PREACHING TO THE CHOIR

Until recently, before starting this blog, I published a community newspaper in the Galveston Bay-Clear Lake area of Texas (near the Johnson Space Center) of the same name “Where Did It Go?” It was originally in reference to our youth but evolved into being about our country. In an effort to contribute to the cause, I volunteered to do an occasional article for the Clear Lake Tea Party newsletter and was assigned Immigration. From the beginning I felt that we were sort of wasting time preaching to the choir and not winning any new hearts nor votes. I have recently decided to do something about it.

While researching information on Immigration I came upon Marco Rubio's keynote speech to HLN. I gave a copy to some leftie acquaintances who are very sympathetic to the plight of immigrants and very opposed to “hard-hearted” Republicans. Surprisingly I received a very positive response. As I began to analyze why this response was positive when normally it would automatically be negative from a Republican V-P contender, it dawned on me that these people have been brainwashed and lied to so often that they have actually come to believe all the ugly untruthful things they've been told about Republicans, conservatives and Tea Partiers.

As a long time conservative I still find it hard to understand how people have come to feel so strongly and even viciously about the Tea Party when I've attended at least six rallies and never witnessed the slightest racist, homophobic, women or elderly hating behavior at any time. I have observed only nice, well-behaved citizens concerned about what's happening to their country.

I am sure you have seen Cher's recent tweet, “If ROMNEY gets elected I don’t know if i can breathe same air as Him & his Right Wing Racist Homophobic Women Hating Tea Bagger Masters.” I thought “Don't sugar coat it, Cher. Tell us how you really feel.”

She apologized for the rant while still declaring that that is how she really feels. The key question is,”Why does she feel that way?” The answer to that is because that's what she's been told and she travels in a circle of friends who believe the same thing so she is not likely to hear anything different from them or to seek out the truth for herself.

Unlike Cher, however, Pulitzer winning playwright David Mamet decided against being a “brain-dead liberal” after some friends encouraged him to read some conservative authors like Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek. While it might be difficult to get people to read entire books, I do believe the answer to winning them over is to subtly educate them and introduce them to the truth a little at a time.

Name calling doesn't work. I know. I've tried it. I also don't believe that Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity are going to convert them. Even though I am a fan and believe they mostly speak the truth, their rhetoric and demeanor creates an instant rejection of their ideas and opinions with most liberals.

My conclusion is that the problem with many liberals is ignorance of what conservatism really is. Therefore, our first objective should be to educate them and attempt to win them over to our way of logical thinking through logical, subtle persuasion. Ask questions regarding their beliefs, determine their motivations and then try to respond with intelligent, truthful answers. This isn't about ideology, it's about common sense.

I am starting a series of essays on several of the subjects for which conservatives are criticized; once again will try to define the true objectives of the Tea Party movement and generally try to disseminate the message that we all really mostly care about many of the same things. We also need to convey how and why the conservative means of accomplishing them makes more sense.

Maybe we can influence a few of those people who think they are better, kinder, more compassionate people because of their liberal leanings but don't realize the unintended consequences of voting for liberal politicians whose only real concern for minorities, the poor and the oppressed is to get their vote.

OBAMA POLICIES SLOW IMMIGRATION

Net Migration from Mexico Falls to Zero—and Perhaps Less

Not Because his Immigration Reform Policies are Effective but because his Economic Policies Stink so Bad that More Immigrants are going the other way at the Border for Better Opportunities.

The largest wave of immigration in history from a single country to the United States has come to a standstill. After four decades that brought 12 million current immigrants—more than half of whom came illegally—the net migration flow from Mexico to the United States has stopped—and may have reversed, according to a new analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center of multiple government data sets from both countries.

The standstill appears to be the result of many factors, including the weakened U.S. job and housing construction markets, heightened border enforcement, a rise in deportations, the growing dangers associated with illegal border crossings, the long-term decline in Mexico’s birth rates and changing economic conditions in Mexico.

The report is based on the Center’s analysis of data from five different Mexican government sources and four U.S. government sources. The Mexican data come from the Mexican Decennial Censuses (Censos de Población y Vivienda), the Mexican Population Counts (Conteos de Población y Vivienda), the National Survey of Demographic Dynamics (Encuesta Nacional de la Dinámica Demográfica or ENADID), the National Survey of Occupation and Employment (Encuesta Nacional de Ocupación y Empleo or ENOE), and the Survey on Migration at the Northern Border of Mexico (Encuesta sobre Migración en la Frontera Norte de México or EMIF-Norte). The U.S. data come from the 2010 Census, the American Community Survey, the Current Population Survey and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Among the report’s key findings:

• In the five-year period from 2005 to 2010, about 1.4 million Mexicans immigrated to the United States and about 1.4 million Mexican immigrants and their U.S.-born children moved from the United States to Mexico.
• In the five-year period a decade earlier (1995 to 2000), about 3 million Mexicans had immigrated to the U.S. and fewer than 700,000 Mexicans and their U.S. born-children had moved from the U.S. to Mexico.
• This sharp downward trend in net migration has led to the first significant decrease in at least two decades in the number of unauthorized Mexican immigrants living in the U.S.—to 6.1 million in 2011, down from a peak of nearly 7 million in 2007. Over the same period the number of authorized Mexican immigrants rose modestly, from 5.6 million in 2007 to 5.8 million in 2011.
• Mexicans now comprise about 58% of the unauthorized immigrants living in the United States. They also account for 30% of all U.S. immigrants. The next largest country of origin for U.S. immigrants, China, accounts for just 5% of the nation’s stock of nearly 40 million immigrants.
• Apprehensions of Mexicans trying to cross the border illegally have plummeted by more than 70% in recent years, from more than 1 million in 2005 to 286,000 in 2011—a likely indication that fewer unauthorized immigrants are trying to cross. This decline has occurred at a time when funding in the U.S. for border enforcement—including more agents and more fencing—has risen sharply.
• As apprehensions at the border have declined, deportations of unauthorized Mexican immigrants—some of them picked up at work or after being arrested for other criminal violations—have risen to record levels. In 2010, nearly 400,000 unauthorized immigrants—73% of them Mexicans—were deported by U.S. authorities.
• Although most unauthorized Mexican immigrants sent home by U.S. authorities say they plan to try to return, a growing share say they will not try to come back to the U.S. According to a survey by Mexican authorities of repatriated immigrants, 20% of labor migrants in 2010 said they would not return, compared with just 7% in 2005.
• Looking back over the entire span of U.S. history, no country has ever sent as many immigrants to this country as Mexico has in the past four decades. However, when measured not in absolute numbers but as a share of the immigrant population at the time, immigration waves from Germany and Ireland in the late 19th century equaled or exceeded the modern wave from Mexico.
  

