My Dear Friends:
William Grant Burmer


There is a story told of a man, the likes of Obama and his army of tyrants, passed down through generations of time. Like Obama the man wanted to be a King over the people and he pursued power wherever he could claim it, even by flattering words deceiving the some with a promise to make those who followed him rulers themselves over the people; Czars has a familiar ring does it not. Such individuals dismiss God or His righteousness and seek for power only, they are quick to do iniquity and be led away by evil men.


We have over the past 3 years seen the wickedness one very wicked man can cause to take place among the children of men. Because Obama is cunning in his devices and a man of many flattering words he has led the hearts of many people to do his bidding, not only to destroy our Christian faith but to destroy all the foundations of liberty which our God has proclaimed the essence of Americas culture.


Now comes the “Tea Party,” an enigma to the men and women who follow after Obama. Not just one man, but a growing plethora of American patriots, prepared to do battle with the evil that has engulfed their sacred Land of Liberty and Freedom; Ready to do battle and reclaim their land, their Christian faith, their love of God and Country from those who would dare take it from them.


Prepare, those of you who are not ashamed of our God, or to keep His commandments, Obama and his followers can see that the “Tea Party” is greater than they and they fear them. We must be faithful above all, to reclaim our Liberty and restore our heritage for which much blood has been spilt.


Let the true justice again prevail in our Legislatures, Our Courts, and with those chosen to lead our Nation. We do not need appeasers; we need men and women with selfless hearts, willing to sacrifice their time for the well being of the people and our Nation, that America can again lead the World in a better direction. God Bless America.

Perry & Texas Are Right

Perry & Texas Are Right
Kevin Bryant



Over the course of the last couple of debates, Rick Perry has taken a real beating for the appearance that he is weak in immigration. In particular, his stance on the children of illegal immigrants receiving in state tuition cost at Texas universities.



Now let the arguments commence. I for one agree with the policy though I do not think it quite goes far enough. The one thing that seems to escape all those hammering him on this subject is “ children of illegals who are here do to no fault of their own”. It’s not like some 6 year old decided one day to leave Mexico on his or her own and come to the U.S. to start a new life. So, somebody had to bring them across and I bet it was the parents.



Now you have a illegal child in the U.S., what do we do in all public schools, we educate them in accordance with the law. By the time this 6 year old illegal has graduated high school, between $40,000 and $80,000 has been spent on this child’s education.



Now he or she is a high school graduate but is still here illegally which means he or she can’t find a job that doesn’t pay under the table, off the books or whatever term you prefer. So, what happens to this person, they become even more of a drain on the system.



You can’t fix this kind of problem until you address border security directly. Seal the borders tighter than a drum and then those who are complaining have a legitimate complaint.



Until then, so long as this child – kid – young adult has not gotten into any trouble with the law, graduated high school in accordance with state and federal requirements and otherwise meets the requirements for college acceptance, then why not get this kid into the system, start the paperwork for citizenship and allow them to go to college.



Chances are, if this kid has graduated high school, never had a run in with the law and meets the requirements for college, he or she would make the most of the opportunity and become a productive and positive citizen of the U.S. and member of society.



Many hearing but not listening to the debates never heard the words “put them on a path to citizenship” , they never heard “to no fault of their own”. All they heard was “illegal”. Are we a society where we directly make the kids suffer because of actions of the parents?



If the kid completes college, he gets a job, earns a living, pays taxes on those earnings and eventually pays back all the money spent to him in the form of sales tax, fica tax, med tax, gas tax and each of the other 120 types of taxes we have.



Even if this kid doesn’t complete college, he or she is now legal to be in and work in the U.S. He or she now has a legal social security number and is required to pay taxes.



Now, the one step further I stated in the beginning. In addition to all the requirements for college mentioned, I would include making the parents register as being in the country go to the back of the line for citizenship and college was conditional upon one of the parents finding gainful employment. The family as a whole would be fined $10,000 to be paid to the state within 10 years.



So, Rick Santorum, Michelle Bachmann, Ron Paul and Mitt Romney, what exactly is NOT logical and beneficial about Texas’s approach to dealing with children of illegals? Come up with a better solution or shut your mouths because you are criticizing for the sake of criticizing. What plan have ANY OF YOU offered that meets or exceeds the one in Texas? Truth is none of you have one.

