Let's Stop This Now!

“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”
Howard Beale from the movie, Network

Obama claimed he was going to stamp out earmarks and lower the debt. He is doing exactly the opposite! In the name of crisis after crisis, he’s expanding spending beyond anyone’s possible dreams—creating a new era of big government.

Obama’s budget will more than double the national debt! In fact, his projected deficits are greater than the sum of the deficits of all presidents before him. In case you missed that, let me state it again: IN FACT, HIS PROJECTED DEFICITS ARE GREATER THAN THE SUM OF THE DEFICITS OF ALL PRESIDENTS BEFORE HIM. And the most of the spending isn’t going to stimulate the economy. Why? Because it’s taking money out of the individual’s pocket and concentrating it in the hands of a few. It's simply spending money on all the projects the Democrats have wanted to spend it on since 1994. They're like kids in candy shops, slobbering all over themselves, giddy with power.

This is irresponsible at a time when we need to control spending. He’s blaming ALL the economic problems on the Bush administration. However, it was the Clinton administration that started the toxic lending in the first place. When the Republicans tried to fix it from 2002 – 2008, the Democrats in Congress and the Senate blocked them at every turn! Don’t believe me? You’re a proverbial ostrich with your head in the sand. (Never mind that ostriches don’t really stick their head in the sand.)

The CBO (an independent government agency) projected that we would come out of the current recession by mid- to late- 2009 IF NOTHING WAS DONE. Then Obama started claiming (right after he was elected) that this was the worst economy since the Great Depression. Lies, lies, lies. Did he not study history? Does he not know about the late 1940s and late 1950s? Or who can forget the late 1970s and early 1980s? They were even worse that it is now. However, we came out of them by reigning in government spending and reducing taxes.

With all his pessimism, Obama has created runs on banks and big sell-offs on Wall Street. This current mess is his doing. The best way he can get us out of it is by talking up the American way, restoring confidence in the American people, and allowing free-enterprise to take care of itself. Why did the Great Depression last so long? Two things: Increases in taxes and the Smoot-Hawley protectionist trade act. Lesson from history: NEVER RAISE TAXES DURING AN ECONOMIC DOWNTURN!

Final rant: We CANNOT allow the government to take over the running of private companies like tax cheat Geithner wants to do. People have claimed this is Marxism. However, let’s go back to pre-WWII days in Italy. What did Mussolini do? First, he created a crisis by claiming things were worse than they really were. Then he picked a group of people to blame it on. Next, he claimed that control by the government of the industries was the only way to get the country out of their mess. Then, he took control of everything big and silenced all opposition! What’s happening today? We are headed down exactly that road. The administration wants to silence talk radio and take over private companies. The current administration isn’t just Marxist—it’s using the methods employed by Fascism. And the legislative branch is following right along.

Summary: IT’S TIME FOR US PEASANTS TO REVOLT! Send letters to your representatives. Flood their phone-lines. Cram their e-mail inboxes. Vote everybody behind this out! In fact, vote them all out!

Frustrated . . .

Are you as frustrated as I am? Obama keeps says one thing while he does another. And what about the "crisis, crisis, crisis"? It's just a way to shove through what he wants. I guess he learned from Bush.

He needs to be more positive and let us all know that we are a great nation of strong people and WE WILL GET THROUGH THIS!

Stimulus versus Spending

Obama, in a press conference the other night, arrogantly stated that he didn't understand the opposition to the $700B-and-something bill as not being a "stimulus" bill, but a "spending" bill. He stated that spending is equivalent to stimulus. Let me respond.

(1) Giving tax relief to people who don't pay taxes is not stimulus--it is redistribution of wealth. While many of those who receive this money need it and will spend it on their families, much of the money will end up in the "underground" economy.

(2) The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says this bill is a disaster and will not have the intended affect. Even liberal Democrat economists agree.

(3) Most of the infrastructure spending won't take place until at least 2011. This won't create jobs now.

