Most people learn about their birthplace from their parents and evidence suggests that Barack Obama (known as Barry Obama) believed until 2007 that he was born in Kenya and publshed that as fact.

On Thursday morning and afternoon we set out in three boats, with guides, to catch the largest fish. Gary won that prize by pulling in an 18 inch beauty. The weather was perfect except we needed a little wind to add ripples to the calm water. That helps the fishing.

On Friday we set out in the same fishing groups on yet another perfect weather day and Dan won the the prize for the largest fist with a 20 inches. After dinner at the Farmhouse we played poker till late.

Gary, Dan and I sent Randy, Dave and Joe off to home on Saturday morning then we went to Dogwood Canyon for a 6 mile bike ride along a trail of waterfalls and carefully manicured parks. Afterwards we relaxed at Big Cedar Lodge.

As Obama prints money and continues his campaign to redistribute wealth, it’s become obvious that the end result, while helping our exports, will be that Americans won’t be able to afford travel abroad and imported goods will become more and more expensive.

The rising cost of oil is also directly related to the value of our currency (its always traded in US Dollars) and there appears to be no end to rising gas prices as our currency is devalued by the Obama printing presses as predicted after he came into office. But of course the Obama Energy Secretary says that rising gasoline prices are necessary to make alternative energy sources competitive.

Following are graphs of the ten (10) strongest world currencies showing the 3 1/2 year decline of our American Dollar.

The Truth About the Health Care Bills – Michael Connelly, Ret .Constitutional Attorney

Well, I have done it! I have read the entire text of proposed House Bill 3200: The Affordable Health Care Choices Act of 2009. I studied it with particular emphasis from my area of expertise, constitutional law. I was frankly concerned that parts of the proposed law that were being discussed might be unconstitutional. What I found was far worse than what I had heard or expected.

To begin with, much of what has been said about the law and its implications is in fact true, despite what the Democrats and the media are saying. The law does provide for rationing of health care, particularly where senior citizens and other classes of citizens are involved, free health care for illegal immigrants, free abortion services, and probably forced participation in abortions by members of the medical profession.

The Bill will also eventually force private insurance companies out of business, and put everyone into a government run system. All decisions about personal health care will ultimately be made by federal bureaucrats, and most of them will not be health care professionals. Hospital admissions, payments to physicians, and allocations of necessary medical devices will be strictly controlled by the government.

However, as scary as all of that is, it just scratches the surface. In fact, I have concluded that this legislation really has no intention of providing affordable health care choices. Instead it is a convenient cover for the most massive transfer of power to the Executive Branch of government that has ever occurred, or even been contemplated If this law or a similar one is adopted, major portions of the Constitution of the United States will effectively have been destroyed.

The first thing to go will be the masterfully crafted balance of power between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of the U.S. Government. The Congress will be transferring to the Obama Administration authority in a number of different areas over the lives of the American people, and the businesses they own.

The irony is that the Congress doesn’t have any authority to legislate in most of those areas to begin with! I defy anyone to read the text of the U.S. Constitution and find any authority granted to the members of Congress to regulate health care.

This legislation also provides for access, by the appointees of the Obama administration, of all of your personal healthcare direct violation of the specific provisions of the 4th Amendment to the Constitution information, your personal financial information, and the information of your employer, physician, and hospital. All of this is a protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures. You can also forget about the right to privacy. That will have been legislated into oblivion regardless of what the 3rd and 4th Amendments may provide…

If you decide not to have healthcare insurance, or if you have private insurance that is not deemed acceptable to the Health Choices Administrator appointed by Obama, there will be a tax imposed on you. It is called a tax instead of a fine because of the intent to avoid application of the due process clause of the 5th Amendment. However, that doesn’t work because since there is nothing in the law that allows you to contest or appeal the imposition of the tax, it is definitely depriving someone of property without the due process of law.

So, there are three of those pesky amendments that the far left hate so much, out the original ten in the Bill of Rights, that are effectively nullified by this law It doesn’t stop there though.

The 9th Amendment that provides: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people; The 10th Amendment states: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are preserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Under the provisions of this piece of Congressional handiwork neither the people nor the states are going to have any rights or powers at all in many areas that once were theirs to control.

I could write many more pages about this legislation, but I think you get the idea. This is not about health care; it is about seizing power and limiting rights… Article 6 of the Constitution requires the members of both houses of Congress to “be bound by oath or affirmation to support the Constitution.” If I was a member of Congress I would not be able to vote for this legislation or anything like it, without feeling I was violating that sacred oath or affirmation. If I voted for it anyway, I would hope the American people would hold me accountable.
For those who might doubt the nature of this threat, I suggest they consult the source, the US Constitution, and Bill of Rights. There you can see exactly what we are about to have taken from us.

Michael Connelly

Retired attorney,

Constitutional Law Instructor

Carrollton, Texas

Our country is desperate for leadership; because what we have is a President who spends all of his time at fundraisers and creating a voter base with promises of more free cash and benefits that we are unable to afford. He has a long laundry list of broken promises already!