Marco Rubio on Immigration – Part 2

Keynote Speech at Hispanic Leadership Network conference in Miami
Friday, January 27, 2012

Now, if you solve the issue of the guest worker program, you solve the issue of the illegal immigration system that you have that needs to be reformed and modernized, you’re left with between nine and eleven million people who are in this country undocumented. They came for different reasons. They found themselves in this predicament in different ways, and it’s a real challenge for our country.

On the one hand there is not political support for the notion of basically granting eleven million people citizenship or a path thereto in the United States. It’s just not there. On the other side, it’s not realistic to expect that you’re going to deport eleven million people. It doesn’t work, we can’t do it, and it would offend American sensibilities and rightfully so. What’s the solution to it? There is no magic solution to it—that’s why it’s so complicated. And that’s why the politics makes it more complicated.

Now these young people that stood up a moment ago, I think one of the reasons why they’re here is because they’re concerned about young people. Let me say: I’m confident in what I have said throughout my political career and especially during my campaign for the Senate, that there is broad support in America for the notion that for those children that were brought here at a very young age, by their parents through no fault of their own, who have grown up here their entire lives, and now want to serve in the military or are high academic achievers and want to go to school and contribute to America’s future, I think there is broad bipartisan support for the notion that we should somehow figure out a way to accommodate them. Figure out a way to accommodate them in a way that does not encourage illegal immigration in the future.

Unfortunately some of the legislative proposals that are out there today go too far and there’s not support for those either. But I think we can solve that problem. And I hope that we, as Republicans and as conservatives take the lead in solving it. Because it’s not just the right thing to do, it speaks to our hopes and dreams as a nation. And it’s critical for our economic future.

How about everybody else? I don’t have a magic answer for you. This is a difficult issue, and sometimes those of us in public service need to stop pretending like difficult issues have easy answers. They don’t. It’ll require an open conversation across this country about what we want to do. How can we create and deal with this issue in a way that both honors our legacy as a nation of immigrants but also honors our legacy as a nation of laws? How do we balance those two things? Well that’s at the core of this issue. And it must be confronted because the status quo is unsustainable.

This issue is a deeply personal one for so many people in this room. I know it is for me. A few months ago—you may have read about it, maybe you didn’t it—I got some dates wrong in my parents’ immigration history. And it created some difficult, you know, uncomfortable days. It was a blessing in disguise. You know what it made me do? It made me do something that we don’t do enough of. And that’s go back and discover who our parents were when they were our age. What were their hopes and dreams? What did they want out of life? Where did they want to go and what did they want to do with themselves? I had a chance to do that. And from the tattered pages of passports and the yellowed papers of olden documents, from across five decades, I clearly heard the voice of people I never really met.

Of my father who came here as a young man and didn’t find instant success. He went to New York—it was too cold. He came to Miami—it was too hard. He went to Los Angeles—it was too California. He went back to Las Vegas the first time. He came back to Miami. He was discouraged. He struggled as a young man who grew up in poverty in Havana after his mom died and then he was struggling here too. He had hopes and dreams for himself. He wanted to own a business and he thought America was the place he could do it and he struggled. And he was discouraged, and he even made plans to go back to Cuba because of that.

I discovered this about my grandfather, who I thought I knew real well, but in fact he grew up in an agriculture family and as a young man he suffered polio. He lost the use of his leg—they sent him to school. He was the only one in his family who knew how to read and write. He got a good job running one of the railroad stations. His family lived comfortably—he had five daughters at the time. It was a heavy undertaking in that climate. And one day, from day to night, he lost his job. And instantly he was tossed, and his family was, into poverty and struggle. He was a disabled man in early twentieth century Cuba trying to find a way to feed his five—almost six—daughters. Struggling with that. My mother tells the story of how he would spend all day looking for work sometimes having to walk miles and come home at night his knees bleeding because he would trip and fall. Because he didn’t have the use of a leg. Tough life.

Why am I different than them? Am I better than them? Why have I had opportunities that they did not have? It was but for the grace of God. That’s true of all of us. I’ve been able to do things they didn’t because I’m here, in the single greatest society and the single greatest nation in all of human history. But it reminded me that their stories, although they’re gone, are still alive. They’re all around us. You find them in Home Depot when I drive up in my pickup truck, in the desperate look of faces of men that are looking for work. You find it in homes across this community and this country, where women work hard, long hours—sometimes without documents—to send money back home.

Of course there are people that abuse the system. But the enormous majority of the people that come here legally and illegally do so because they want a better life for themselves and more importantly for their children. And as we deal with this complicated issue I ask you: What if you were them? What if you lived in a country where your children had no hope and no future? Where your wife stayed up all night crying because she was afraid your son would join a drug gang. Where your children wept each night because you didn’t have enough food to feed them. What if you were there? Let me tell you—if I was there, there are very few things I would not do. There is no fence high enough; there is no ocean wide enough that most of us would not cross to provide for them what they do not have.

And that’s at the core of this issue and these people that we’re dealing with. Yes we have to have laws—they have to be respected. No we cannot legalize eleven million people. But they’re people. They’re human beings with real lives and real stories. And the complexity of the issue challenges the core and soul of our nation perhaps more than any other issue that we face. Because in the end, without immigration, there would be no America. And we would be just like everybody else. And the challenge of this century on this issue is how can we once again make this issue a source of pride, not a source of conflict. Something that unites us as a people, not divides us. Something that we brag about, not something that we fight over. How can we do that? Well that’s what I hope to be a part of. That’s what I hope events like this will be a part of. I hope never again that young people will have to stand up in an event like this and hold up a sign-- because the issue’s been taken care of, in one way or another.

