What's Wrong With Washington?: June 2012

Friday, June 29, 2012

Who Spoke?

It’s the last Friday in the month of June! I am Lance Pisowicz and this is “What’s Wrong With Washington”. As I prepare for my trip to Alaska, I have been incredibly busy packing and studying for my responsibilities there. I am very excited about my trip and actually have a meeting at tonight at the time that I normally prepare this blog. So I am writing and recording this week’s edition prior to my meeting. With that being said, I will spend most of my time this evening focusing on one key topic. I have just a couple of reminders before we begin. Please do check out my website, Lance Pisowicz Online (www.wix.com/lancejp/online). Also become a subscriber of my Youtube Channel (www.youtube.com/user/lancejponline), like my Facebook (www.facebook.com/lancepisowicz), or follow me on Twitter (www.twitter.com/lancejponline). You can also subscribe to my blogs on blogger (www.wrongwithwashington.blogspot.com and www.lancesweeklywalk.blogspot.com). It would be a pleasure for me and everyone else involved with Lance Pisowicz Online if you would join us there sometime.

As I said in my opening, I will spend my time tonight on one main subject. Sure I could analyze Oreo’s endorsement of same-sex marriage and offer my insight that a business sells a product and not an idea, but I think at this point we are all tired of hearing about this highly controversial issue. The truth is, at the present time we all have more immediate issues to address. We have millions of people out of work, an ever-growing national debt, and a health care system that not only goes against our founding principles but threatens to bankrupt our nation. That last topic I mentioned will be what we will analyze this evening.

I am sure many of you are aware of what has been occurring in Washington these past few weeks. The Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that Obamacare was not unconstitutional. Now reports are surfacing that there was a initially enough support to strike down the centerpiece of President Obama’s administration, but Chief Justice John Roberts flipped to support the law. Why would the Chief Supreme Court Justice (who traditionally has been seen as one of the more conservative jurors) decide to take the liberal stance?

Regardless of John Robert’s motives for supporting the law in the end, the Supreme Court’s ruling will have a significant impact in the November elections. Gone is the option for Democrats to promise a revised, more “center of the aisle” healthcare plan. They are stuck with the plan they approved in March of 2010 which led to their heavy defeat in the 2010 mid-term elections. Could we see a similar result in 2012? I’d say history is more than likely to repeat itself.

According to a recent poll by Fox News, 83.11% of Americans say that they plan to elect lawmakers to repeal Obamacare rather than accept it and move on.¹ After all, the president certainly cannot expect forgiveness if he hasn’t even apologized.

The opportunity for the president to act as though Republicans ruined his plan to provide better healthcare for the people is also gone with the Supreme Court’s upholding of the law.

With a significant level of public outrage over the decision rather than acceptance, a close race between Obama and Romney may be close no longer. I’d expect to see a reasonable drop in President Obama’s approval ratings when the next poll is conducted.

Democrats now are forced to attempt to encourage the public that they should simply accept the Supreme Court’s ruling as the ultimate right. But the fact is that the Supreme Court is simply just another branch of government. The Judicial government is no more immune to public outrage than the Legislative or Executive branches.

The truth is the American people are the boss when it comes to government, and that includes all branches. Unlike Wisconsin’s decision to retain Scott Walker as governor (a decision made by the people), the decision to uphold Obamacare was made by a group of jurors who have been permitted to retain their positions for life regardless of the people’s opinion of them.

In Washington, nine government officials spoke and stood for the left. In Wisconsin, the people spoke and stood against the left. In November I believe the people’s voice will mean a whole lot more.

That will be it for us tonight. For those of you wondering about the Ultimate Patriot competition and sweepstakes, I encourage you to visit the official website of the event at: www.wix.com/lancejp/patriot for more information. There you will find documents, links, a promo video, and a whole lot more. By the way, the entire event is free and you have the opportunity to win a $25 Restaurants.com E-Gift Certificate if you participate. I hope you’ll join us with that. Also, If you would like to have the opportunity to share your thoughts with me and all the viewers/readers of Lance Pisowicz Online, you can leave me a message/reply that might even be shared on the show, be sure to head over to: http://lponline.wufoo.com/forms/z7x3k7/ to take part in that. I will not be presenting a “Lance’s Weekly Walk” this Sunday since I will be at my family reunion. I will return with another “What’s Wrong With Washington” next Friday.