(4) Much of the spending is targetted for pet Democrat projects with highly limited impact and benefit--most of the money will be going to already rich people. Sure, a FEW jobs may be created, but they will be low-paying and limited scope. This is "trickle-down voodoo economics" all over again. It didn't work in the 80's and it won't work now. The rich became richer and the poor became poorer back then and the same thing will happen now.

This bill will fail. Then the Democrats will blame it on not spending enough. The Republicans will blame it on targetting the wrong things. The real answer, in my book, is that the money shouldn't be packaged and pushed through Congress so fast that nobody really knows what's "in the language" as Nancy Pelosi put it. It needs to be debated openly and among both parties and time taken to really think it through.

I'm tired of scare tactics to push legislation through. It harkens back to the Fascist Party under Mussolini.

Census and Political Transparency

Doesn't Obama know what he's doing is against the law? Didn't he take Political Science or Civics in high school or college? The Constitution says that the census shall be taken in a manner prescribed by Congress. The Congress passed a law that says that the census shall be taken by the Department of Commerce. Obama has NO power to move that responsibility to another office. Now, if he wants Congress to change the law, he can ask for that. That would be a perfectly acceptable way to go.

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The stimulus (or spending) bill reconciliation took place behind closed doors with only one party involved--the other was locked out. Obama promised transparency and non-partisanship, yet the Congress and Senate are going the opposite way! This is the least transparent and most partisan legislative branch in the history of the U.S. Prove me wrong. President Obama should call on Pelosi and Reid to unite instead of divide!

Honeymoon is Over?

People are rebelling. According to Gallup Polls, Americans disapprove of Obama's proposal to close Gitmo, they want the stimulus bill stopped, they don't want to pay for overseas abortions and birth control, and they're tired of Obama's picks for the cabinet and other government posts having a high rate of ethical problems and conflicts of interest. They also wish he would quit giving waivers to people who are lobbyists to serve in the government, when he said he wouldn't allow it!

Stimulus, Part 2 and Dachlegate? or Fizzlegate?

Go Senate! Start amending the Non-stimulus bill like crazy! Obama promised infrastructure improvement, yet only a small part of this bill addresses it--and not right away--mostly 3 and 4 years from now!

There's a lot of pork in this bill. Let's get ALL of it out and replace PART of it with more infrastructure spending NOW! And what is it with the Republicans wanting to socialize the mortgage system! I told you they were big spending and big government, in spite of their claims.

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Didn't I warn you about Tom Daschle's personal life in an earlier post?

Tom Daschle: "I'm [sniff] sorry I didn't pay my taxes. It was an [sniff, sniff] honest mistake."

Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. But even the New York Times is calling on him to resign!

Stimulus Package?????

The bill passed by the House yesterday contains 100's of billions of dollars in spending. However, less the $100 billion for this year, about $100 billion for next year, and $100 billion the year after that. 60% of it won't be spent in Obama's first term! Stimulus packages spend money now. In case you can't connect the dots: THIS IS NOT A STIMULUS PACKAGE! IT IS A LONG-TERM SPENDING PACKAGE!

I hope the Senate votes this down and then let's start over with a REAL stimulus package that fixes the problems now!

The President's First Three Days

President Obama: Kudos on your ethics changes for the Executive Branch! Now if we could just get Congress to accept the same limitations, we'd really clean up Washington.

Bringing the Troops Home: Glad it's finally going to happen. Bush's surge (which should have happened two years before) worked and we can start transitioning power back to the Iraqi people.

Closing Gitmo: Not so sure about this one. I have friends that have visited there on fact-finding missions and they say the prisoners are treated better than the guards are! I guess Leavenworth would be a great place to transfer the remaining prisoners until the courts decide what to do with them. Meanwhile, Prez Obama needs to call an international meeting on how exactly to deal with non-state sponsored terrorists and pirates. Then all countries need to abide by that agreement.

Reversing the Course on Intelligence: We're going back to pre-911 days. What did that get us?

The Economy: Sure it's bad. Sure it's going to get worse. But why is Obama using scare tactics to try and get Congress to pass the BIG, BIG, BIG Bailout? Is he afraid that if we look at what he's trying to get pushed through we'll see that the emperor has no clothes? Bush has already gotten one by us. Remember the old Russian saying (courtesy of Star Trek's Chekof): "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

Refunding Overseas Abortion: Good way to make the Islamic terrorists madder at us.

