YOURS TRULY WITH THE NEXT GOVERNOR OF TENNESSEE!

This is a photo of me with Congressman Zach Wamp, a Republican - is there anybody else :) - from Tennessee's Third District. This was taken at a fundraiser for now-State Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver in Gordonsville, Tenn. in August 2008. This was also the second time I met Wamp. I had previously met him at the nation's first Fred Thompson 2008 rally in my hometown of Cookeville on April 30th, 2007, an event I previously wrote about.

Wamp is now a candidate for Governor of Tennessee in 2010. When this photo was taken, I expected that likelihood, and I even told him that I was planning on supporting him in such a run. I also met his son Weston there. Weston is a great guy, as well.

For you Tennesseans looking at this post, I highly urge you to support Rep. Wamp in this effort. He is the right guy for this job, in more ways than one (if you know what I mean).

LOG ON TO ZACHWAMP.COM TO LEARN MORE AND TO HELP OUT!
WANT TO KNOW MORE ON HIS RECORD? Just log on to On The Issues, and read up on his past actions on various issues.

PELOSI: "500 Million Americans Lose Their Jobs"

PELOSI ON THE STIMULUS:



NASHVILLE RADIO-HOST STEVE GILL ON PELOSI'S ABSURD COMMENT:

WHY CAN'T HOLLYWOOD AND THE SPORTS WORLD JUMP IN?

Joe Biden thinks that it's time for Americans to be "more patriotic" by paying more in taxes, especially those that actually contribute the most by investing and providing jobs (over $200,000 in earnings). I think entertainers and wealthy pro athletes should be more patriotic, but I don't think the government should be wrenching it from them through taxes.

Liberals always claim to be so benevolent, so caring. Hollywood (mostly made up of big-time libs) is sure not communicating that well today when they are more than eager to continue accepting big pay and throw lavish parties, while more and more from the lower and middle classes get ejected from their homes and can barely put food on the table.

As I said, I don't believe government should be prying more out of anybody's hand. What I am saying is why can't the liberal movie stars, singers and athletes volunteer massive pay cuts or donate most of their wealth to charities that take care of those suffering right now. Some already do, but while still having tens or hundreds-of-millions in their bank accounts. Why can't the ever-so-generous Biden, John Kerry, Herb Kohl and Chuck Schumer offer personal help to many that could use it. Why not give up a ritzy vacation to feed several families.

Can anyone sense a dose of hypocrisy?

WHAT IS STIMULATING ABOUT THIS STIMULUS?

Article by Jordan M. Iwanyszyn, with some info from an e-mail by Alan Rader

As many of us know, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (otherwise known in the U.S. House of Representatives as H.R. 1) passed the House by a 244-188 vote. It is now being debated in the Senate, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada wants to get a bill to Obama by Presidents Day.

This bill is otherwise known to most as the "Economic Stimulus" package. Many don't know just what is in this proposal, but it is now starting to get around, thanks to the New Media in the Internet and on talk radio. Following is a sampling of what was originally in the bill before the Senate cut about $100 billion in pork, to cut the bill down to a $827 billion piglet. It had gotten as high as a $920 billion bill. Here were some of the numbers before the cuts were made (the notes in parentheses were little pointers from a friend of mine, Alan Rader):

$160 million- paid volunteers for national community service program (what is a paid volunteer?!)
$1.7 million- for national parks
$7.6 billion for rural community advancement
$850 million for Amtrak
$87 million for a polar ice breaking ship (I thought the polar ice caps melted already!)
$500 million for the endowment for the arts
$600 billion for university building projects (I sincerely hope I wrote that one down wrong!)
$1.2 billion youth summer jobs for people 24 years old & younger
$4.2 billion for neighborhood building projects
$650 million for digital television upgrades
$34 million for department of commerce building renovation (the building must’ve burned down!)
$44 million for department of agriculture building renovation (did that one burn, too?)
$88 million for the department of health services to move to another location (quick, buy stock in moving companies!)
$600 million to convert federal cars to hybrids (how long will it take for that to pay off in fuel savings? I need a calculator!)
$2 billion for renewable energy research
$6.2 billion for weatherization assistance (that’s a lot of duct tape & plastic)
$3.5 billion for energy efficiency block grants
$300 million for energy efficiency appliance rebates
$1.5 billion in green energy loan guarantees
$79 billion for state fiscal recovery fund (state bail-outs)

A lot of these are good things, but where in the U.S. Constitution does it provide for these expenditures from the federal treasury, and tell me how we get 3 million jobs out of this bill (that is what this is supposedly geared towards). And why on Earth is our federal government bailing out individual states? Our founding fathers set up a system of federalism for a reason. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BAIL OUT STATES! More of these items can be found in the link on the bottom of the page.