That’s what we need to work towards. And it’s not easy, and it’s difficult, but it must be done. Because you see, throughout ages, even in the world today, most societies teach their people that who you are, is determined by who you come from. Who are your parents? What family were you born into? What neighborhood did you grow up in? What school did you go to, and what social circle do you run in? Because based on that is who you will be.

That’s the way it’s been for much of human history. That’s the way it is today in much of the rest of the world. And then there came America, where we said we didn’t care if your parents were poor, if your grandfather was disabled, or your dad was not connected. You can be anything you wanted - in fact we bragged about it, and we welcomed the world to come here and prove that anyone, from anywhere, can accomplish anything.

Today I took the liberty, it’s the only thing I wrote for today’s speech, well I printed it. I don’t have a (inaudible), I apologize. If you go to New York, there is a famous statue there, you may have heard of it, it’s called the Statue of Liberty. On it, is engraved the poem from Emma Lazarus, it’s called The Colossus, which speaks to our nation, and who we are. I’m not a big poetry fan, but this one, there’s nothing wrong with poetry. Now I’m going to get the poet people upset at me. You got to be careful, every vote counts.

This poem speaks to this battle between those nations who believe that who you are is determined by the circumstances of your birth, and us.

“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
And she says:
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, give me your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shores.
Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

This is who we were. For 225 years, this is who we’ve been. And the question now is, is this who we will remain? If we lose this, we lose ourselves. If we walk away from this, we walk away from what makes us different, and special, and unique from all the nations on the earth.

This is a great challenge but it’s one that must be confronted. For in the end, those of us in the conservative movement draw our strength not only from our laws of man, but from the laws of God. We believe that our nation was not just founded on spiritual principles, but that our adherence to them has caused great blessing upon us. We recognize that the Constitution and our laws are important, but we live our lives with the knowledge that there is a higher law yet, a law that commands us to feed the hungry, and clothe the naked, and be kind to the alien in search of home.

Because America has, I believe, God has blessed her. We are not just great because we’re great. We are great because we have been blessed. And with those blessings come responsibilities. Because we’re not just blessed so that we can have, we’re blessed so we can give.

And what we have given the world, on issue after issue, is a light. A light that shines upon the world, and says that all human beings are endowed by God their creator with rights. That the source of those rights are not your king, your president, your laws or your government, but that you’re born with them. And because of that, anything you want to do, you should have a chance to be. Doesn’t matter where you were born, or where you came from, or whether your last name ends in a vowel. That’s who we have been, and if this century is to be an American Century, we have to figure out a way to make sure that that is who we remain.

Senator Marco Rubio on Immigration - Part 1

One of my objectives in the next few months is to convince a few undecideds and even some Democrats that Conservatives are not the evil demons that they are often characterized as by the opposition and the media. Some of the adjectives seen regularly in the blog word and even mainstream news would lead you to believe that they are greedy fat cats who don't want to pay any taxes; they're racists and homophobes and conduct a war on women; and they want to cut off social security and welfare and let people die in the streets.  This is all pretty absurd when you think about it but many people (most of whom do not think but still have strong opinions) have been convinced to believe it anyway.  This is one reason I am presenting Senator Marco Rubio's speech on Immigration.  I think it demonstrates his sensitivity about this issue as well as some solutions.  Part 2 will be published in the next couple of days.

I am writing (actually compiling) weekly articles about Immigration for the Clear Lake Tea Party Newsletter (to which I encourage you to subscribe  www.clearlaketeaparty.com/ . )  This is the Keynote Speech at Hispanic Leadership Network conference in Miami - Friday, January 27, 2012 by marcod Rubio, a possible Republican Vice-President contender. 

*********

Obviously, when people talk about Americans of Hispanic descent the first issue that comes to mind is immigration, and rightfully so. Because for people in our community the issue of immigration is not a theoretical one, it’s not an issue of statistics, it’s not always even an issue of law and order. It’s an issue of their lives, and of the people that they love.

Whether you came here from another country yourself, whether your parents did, or whether you’ve been here generations, there is no one in the community of Hispanic Americans who do not love someone who has found themselves in limbo or in a situation. No one, it’s impossible to walk a block in Miami, in Los Angeles, in others, San Antonio, without running into somebody who is being deeply impacted by a broken legal immigration system.

And so when politicians and political figures speak about the issue of migration, they’re not just talking about a legal issue. They’re speaking about the real lives of real people that so many of us love and care for. And so it is an important issue, not just for our country, but in our community it’s a gateway issue.

The immigration issue is critical and it’s important because it’s a gateway issue to the number one issue on the minds of the people in this community, of all walks of life, and that’s economic empowerment.

Let me say, that there is no community in America that understands the American dream of economic empowerment better than ours. And the reason is that the number one issue in our community is the desire to accomplish your dreams and hopes and to leave your children and your grandchildren with opportunities that you yourself never had.

Every single day, people lived, obsessed, in this country with that notion. But no community is more obsessed with it than ours. It’s the reason why people come here. It’s the reason why they work two jobs. It’s the reason why your parents gave up their own hopes and their own dreams so that you could do the things they couldn’t, so you could be what they could not be, so you could go where they could not go, so the doors that were closed to them were open for you.

Which community in our country understands that better than ours, there is none. It typifies our life. It’s who we are, it’s why we’re here. And it’s what’s made our country great.

And I would submit to you that there has never been an economic system that provides the opportunity to do that better than the American free enterprise system. No economic system is perfect. But nowhere in the world have more people from all walks of life been able to empower their children and their grandchildren more than they were able to do here in the twentieth century in the American free enterprise system.

And I also submit to you that today it is under assault. That our country today is run by a President that’s as divisive as any figure in modern American history, who sadly has chosen the route of dividing Americans against each other for the purpose of gaining votes and political support.

His message is one that basically says to people, the way to protect your job is to raise your boss’ taxes. That the way for you to do better off is for someone else to be worse off. That the only way you can climb up the ladder is if we pull some people down.

Now let me tell you, that language is common all over the world. You find it often in the third world. But it’s never been who we are.

As I said in a speech at the end of last year, we have never been a nation of haves and have nots. We have always been a nation of haves and soon to haves, a people who have made it and people who believe that given the chance they will make it too. And if we lose that, we lose the essence of what’s made us great in terms of economics.

