, and never forget.To fight for our rights back home while we’re gone,To stand your own watch, no matter how long.For when we come home, either standing or dead,To know you remember we fought and we bled.Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,That we mattered to you as you mattered to us.”

LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN30th Naval Construction RegimentOIC,
Logistics Cell One   Al Taqqadum, Iraq

On November 11, 1620, the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock. The ship lay at anchor until March, the pilgrims living onboard while permanent housing was being built. When the Mayflower finally left, 27 adults and 23 children were left of the 102 people who set out across the ocean. Their governor was William Bradford and under his leadership, these first Americans began to make a new life in the New World.

What very few Americans today know is this very first colony on the shores of America started out as a socialist colony. The Pilgrims at Plymouth set up a common store that worked on the principle of “From Each According To His Ability – To Each According To His Need”. Everything that the colony produced was placed in the common store and was then distributed out as needed.

For two years the colony worked to create a socialist Utopia but even with an additional 30 settlers who arrived a year after the Mayflower, the colony barely survived. Each winter the colonist would go hungry being reduced to rations of a quarter pound of bread at times. Governor Bradford relates his experiences concerning the socialist state he had helped to create:

“The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tired sundrie years, and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the vanity of that conceit of Plato’s and other ancients, applauded by some of later times; –that the taking away of property, and bringing in community into a common wealth would make them happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God. For this community (so far as it was) was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For the young-men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children, with out any recompense. The strong, or man of parts, had no more in division of victuals and cloths, than he that was weak and not able to do a quarter the other could; this was thought injustice. The aged and graver men to be ranked and equalized in labors, and victuals, cloths, etc., with the meaner and younger sort, thought it some indignity and disrespect unto them. And for men’s wives to be commanded to do service for other men, as dressing their meat, washing their cloths, etc., they deemed it a kind of slavery, neither could many husbands well brook it. ”

Finally, in 1623, Governor Bradford called a meeting to discuss how to have a more productive growing season and be better prepared for the next winter. Governor Bradford writes:

“All this while no supply was heard of, neither knew when they might expect any. So they [the pilgrims] began to think how they might raise as much cron as they could, and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might not still thus languish in misery. At length after much debate of things, the Gov. (with the advise of the cheefest amongst them) gave way that they should set down every man for his own particular, and in that regard trust to themselves… And so assigned to every family a parcel of land. This had very good success; for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than other ways would have been by any means the Gov. or any other could use, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better content. The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little-ones with them to set corn, which before would allege weakness, and inabilities; whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression.”

It was at this meeting between Governor Bradford and the chief members of the colony that the American free enterprise system was born. Governor Bradford writes about the results of this system:

“By this time harvest was come, and instead of famine, now God gave them plenty, and the face of things was changed, to the rejoicing of the hearts of many, for which they blessed God. And in the effect of their particular planting was well seen, for all had, one way and other, pretty well to bring the year about, and some of the abler sort and more industrious had to spare, and sell to others, 50 as any general want of famine hath not been amongst them since to this day.”

This little known failed experiment in American socialism isn’t taught in today’s schools. If it was, our children might grow up to doubt governmental programs that redistribute wealth “from each according to his ability – too each according to his need.”

Source: William Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647

So let’s talk about the data that looks to be correct, at least it is data for a district that actually exists. The 8^th District, for example, the district that I am running for Congress in, I might add. This district received $185 million dollars which is credited to saving 235 jobs. So $185 Million divided by 235 equals $788,562 per job saved or created. Since the median household income for the State of Tennessee as of 2007 was $42,389, these jobs had better have one heck of a dental plan. We could have saved $175 million dollars by just giving them the median salary, which amounts to $9.9 million dollars.

This is one of the reasons I have chosen to run for Congress. We need leaders who solve problems, not just throw money at them. If we are to ever achieve sustainable long term job growth we need to have capital investment in this country. There currently is approximately $17 Trillion dollars of capital sitting off our shores, in banks in the Cayman Islands and others sheltering this capital from our oppressive tax system. We need that capital invested in our country, so that we can get back to creating, building and manufacturing again. This is the sustainable growth I am talking about. This is a stimulus package I can agree to. I want our country to get back to business, and soon. If not, all that we will be known for creating will be laws.

See the Recovery website at: http://www.recovery.gov/Pages/TextView.aspx?data=stateSummaryAllCD&statecode=TN

Visit my main website:   http://www.donnjanes.com

Find me on FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Donn-Janes/83098916614?ref=sgm

Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/donnjanes

Federal Budget FY 2009.

But even more alarming is that this current trend is expected to continue for Ten years, see this article for more details:

Congress Project record US Deficit

Our current total government debt, as of today is approximately 11.7 Trillion dollars. It is projected to be in the neighborhood of 20-22 Trillion dollars by 2019.

This amount of debt will surely lead to stag-flation, which is a stagnant economy with inflation. We need to approach this just as a business would and call for federal budget cuts across the board. Put each department under review and determine if it is actually needed and force them to justify their budget.

One of the worst arguments I hear in the Health Care debate is that the government will bring about cost savings in Health Care by introducing efficiencies. It is apparent to me that they are the model of inefficiency and need to clean house before even thinking about creating another huge bureaucracy and entitlement costing the tax payers even more Trillions of dollars.

(1) transactions for or with a foreign central bank, government of a foreign country, or non-private international financing organization;

(2) deliberations, decisions, or actions on monetary policy matters, including discount window operations, reserves of member banks, securities credit, interest on deposits, open market operations;

(3) transactions made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee; or

(4) a part of a discussion or communication among or between members of the Board of Governors and officers and employees of the Federal Reserve System related to items.

For the complete article go to the link below:

http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/flaherty/flaherty6.html

For more information on HR1207, the proposed legislation to expand the audit of the Federal Reserve, go to the link below:

HR1207

Having read articles and watched reports from the left and right leaning media outlets, I am left with the dilemma that faces those of us in Main Stream America, that is the presence of fair and balanced reporting. Gone are the days where you could read or watch the news and have the stories simply reported without commentary or opinion. Now it has become more about the personalities delivering the news than the news itself. So we are left to our own devices in discovering what the truth is. I find myself watching the left and right leaning media outlets, trying to find the truth somewhere in the middle of their reporting. I have to consider the source of each report, compare the facts that were presented, and hopefully come up with something close to what had actually occurred.  So I challenge these so called media outlets to return to the day(s) when the truth mattered. Freedom of the press is one of our greatest freedoms, but fails to work when the media decides it doesn’t want to represent the truth. Or if they are more obsessed in making the news, sort of like the media frenzies they create when stories like the “Octo-Mom” are obsessed over by the media. – Just my two cents

An Excerpt of the Article by Michael G. Franc (National Review Online):

To determine whether each Blue Dog had voted in a fiscally conservative manner, I looked at whether they voted against Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.), the poster child for the views and policy instincts of today’s House Left. Frank missed the vote on the omnibus appropriations bill, so on that vote, lefty representative Barbara Lee (D., Calif.) took his place.

The extent to which members of the Blue Dog Coalition agree with Frank and Lee is nothing short of astounding. Eleven sided with them 100 percent of the time. Ten others stood with them all but once, eleven more all but twice. Bottom line: Two of every three of these self-proclaimed fiscal hawks voted pretty much in lock-step with the biggest spenders on the Left.

Frank-Lee’s 100 percent clones include Reps. Leonard Boswell (Iowa), Bart Gordon (Tenn.), Dennis Moore (Kan.), Patrick Murphy (Penn.), and Earl Pomeroy (N. Dak.). Those who strayed from the Frank-Lee axis only once include Reps. Jason Altmire (Penn.), Melissa Bean (Ill.), Ben Chandler (Ky.), Lincoln Davis (Tenn.), Mike Ross (Ark.), Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (S. Dak.), and John Tanner (Tenn.). Reps. Jim Costa (Calif.), Gabriella Giffords (Ariz.), Baron Hill (Ind.), and Charles Melancon (La.), were among those who voted the big-government line all but twice.

Some of the most outspoken members of the Blue Dog Coalition also scored points with the big spenders, voting with Frank and Lee six out of nine times. They include Reps. John Barrow (Ga.), Dan Boren (Okla.), Allen Boyd (Fla.), Jim Cooper (Tenn.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Brad Ellsworth (Ind.), and Jim Matheson (Utah).

Only six Blue Dogs (four of them freshmen and all representing districts that John McCain carried in the 2008 presidential election) voted against this spending more than half the time. They are Bobby Bright (Ala.), Parker Griffith (Ala.), Frank Kratovil (Md.), Walt Minnick (Idaho), Colin Peterson (Minn.), and Gene Taylor (Miss.).

Link to the Full Article

An economics professor at Texas Tech said he had never failed a single student before but had, once, failed an entire class.  That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said ok, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism.

All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.  After the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too; so they studied little.. The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an F. The scores never increased as bickering, blame, name calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of  anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great; but when government takes all the reward away; no one will try or want to succeed.

Starting today April 1st, no joke, anyone who smokes will pay 62 cents per pack on cigarettes and 40 cents per individual cigar.

I see this as the first of many new taxes to come. Coming soon will be the Carbon tax which will be levied on your utility bill. For more on this new tax go to http://rsc.tomprice.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=116998