The Feds want to buy a polar ice-breaking ship. They want to throw money at Amtrak and weatherization assistance. How do these proposals create long-term meaningful jobs? AND HOW ON EARTH IS PROVIDING $500M FOR THE ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS STIMULATING FOR THE ECONOMY!?!?! Holy smokes! I guess I'm just arts-impaired. I believe the arts are a great thing to take in. They help to make a well-rounded individual, but for pete's sake, how on Earth is throwing taxpayer dollars at them during a strong recession going to get us back on track and get suffering people back into a growing economy?

Some in Washington and elsewhere complained about how much had to be cut from the bill. Well, what I say is...CUT MORE! This bill is nothing but pork! You could make a breakfast with all the pork for the whole community! All that is missing is the eggs and hash-browns. Scrap this thing and start from scratch! I don't want to see a little scalpel pick away at the proposal...GET A DOGGONE CHAINSAW!

Some in Washington say we don't have a choice but to pass this bill, or our economy will collapse. Obama says our economy "may never recover". House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a huge gaffe recently by saying the U.S. economy loses 500 million workers a month (there are only just over 300M people living in the U.S.) YES WE DO HAVE A CHOICE! Let's shred this proposal and actually put through something that CREATES JOBS! If we are going to drive ourselves nearly $1 TRILLION further into the deficit, I would rather see it in cuts for the corporate income, dividend and personal income tax rates, along with any other tax cuts that would put more money back into the pockets of the people who earned it. This would foster investment, innovation and entrepreneurship. THIS IS WHAT OUR ECONOMY NEEDS NOW! THIS WOULD PROVIDE JOBS, AND WOULD HELP PULL US OUT OF THIS ECONOMIC DOWNTURN! This would create a more permanent stimulus, and actually stimulate the economy.


FULL TEXT OF THE BILL FROM OPENCONGRESS.ORG
More on the "stimulus" from OpenCongress

"BATTLE OF THE BIRDS" SET FOR SUNDAY

by Jordan M. Iwanyszyn

Sunday brings another NFC Championship Game, and another for my team, the Philadelphia Eagles. This is their fifth of this young century.

They will meet another team that deserves to be where they are, the suddenly-hot Arizona Cardinals.

The story of this NFC title game is primarily about the teams who are there, more specifically, the fact that these two teams did not dominate through much of the regular season.

Philadelphia floundered through the first half of the season, with the low points coming with a tie to the lowly Cincinnati Bengals, and a blowout loss to the Baltimore Ravens, who are playing the Pittsburgh Steelers in tomorrow's AFC title game. Suddenly, after the benching of quarterback Donovan McNabb, the Eagles went on to win six of their last seven as it currently stands. The lone loss in that time nearly cost the season.

Just before Christmas, the Eagles had a chance to control their playoff destiny with a win over the mediocre Washington Redskins. All the Birds could muster was a field goal in a 20-3 loss, leading many "experts" to declare their season over. The Eagles would still be in the hunt, but they would have to beat Dallas the following week, along with help needed by Oakland, who would have to beat Tampa Bay, and Houston, who would have to beat Chicago. Tampa Bay losing would be highly unlikely, thought many, including yours truly.

However, it all happened. Oakland beat Tampa Bay by seven. Houston beat Chicago by that much, as well. All that was left was for Philly to beat the hated rivals from Dallas. Not only did the Birds beat the Cowboys, they drubbed them 44-6! That clinched an unlikely playoff spot for Philly as a wild card seeded at No. 6 in the NFC spectrum of the playoffs.

Philly went on the road to defeat the NFC North Champion Minnesota Vikings 26-14, which set up a Divisional Round play-off game against the despised rival New York Giants. The Giants came into the game as the NFC East champs, and the No. 1 seed for the NFC. Games the previous day gave the Eagles and their fans hope, though, as the AFC's No. 1 Tennessee lost to wild-card team Baltimore, and NFC No. 2 Carolina lost to Arizona in a blow-out. The Eagles came to East Rutherford, New Jersey with confidence against New York, and Giants' QB Eli Manning had a long day as the Birds defense led the way to a 23-11 win. The offense for Philly also performed well enough to grind out more points than the opposition.

That set up a NFC title match with the Arizona Cardinals, which followed a different path through the regular season.

After a 7-3 start which put them in position to run away with the lackluster NFC West, The Cards lost four of their last six in the regular season, including a 48-20 drubbing to the Eagles in Philadelphia on Thanksgiving day. However, Arizona ended with a 9-7 record, enough to clinch the West and grab the NFC's fourth seed, the least for a divisional winner.

The Cards found their swagger again in the playoffs. After holding off Atlanta in a 30-24 win in the wild-card round, Arizona had to go on the road to Charlotte to play the Carolina Panthers. Until this time, the Cards had not won a single game in the East this season. That changed as Arizona slammed the NFC's No. 2 seed 33-13 after forcing six turnovers.

So now, that sets up a BATTLE OF THE BIRDS in the Arizona desert tomorrow afternoon. A solid Philly defense will meet a hot Arizona offense. A strong Eagle rushing attack will try to give the Cards fits through the afternoon. It promises to be a good matchup. It starts at 3 PM ET on Fox.

I pick the Eagles by three, but this one could go either way...

"MIRACLE ON THE HUDSON"

Story by Jordan M. Iwanyszyn

That is what Drudge Report called a heroic rescue after US Airways Flight 1549 was landed in New York's Hudson River Thursday afternoon after reportedly sustaining a bird strike.

It truly was a miracle in the fact that all 155 people aboard had survived, despite temperatures in New York of the single-digit variety, and ice forming on the shores of the Hudson.

The pilot, Chesley B. Sullenberger III, is a modern-day hero. A former U.S. Air Force captain, he has now been flying commercially for 28 years. He first flew for Pacific Southwest Airlines, and then for US Airways when it acquired PSA. He has reportedly put in 19,000 hours of flight, and it showed. His skills and leadership were crucial in the survival of all aboard.

The Airbus A320 had left LaGuardia International Airport in New York and reached an altitude of 3,200 feet in the space of a minute-and-a-half, when it had hit what appears to have been some geese, which caused thrust in both engines to be lost. It what could have been a catastrophe, especially if the plane crashed somewhere in Manhattan, Sullenberger was able to engineer a calculated water landing, thus averting serious loss of life and property. It is truly amazing!

The good hearts of Americans shined through in this event, as well. Within moments, numerous watertaxis and ferryboats that saw the whole thing unfold descended onto the scene, and scooped out the passengers of the downed plane. Their quick response ensured that no one suffered severe injury due to the cold. It also ensured that no one would go down with the plane in the event that it would have started to sink, which didn't happen, thank God.

This is truly a remarkable and heart-warming story in this day-in-age when we hear so much negative about disasters and the crooks in life. Through the potential for serious harm, it was averted and the heroism of our fellow countrymen shined through. Just like the response after 9/11 from Americans, and many all over the world, people put others before their own self-interest. Because of that, not a single person lost their life!

This truly was a miracle, and an example of the good hearts of the vast majority of the people of America!

Former Senate Majority Leader Frist Pulls Himself Out Of 2010 Contest For Tennessee Governor, Wamp And Gibbons In On GOP Side, No One Yet For Dems.

by Jordan M. Iwanyszyn

Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Republican from Tennessee, decided against running for governor of his state in 2010 on Sunday. The departure of his name from the race sets up a likely crowded field for both Republicans and Democrats.

Two Republicans eager to jump into the race if Frist didn't made their intentions clear quickly. Shelby County District Attorney Bill Gibbons jumped in Sunday, and was followed by Rep. Zach Wamp of Chattanooga with an announcement Monday.

That likely won't be the whole field. Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam, a wealthy former oil executive whose family founded Pilot Corp., is reportedly about to embark on a cross-state tour to announce a bid. Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey, a state senator from northeast Tennessee, is considering it, but says financial and fundraising support will be crucial in his decision. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a solid conservative from the wealthy southern Nashville suburbs in Williamson County, reportedly made it known through her press secretary that she is also considering a bid. Other GOP candidates may also make a bid.

On the Democratic side, the biggest name that often comes up is that of Rep. Lincoln Davis, who represents a mostly rural district in eastern Middle Tennessee. He has not committed to a race yet, however. Former State House Majority Leader Kim McMillan from Clarksville has already formed an exploratory committee to allow her to raise funds for a race. Freshman State Senator Andy Berke of Chattanooga is "exploring the possibility". State Senator Roy Herron and Knoxville developer Doug Horne may also make bids.

Should the above make up the field, count on Haslam, Wamp, and Blackburn to lead the GOP, and Davis to be the frontrunner for the Dems.

We'll watch this one....

Candidates lining up for run at governor's office in 2010
Wamp declares gubernatorial candidacy
Tennessee: Race to succeed Wamp could get crowded (on who will replace Wamp in the U.S. House)
Wamp Announces Run for Tennessee Governor - CQPolitics
Frist Says No Bid For Governor In 2010