And so, when the choices that are put before us today are dangerous ones, because if we choose this path of pitting people against each other, if we buy into this notion that our economy really can’t grow fast enough for all of us to prosper so we’re going to have to somehow empower government to distribute the wealth of this country among us, we’ve chosen to become like everybody else. We’ve chosen to become like the countries that your parents and grandparents came here to get away from. And that’s a powerful message. And that’s the message that we need to deliver. And that’s the message we need to work on delivering. It’s a winning message, but it’s a difficult message to get to because the gateway issue of immigration stands in the minds of so many people who we live next to and love.

Our country has a broken legal immigration system. Its status quo is unsustainable.

We don’t have a functional guest worker program in a nation that knows that it has, especially in things like agriculture, a need for temporary workers who enter on a temporary basis.

Our nation has a complicated and burdensome visa process, where even if you wanted to enter this country legally, and you wanted to stay here legally, it costs so much money, it’s so complicated, so bureaucratic, that it’s difficult to comply with.

And by the way, the things I just outlined to you are things of massive, overwhelming support in our country. There is broad bipartisan support across the board for the idea that America needs a legal immigration system that works.

And that’s why I have challenged the Republican nominees and all Republicans to not just be the anti-illegal immigration party. That’s not who we are, that’s not who we should be. We should be the pro-legal immigration party. A party that has a positive platform and agenda on how we can create a legal immigration system that works for America and works for immigrants.

And I think you could find broad bipartisan support today for the idea that our legal immigration system is broken and needs to be modernized. That we need to take into account the needs and realities of the 21^st century and tailor a legal immigration system and a visa program that takes care of that.

I think you could find broad bipartisan support for the notion that our immigration laws need to be enforced, that we need some sort of electronic, low-cost, affordable verification system for employers. That we need increased border security and ways to protect our borders. That we need to invest in these technologies and make this possible.

I think you would find broad bipartisan support for the idea that we need a functional guest worker program. Where, from year to year, when there are indeed jobs, for workers from abroad to come into the United States because we need them for our economy to grow and prosper, so that food doesn’t rot in the farm fields, so that construction gets finished, or whatever the industry that year may be. A functional guest worker program, where people can apply in their home country, receive a tamper-proof identification card, enter the U.S., we know who you are, we know why you’re here, we know where you work, you’re here for a defined period of time and then you go home when it’s done. And by the way, they want that too.

You know why people overstay visas; you know why people overstay temporary, if they can get the temporary worker visas today? Because they’re afraid if they leave they’ll never be able to get back in, because it’s so complicated and burdensome and broken.

You can find broad bipartisan support for all of these ideas. So why haven’t they happened. Well they haven’t happened because the issue of immigration is a powerful one politically. And dividing people along the lines of immigration has proven to be rewarding to politicians on the left and on the right.

And so for those of us who come from the conservative movement, we must admit that there are those among us who have used rhetoric that is harsh and intolerable, inexcusable. And we must admit, myself included, that sometimes we’ve been too slow in condemning that language for what it is.

But, at the same time, on the left, there are those that are using this issue for pure politics. Creating unrealistic and unreasonable expectations among those in the Latino community across this country. Advocating that our country be the only one in the world that has no immigrations laws, and no mechanism for enforcing them. Both sides are guilty of using this issue to divide us. I think that needs to stop.

Marco Rubio served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2000 to 2008 and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010. His committee assignments currently include Commerce, Science and Transportation; Foreign Relations; Intelligence; and Small Business and Entrepreneurship. His name continues to be raised as a potential Vice President candidate.

JUST HOW UNIFYING IS THE PRESIDENT?

I have been critical of the President since before he was elected. I read both of his books and researched his voting record. His values are so diametrically opposed to mine that I foolishly didn't think he could get elected in “my” America. Yet I can try to understand how he did. He had a large majority of African-Americans looking for respect and I don't blame them. He also had a lot of other people, mostly young and idealistic, either assuaging their white-guilt or simply and realistically hoping for something new and refreshing. I'm not racist but I had to look within to personally reflect on whether his race had anything to do with my feelings and was convinced that was not so. It was simply his outlook and left wing ideology that put me off, not his color. After hearing Allen West and Herman Cain, I am comfortable with my self analysis. Obama certainly appealed to the gullible with his hope and change; post racial; post partisan promises but he has been the exact opposite of what he promised. What is most discouraging to me is that he is so dishonest and lies with such ease. I respect the office of the Presidency but I have to question whether he does. I was pondering about how to change people's minds for this election and planning to write about it when Jim Geraghty of the Morning Jolt saved me the trouble. Here is his article addressing much of the same issue. I will have more in the future.

Are Obama's 2008 Voters Getting What They Expected?

Morning Jolt. . . with Jim Geraghty

Yesterday's discussion of disillusioned Obama voters appeared to be greatly appreciated, with James Taranto, Melissa Clouthier, Moe Lane, and Rush Limbaugh adding to the discussion.

As we contemplate how to persuade wavering Obama voters, perhaps a good place to start is to ask them what they expected him to deliver. When they marked the box for him in 2008, where did they think the country would be in 2012?

The diehard Democrats will instantly respond, "He inherited a lot of problems, much worse than anyone expected. Bush had eight years to louse up this country; you can't expect Obama to clean up his mess in half the time. Obama would accomplish more if the Republicans hadn't obstructed him every step of the way. He can't be held responsible for the headwinds such as the tsunami in Japan, the European debt crisis, the slowing of the global economy, and ATMs' taking people's jobs."

Of course, none of these is an answer to the question above; they're defensive justifications for why Obama hasn't delivered what they expected. You've asked them, effectively, "When you voted for hope, what were you hoping for?" And if they respond by offering all the reasons they blame Republicans, you can conclude these Obama voters are not persuadable, and you can move on to others.

When you prompt non-diehard Obama voters to think of their expectations on Election Day 2008, they'll probably conclude that some, many, or all, are unmet. They'll probably talk about the epic economic anxieties that were gripping almost all Americans in the autumn of 2008. They'll probably express this in very personal terms, about the value of their home, the value of their 401(k) or other retirement savings, their ability to find a job or find a better job than the one they have now. Perhaps they'll remember the exorbitant gasoline prices from the summer of 2008. They may remember their incredulity at TARP, at watching the richest people they could imagine -- Wall Street bankers! -- coming to Congress and begging for billions and saying that if they didn't get it, the economy would collapse. Long-established businesses were declaring bankruptcy left and right: Lehman Brothers. Washington Mutual, IndyMac, Circuit City, Linens n' Things. The 2008 election occurred amidst an atmosphere of unequaled crisis. You almost can't blame late-breaking Obama voters for turning to a candidate who was running as a messiah figure.

