Leon Konieczny’s Blog My world as I see it…..

Well, not so secret anymore. President Bush announced yesterday that the CIA has been holding over a dozen terrorists in “secret” prisons for a number of years, and now they are being transferred to Guantanamo for eventual trial. Secret prisons? I say, “GREAT!”

We need to hunt out terrorists wherever they are, wherever they try to work on their activities. We need to isolate them. We need to get information out of them–however we can. This is important in our war on terror.

It’s them or us. I vote for “us.” We can not afford to let terrorists gain the upper hand. We must use all means at our disposal to find them and prevent future terror. If that means imprisoning them in “secret” prisons, great! If that means listening to phone calls to/from known terrorists, great! If that mean looking at the money trail for terrorist groups, great! If that means shutting down those who reveal our tactics, again, great!

We must do WHATEVER IT TAKES to protect ourselves and our freedom. These Islamic extremists want nothing less than our demise. It’s a fight to the death, and I prefer the death to be theirs!

God bless the USA!

First of all, the answer is a resounding “no!”  But what question am I answering? I read more reports on Saddam Hussein’s second trial. His warplanes gassed a whole bunch of people. Definitely not right, definitely not cool, definitely WRONG WRONG WRONG. But why? He had trouble maintaining order.  He was a cruel dictator that could only maintain order by terror.

Perhaps the US should have taken a clue from his actions before we invaded Iraq. I agree, getting rid of Saddam was the right thing to do. Dismantling his weapons programs, his genocide programs, and his reign of terror–all good things to do, and I’m glad he did them. But we should have known how hard it would be to wrest that country from the religious division it’s had (Shiite vs. Sunni vs. Kurd, etc.). We should have known that trying to bring democracy to people who don’t really want it would be a tough sell.

My thoughts: after outsing Saddam, we should have left the various factions alone to fight it out. Would that be very humanitarian? No. But then again, there are things going on in other places in the world that are not humanitarian either (such as Africa).

We should have toppled Saddam, and let the country do what it wanted to do–fight each other. Let the United Nations try to fix it–they are impotent most other places, why not give them a grand center stage in which to fail, which I sure they would have.

Yes, we should have removed Saddam and ended the ties to terrorism. But, we should have bugged out aftewards and let the country do what it wants to do, which is apparently kill each other. At least, they’d be killing each other and not our soldiers. And they’d have been so busy killing each other that they’d have no time or resources to support terrorism. It’s a lost opportunity…we could have “won” in Iraq, if only we’d taken the clue that Saddam gave us…..

It is time for a fair tax. Now, I don’t like paying tax any more than anyone, and I want to pay less tax. But that’s not what the fair tax is about. We need to pay taxes, to support the programs of our nation. But we need to be fair about this. If you are not familiar with the fair tax, I suggest you buy “The FairTax Book.”Check Amazon.com or your neighborhood bookstore. It’s only a few bucks and well, well worth it. Heck, if you want, let me know and I’ll send you a copy–it’s that important to me.
So, it’s time for the FairTax. Time to get rid of the IRS. Time to make April 15th just another spring day. Get rid of the IRS. Let everyone pay their fair share. Tourists coming to the US? Let them pay some tax, they’re using our infrastructure. Illegal Immigrants getting paid under the table? Let them pay some tax, they’re consuming our resources. Tired of trying to figure out the multitude of conflicting and confusing IRS regulations? Get rid of the IRS and let each and everyone who buys or consumes anything pay tax on it.

Are you poor and want to buy a Yugo? Pay some tax on it. Are you rich and want to buy a Caddilac? Pay tax on it–more tax. Pay tax based on what you buy and what you consume, each and every one of us.

What about the poor? The FairTax gives a “prebate” to each and every one of us based on the poverty level, so that we are not taxed on the bare necessities of life. How much more fair could it be? Millions of the poor will pay even less tax than they do today. They’ll in effect get a wage increase. How is this possible? The FairTax gets rid of income tax AND social security and medicare taxes! Even the poor pay these. Well, especially the poor. But, I digress.

Let’s get rid of all income tax, FICA, medicare, social security, all those taxes. The FairTax will usher in an unprecedented era of growth and our economy will flourish. Foreign companies will flock here, rather than running away from the US.

Let me tell you folks, the FairTax is the way to go, and it’s a movement that’s gaining momentum. Ban the IRS! Get rid of Income Tax. Vote for whoever supports the FairTax, and against all it’s opponents. If you and your children want to enjoy unprecedented prosperity, this is the way to go the FairTax!!

Orlando has decided to restrict feeding the homeless near the downtown area. Businesses in the area claim it brings crime. Duh! What a surprise. It’s kinda like feeding the bears, isn’t it? When you feed a bear, it’ll get trained to come back, and it’ll bring its friends. It will no longer have to wander around, working for its food. It knows where to go for food. Same thing with the homeless. I’m not against feeding them and helping them out. I think it’s society’s job to do that. But society should also be trying to help the homeless be not-homeless. Simply feeding them draws them back and, without the opportunity (or desire) to work for food (like the rest of us working people do), some of the homeless simply become hangers-on. They become like the bears, coming back for food because it’s easy and because they do not have to work hard for it. Free food to help someone get back one their feet–that’s our duty as people. Free food to encourage people to not work–shame on us when we do that!

I’m not sure I agree with the city of Orlando’s law, but I do think that as a society we need to be careful about the results of our actions. Feed the homeless, but act responsibly and encourage them to get back on their feet and become non-homeless again. That should be our goal.

Ahh… Politicians….what a bunch of hypocrites and phonies. Here in central Florida, they are no better than anywhere else. In recent news, Orlando and Orange County are once again trying to cram a new arena down the throats of the taxpayers, trying to make people believe that this is all “free” money from somewhere else that will give us great benefits. What it will do is benefit the owner of the Orlando Magic–which has been far from a magical team lately.

On top of all this, there is political fighting because Nemours wants to give the area a new hospital. Yes, you heard right. $250 million for a new hospital!  But the other hospitals are afraid of the competition. Last I knew, competition and the free market were among the foundations of our country.

On top of all this, Orange County schools are facing something like a $75 million shortfall in money needed to build new schools and remodel existing ones. The politicians allow development after development with little thought to the impact to our school system. On top of that, a brand new teach in Orange County can expect a starting salary of about $32,000 this year, and top teachers with a master can expect a several thousand less than double that–after many, many years of experience.

Where are out priorities. We can look at what politicians “say” they are–but when we really investigate, we find out that they are misplaced by a mile. What a joke. Throw the bastards out in the next election, and get some new, fresh, socially progressive and fiscally conservative politicians in who will spend our money like it’s their own, not like a kid with $5 in a penny candy shop!