The Direction of the GOP

The Direction of the GOP
Al Ritter

The direction of the GOP should be guided by the RNC chairman, but it seems that once again the media seems to be setting the stage for the primary. After a series of debates it seems the two front runners (Romney and Perry) are more moderate than conservative. Tea Party conservatives are questioning if this is the direction they want to go in the primary.

The media is now pushing with some of the GOP to get Gov. Chris Christie to run for president. As I pointed out in a past article Gov. Christie is anything but a strict conservative and yet some voices want him to run for the presidency. Isn’t the field populated enough with moderate candidates? With a president that leans as far left as Obama does, do we really need an “Obama lite” candidate?

Do we really need a moderate to get some things done in congress? Some people think that a farther right leaning candidate will only alienate each side of the isle to farther gridlock. I suppose there is ample proof from either side of this issue. Tea Party members seem to think that if a moderate candidate wins the general election it will still leaver us closer to the left than where they want to be.

Every voter will have their own deal breaker issues that they will NOT stray past. Most people seem to think that nobody will have a candidate that they will agree with totally, and that may be true.

Unfortunately I live in a VERY liberal state that still sees Obama in a 60% positive light. Because we deal with general elections and an electoral college my vote in the general election in Maryland has been wasted since 1973. Is that a cynical outlook? Maybe it is, but it also realistic.

I refuse to vote in this election for a candidate that so happens to be the “lesser of two evils.” I made that mistake in 2007, but I will not make it again. The winner of the GOP primary will have to sell themselves to me!

"Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual -- or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country." --Samuel Adams, in the Boston Gazette, 1781

Lies, and Corruption, When Is Enough Enough?

Lies, and Corruption, When Is Enough Enough?
Al Ritter

Every day when I don’t think things or choices from our government can get much worse I am unpleasantly surprised. Bad choices seem to be the daily menu for this administration. Deceit, lies, and corruption seem to rule the day, and the law of the land is violated as easily as washing ones hands.

We have been lied to by our president on everything from job production to economic policy, to ending wars, to prosecution of criminals. The Obama Administration has turned conflict of interest into an art form. His collusion with unions’ borderlines on treason, and his stand with Acorn is clearly corruption.

I can remember NO time in the past, including the Carter Administration, where I so feared the direction of our country. Obama has done the American people as a whole a disservice. I also fear that he has tainted the candidate pool for black Americans running for office in the future. His arrogance and deceitful nature has without a doubt caused our once staunch allies to cast a guarded eye on our country.

To assume that all these actions are unrelated and unintentional shows the naiveté of holders of such thoughts. This has been a well- orchestrated agenda from the narcissistic leader of our country begging to be the leader of some new world order where only he knows his eventual role. Hope and Change is one thing, but systematic destruction of the country that our forefathers envisioned must not be tolerated.

If I had told you in 2007 that after such a short time after 9/11 that Muslims would be greeted with open arms in droves into our country, both illegal entry and legal, or that the Palestinian people would be on the verge of having their own state declared by the UN while they are still attacking Israel. If I had told you that our President would refuse to seal our borders against illegal entry but declare we are safer than we have ever been before. If I had told you that the Attorney general had been complicit in the death of a border agent because he illegally passed assault weapons over the border to drug cartel members to sway the American people into thinking that guns are bad and should be banned in the U.S. If I had told you that same Attorney General would pick and choose what laws to enforce and what laws to ignore. If I had told you that our president would act as the mouthpiece for organized labor and push forward every objective on the union’s collective table. If I had told you that one of the first things our new president would do is go on a world apology tour right after he was elected…………………would you have voted for him?

Funding for 9/11 Memorials

Funding for 9/11 Memorials
Al Ritter

I was curious as to who funded the 9/11 Memorials so I embarked upon a research project. The three sites have very special needs and of course with those needs come required funds. I only researched the builds on the memorials, not the rebuilding of buildings. Of course the monumental damage done to the 16 square acres in NY was the most devastating in both lives and structural damage. The Pentagon was next on the list with catastrophic building damage. Lastly the Shanksville, Pennsylvania crash site. I will give you every bit of funding I could discover from all three sites.

New York, Ground Zero

This was the most emotionally charged site of all. Early emotion decisions finally gave way to more logical ideas on how best to utilize the sixteen acres destroyed in the two plane crashes. Originally $500 was designated for the Memorials at ground zero, but that figure was later downgraded to $300 million.

A foundation was set up controlled by a 36 member board to not only do fundraising but to make decisions on the final usage of the site. Many hours were spent hearing from victim’s families on their personal ideas as to the design of any and all Memorials.

Gov. Pataki designated $80 million of his 2006-07 executive state budget to the building of to the building of some sort of Memorial to be decided on at a later date. Congress also earmarked $2.78 million to the project. The Department of the Interior has designated the 8 acres of the Memorial as a Nation Park. It has been suggested but not mandated that entry to the Museum area will request a $20 donation for continued funding and maintenance. Victim’s families will never be charged any admission costs for passage to the Museum. Outside entry will always be free. Additional funding for the site has been started by the U.S. Mint in the form of a memorial coin which hopes to raise an additional $20 million to the pot. Of course private donations are the lesser amount and continue to trickle in.

Mayor Bloomberg has offered a personal donation for an unspecified amount. Additional funds for future upkeep and maintenance has been suggested in Congress for the amount of $20 million yearly for staffing and upkeep, however some estimate that the staggering figure will be closer to $55 to $60 million.

The Pentagon

Figures for this Memorial were somewhat harder to get. Because this was basically a military building, the rebuild had to be of the utmost importance to return it to functional mode. The rebuild of the Pentagon was done the fastest and the Memorial although primarily confined to the outside area has made some small concessions to inside the building Memorials. The original budget for Memorials was a conservative $32 million compared to the other sites. The actual cost of phase one was $22 million with an additional $10 million for extension into phase 2 and initial planning. The Pentagon has declared all money for this project was from donations. Some claim that almost all those donations came from Defense Dept. contractors. One donation came from Taiwan in the amount of $1 million. The Pentagon was the first site to not only reopen the building from crash damage but to dedicate its Memorial in 2008. It was announced on September 9, 2011 that phase two will start shortly and a fund drive will be $3 to $4 million to plan for the Visitor Education Center to be built somewhere close to the crash site.

Shanksville, PA Crash of Flight 93

Shanksville, PA is known for its remote location, and therefore creates another special challenge for funding. Once a strip mining area now turned into another Federal Park to the tune of 2200 acres. The Memorial property once owned by a strip mining operation has been acquired and added to by private surrounding properties. Some property was purchased and some was acquired by eminent domain as a buffer zone. Figures for the Memorial do not include property acquisition. The figures for the Memorial were equally hard to obtain. The initial budget was $62 million so far $19 million in private donations and $32 million in state and federal funds have been used. Although the total budget is dwarfed by say New York’s Memorial fund (New York State’s governor’s participation would have paid for the entire Shanksville Project,) the Flight 93 memorial still lags behind by $10 million for completion.


There you have it patriots, the numbers I could find just in case you were curious like me!

My Shanksville Experience

My Shanksville Experience
Al Ritter

A year ago today I was in transit to visit my son in Pittsburgh and just so happened to stop on the Pennsylvania Turnpike at the Somerset rest stop. While I was leaving the building I happened to see a Memorial Plaque on the wall for the crash site of Flight 93 in Shanksville, PA. I never really knew where Shanksville was in Pennsylvania but I read on.

The plaque said that the crash site was only 30 miles from the rest stop, so in my mind I was already making plans to visit the site on my return trip. September 10, 2010 just so happened to be my visit date to the hallowed site. I called my friend Eric and asked if he wanted to meet me there, and he was up for the road trip from Maryland and we agreed on a time.

The Shanksville area has been transformed immensely since that fateful day in 2001. The area was basically a strip mining site. Careful planning by environmental groups has transformed the area surrounding the site into a beautifully landscaped zone that now incorporates an electric wind farm. Some 30 wind generators dot the area now and despite claims to the contrary they seem to offer a serene, almost silent feeling of grandeur.

As I approached the site I was surprised that the development of the memorial wasn’t farther along than it was. A dirt covered road lead almost two miles back to the site from the highway. An old work building from the original strip mining site was transformed to house the artifacts from the crash. The intent was to keep things the way they were that horrible day.

I can’t explain the feelings that Eric and I felt that day, and I’m certain that other visitors to attack sites from 9/11 feel the same way. As we stood in the building reading all the information with about 100 other visitors it was eerie how quiet it was. It seemed like a silent tribute to the most active flight that crashed that day. Flight 93 took an active role in preventing the attack on the Whitehouse. From the black box found at the site, it was shown that the automatic pilot was set on the coordinates of the Whitehouse for the final destination. Through the actions of the brave patriots on board they forced a crash into an unpopulated area in the coal mining area at over 500 MPH.

Eric and I both felt an eerie reverence to the passengers on that fated flight, and we both left with a new sense of patriotism. I encourage everyone to visit one of the 3 sites and I promise you will come away with a renewed sense of America.

Today 9/10/2011 the memorial ceremony will be broadcast live on the internet from Shanksville at 12:30 pm. The Memorial Site has progressed at a rather fast rate since last year I will be watching to see the finished product. You may go here to watch http://www.history.com/flight-93-pre-event

Labor Day: Democratic Appeasement to Big Labor

Labor Day: Democratic Appeasement to Big Labor
Al Ritter

When you think about Labor Day, you think about pools closing down, cookouts, and the impending end of summer, but little do we think about the real cause for the holiday. The cause for the holiday was enacted by President Grover over the Pullman strike. In 1893 the Pullman Company was struggling with declining sales and hard times and had increased workers hours and decreased wages. Company owner George Pullman declined to meet with union representatives from the American Railway Union.

Eugene Debs the ARU president increased pressure on Pullman by organizing a massive boycott through 125,000 railroad workers, virtually shutting down the railroads in America. Grover Cleveland felt that this shutdown interfered with the delivery of the mail and therefore violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Cleveland sent US Marshals and some 12,000 military troops to break up the strike. After the dust had settled 13 strikers laid dead and 57 were wounded. Some 6000 workers did over $360,000 in damages ($8.8 million in 2010 dollars.)

In 1894 Cleveland tried his best to appease the ARU and declared the first national Labor Day celebration. Debs was imprisoned 6 months for his part in denying an injunction to end the strike.The name Eugene Debs may ring a bell with some readers, he later became a candidate for president under the banner of the Socialist Party of America in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920 from his prison cell. Noted for his oratory, it was a speech denouncing American participation in World War I that led to his second arrest in 1918. He was convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917 and sentenced to a term of 10 years. President Warren G. Harding commuted his sentence in December 1921. Debs died in 1926 not long after being admitted to a sanatorium.

Congress passed the declaration of Labor Day in just six days siting that they would now place union pacification at the top of their priority list………….not much different from today……..and now you know the rest of the story!

Government Never Created Jobs

Government Never Created Jobs
Al Ritter

Government never created one single job without making itself larger. The Obama constantly touts itself as creating or saving jobs, but let’s investigate their claim. What exactly is a “saved job?” This term is thrown around loosely to make the Administration look better in the eyes of everyday Americans, but what does it mean? To claim a saved job in the Obama Administration normally means they gave some sort of business incentive to keep from laying people off, or temporarily sidestepped a rule or regulation that they first imposed on private business. They then claim that by doing so they “saved” that job, even though they were the ones that put that job in peril in the first place.

The figures came out today that America created NO jobs in August, and unemployment still stands at 9.1%. Obama still clings steadfast to the flawed notion that he is creating jobs. I still hold true to the idea that the government never creates a job that it can’t take away the next time the political winds change. Although government workers only account for 2% (2.7 million people) in the work force, the Administration thinks that somehow they can improve unemployment by adding to that work force. Even IF that were possible and the Administration were to double that number the effect on the unemployment figure would barely change. Hiring additional government employees’ only costs the citizens more in taxes.

Government can’t be the cause of hiring in the private sector. Offering a small business an incentive of $500 or $5000 to hire another employee is ludicrous without first having the need to hire them. Consumer confidence is the ONLY driving factor toward additional hiring. There has to be more customers coming through the door to hire more employees, not some token gesture by government.

We need an atmosphere conducive to business and yes…….here’s that dirty word to a liberal, capitalism. Capitalism is not a dirty word it is the thing that drove us as a country to greatness. It started the age of the Industrial Revolution it was the thing that drove America to be the leaders in the computer age, and Silicon Valley. To strangle our creativity by implementing new rules and regulations is counterproductive in the continued success of our country. Until an Administration sees the light, we shall continue down the tunnel of major failure.