Mind you, during all of these discussions with wavering Obama voters, we have to hold our tongues and resist expressing incredulity that they believed Obama could deliver an economic renaissance. In these conversations, for now, it is more important to listen than to talk; you're collecting data and intelligence on how these people reached their conclusion on whom to vote for and their hierarchy of values. No matter how naïve, ill-informed, stupid, unrealistic, or inane their reasoning is, you will not persuade them by calling them any of those labels. Nod sympathetically. The time to argue will come later. For now, you just want to get a sense of what they think is important in this decision.

My suspicion is that most Obama voters figured that by the spring of 2012, the United States would be in much better shape than it is now. They may not have had specific benchmarks in mind -- 8.3 percent unemployment, $3.82 per gallon gasoline, and so on. But they probably doubted that they would see the federal government fining them for not having health insurance. (Remember that Obama ran against the individual mandate in the Democratic primary.)

You also will probably hear a bit about Obama as a unifying figure. Look back to that 2004 convention speech, the first time most Americans saw him, and the sound bite from the speech most likely to be replayed over and over again:

There is not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America -- there's the United States of America.

Let's face it, you and I wouldn't disagree with that! It's a wonderful unifying sentiment. It's even an implicit rebuke of those who are most obsessed with racial divisions and ensuring every aspect of American life is sufficiently diverse -- the folks who prompted Bill Clinton to wag his finger and denounce as "bean counters" with "quota games." No wonder so many people felt warm and fuzzy feelings when they first saw him.

Of course, you and I look at the body of Obama's work and conclude that none of his noble-sounding sentiments mean much of anything to him when he sees a political opportunity. The sentiment in the convention speech is uniting, inspiring, idealistic, and elevating. And then he goes out and urges his supporters to "get in their faces" and "hit back twice as hard," urges his Latino supporters to "punish our enemies," refers to citizens who disagree with him as "teabaggers," and tells White House guests that he believes racism was a factor in the rise of the Tea Party.

But a significant number of voters saw that guy at the convention in Boston and believed that he meant what he said. What's more, like the old poster from the X-Files, they wanted to believe. And it's been a long, slow process of letting go of that idealistic vision.

So the first task is to contrast the prospect of Obama, the ideal that some of his voters expected, and what he has been and produced. If you can get an Obama voter to express disappointment in the man they voted for in 2008, well, you're halfway to getting that voter to A) vote Republican or B) not vote, which is almost as good for our purposes.

IT'S TIME TO GET INVOLVED

 I know, many people don't like politics but let's face it, if you're alive, have family, eat food and buy gas, you're already involved. The most important thing we can do for our country and ourselves is to make sure Barak Obama is not re-elected. We also need to get some new conservative blood into Congress, both the House and the Senate. Tea Parties are doing this on the local level now and were responsible for the November 2010 reversals suffered by the Democratic Party. We need to help continue that trend. I am going to be contributing articles to the Clear Lake Tea Party and urge you to donate or volunteer with your own local Tea Party. The following article by Robert Ringer explains how Obama's radical agenda led to the formation of the Tea Party concept. As much as I cannot stand Obama and his policies, I agree with Ringer that his being elected awakened a lot of people to the destructiveness of the Progressive movement.

I'm going to temporarily suspend this newsletter and concentrate on the Tea Party newsletter but I am saving all of your emails and will make sure you get updates from time to time.  Let's pitch in to win one for the Gipper.

Sign up here for the Clear Lake Tea party newsletter:  http://clearlaketeaparty.com/

                                                                                     Thanks for your support,
                                                                                             Gene Rutt

Negatives, Positives, and The Natural Law of Balance: Why Obama is Responsible for the Tea Party
By Robert Ringer - Tuesday, March 13, 2012

An interesting question from reader ...
Robert, I have been going back through your audio program Path to Power once again and would like to see you expand on a topic. In the program you make it very clear that every perceived negative has an off-setting positive, and yet we are all fighting hard to stop Barry and the leftists from taking over the country.
I find myself fighting discouragement over future prospects based on how this coming USA election goes, and yet, according to your Path to Power training, this really shouldn't bother me.
Your thoughts as to the "there is no such thing as a negative" as it specifically applies to our current leftist administration, please!
A fair question. It's absolutely true that for every (perceived) negative, there is an offsetting positive. Unfortunately, people are usually not enlightened enough to recognize the offsetting positives when something bad happens in their life.
I like to refer to this as the Natural Law of Balance, which is pretty much synonymous with Emerson's Law of Compensation. Simply put, the universe is in balance. We see it at work all around us: electrons and protons, night and day, male and female, hot and cold, life and death, two sides to a coin. Nothing is one way: For every positive, there's an offsetting negative; for every negative, there's an offsetting positive.
Back in 2008, I upset a lot of people by saying that those of us who want to live in a free country would be better off if Barack Obama won the presidential election rather than Mush McCain. Had McCain become president, it would be have been viewed by most conservatives as a positive. But they would have been wrong.
True, it would have kept Obama out of the Oval Office for at least awhile, but there is no doubt in my mind that McCain would have continued the RINOs' inexorable move to the left ... more slowly than Barack Obama, and thus more dangerously.
Early on, I knew that Obama was a Marxist. Everything about his past, his associations, his voting record, and his own written and spoken words all made that clear. I felt that if he could keep the public mesmerized long enough to be able to sneak into the White House through the side door, with his Marxist soul mate at his side, it would be like having Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven running the United States government!
To most libertarians and conservatives, this seemed like a result too horrific to contemplate. But guess what? Barack Obama's lightning-fast implementation of his radical agenda awoke the walking dead. Foolish independents, in particular, opened their eyes in horror and began asking, "What the hell is going on here?"
The result? The Tea Party was born. That's right, the Emperor of Envy gave birth to the Tea Party through his own words and actions. Now, instead of the frog being boiled slowly, Obama's election has brought the fight into the open. And the fight I'm referring to is the one between the roughly 50 percent of the public who work for a living and the 50 percent who vote for a living.
That, Glenn J., is your offsetting positive in Barack Obama's rise to power. Without him, we would have continued to drift slowly down the road to serfdom. Count me out. I'm tired of drifting to the left.
So when I say "there is no such thing as a negative," it's because words like negative and problem are just that -- words. It's all in how one perceives the facts in any given situation. The offsetting positive when a "problem" arises often leads us to say, sometimes many years later, "That turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me."
By the way, I never said that Obama's election should not bother you. It should bother you. It should bother you so much that you become motivated to join the fight to save what's left of our once-great country for your children and grandchildren.
In that vein, you say that you're fighting discouragement? Save your energy. Discouragement is not the enemy. The enemy is the far left -- the progressives, the socialists, the Marxists, and the communists. Forget about discouragement, and focus on defeating the enemy.

