Respect the Commander and Chief : Promises Kept By Obama

Don't believe the everything you hear. I am sure there is a lot we would like to see happen as far as progress is concerned, but there is a lot being done as well. So many may claim that America is lost and is being misled, but as I was just viewing websites like Politifact.com and seen just how hard our president is working. As our nation moves forward to a brighter future we need to be more aware. This website showed the promised kept vs. broken and those in progress. I say its worth looking at.

This is a fraction of the promise kept list.

Create an Advanced Manufacturing Fund to invest in peer-reviewed manufacturing processes

Increase minority access to capital

Require economic justification for tax changes

Change standards for determining broadband access

Establish a credit card bill of rights

Expand loan programs for small businesses

Extend and index the 2007 Alternative Minimum Tax patch

Close the "doughnut hole" in Medicare prescription drug plan

Expand the Senior Corps volunteer program

Require insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions

Give tax credits to those who need help to pay health premiums

Require large employers to contribute to a national health plan

Require children to have health insurance coverage

Expand eligibility for Medicaid

Expand eligibility for State Children's Health Insurance Fund (SCHIP)

Require health plans to disclose how much of the premium goes to patient care

Establish an independent health institute to provide accurate and objective information

In non-competitive markets, force insurers to pay out a reasonable share of their premiums for patient care

Eliminate the higher subsidies to Medicare Advantage plans

Expand funding to train primary care providers and public health practitioners

Increase funding to expand community based prevention programs

Reinstate executive order to hire an additional 100,000 federal employees with disabilities within five years.

Increase the Veterans Administration budget to recruit and retain more mental health professionals


Fully fund the Veterans Administration

Assure that the Veterans Administration budget is prepared as 'must-pass' legislation

Expand the Veterans Administration's number of "centers of excellence" in specialty care

Appoint a special adviser to the president on violence against women

Fully fund the Violence Against Women Act

Direct military leaders to end war in Iraq

No permanent bases in Iraq

Send two additional brigades to Afghanistan

Strengthen and expand military exchange programs with other countries

Make greater investment in advanced military air technology

Make U.S. military aid to Pakistan conditional on anti-terror efforts

Give a speech at a major Islamic forum in the first 100 days of his administration

Allocate Homeland Security funding according to risk

Create a real National Infrastructure Protection Plan

Increase funding for local emergency planning

Stand down nuclear forces to be reduced under the Moscow Treaty

Appoint a White House Coordinator for Nuclear Security

The State of Our Nation: Everyone vs. Everyone.

I strongly dislike contributing to such a complex debate, but it has become unavoidable. There is a growing virus in the United States of America that needs to be stopped. It breads hate and threatens to break our nation apart. I am sure that I am not the only one to notice the growing animosity directed toward the President of the United States and the Democrats in congress. The behavior has been unhealthy and immature at best. The entire atmosphere is void of true patriotic feelings that is set on forging a bright future for the United States.

Take any debate and you will see how one side says that the actions taken by the other is part of an agenda to deprive us of freedom. The truth is that this is a nation that is filled with people who want to help, but don’t know how to work together. The frustrating part is that there is a strong possibility that some of us don’t want to work together. Deep hatred and prejudices of all sorts lurk underneath our exterior like lava in a volcano. The tragic part is that it may destroy us before we fix it.

Take some people's view of President Obama just weeks after he became president. It hasn’t been a year into his presidency and they are already calling him the devil. I mean people are still trying to find out if he is still a US citizen. This shows how some people are really out of touch. This lack of respect really under minds our ability to stand together as a nation and get out of this mess. Some say it's liberals others say it's conservatives and I say it’s everyone. As a nation we are immature in a lot of ways. We over spend money and over use resources. We over complain and are impatient. We over talk and never understand what is really at stake. Our Nation is at stake if we don’t stop.

Groups are starting up with names like Real America, Patriots, Tea Party, ect (excuse me if the names are off). Some of these groups are stirring up hate in a whole new way. I heard a speaker refer to the Administration as King George and the Parliament that was in power during the American Revolution. The conservative speaker also mentioned where the founding documents gives us the right to overthrow the government if necessary. When we begin using such provocative language not even a year after an election it shows that there is something wrong here and need to be examined. I mean give Obama a chance already. Help the President and Congress as your patriotic duty demands and get our country back on track. Enough with pointing out problems and what the other is doing wrong start with the solutions.

Many people may argue that this is ideal rhetoric, but it’s not. Many actions in congress have been halted because the inability to work together and solve problems. With election season around the corner, we will see this get even worse. I can’t see how Obama has become a bad word amongst a certain sector of America. People make it sound like he’s the “Illegal Alien Devil Buggy Man” when in reality he is the President of the United States of America that is not even half way through his presidency. We have two wars, a somewhat broken and confused economy, a natural disaster in the gulf, and war zone in Chicago. We need to ask those in power to work together at all cost as we do the same as citizens. This is not a request it’s a responsibility to everyone who has every stood during the National Anthem or recited the Pledge of Allegiance. "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. This is more than a choice of words it’s a way of life.

Lorenzo B. Webber