Thom Goolsby, a Wilmington, North Carolina attorney, has thrown his hat into the political ring by announcing his bid for the 9^th District senate seat in the North Carolina General Assembly. Shortly after Mr. Goolsby’s announcement, I contacted him through his web site, http://thomgoolsby.com, and asked to do an email interview with him. Mr. Goolsby graciously accepted my offer. The results, however, have been disappointing, to say the least.

My initial emailed questions seemed a little too general, so I sent a second with more specific questions. The following are the second list of questions I sent:

Q:  Who is Thom Goolsby?

Q:  Who is/was your mentor, hero, inspiration?

Q:  What motivates you?

Q:  How would you describe your personal ideology?

Q:  Why have you thrown your hat into the political ring?

Q:  In your opinion, what are the three most pressing issues facing the residents of the North Carolina’s 9^th Senate District? And, what will you do to face them?

Q:  In your opinion, what are the three most pressing issues facing the residents of North Carolina? And, what will you do to face them?

Q:  It seems as though the government and the justice system are “Bending” the Constitution, in its interpretations, to benefit select groups of individuals instead of all citizens as a whole. As an attorney, do you agree or disagree that this is happening? Do you agree or disagree with this action?

Q:  The issue of Term Limits in Congress has been raised a great deal lately because citizens are tired of “Career Politicians”. Would you support Term Limits at the state level?

Exactly one week later, with thanks for my patience, I received the following response:

I believe that we are all tired of modern-day politics in America, in general, and North Carolina, in particular.  For a state and country founded on individual liberty and self-determination, we have become babies of a Nanny State and she’s not a good surrogate mommy!  I want to help lead the charge to take back North Carolina from the brink of disaster.  The pro-BIG government, anti-personal responsibility, self-dealing cronies have hoodwinked the public for too many decades.  We are $5 billion in the red right now in North Carolina, our state debt has tripled in just the last few years (without voter approval) and we are facing billion dollar tax increases.  The fight won’t be easy, but as a former officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, I don’t require tasks to be “easy” in order to be accomplished.  I hold to the adage, “Fortune favors the brave!”

I find this response disappointing as well as far below my expectations. Mr. Goolsby’s biography, from his law firm’s web site http://goolsbylaw.com, states, “Thom Goolsby is a writer, professor of law and a trial attorney.” I would expect someone with Mr. Goolsby’s background, education and service to be much more articulate. I would also expect more from someone who is running for public office.

I had originally approached Mr. Goolsby in hopes of helping promote his bid for public office and give my readers some insight to the man. Many in the local and area community know Mr. Goolsby for his successful law practice and have listened to him during his regular weekly spot on Curtis Wright’s radio show The Morning Beat on The Big Talker FM 93.7 & 106.3 FM, Wednesdays at 7:30 AM. I have always appreciated Mr. Goolsby’s conservative views, his dissent for the mismanagement and corruption within the local and state governments and his pursuit of justice.

I had hoped to bring a solid and concise interview to these pages and I hope I still can.

Mr. Goolsby, I hope you have followed the link I have sent to you and that you reconsider providing direct answers to the questions I have submitted to you. There are many in the 9^th District who don’t know you and this is your opportunity to shine.

Hopefully, this interview will be continued …

Obama isn’t just going after the money of the rich and famous, he’s reaching into the wallets, purses and pockets of every single one of us, unless, you happen to fall into one of his favorite groups of people. Oh yes, he threw us the pathetic excuse of a tax break on our payroll withholding of a whole six dollars a week in our paychecks (on average). However, in my case, my insurance premiums went up that exact same time by six dollars a week. No break here. Next he hit on something else partake in, yes I know and I don’t want to hear about it, my cigarettes. BOOM! lets jack the tax on smokes some more. I don’t know about you, but I know many people who struggle to survive from week to week, earning substantially less than $250k, and still buy their smokes. Unlike Obama, who lives in government housing and eats government funded meals while still earning a very comfortable income, can buy his smokes without the extra tax cutting into his household budget, while cutting into ours.

Now Obama is looking to make this cut even deeper and bleed us dry. He is running the national debt up to unimaginable numbers. For this, we will all pay, not to mention our children and their children. His, and his Washington cronies, are pushing through their Cap & Trade bill which will cause us to pay more for any and every energy based product we use. Need to drive to work? Gas will cost you more. Need to heat or cool your house? That fuel oil, natural or propane gas and electricity will cost you more. Why don’t these so called educated, intelligent people see that pushing huge fees onto business, will makes it way to the consumer? ***NOTE: THIS BILL MAY BE VOTED ON THIS FRIDAY, JUNE 26, AND PASS BECAUSE OF THE DEMOCRAT MAJORITY IN CONGRESS.***

There are many other cost increases which we will see as a result of this bill. The primary increase that will affect every single American will be the cost of your weekly grocery bill. Transportation is not cheap and increased fuel costs will be passed on to, yup, you guessed it, YOU! Higher energy costs for your local grocery store means higher overhead for them, yup, you guessed right again, the cost will be passed on to you. See, no one is safe, not even if you did earn less than $250k. And by the way, there is also language in there which begins the journey towards nationalizing the energy industry and total government control.

Health care is a Hot Button topic these days. Once again, the push is on to rush through legislation, by the end of the year I might add, for nationalized health care – Obama-Care. If any of you reading this has ever been exposed to a national health care system, you know where I am going with this. However, I’m sure that most of you have no idea how poorly this system operates. Being born and raised in Canada and living there the first thirty years of my life, I believe I can speak honestly when I say, IT SUCKS!

Here’s just a little idea of what we’re in for if Obama gets his way. In Canada, the province (like one of our states) of Ontario was the first to venture into the realm of social medicine.  The Ontario Hospitalization Insurance Program (OHIP) was created and funded through taxpayer dollars without an increase in taxes, kind of. After the first couple of years of social medicine, the system started to get into fiscal financial trouble. There just wasn’t enough money to fund the program. In their infinite wisdom, income taxes were increased to cover the shortfalls. This was not received well by the citizens. Again, after some time, funds ran short and financial troubles plagued the program. The next step was to dictate to the medical community what they would charge for services and what OIHP would reimburse them. Many doctors protested having the idea of the government dictate to them what they could charge. In an attempt to quell the uprising the Ontario Ministry of Health elected to allow doctors to “Opt Out” of the program, thus, not having to accept those whose primary insurance was OHIP. This action created an immediate shortage of doctors available to the general population. The Ministry now had to reevaluate their decision and after working out the details with other provincial office, tacked the burden of funding the program onto every employer in the province that employed more than six people. You can already see where this is going, higher prices for the end user of their products to cover the extra expense to them.

It was shortly after that move, that I did the same and headed south to the US. I do still have family living in Canada and see how social medicine has affected their well being. Several years ago, maybe seven or eight, my father, who is now eighty, broke his shoulder. It was determined that he would need surgery to correct his condition. Because of his age, retired and a non-productive member of society, he had to wait two years, yes I said two, before the surgery would be preformed. He lived in pain and with restricted movement for those two years. Now let me tell you how this hurt me. This man is the most active eighty year old I know. He works around his home, chops wood for the winters, sets and retrieves his crab and shrimp traps, fishes, handles his 28’ sail boat on his own and renovated his home three years ago, by himself. The two year wait stopped all of this for a time. It’s good to know his is still going strong, despite the poor social medicine program he has to rely on.

Social medicine, nationalized health care doesn’t and will not work here in the US. With a population of about 315 million people in the US, our population is much larger than any other populations where the government runs health care.  Let’s get back to your money.

Here’s how Obama wants to fund his Obama-Care. If you are one of the fortunate people who have employer paid health care, good for you. I happen to be one of those people. Obama wants to include what your employer pays on your behalf as income and tax it. Unless, wait for it, YOU ARE MEMBER OF A LABOR UNION! Oh yes, his favorite group of people. Added to this, he wants to cut what doctors can bill to insurance companies by twenty one percent. Sound familiar? There goes our availability of doctors. Obama’s plan will include electronic medical file systems that will cost doctors an average of $25 thousand per office, more expense, and give the government access to YOUR medical records so GOVERNMENT can determine if the treatment your doctor is seeking to provide will be allowed. WHAT THE ****, sorry.

There are many other ways in which Obama will reach into your finances, your family budget. We will all feel the pain as the administration is allowed to forge ahead with their plans. Democrats control the House and the Senate, as well as the White House. But the guy in the White House controls Congress as a puppet master manipulates his puppets. What we have to look forward to is Fascist Socialism, where we will all be forced to become dependent on the federal government.

However, if we want to take control of our futures and turn back the hands of time to when smaller government was a more efficient and honorable establishment, we must act now. Our elected officials serve at the pleasure of “We The People” not at the pleasure of the President. They MUST listen to us, something they have not done for some time.  Get involved, speak your mind, let your elected official now that you have had enough of this out of control government, no representation. And if you elected official snubs the will of the majority, work your butt off to remove him/her in the next election. Some damage may already have been done but, we just might be able to stop the bleeding.

And in the words of Dr. Mark Levin, “Now, thank me!”