Copyright © 2012 Robert Ringer
ROBERT RINGER is a New York Times #1 bestselling author and host of the highly acclaimed Liberty Education Interview Series, which features interviews with top political, economic, and social leaders. He has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, The Tonight Show, Today, The Dennis Miller Show, Good Morning America, The Lars Larson Show, ABC Nightline, and The Charlie Rose Show, and has been the subject of feature articles in such major publications as Time, People, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Barron's, and The New York Times.

"It's Never too late to Start Something Great"

BEING CREATIVE IS ONE OF LIFE'S GREAT PLEASURES

It always surprises me how many people do not give themselves credit for being creative. They are usually thinking that they can't paint or compose music or write stories, so they must not be creative. Yet many (most) of these same people figure out unique ways to solve problems and accomplish objectives every day of their lives so we are really looking differently at how we define creativity. In his book Human Motivation, Robert Franken does so as follows:

• Creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others.

• Three reasons why people are motivated to be creative:
  1. need for novel, varied, and complex stimulation
  2. need to communicate ideas and values
  3. need to solve problems

• In order to be creative, you need to be able to view things in new ways or from a different perspective. Among other things, you need to be able to generate new possibilities or new alternatives. Tests of creativity measure not only the number of alternatives that people can generate but the uniqueness of those alternatives, the ability to generate alternatives or to see things uniquely does not occur by change; it is linked to other, more fundamental qualities of thinking, such as flexibility, tolerance of ambiguity or unpredictability, and the enjoyment of things heretofore unknown.
  So you don't have to be an artist, musician or author to be creative. We see it in the daily lives of housewives, parents, teachers, business people, plantworkers and just about everybody else. We're all creative in our own way. We have to be in order to accomplish anything and sometimes just to survive.
  However, if you feel you need to enhance your creative powers, study the following steps (to which I'll add a few notes in italics):

10 Steps for Boosting Creativity

by Jeffrey Baumgartner
1. Listen to music by Johann Sebastian Bach. If Bach doesn't make you more creative, you should probably see your doctor - or your brain surgeon if you are also troubled by headaches, hallucinations or strange urges in the middle of the night. You can find Bach and other inspirational music on YouTube. “Air on the G String” is one of my favorites.
2. Brainstorm. If properly carried out, brainstorming can help you not only come up with sacks full of new ideas, but can help you decide which is best. Brainstorming works best if done with more than one person. One person's ideas inspire thoughts in others. There is no corner on good ideas. They can come from the CEO or the janitor. Give everyone a chance
3. Always carry a small notebook and a pen or pencil around with you. That way, if you are struck by an idea, you can quickly note it down. Upon rereading your notes, you may discover about 90% of your ideas are daft. Don't worry, that's normal. What's important are the 10% that are brilliant. A small recorder is also a good tool to keep handy and can be found on many cell phones. Learn to use it with one hand.
4. If you're stuck for an idea, open a dictionary, randomly select a word and then try to formulate ideas incorporating this word. You'd be surprised how well this works. The concept is based on a simple but little known truth: freedom inhibits creativity. There are nothing like restrictions to get you thinking. The mind is very complicated and always open to ideas from any source.
5. Define your problem. Grab a sheet of paper, electronic notebook, computer or whatever you use to make notes, and define your problem in detail. You'll probably find ideas positively spewing out once you've done this. For some reason, the very act of focusing on the subject inspires creativity.
6. If you can't think, go for a walk. A change of atmosphere is good for you and gentle exercise helps shake up the brain cells. A nap or good night's sleep also enables your subconscious mind to work for you. Many problems have been solved while you sleep.
7. Don't watch TV. Experiments performed by the JPB Creative Laboratory show that watching TV causes your brain to slowly trickle out your ears and/or nose. It's not pretty, but it happens. I personally have to have a little TV fix but don't let it monopolize your time.
8. Don't do drugs. People on drugs think they are creative. To everyone else, they seem like people on drugs. I can't add much to this. I've never done any drugs but have written a few decent songs after a couple glasses of wine. At least I thought they were decent.
9. Read as much as you can about everything possible. Books exercise your brain, provide inspiration and fill you with information that allows you to make creative connections easily. Reading is a more active process than watching television which I believe is why it is more productive as a tool.
10. Exercise your brain. Brains, like bodies, need exercise to keep fit. If you don't exercise your brain, it will get flabby and useless. Exercise your brain by reading a lot (see above), talking to clever people and disagreeing with people - arguing can be a terrific way to give your brain cells a workout. But note, arguing about politics or film directors is good for you; bickering over who should clean the dishes is not. Reading, working puzzles, learning new languages or skills are all good brain exercise.

“REMEMBER IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START SOMETHING GREAT.”

Get creative, you'll love it!

Gene Rutt

100 Ways to Happiness

I received this in an email while publishing the print version of this newsletter but never used it.  I don't know the author so I can't give credit but I'm not taking credit either.  Also I'm only going to list the first 50 ways at this time.  Any one of them can work miracles.  Try a few....