To close with this evening, I have a message from one of our greater readers and viewers from the great state of Ohio and the city of Columbus.

“Not about the economy, never really was; rather the Constitution and freedoms for which we have struggled mightily. Unborn citizens subjected to slaughter everyday, Catholics stripped of conscience protection in the name of “health” care. Send those who love our Constitution to the Senate and White House! VOTE-FIX WASHINGTON-REPAIR the USA!”

-Karen Kurfiss

Columbus, Ohio

I hope you have enjoyed our broadcast tonight, as much as I have. Thanks again, and God bless you all. I will see you one last time (Sunday) before I leave for my ten day trip to Alaska. Have a great weekend!

Sources:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2012/you-decide/how-should-american-people-react-supreme-court-ruling-obamacare

Friday, June 22, 2012

A Win-Win Scenario

Happy Friday! I am Lance Pisowicz and this is “What’s Wrong With Washington”. Tonight’s blog will be significantly shorter since I have been busy preparing for my family reunion this weekend. I have just a couple of reminders before we begin. Please do check out my website, Lance Pisowicz Online (www.wix.com/lancejp/online). Also become a subscriber of my Youtube Channel (www.youtube.com/user/lancejponline), like my Facebook (www.facebook.com/lancepisowicz), or follow me on Twitter (www.twitter.com/lancejponline). You can also subscribe to my blogs on blogger (www.wrongwithwashington.blogspot.com) and (www.lancesweeklywalk.blogspot.com). It would be a pleasure for me and everyone else involved with Lance Pisowicz Online if you would join us there sometime.

This evening I am going to focus on a small but important topic and analyze its effect in the November elections. As many of you are aware both President Obama and Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney have been sparring on the issue of illegal immigration. Here’s a quote from Mitt Romney from his speech at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials conference in Orlando, Florida.

“We can find common ground here, and we must. We owe it to ourselves as Americans to ensure that our country remains a land of opportunity – both for those who were born here and for those who share our values, respect our laws, and want to come to our shores.”

I think that pretty much sums up his and the general Republican view on immigration. Throughout history the Republican Party has carried a similar banner. They have been the party that has stood for equality both for those who are new to our nation and those who became citizens by birth.

The Republican Party is a political organization formed by abolitionist like my fourth-great grandfather, Comfort Carpenter Walker who believed that all men were indeed created equal. First men like him spoke out through politics by selecting Abraham Lincoln as their next President in 1860. Then they spoke out through action by joining the Union army in an attempt not only to restore national unity but also to achieve the true meaning of a principle within the Declaration of Independence.

Some of these men even volunteered to fight without being drafted like my fourth great-grandfather, Comfort Carpenter Walker who joined the Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry (11^th Regiment, Company D) when the war broke out. He fought through 1861 and much of 1862 until he died at Camp Patterson in November of 1862 due to undisclosed illness. Comfort left behind a wife and four children when he died at the age of 39 and like many men like him, was a hero to his family, his community, and his country.

As I prepare to gather with that same family at another of our biannual family reunions, I reflect on not only his life but also the lives of my other ancestors who poured their heart and soul into their family, their country, and their spiritual lives.

Today there are those who accuse the Republican Party of being the party of racism and discrimination, when in effect the Republicans are yet again the party who looks out for the well-being not of a special interest group but of the entire population.

A key element we must remember is that Mitt Romney and Conservatives are not against immigration. They are against ILLEGAL immigration. As I have said in previous blogs, I believe that immigration has been a terrific blessing to our nation throughout history. Whether it was the English, Spanish, Dutch, and French who were the original immigrants to the New World, the Irish and Germans who came prior to the Civil War, or the Eastern and Southern Europeans who arrived at the turn of the 20^th Century one thing is for certain. Immigrants have contributed to our nation in many ways.

Now as we look to the more recent years of immigration, we realize that a greater number of people have been coming to America from Asia and Latin American nations. In the same way, they have offered the United States great benefits.