Report Card on Obama's Cabinet Picks

Ratings A-F for Obama's picks. Just my opinion.

(C) White House Chief of Staff: Rep. Rahm Emanuel. Democrat, Illinois. Obama said he wanted to unite us. Why pick a guy who is so divisive from the Illinois (read Chicago) political machine?

(D) Commerce: Bill Richardson, Democrat, New Mexico Governor, withdrawn because of a scandal. No replacement named.

(A) Securities and Exchange Commission: Mary Schapiro, CEO of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Lots of experience in the financial industry. Former SEC commissioner and served as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 1994 during the Clinton Administration.

(A) Transportation: Rep. Ray LaHood of Illinois, Republican. Experience in crafting positive legislation for transportation. Well respected by both Republicans and Democrats.

(C) Agriculture: Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, Democrat. Championed use of ethanol from corn for fuel. Should we be led by a man who advocated burning up our food supply?

(C) State: Hillary Clinton, Senator from New York, former first lady. Are there conflicts of interest with Bill receiving millions of dollars from Middle Eastern countries?

(A) Interior: Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar, Democrat. Previously served as the state’s attorney general and head of its Department of Natural Resources. Rancher and farmer.

(A) Defense: Bill Gates, Republican, Current Secretary. Great pick for a smooth transition during time of war. Probably will be replaced in a couple of years after things settle down.

(D) Treasury: Timothy Geithner, Democrat. President of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Failed to pay taxes for several years. And we want him to be in charge of collecting taxes? Come on!

(C) Homeland Security: Gov. Janet Napolitano, Democrat, Arizona. Does she really have the experience to manage this?

(C) Health and Human Services: Former Sen. Tom Daschle, Democrat, South Dakota. Leads Obama’s healthcare working group. Watch out for problems with his personal life!

(A) Attorney General: Eric Holder, Democrat, former deputy attorney general. Good experience.

(C) Labor: Rep. Hilda Solis, Democrat, California. What are her qualifications?

(A) U.S. Trade Representative: Ron Kirk, Democrat, former mayor of Dallas. Businessman. Good negotiator.

(A) Housing and Urban Development: Shaun Donovan, Democrat, New York. Commissioner of housing preservation and development in New York City. Served as a deputy assistant secretary at HUD during the Clinton administration.

(A) Small Business Administration: Karen Mills. A long resume’ of successful work raising capital and managing economic councils.

(C) Energy: Steven Chu. Head of the Berkeley National Laboratory and is a specialist in carbon-neutral energy sources. Won the 1997 Nobel Prize in physics. Great scientist, but is fully on the AGW bandwagon.

(D) Education: Arne Duncan, Democrat, Illinois. Head of the Chicago public school system — the third largest in the country. Previously ran an educational institute in Chicago. Championed and ran several failed educational programs—do we want him running the whole country’s?

(B) Veteran’s Affairs: General Eric Shinseki. Former U.S. Army chief of staff. 4-star general.

(A) EPA: Lisa Jackson, Democrat, New Jersey. Oversaw New Jersey’s environmental protection office and currently serves as the chief of staff to the state’s governor. Chemical Engineer.

(A) Management and Budget: Peter Orszag, Democrat. Director of the U.S. Congressional Budget Office. During the Clinton administration, special assistant to the president for economic policy and senior economic adviser at the National Economic Council.

(D) Drug Control: No one picked yet. For this important office?

(F) Science Advisor: John Holdren. Physicist, a professor of environmental policy at Harvard, a former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the director of the Woods Hole Research Center, and the author or co-author of many papers and books. He has 30 years of doom and gloom predictions that NEVER came true. Why would we trust him as Science Advisor?

(F) CIA Director: Leon Panetta. Democrat. Former White House chief of staff to President Bill Clinton. He has ZERO intelligence experience. Why would we risk this? Nothing against Leon—use him for something else.