1. Never put yourself last.
2. When you extend a helping hand to one person, be careful not to kick someone else in the teeth
3. Always own a pair of old, faded jeans.
4. Count your blessings every day.
5. Acknowledge your successes along with your downfalls.
6. Burn the candle that has been in storage for the last two years.
7. Strive for progress, not perfection.
8. Remember, the voice telling you that you cannot do something is always lying.
9. At least once a day sit and do nothing.
10. Don't close your heart so tightly against life's pain that you shut out life's blessings.
11. Celebrate all your birthdays no matter how old you get.
12. Examine your life for limitations and ask yourself why you put them there.
13. Plant a tree, pull weeds, or get your hands dirty.
14. Diminish your wants instead of increasing your needs.
15. Cry when you feel like it.
16. Rejoice in other people's triumphs.
17. Don't wait for someone else to laugh or express joy.
18. Forgive yourself for any mistake you make, no matter how big or small.
19. Keep good company.
20. Never take a pill for a pain you need to feel.
21. Use your enthusiasm to put yourself in forward gear and give yourself a spark to move ahead.
22. Look in the eyes of the ones you love when you are talking to them.
23. Remember that one is a whole number.
24. Walk in a summer rain shower without an umbrella.
25. Do a kind deed for someone else.
26. Keep your eyes and ears open to get the messages you need from people and events in your daily life.
27. Be patient.
28. Eat something green.
29. Change what you can and leave the rest alone.
30. Walk hand and hand with truth.
31. Make laughter and joy a greater part of your life than anger and grief.
32. Embrace solitude instead of running from it.
33. Be zealous, not jealous.
34. Forgive anyone you've been holding a grudge against.
35. Slow down and enjoy the present.
36. Walk in others' shoes before judging them.
37. Send yourself a kind message.
38. Remind yourself that the company you keep is a reflection of what you think of yourself.
39. Go on a picnic.
40. Accept your fears, no matter how crazy they seem.
41. Don't let other people's opinions shape who you are.
42. Say a prayer.
43. Never attribute your accomplishments to luck or chance.
44. Know when to say no.
45. Look at the positive side of negative situation.
46. Remember that you are a spiritual being in a physical body.
47. Avoid seeking out other people for constant approval, because it make them the master and you the slave.
48. Go fly a kite.
49. Avoid fads and bandwagons.
50. Accept the things you cannot change.

"It's Never to Late to Start Something Great"

How to save some money on property taxes.

This may seem a little off message but one of the biggest problems we face when our lives change is financial. Most of us, whether retiring or changing jobs, experience a little less income every month, at least for a while. Therefore anything that can be done to save money should be.

 In Galveston County, Texas where I live we have a very enlightened and compassionate County Tax Assessor-Collector named Cheryl Johnson. Her job is to maximize revenues for the county but she is very realistic and is aware of the economic climate (and it's not warming.) Therefore for the last several years she has encouraged and helped residents to protest the value of their property. Here is her letter and the dates to attend these classes to learn how to effectively protest appraised values. You seldom find a tax collector with a heart so take advantage of this opportunity:

Cheryl E. Johnson, R.T.A.

Galveston County Tax Assessor/Collector

722 Moody Avenue

Galveston, TX 77553

409.766.2284· 409.766.2260

Avoid Costly Penalties for 2011 Taxes and Save the Dates to Lower the 2012 Tax Bill!

Following the tradition of the last seven years, the Galveston and League City branches of the Galveston County Tax Office (GCTO) will be open from 7 am to 6 pm, Tuesday, January 31^st, the last day to pay 2011 taxes without penalty and interest. The Santa Fe and Texas City Tax Office branches will be open normal operation hours of 8 am to 5 pm.

"It it not unusual for us to have four to five thousand property tax customers each day at the end of January joining the 27,000 vehicle registration renewal customers, " warned County Tax Assessor Collector Cheryl E. Johnson. As in the past, central office administrators and temporary staff support are being dispatched to all offices during the last two weeks of January to assist with the long lines.

Postmarks are critical when mailing property tax payments. To insure a postmark that will prevent tax penalties, obtain a postmark validation from your local Post Office. In addition to mailing your payment, GCTO accepts over-the-counter credit and debit cards along with online payment options (www.galcotax.com ). A $1 fee is charged for electronic check payment and 2.5% for credit card transactions. These charges are typically absorbed by local merchants but government offices may not pay these fees thus they are charged back to our customers. Those without internet access may remit payment using a credit card by calling Pay Connexion at 1-866-865-1433 (English) or 1-866-865-1435 (Spanish). Placing a payment in one of the Tax Office drop boxes located outside each building is also a good option. All payments left in the box January 31^st will be posted as timely payments February 1^st.

"If your taxes are too high, it is likely because you missed the opportunity to protest your value last year and, unless there is an error on your account, it is too late to change that now," stated Johnson. We do have a solution for 2012, however. Classes will be taught by Johnson throughout the County beginning in April on how to "Effectively Protest Your Appraised Value." Techniques--not tricks--are the key along with a thorough understanding of the process. Classes are free, begin at 6 pm and generally run just under two hours.

Date Location

4/9/12 Galveston County Courthouse, 722 Moody (21st St.), Commissioners Courtroom

4/18/12 Tiki Island Public Safety Bldg. (room over Fire Station), Tiki Drive, Tiki Island

4/23/12 Village on the Park, FM 528 near FM 518, Friendswood

4/30/12 Community Room, North County Annex, 174 Calder, League City

5/9/12 Jimmy Walker Community Center, 800 Harris Avenue, Kemah

5/14/12 Railroad Museum, 218 FM 517 W, Dickinson

5/16/12 Mid-County Annex, EF Lowry Expressway, Texas City

Find Satisfaction by Finding your Passion

If you could do one thing to transform your life, I would highly recommend it be to find something you’re passionate about, and do it for a living.

Now, this isn’t as easy as it sounds, but it’s well worth the effort. If you dread going to your job, or find yourself constantly lacking motivation, or find what you’re doing dull and repetitive, you need to start looking for a new job. Staying in your current job will not only continue to make you unhappy, but you are not realizing your full potential in life.

Imagine this instead: you get up early, jumping out of bed, excited to go to work. You might put in more hours than the average person, but it doesn’t seem difficult to you, because your work hours just zoom right by. You are often in that state of mind often referred to as “flow,” where you can lose track of the world and time, losing yourself in the task at hand. Work is not work as many people refer to it, but something that is fun and interesting and exciting. It’s not a “job” but a passion.