However, we realize that failure to control our own borders sets us on a path to follow the path of fallen civilizations such as that of the Roman Empire.

What solution do I offer? I think we should improve the defense of our border but create immigration centers similar to Ellis Island in convenient locations where the greatest numbers of immigrants are entering the United States. It’s a win-win scenario for everyone.

If Mitt Romney is able to sell this to the Hispanic American population he will be hard to defeat in November.

I hope you have enjoyed our broadcast tonight, as much as I have. Thanks again, and God bless you all. See you next week!

Friday, June 15, 2012

Returning to Our Roots

Happy Friday! I am Lance Pisowicz and this is “What’s Wrong With Washington”. I hope you had a great week and are looking forward to an even better weekend. Tonight I will be discussing one key topic that I think holds very true for all Americans. I have just a couple of reminders before we begin. Please do check out my website, Lance Pisowicz Online (www.wix.com/lancejp/online). Also become a subscriber of my Youtube Channel (www.youtube.com/user/lancejponline), like my Facebook (www.facebook.com/lancepisowicz), or follow me on Twitter (www.twitter.com/lancejponline). You can also subscribe to my blogs on blogger (www.wrongwithwashington.blogspot.com and www.lancesweeklywalk.blogspot.com). It would be a pleasure for me and everyone else involved with Lance Pisowicz Online if you would join us there sometime.

Tonight I am going to focus on the topic of patriotism and national pride which I think offers a solution to many of the trials our nation faces today. Most of you already know this, but just for the record: I will not be holding any weekly polls while the Ultimate Patriot Competition and Sweepstakes in the months of June and July. For those of you who do not know what the Ultimate Patriot event is, be sure to pay extra attention at the end of the program for details regarding it all.

A have been asked by several people why I am even holding an Ultimate Patriot event this summer. I mean, why is it so significant to have such a competition?

Although it is fun to hold a competition and giving away a prize to someone is always enjoyable, neither reason was the deciding factor for me when I chose to host this event.

Some of the hardest times in our nation’s history have followed periods in which patriotism became distilled and being an American wasn’t held in the position of honor it should have been.

Just like in the years before the Civil War, or the “Roaring Twenties”, or the Jimmy Carter era we forgot who we were.

The same occurred in the years before our recent recession in which we became so obsessed with money, social status, and our own personal desires that we abandoned what truly brought us all together.

We began to focus on social issues that divided us and began to disrespect one another as a result. I believe it takes a person of character who can not only discuss and attempt to resolve such controversial issues, but also treat both sides with the respect they deserve.

We need to remember that these individuals are human beings whether they agree with us or not. They are not demons, or evil spirits who seek only to destroy us. They support their cause because they genuinely believe in it.

So if we want to support innocent life from the moment of conception by passing an abortion ban or support the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman through defining marriage as it should be, we need to be the first to reach with an outstretched hand willing to cooperate with those who think differently than us, without compromising our core values.

As I said in the beginning, a lot of our issues today could be solved if Americans were more united behind issues that affect us all. Nearly all of us can agree that the economy is struggling, but we are divided over how we should go about fixing it.

So why don’t we all look at our nation’s blueprint, the Constitution. America was meant to be a Capitalist nation not a nation in which the government can regulate business and the lives of individual people.

In a war situation, we must unite behind our men and women in the armed forces, regardless of whether we agree with the reasons behind the war or not. One way we could be more united in supporting a war effort would be to only get involved in wars that will have a profound effect on America’s interests. We then could offer a World War II effort in select wars as compared to offering a Vietnam effort in many wars.

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, let’s remember that we are one nation under God and not a nation gone under. Whether we choose to follow the Christian faith or not, we must all recognize that its principles were present in the founding of our nation and that those same principles offer solutions to current issues.

Above all, as I have restated several times this evening, we must remember to respect one another and our differences. The diversity in our nation is what makes us so great. The United States of America may have been founded by Christians but it was not founded by theocrats.

When you have the opportunity to show patriotism, show it. Whether it is reciting the pledge of allegiance, removing your cap during the nation anthem, flying your flag on Independence Day, or simply loving your countrymen, take pride in the United States and all it stands for.