MLK Day -- Remember What He Did

As we pause and remember what MLK did, let's remember that he positively impacted the world and broke down racial barriers even though he had the known flaws of womanizing and plagiarism. I say this not to disparage him, but to show that even though you and I may have our own shortcomings, weaknesses, and behavioral problems, we can impact our world as well.

Also, when a politician or other leader has skeletons in his or her closet, remember that they can change and still do good things. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone can put those things they'd rather forget behind them and move forward to accomplish their purpose in life.

Inaugural Porta-Potties

For those of you attending Presidential Inauguration Next Week: The U.S. Park service is ordering 5000 porta-potties for the Inauguration. The health departments require 1 porta-potty for 300 people at public events. Estimates for attendance at the Inauguration range up to 4 million people. That's over 8000 porta-potties short. Look for long lines and don't wait too late to get in line!

Inauguration Next Week!

Next week we get a new President. The old one is leaving and moving to my neck of the woods. It will be very interesting to see how much of Obama's original agenda he will be able to even introduce with the economic problems we are seeing. Luckily, so far things aren't any worse than they were under Carter's last few months in office yet. (In case you think I'm bashing Carter, let me explain that I believe Nixon's wage/price freezes of 1973-4 caused the problems of the late 70s.) Hopefully, things won't get much worse than they are now.

Let's all stay involved with our Congressmen and Senators. Let them know what you think about any issue that is important to you. And don't be a name-caller or basher. If we disagree with our elected officials we need to let them know why. If we agree, we need to let them know. That's what representative democracy is all about.

Those of us who pray should also pray for wisdom for our President and those around him. He's facing a lot of problems caused by people on both sides of the aisle and will need it over the next four or eight years.

On Burris & Blago, on Franken & Coleman

Note to Senate: Let Mr. Burris in! He’s been legally appointed. There is no evidence of wrong-doing on his part. And Blago has not been indicted. It’s also clear that the requirement for the Secretary of State to sign applies only to verifying an election.

On the Minnesota Election: It’s not over yet. Lots of irregularities. According to several websites and newspapers, there are 25 districts in Minnesota where there are more ballots than people who signed the roles. In others, there are ballots that have been counted twice. There are also counts provided with no ballots to back them up. There are ballots that magically showed up a week later. Ballots have been counted inconsistently: there are multiple ballots with an “X” in a filled-in circle that counted as votes for Franken, yet when the same markings appeared for Coleman, they are counted as “no votes.” Clearly, obviously, ethically, morally, and legally inconsistent! There is enough of this to turn the election around by several hundred votes. Ron Coleman’s website says he’s filing a lawsuit. Where is the national media on this? They are not reporting it.

Happy New Year!

May God you in the new year!

And God bless the USA!

Good/Bad for 2008

GOOD:
1. Bush: for protecting us from terrorist attacks for another four years.
2. Obama: for selecting Rick Warren for the inaugural prayer.
3. Israel: for finally responding to rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip.
4. Bush Administration: for finally getting Iraq more or less under control with the surge.
5. Congress: for not giving in immediately to the big 3 automakers' demands for government bailouts.

BAD:
1. Bush: for warrantless wiretapping.
2. Bush: for pushing through a $700B "rescue" bill for the rich bankers without oversight.
3. Congress: for letting Bush push through the ridiculous bill.
4. Congress: for not fixing Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac in years previous when the Republicans wanted it fixed!
5. Blagojevich: for major ethics violations.

Ethics

U.S. Senators and Congressmen must follow the same laws that government employees and contractors are required to follow in the areas of gifts, personal contacts, etc. We must curtail the influence of lobbyists. Former government employees should be prohibited from becoming lobbyists for a period of two years after they work for the government.

Religion and Government

According to the Constitution, religion should be free of interference from the government, not vice versa. The “establishment of religion” clause means “taxation from people to directly support a state-sponsored sect.” That’s one thing government is not to do. The other is to not “prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” That includes the free exercise of religion or absence of religion of those in the government!

There is no doctrine of “separation of church and state” found there—it is a recent phenomenon invented by secularists of the 20th century. Recent Supreme Court rulings have affirmed that students and teachers are allowed to pray in schools, provided no one is forced to participate. Local, state, and national government entities open their meetings with prayer—the Supreme Court has affirmed this practice. It has also affirmed that the words “In God We Trust” on our currency is constitutional.

However, the government should not interfere with the right of each person to choose his or her beliefs and act on them, provided they do not break the laws or interfere with others' rights. Neither should churches be allowed to sponsor or promote a particular candidate or party.

Marriage and the Family

Marriage has always been defined throughout history as a social and legal union between a man and a woman to live as husband and wife and become a family, possibly conceiving or adopting and raising children. Just because two men or two women or a man and a giraffe may live together and share their lives does not make them married. There is no reason to directly contradict thousands of years of precedent.

Marriage laws are non-discriminatory, provided the marriage is between a man and a woman. There never has been a fundamental right for one person to marry another person of the same sex. Civil unions currently provide many of the same benefits for gays and lesbians in some states. In other states, filing a few legal documents does the same thing.

Abortion

Abortion is the law of the land. We may never see the Supreme Court reverse itself on its Roe v. Wade ruling of 1973. However, to make it safer and rarer, we can regulate it in a much better manner.

Few people know this, but most modern abortion methods were developed in the Nazi prison camps of the holocaust (according to Abortion and Social Justice, NY: Sheed & Ward, 1972). The documents explaining the methods were put under seal right after World War II along with most of the other captured documents and were not released en masse until the late 1960s. It may be no coincidence that the abortion industry started pushing so hard at this time for legalization. Many of these documents are still available through the Freedom of Information Act from the U.S. Government Printing Office.

Based on principles found in many macro-economic textbooks, I believe that abortion started negatively affecting our economy about fifteen years after it was legalized by judicial fiat. How? By reducing our birth rate, we reduced the rate at which the economy could grow and reduced the number of young people able to take on the entry-level jobs and be consumers. This forced the government to turn its back on immigration laws (see Immigration). Donald Mann, President of NPG, said that “Macro economic growth requires a growing labor force so that GNP can increase constantly. A growing labor force is only possible if population grows, and population growth in the U.S. depends largely on massive immigration.” By reducing abortion rates, we can improve our economy without illegal immigration.

Late-term abortions are extremely dangerous and must be eliminated. This includes such practices as “partial-birth abortion”—inducing a dangerous breach birth, leaving the head within the birth canal, and destroying the baby’s brain with the medical equivalent of a pair of scissors—are barbaric by any standards. The one exception to late-term abortion should be when the mother’s health is endangered. Even then, the child can be often be delivered by caesarian section and saved anyway. The survivability rate of children born normally after 6-month terms is very high. Mid-term abortions should only take place to save the life of the mother, or in the case of rape or incest.

Abortions performed on minors must be with a parent’s consent. No other medical procedure is allowed without it. Why should this be any different? If complications result (and they do in as many as 25% of cases—see Abortion Complications for more information), the parent must know what is wrong so he or she can make informed decisions about medical care.

Planned Parenthood’s motto is “Every child a wanted child.” In practice, the result is “Every child a wanted child—if not, kill it.” So, what do we do with all the “unwanted” children? First, let’s attack the myth about unwanted children. With an increase in infertility rates here is the USA, there is a shortage of infants up for adoption. This has been true for the last twenty years and more. Many people are forced to go overseas in order to find babies. There are no unwanted infants. As far as the older children go, there are studies that show that “unwanted” children show no more deviance or problems later in life than “wanted” children. There remains the problem of abandoned and abused children. We need to change the laws to make them easier to adopt instead of forcing them into perpetual foster care. Furthermore, we must encourage families to adopt them and provide those families with support to handle the potential for emotional and behavioral problems caused by abuse. Click here for more information.

Social Security

The Social Security revenues must be taken back out of the general fund and kept in their own bucket. Future benefits for those currently under 40 years of age must be reduced, while giving them the opportunity to put more money into retirement savings accounts (e.g. 401K, IRA, Keogh) tax-free.