If you’ve got a job you dislike, or even hate, this will sound like a pipe dream to you. And if you never put in the effort to find what you’re passionate about, you’re right: such a thing will never be possible. But dare to dream, dare to imagine the possibilities, and dare to actually search for what you love, and it is not only a possibility, but a probability.

How can you find what you’re passionate about? Here are some suggestions:

• Is there something you already love doing? Do you have a hobby, or something you loved doing as a child, but never considered it as a possibility? Whether it’s reading comic books, collecting something, making something, creating or building, there is probably a way you could do it for a living. Open a comic book shop, or create a comic book site online. If there’s already something you love doing, you’re ahead of the game. Now you just need to research the possibilities of making money from it.
• What do you spend hours reading about? For myself, when I get passionate about something, I’ll read about it for hours on end. I’ll buy books and magazines. I’ll spend days on the Internet finding out more. There may be a few possibilities here for you … and all of them are possible career paths. Don’t close your mind to these topics. Look into them.
• Brainstorm. Nothing comes to mind right away? Well, get out a sheet of paper, and start writing down ideas. Anything that comes to mind, write it down. Look around your house, on your computer, on your bookshelf, for inspirations, and just write them down. There are no bad ideas at this stage. Write everything down, and evaluate them later.
• Ask around, and surf for possibilities. Ask other people for ideas. See what others have discovered as their passions. Look all over the Internet for ideas. The more possibilities you find, the more likely your chances of finding your true passion.
• Don’t quit your job just yet. If you find your calling, your passion, don’t just turn in your resignation tomorrow. It’s best to stay in your job while you’re researching the possibilities. If you can do your passion as a side job, and build up the income for a few months or a year, that’s even better. It gives you a chance to build up some savings (and if you’re going into business for yourself, you’ll need that cash reserve), while practicing the skills you need. See below for more.
• Give it a try first. It’s best to actually test your new idea before jumping into it as a career. Do it as a hobby or side job at first, so that you can see if it’s really your true calling. You may be passionate about it for a few days, but where the rubber meets the road is whether you’re passionate about it for at least a few months. If you pass this test, you have probably found it.
• Do as much research as possible. Know as much about your passion as possible. If this has been a passion for awhile, you may have already been doing this. At any rate, do even more research. Read every website possible on the topic, and buy the best books available. Find other people, either in your area or on the Internet, who do what you want to do for a living, and quiz them about the profession. How much do they make? What training and education did they need? What skills are necessary? How did they get their start? What recommendations do they have. Often you’ll find that people are more than willing to give advice.
• Practice, and practice, and practice some more. Don’t go into it with amateur skill level. If you want to make money — to be a professional — you need to have professional skills. Get very good at your future career and you will make money at it. Practice for hours on end. If it’s something you love, the practice should be something you want to do.
• Never quit trying. Can’t find your passion at first? Give up after a few days and you’re sure to fail. Keep trying, for months on end if necessary, and you’ll find it eventually. Thought you found your passion but you got tired of it? No problem! Start over again and find a new passion. There may be more than one passion in your lifetime, so explore all the possibilities. Found your passion but haven’t been successful making a living at it? Don’t give up. Keep trying, and try again, until you succeed. Success doesn’t come easy, so giving up early is a sure way to fail. Keep trying, and you’ll get there.

What I’ve outlined here is a lot of work … but it will be the best investment you’ve ever made. Follow your passion, and you will be truly happy and incredibly fulfilled. I wish you the wildest successes of your wildest dreams!

Leo Babauta is a writer, a marathoner, an early riser, a vegan, and a father of six. He blogs regularly about achieving goals through daily habits on Zen Habits, and covers such topics as productivity, GTD, simplifying, frugality, parenting, happiness, motivation, exercise, eating healthy and more.

"IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START SOMETHING GREAT."

For Success in the New Year, Resolve to set Goals

"In the absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily acts of trivia." (Does the term email come to mind?)
Author Unknown

If you only make one New Years Resolution, make it to set personal goals and write them down. I don't know what is so magic about doing so but having personally done it and having not done it, I can attest that writing out your goals makes you more likely to achieve them. Your goals can and should include all the normal resolutions you would make but by writing them down, printing them out and taping them to your bathroom mirror to recite daily, you will be less likely to break those resolutions. There is some subconscious force that's generated to keep you pointing toward your desired ends.

What you are really trying to do is not just follow some list of resolutions that are annually made and broken, but to create a system that will enable and empower you to make permanent changes in your lifestyle. You don't want to lose 10 pounds only to gain it back or to stop smoking for a month, you want to make this an ongoing part of your new life.

How do you go about setting goals? It is really not difficult but for some reason people tend to avoid doing it, even when they know they should. So the first rule for setting goals is:

SET THEM - getting started writing goals for some people is like an exercie program. The first step is the most difficult, then it just coasts along. So as soon as you finish this newsletter and before you look at the rest of your email, find a pad and pen and start writing.

WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS? What do you want to accomplish in the next few weeks, few months or year. Do you have a health, weight or fitness goal. If it is not specific for the long term, at least create a short term objective. Lose 10 pounds by February 1. Start some kind of exercise program even if it is just walking around the block. If you have not exercised in a while, make it easy on yourself and just go for 10 minutes. Add a minute every other day until you reach 30 minutes which you will do with no strain by the end of the month.

READ THE GOALS ALOUD EACH DAY affirmations or sel-talk is another proven method for achieving success. Simply by repeating a statement each day and believing it, you will start accomplishing it in a short time.

To be most effective, your goals should be SPECIFIC - MEASURABLE - ACHIEVABLE - RELEVANT & have a TIME FACTOR, a period in which to achieve your goal.

Goal setting is a powerful way of motivating people, and of motivating yourself. The value of goal setting is so well recognized that entire management systems, like Management by Objectives, have goal setting basics incorporated within them.

In fact, goal setting theory is generally accepted as among the most valid and useful motivation theories in industrial and organizational psychology, human resource management, and organizational behavior.

Use clear, challenging goals, and commit yourself to achieving them. Provide feedback on goal performance. Take into consideration the complexity of the task. If you follow these simple rules, your goal setting process will be much more successful, and your overall performance will improve.

"IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START SOMETHING GREAT"

and goal setting is a great way to start something great.

                                                                                              Gene Rutt