Before we conclude tonight I would like to share a message I received from one of our readers and viewers:

“If my great grandfather were still alive, he wouldn't recognize this country. He came here from Italy to start his own business, and now my father can't do business because of regulations that tells him what he can and can't do on his own private land. Ridiculous.”

- Stephen Calandrino

Middletown, New Jersey

I hope you have enjoyed our broadcast tonight, as much as I have. Thanks again, and God bless you all. See you Sunday!

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Ramifications and Results

It’s Friday and this is “What’s Wrong With Washington”. I am Lance Pisowicz. I had a great time at the waterpark today, and I hope you enjoyed your day as well. Tonight we are finally returning to our normal presentation with several topics that have been important in the news over the past few weeks. I have just a couple of reminders before we begin. Please do check out my website, Lance Pisowicz Online (www.wix.com/lancejp/online). Also become a subscriber of my Youtube Channel (www.youtube.com/lancejp/online), like my Facebook (www.facebook.com/lancepisowicz), or follow me on Twitter (www.twitter.com/lancejponline). You can also subscribe to my blogs on blogger (www.wrongwithwashington.blogspot.com and www.lancesweeklywalk.blogspot.com). It would be a pleasure for me and everyone else involved with Lance Pisowicz Online if you would join us there sometime.

As I said earlier, we are returning to our normal blog tonight now that it is summer and everything seems to have calmed down just a little bit. Most of you already know this, but just for the record: I will not be holding any weekly polls while the Ultimate Patriot Competition and Sweepstakes in the months of June and July. For those of you who do not know what the Ultimate Patriot event is, be sure to pay extra attention at the end of the program for details regarding it all.

One of the greatest news stories of this past week was the results in Wisconsin’s Governor Recall Election. As many of you are aware, Governor Scott Walker was able to retain his position as governor of Wisconsin. He won a 53% majority over the Democratic challenger, Scott Barrett’s 46%.¹ But the question remains: what does this mean for the main election in November?

A loss in Wisconsin on Tuesday would not have devastated the Republicans, but it would have given bad ramifications in regards to what direction the state would go in the presidential election. On the other hand, the fact that Walker was able to maintain his position after being elected in the GOP mass victories in 2010, gives a sign that 2012 may just be a little more like two years ago, than how things were four years ago.

Wisconsin played a crucial role in electing President Obama in 2008 and losing the state’s ten electoral votes this time around might be another element capable of tipping the scale in favor of Mitt Romney.

The president may have even less support for him than he anticipated, not just in Wisconsin but around the country as well. Fox News now reports that 51% of Americans disapprove of the President’s performance, with 45% approving and 4% undecided.²

That leads me to my next topic for tonight. The reports on incoming funds for each presidential candidate in the month of May have been released. Mitt Romney has managed to raise $76.8 million while Barack Obama raised $60 million.³ My initial though was excitement. Conservatives, Independents, and fed-up Democrats alike have come together to make a change in November. However, when I considered the fact that President Obama still raised $16.4 million more than he raised in April and the fact that he has outpaced Romney in just about every other month of the campaign gave me another thought - the fight has just begun. Take into account that Mitt did not have combined support in the past months that he now has. Although Romney was the presumed candidate in April, Americans were still just beginning to rally around him. Also consider the fact that Obama had raised $196.9 million by the end of March, while Romney had just $87.5 million.⁴ However, the month of May attests that America might just be taken back, even if Mitt Romney and his supporters have to work twice as hard.

Finally, we conclude tonight to take a look at something that was very big in the news last week. Many of you heard about the movement to nationally ban sex-selective abortions after several videos exposed the details in how Planned Parenthood is dealing with patients who request such atrocities. Bipartisan cooperation has led to 77% of Americans to support laws that would ban abortions based on gender.⁵ However, the most recent attempt to ban this practice failed after Congress was unable to gain the necessary two-thirds majority to make it law. A vote of 246-146 was in favor of the bill, with twenty Democrats voting in favor of it and seven Republicans voting against it.⁶ Unfortunately it was not enough to make it the “law of the land.”