With the Rangers ahead 2-0 in the 8th and 9th innings, the hometown fans (standing room only) “Yu’d” like a loud “boo” and it was deafening in the Ballpark at Arlington as the Rangers shut out the visitors from New York.

If every baseball game was like this one they’d have to build a far larger stadium.

This would lead me to believe that the Obama “loosening” of eligibility for disability coupled with the high unemployment in America today (related mostly to Obama anti-business policies), has resulted in disability becoming a form of continuation of unemployment benefits.

It’s noteworthy that since Obama took office, the percentage of employable Americans (those actually working or seeking work) has dropped from 65.7% to 63.8% which indicates the number of Americans (about 6 million) that have left the workforce after unemployment benefits expired.

Ironically, this (falsely) drives down the unemployment rate.

It’s hilarious to listen to an Obama Campaign Leader stating that Ann Romney is unqualified to speak because she was an unemployed stay-at-home Mom and therefore knows little about the world.

With Obama’s class warfare campaign attacking success as if it was evil it’s hard to understand why so many Large Corporations are providing financial support to the Obama campaign. That illustrates that large Corporate supporters consider his corporate bashing to be simple political rhetoric for the unsuspecting population.

Obama has been conducting a relentless campaign (I get almost daily emails) for $3.00 donations with offers of free dinners with Michelle Obama or George Clooney and the like, it is certain that at some point Obama will point out his vast support from those that can only afford to send $3.00…..

Meanwhile, his strength in voter base is improving as he provides more incentive through social welfare programs to those who don’t work and don’t want to work.

The Obama deception continues….

China is about the same size as America only with four times as many people (1.4 Billion) and flying over the countryside it is readily apparent that the growth has been well- planned out. There are varying sizes of towns and cities surrounded by farmland and some are large industrial centers that are surrounded by many large apartment buildings with shopping areas to support the population.

A tourist visa is required and must be obtained prior to leaving America and that process is almost as complicated as getting a passport.

However, the flight attendants, security personnel, customs agents, cab drivers and hotel agents were as friendly as you could hope for and most spoke some english. Safety, cleanliness and modern facilities are the norm here but I was most astonished to see forests of trees everywhere amongst the many tall apartments, office buildings and industrial buildings. The freeway from the airport to Beijing, a distance of about 30 miles, was lined on either side with a deep landscape barrier and large planted trees to separate and conceal whatever was behind them.

The six lanes of traffic moved along a modern roadway at high-speed and I was downtown by taxi in half an hour for about 80 yuan ($14.00).

After eating Asian food for several days I decided to seek out some American food and found a Hooters about a mile away from my Holiday Inn Hotel. Visiting with the young Chinese there I found them to be very friendly. They were surprised to learn that many Americans would not travel to China due to concerns about life safety issues and they emphasized how safe they felt in their homeland.

Brian, my Christian tour guide (what are the chances of that happening) arrived to pick me up Tuesday morning at 8:30 am and we set out for a fascinating day exploring the sights of the City.

Brian’s real name is Ma Ching Wa (i butchered that) and he was born, raised and educated in Beijing. He graduated from the Beijing Foreign Studies University, is fluent in English and very knowledgeable about world history and religion.

We visited Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City and had a fabulous
la carte lunch at a noted and popular local restaurant. After lunch we went to the Summer Palace and visited a pearl factory. Brian then took me in a special sideline tour to the Asbury Methodist Church, one of the oldest (1870) christian churches in China.

My last day in China was capped off with a trip to the Great Wall of China through the mountains about an hours drive from Beijing. There are many sections of the 6000 km wall that you can visit and hike upon but it is no longer one continuos wall.

After walking the very steep stairwells to exhaustion we headed back through the foggy hills and returned to Beijing to visit a Temple and other sights that seemed forgettable after visiting the Great Wall of China.

One thing I noted on my last day was how that coins are never used and everything is rounded off to exact Yuans (or Quie as its commonly called) which is about 17 cents. In other words, everything is rounded off to the nearest 17 cents thus eliminating the need for coins. At Starbucks at the airport I asked for my change in coins and they looked at me with a smile and gave me two one- yuan coins.

Another item of interest is that if you run over someone on a bicycle then you will be personally responsible for some if not all of the medical cost of rehabilitation. This would explain why there are very few accidents between the bicycles/electric mopeds and automobiles. There is no such thing as auto insurance such as what Americans are familiar with.

I was awoken at 3:30 am by American Airlines that night announcing that my return flight to Chicago was delayed by about 12 hours. I chose an alternative route via Air China to Japan and then Ameican direct to Dallas. I write this final comment from the American Airlines Admiral’s Club in Narita, Japan while awaiting my Dallas flight. I can’t tell you how satisfied I am with American Airlines through this endeavor. They had a concierge meet me upon my arrival in Japan and walk me through the security, customs, terminal transfers to get me safely to the departure area. Air China excelled also but American is the best!