Saw this video this morning. It shows you just what being a consultant is all about.

Here is a list of more good bills congress worked hard on May 12th

- Expressing the support of Congress for the Jewish community in Venezuela.

- Recognizing the historical and national significance of the many contributions of John William Heisman to the sport of football.

- A resolution commending South Charleston, West Virginia, for celebrating its 50th annual Armed Forces Day on May 16, 2009.

- Honoring police officers and law enforcement professionals during Police Week.

- A resolution to designate the week beginning on the second Saturday in May as National Travel and Tourism Week.

- A resolution designating July 25, 2009, as "National Day of the American Cowboy".

- To encourage water efficiency.

- A resolution commemorating the 20th anniversary of the end of communist rule in Poland.

Congress on May 7th again work hard to earn their bloated paychecks. America would just not survive if congress was not spending it’s time congratulate, praising, encourage, commend and celebrating. Here is a list of 10 pointless bills they worked hard on writing, getting cosponsors for and passing: (Personal favorite is the national day of remembrance for nuclear weapons program workers.).

- Expressing the sense of the Congress that the Parthenon Marbles should be returned to Greece.

- Encouraging the President to designate 2010 as "The National Year of the Bible".

- For the relief of Paul Green. (thank you Barney Frank)

- Commending the heroic efforts of the people fighting the floods in North Dakota and Minnesota.

- Congratulating Jockey Calvin Borel for his victory at the 135th Kentucky Derby.

- Celebrating the symbol of the United States flag and supporting the goals and ideals of Flag Day.

- Recognizing and commending the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on its 75th year anniversary.

- Congratulating LeBron James for being named the 2009 Most Valuable Player in the National Basketball Association.

- Expressing support for a national day of remembrance for the workers of the nuclear weapons program of the United States.

- Renamed a post office

I am beginning to fear greatly what the next four years will bring to this country. While I certainly have my opinions about who should be president, the bottom line is, I love this country and want whoever the president is to lead this country in a direction that will promote long term peace and prosperity. I fear what awaits us in the cloudy mist of our future when our government cannot call men terrorist who openly call for the annihilation of a country and the open killing of as many American civilians as possible. Yet, in that same inanity call our military veterans  “extremist” and “terrorist cells.” 

The people that “cut off a person’s face with piano wire” and an Iranian president that says “To those who doubt, to those who ask is it possible, or those who do not believe, I say accomplishment of a world without America and Israel is both possible and feasible" are not terrorist. Those that really mean us harm are our own military and those right wing radicals.

Have we really lost our ability to understand the greater threat here? Or have we simply lost our courage to see it? Or worse yet courage to face it.

I saw this picture a few weeks ago and it really touched me. I hope whoever this is does not mind me sharing but I think it is important for all of us to remember our service men and women. They sacrifice a lot to fight those that mean to do us harm, while we go on enjoying our every day life.

Maybe your are one of those that don’t believe their service is really needed.

Maybe this video will disabuse you of such a mind set.

I just finished reading the book “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.” This was a stellar book that is a great read and very educational. I love books about our founding father. Abraham Lincoln was an incredible person. He was driven to leave a mark on the world and I think he left more of a mark on the world than even he expected. While the book does show his incredible political ability (an ability we are sorely in need of again), this is not what impressed me most about the man. What impressed me most about the man was his ability to push through the hard times and stay focus on the goal. To not turn angry, bitter or vengeful but stay focused on what you are trying to accomplish.

Is this really what people were after when they elected Obama?

“In only two months, since the last CBO budget review in January, Democrats have passed laws that increase spending by $134 billion in the last six months of this fiscal year alone”

So let me get this right. The U.S. economy is struggling to survive because corporate executives got their companies debut to equity ratio to high, and the U.S. governments response is to do the same thing and run up a huge deficit even higher?!?!?!

Forget about learning from history! WE CANNOT EVEN LEARN FROM THE PRESENT!!!!!!!

“'Fairness' is one of the great mantras of the left. Since everyone has his own definition of fairness, that word is a blank check for the expansion of government power. What "fairness" means in practice is that third parties -- busybodies -- can prevent mutual accommodations by others.”  Thomas Sowell

I recently went to my daughters school to see her class presentation about American symbols. It was wonderful to see her and her friends sing songs and talk about different American symbols (The White House, the Flag, Washington, etc). They sang “I am proud to be an American” which is one of my favorite songs. The feeling of hope and inspiration I got from watching my daughter in the morning was muted by what I saw on TV and read about the rest of the day.

You see today in the media it was all about government bailouts and AIG executive bonuses. The rest of the day was focused on what our government and large corporations have been doing the past year, and it reeked of selfishness, greed and denial. Republicans, Democrats and Executives spewing hate a blame at each other, none really interesting in service to their country or doing what is best for their country. Each solely focused on protecting their interests and their pile of green paper.

Reflecting back on the events of the morning in my daughters class room, which where full of hope, selfless and patriotic feelings of service towards our great country, something that today seems like an anachronism. I pray for my daughters future this is not the case. May these children not reflect these values of those that came before them.

I have been enjoying my time in Manila. It has been an interesting experience to get out side the U.S. again. Here are some pictures of the city. Our office is on the 15th floor of the building so the view of the city was pretty good.

There are also some views of the city that make me remember how blessed I have been in life.

Manila is a very crowded city with cars, people and everything else crammed everywhere. The people here have been great and pictures like this make your really take count of the wonderful blessing which have been afforded to me and my family.

I spent some time today and went to the Manila World War II cemetery honoring those hero’s who fell in the battle’s for the Philippians. It was a pretty humbling experience to read about these battles and see huge lists of names of men and women who died in WWII.

When people think of WWII pretty much everyone thinks of the war in Europe. Very few people think of the war in the Pacific. Even when I think of the war in the Pacific I forget just how many stories there are about the war in this part of the world.

Taft, Rob and I got to spend a few hours walking through this cemetery. I fill it is important for the younger generations who have been blessed because of the sacrifices of these men and women to spend time paying our respects for their scarifies.

This Memorial is the location of 17,206 graves and 36,282 limestone piers with inscribe the names missing who gave their lives and rest in unknown graves. There is a reason this generation is known and the greatest generation.

Through out the cemetery where maps on the wall explaining the battles in the Pacific. I had forgotten how many big battles there were for small islands.

  It was a great first day in Manila. I plan another trip to the Corregidor memorial as well. I am excited for that trip as well and it promises to be another inspiring trip.

God bless our service man and women.

Time for me to pack up and head to Manila, Philippians. I will be in Manila for 2 weeks for work. I will be working with our offshore developers for the project I am on. Luckily I get to do this trip with my brother as well so that will make the trip more fun. We stopped in Las Vegas to drop Kat and the kids off with Grandparents, then off to Hawaii. The trip to Hawaii was from 2 am to 6:20 am. Needless to say both Taft and I were dead and needed some sleep. Luckily we got to make this trip in first class so we were able to sleep pretty much all the way to Hawaii. Plus we got to wait in the V.I.P. lounge (that is where Taft is at in the picture) in Vegas which made it bit more comfortable. 

In Hawaii we had a 6 hour layover. With that much time to kill Taft and I headed to the beach and to get some real breakfast. We made a bad call on where to eat breakfast. While it looks good it actually was a hole in the wall with questionable food. 

After a bit of site seeing it was back to the airport. Now it is off for 10 hour ride to Manila. I will update you on Manila soon.

I have given in to the social networking pressure and joined Facebook. For some reason a part of me hurts to admit this.

It has been awhile since I posted. The political season got the best of me and burnt me out. Luckily, the holidays were hot on its heals and have picked up my spirit. We had a wonderful Christmas here in Denver as a family. I am glad I have my brother's family in town as well to enjoy the holidays with. The spirit of love, friends, family and Christ was alive and well this year and I am a better person because of it. I was reminded again how the meaning of life really lies in those precious things.

People complain all the time now about how our schools are declining and wonder why. Maybe a part of the reason is because our schools are becoming a place to make political statements not to educate our kids.

A group of San Francisco first-graders took an unusual field trip to City Hall on Friday to toss rose petals on their just-married lesbian teacher

Lets keep politics out of schools and instead spend that time teaching math and science! This political season has disabused me of the hope that my society will continue to respect me and my religious beliefs.

What type of America do we live in when this is how people are treat who you disagree with.

Nothing like liberals who preach peace and respect and tolerance for others and than treat those who disagree with them like this.

I find it interesting there are 24 senators who have a voting record of voting with their party lower then 86%

Of those 23 only 4 are democrats and the rest are republicans. That means that of those with the highest likelihood to vote against their party, 83% of them are republicans. Just an interesting fact.

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/110/senate/party-voters/

I found this an interesting read and additional agreements as to why Obama’s tax plan is really just more wealth redistributions and fostering a welfare state.

Highlights:

“Tax Foundation, says the number of nonpayers (non tax payers) would rise from a third of tax filers to 44%.”

“The Tax Policy Center estimates that the share of households not owing income tax would rise from 38% under current law to 48% under the Obama plan.”

“That's well over 60 million tax filers. Many, if not most, of these would probably qualify for at least one of the Obama credits, because it doesn't take much, other than low income, to qualify.”

“For one of those credits, dependent and child care, you don't even have to have a job. You can simply be looking for one. Taking college courses (and agreeing to 100 hours of community service) qualifies you for the "American opportunity credit."

The most expensive credit, "making work pay," is aimed at low-wage workers but will have to be phased out at higher income levels. As the Tax Policy Center notes, the resulting jump in marginal tax rates in the phaseout zone "might actually give workers an incentive to work less." “

Don’t tax the lower income, tax higher income more and give lower income people (who really are not paying taxes anyway) a tax credit (a credit higher income families cannot quality for).

Sounds like wealth redistribution to me. Something everyone from every political affiliation does not want (even lower income families don’t want it). Of course when you dress it up and make it out to be a tax break, who is not for that?

I think this is a case that shows how people (in this case the democrats) can be blinded of what is really going on because they liked the idea of getting affordable housing for all.