What I think is most understood about this proposition and the concept of practicing sex-selective abortions, is the fact that it is a completely separate issue from the concept of abortion itself. Personally I am Pro-Life, but even if I were Pro-Choice I would recognize the fact that choosing whether or not one should have a child based on whether it will be a boy or a girl is the original form of discrimination. When the left accuses Republicans of having a “war on women” they are being as hypocritical as humanly possible by conducting their “war on little women”. I am a person who believes everyone deserves an equal opportunity to life, but what if there was a way to determine whether a child would be heterosexual or homosexual before birth, the same people who condone or even advocate sex-selective abortions would have a fit if we were to condone sexual orientation-based abortions. Obviously both of these propositions are ridiculous, but the fact is that one of them is currently legal in nearly every state in the nation. While the nation is much more divided on the issue of abortion as a whole, a clear majority, nearly eight out of ten Americans believe that sex-based abortions are discriminatory.

This concludes our three mini-subjects for tonight, but I do have several closing announcements. For those of you wondering about the Ultimate Patriot competition and sweepstakes, I encourage you to visit the official website of the event at: www.wix.com/lancejp/patriot for more information. There you will find documents, links, a promo video, and a whole lot more. By the way, the entire event is free and you have the opportunity to win a $25 Restaurants.com E-Gift Certificate if you participate. I hope you’ll join us with that. Also, If you would like to have the opportunity to share your thoughts with me and all the viewers/readers of Lance Pisowicz Online, you can leave me a message/reply that might even be shared on the show, be sure to head over to: http://lponline.wufoo.com/forms/z7x3k7/ to take part in that.

I hope you have enjoyed our broadcast tonight, as much as I have. Thanks again, and God bless you all. See you Sunday!

Sources:

Friday, June 1, 2012

Summer is Finally Here!

Happy Friday! I am Lance Pisowicz and this is “What’s Wrong With Washington. It is my first day of summer and I am looking forward to a lot of great things coming in the next few months. This evening we are going to take a look at the results of our voting polls and analyze that issue a bit. I will also fill you in on all the details in regards to the Ultimate Patriot competition and sweepstakes and hopefully answer any questions you might have about the event. Before we begin I have just a couple of reminders before we begin. Please do check out my website, Lance Pisowicz Online (www.wix.com/lancejp/online). Also become a subscriber of my Youtube Channel (www.youtube.com/user/lancejponline), like my Facebook (www.facebook.com/lancepisowicz), or follow me on Twitter (www.twitter.com/lancejponline). You can also subscribe to my blogs on blogger (www.wrongwithwashington.blogspot.com and www.lancesweeklywalk.blogspot.com). Be sure to join me in all of these locations. They truly are great locations to connect with other Americans who love their country.

To begin this evening’s show I will share the results in last week’s poll. Our topic was whether or not English should be declared the national language of the United States. This past week we had our best turnout in quite a while. We had more than twice the number of voters as last week. Keep it up you guys! Over 90% of you supported the proposal to declare English the national language. A little over 6% of you said no to the national language idea and about 3% of you are still undecided. Once again, I thank you for all of the responses this week! I hope you plan on voting in the Ultimate Patriot competition and sweepstakes, not only to have your voice heard but also to have a chance to win a $25 Restaurants.com E-Gift Certificate. I’ll have more on that in a few minutes. For now, let’s take a deeper look at our results from this week.

Obviously many of us think alike when it comes to this issue. For those of you who voted no, I appreciate your responses as well. I would also encourage you all, regardless of what you voted to share future weekly polls with your friends. The more people we have voting, the better we are representing the entire population.

As far as the issue on whether or not English should be declared the national language, I have three brief points to make. Next week I want to take an in depth look at some more heated issues, since finals this week kept me from preparing a normal length blog.

One of the greatest reasons, I advocate that English be made the national language is the fact that twenty-eight of the states as well as five American territories have English as either the sole or one of the primary languages.¹ English is the sole primary language in twenty-seven states and shares the honor with Hawaiian in the state of Hawaii.

It seems like a shame if an American territory shows more patriotism than a state, but that’s just me. Twenty-three states apparently disagree with me for one reason or another. Surprisingly only two states in the south and southwestern United States do not have English as their official language. Nearly all of the states without English as their official language are in the Northeastern United States. In fact, of the thirteen original colonies, just four (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia) have given English such a distinction. So why is there such a lack of patriotism among some of our eldest states?

One can argue that ethnic diversity in states such as New York play a role, but even California and Florida, very ethnically diverse states themselves, have made English their official language.

By making English the official language we are not outlawing other languages. We are simply honoring our history and preserving an element of American culture that has been around for hundreds of years.

In response to a question I was recently asked about why we wouldn’t make a Native American language the national language, I have several things to say. Who founded the United States of America? Obviously, the simple answer is the English. But why didn’t they honor Native American culture and learn their language when they came to the New World? Well the answer to that is quite simple. The Native American culture was a very diverse and complicated one to understand. In addition to that element, there is the aspect that many Native American cultures did not hold the same values that our nation was founded on.

The settlers who left Europe and other parts of the world did something revolutionary. They set out to establish a nation founded on the principles of equality, freedom, and justice for all. Since then, people from all nations have come to America under that contract: to receive all of the benefits of this great land, but at the same time assimilate into its cultural pool. That is what has created the great melting pot of a nation we are today. In 2007, only about 4.5 million people in the United States could not speak English at all. By making English the official language, a source of encouragement would be provided to all people living in America, to learn her language. Just like when you visit someone’s house or even move in with them, you don’t come in and make the rules yourself. You follow their rules. Theodore Roosevelt did not take very kindly to people living in America who refused to learn English and show full loyalty to the United States in this quote:

"Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country."

States with other rich and widespread cultural traditions, such as Hawaii should be able to make other languages official as well, but if a state is a part of the union, it should honor its established and most common language: English.

To conclude with tonight, I promised I would share all the info I have on the Ultimate Patriot competition and sweepstakes for this summer. For those of you wondering what I am talking about, almost a month ago I asked you all on Twitter who you thought the “ultimate patriot” was. I got a great mix of responses, and included quite a few of them in the list of sixty-four nominees I established. Now, since today is June 1^st I am revealing the event to you all in full. From now through July 27^th you will have the opportunity to make your voice heard by voting in various surveys on who the ultimate patriot is. It’s really simple to do. To begin, just visit the official headquarters of the Ultimate Patriot event at www.wix.com/lancejp/patriot or click on the logo that will appear in the photo show on Lance Pisowicz Online (www.wix.com/lancejp/online). I will also be posting the links to vote in each of the surveys on Twitter and Facebook. Once you are on the Ultimate Patriot headquarters webpage, just click on the white circle with the yellow word “vote” on it to be taken to the current survey. You can vote once per computer in each survey of the event.

The event itself is broken into different rounds and groups. A round is just like an March Madness NCAA Tournament round. The round of 64 nominees will have 32 “match-ups” where you will pick who the greater patriot is in each “match-up.” The next round, the round of 32 will have 16 “match-ups” and so on. The larger rounds are broken into what I call groups, where you will vote on different sections of the bracket in each group. To fully understand what I mean by the event setup, I would advise you to download either the PDF or Microsoft Excel document that says “Updated Bracket” from www.wix.com/lancejp/patriot. You can also find out how your favorite patriot might win the entire event.

If all of this seems like a lot, I understand. That is why I am suspending the weekly polls until this event concludes at the end of July. But to make this event a little sweeter for you all, I am overseeing a sweepstakes event that runs in conjunction with the Ultimate Patriot competition. For every survey you complete you receive one chance in a random drawing to receive a $25 Restaurants.com E-Gift Certificate. It’s a nice gesture and a way for me to say thank you for all of the support you all have shown me these past few months.

If you have any questions about the event, I tried to cover everything at www.wix.com/lancejp/patriot but I am available to answer any more questions you may have via Twitter or my email, lpisowicz@usa.com.

That’s all the time we have for tonight. Thank you for joining me on “What’s Wrong With Washington”. I will see you on Sunday with “Lance’s Weekly Walk.”

I hope you have enjoyed our broadcast tonight, as much as I have. Thanks again, and God bless you all. See you Sunday!

Sources: