Tuesday, March 24, 2009

When it rains it pours

Washington Post

Obama now wants to control companies that have the possibility of causing problems if they need to be bailed out, not just banks.

Have you ever heard the tale about dropping a frog in a hot pan? If you put it in boiling water, it will jump out. But if you put it in the pan and slowly turn up the heat, it will just cook to death. I don't know about you, but I am beginning to see that the American Tax payer is not only been dropped in HOT water, but the legs have been cut off and fricasseed!!!!!!!!!!

Forget jumping, we have already been jumped. If this were an episode of 24 maybe we could get Tim Giethner and Barack Obama to talk. You know take this knife out of our back and use it for widening other orifices.

Monday, March 23, 2009

What now?

I would like to say that coming up with a topic on this blog is kinda like the Tom Skerrit line in Top Gun: "There were bogies like flies.....".

Obama is still trying to talk up the economy after talking it down for so long. What I find interesting here is that this is the solution that was touted by the evil doers, Hannity and Limbaugh. They kept talking about how he did not do enough to talk up the economy, he was still running against George Bush, etc. So what does the great Obama do? He goes on Jay Leno. Now personally I agree with Neil Cavuto. Most of the criticism for his accepting this interview is from "Journalists" who wanted it. Jay did a good job in asking him some penetrating and some light-hearted questions.

What I find interesting about this is the fact that the Current "Great Communicator" badly flubbed the message again. He got everyone talking about the special Olympics instead of his great message. Okay, it was a joke. A tasteless one, but a joke. I am from Obama's generation and I remember when a line like that was funny. However, also I remember the insults that have been hurled at the Republicans by liberals over the past several years. For example, one line of reasoning went: If they (Republicans) were not so sanctimonious and attempting to create these standards, they would not be so criticized for not meeting those standards. This is a paraphrase of course, but it effectively is the argument when liberals attack Rush for his Drug usage in the past and other Republican indiscretions. Who set up this line of attack? The same folks who keep telling us that we have to be more sensitive to other peoples feelings. You know, the PC crowd. So in effect, Obama is being hoisted by his own petard.

But the upshot of this line of reasoning is that there can be no ideals that we hold as a society. "I believe there is no black or white only shades of gray". Yup, this is a movie quote (I am full of them, or something else if you believe The Boss). Here is the crux of the problem. As I was trying to teach HRH the other day (now try to remember she is only 7); there is right and wrong, no matter what people say. You know the difference. But to say that you can act this way because this other person did it, is not a reason - it is an excuse. I mean this for everyone. Just because someone cheated on their taxes and got away with it, does not mean you can do it too. Just because someone did a stupid thing and spent money on every program that occurred in their administration, even the one's championed by the opposing party and not their own and never vetoed a spending bill until year 6, does not mean we should continue that policy.... WE NEED CHANGE!!!!!!!

For examples of this deformed line of logic, all you have to do is listen to the talking head shows from 3/17 --

"We inherited this from the previous administration."
"The Republicans were not against the Bush administration when they had big deficits."
"You got to give this time, Obama (or Giethner, or whoever) has only been on the job for 60 days."
"The Republicans did this huge bail out also."
"If we do not bail out the (fill in the blank) industry, then you will only be supporting the fat cats and not the middle class.

You get the basic picture. "So let's recap.. no it will take too long, let's sum up."

I hate the huge spending on both the right and left - I really stink at staying on the message that this stuff makes no sense - and I am great at movie quotes.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Let's get nuts....

I recently started listening to ALL the Sunday talking head programs. YUP. 60 minutes, Fox News Sunday, Meet the Press, This week with Stephenopolis, et al. Yup at least 5 hours of wonderful politicians saying the same things. Democrats supporting, Republicans opposing, Distortion of facts on both sides, Etc. ...

It is actually like being in a class of 25 kids with only 10 juice boxes. Some will cry, some will fight, some will just look around and wonder what in the world is happening. What this world needs is an adult to come in and lay down some rules of behavior. Oh wait, that won't happen. That would require the role of a moral code of conduct and we are not allowed to have that anymore.

We are now spending $1,000,000,000 a day. That is $16,666,667/second -- Not even the Steinbrenner's can spend that much money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Netherlands beat the Dominican Republic at the WBC. Kinda like Camden County High beating the CUBS in the World Series.

We are leaving Iraq by 2011. This would be great news, except that The Messiah will receive the credit for George Bush's negotiation with Iraq. Remember the SOFA agreements before he left office?
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A Late night addition: From the AP

"Confronting misgivings, even in his own party, President Barack Obama mounted a stout defense of his blueprint to overhaul the economy Thursday, declaring the national crisis is "not as bad as we think" and his plans will speed recovery. Challenged to provide encouragement as the nation's "confidence builder in chief," Obama said Americans shouldn't be whipsawed by bursts of either bad or good news and he was "highly optimistic" about the long term. "
This is from the guy who accused the Bush administration of fabricating the numbers in order to push their own interests. Once again I will say this: One of the oldest rules in economics is that you can use the tools, but you have to give them time to take effect. The TARP package was not given the time to work. So we passed the $800 billion stimulus package and now we are saddled with Double the outrageous debt left by Bush and a ton of regulations that most Americans did not want in the first place. CITI group now has no need for further government money, by thier own admission. How much longer until the rest of the street turns around?

Until next time remember, the next line in Batman (1989):

"Tell me do you ever dance with the Devil in the Pale moonlight?"

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Let's get random....

650,000 more people unemployed and the idiots in Washington are still trying to argue that it is the other party's fault. I think we should have elected Kuchinich or Nader. Neither of those guys can get anything accomplished which would increase the level of confidence we have in the Government.

South Korea is saber rattling over their "peaceful communications satellite". They said ""We will retaliate (over) any act of intercepting our satellite for peaceful purposes with prompt counterstrikes by the most powerful military means." I think we should ignore the short idiot. If it goes toward any US territory, we should shoot it down, then issue a statement that any retaliation will be met in kind. If they try to launch another, shoot that down then make South Korea an island. That would be the kind of change I believe in.

I have noticed this week how everyone in the Obama administration is now saying that the centerpiece of the recovery is no longer housing, middle class tax cuts, regulation of the financial sector or even reducing dependence on greenhouse gases. No, it is now health care. Without this being run by the government there can be no recovery. What is next?

It is now interesting that the Obama administration is now making a lot of noises about how the border with Mexico needs to get secured. There is a lot of violence that is spilling over to the US from Mexico from the drug cartels. NO KIDDING!!!!! Wasn't that what the American people wanted done before the amnesty bill that was not an amnesty bill last year? I believe that building a fence now would be the equivalent of the proverbial barn door, but hopefully something will get done with it.

Like the song says "WE GOTTA GET OUTTA THIS PLACE, IF IT'S THE LAST THING WE EVER DO............"

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Don't give them what they want....

Rush gave Obama what he wanted. A forum, a chance to debate and make Rush look foolish, and the potential crushing blow of talk radio on the largest show in the land. Obama has given Rush something also. He has given him a real boogie man, one who he can truely vanquish, and the ranking of the leader of the Republican Party.

Let's get real. No Sitting president would go for this deal. A Debate on a rival's radio show with no control over the content of topics. It is an offer that Rush knew would not be accepted. The President and his staff know this. Is this a way to take people's attention from Obama's problems with the government? I do not know. I have heard this line of reasoning from others. All I know is that WE THE PEOPLE do not have time for this garbage.

Let's ask the question this way. If you were a manager, team leader (etc.) and your employees were spending their time arguing with everyone instead of doing thier jobs, how long would they have a job? My guess is about 30 seconds. The Obama administration is spending more time dealing with petty BS, the sort of stuff that can be blown off, than they are with getting real work done.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Speed kills

I am interested in why there is such a great need to speed these bills through Congress, instead of allowing the American people to see and understand them. Now, I understand that there are people so insulated from the rest of the world that they will not see that hurting another group of people will only hurt themselves.

Being envious of other people for what they have, rather than working to try and attain that for yourself is easier, but ultimately it will be worse for you in the long run.

For example, let's take the minimum wage. The Democrats argue that we must ensure that all the population has a shot at a decent salary to live. I agree. But to have the Government to mandate what that wage shall be is where the problem lies. They have too big a dog in this fight for it to be altruistic. See if this makes sense.

Government raises the minimum wage on the lowest wage earners. When your salary goes up, so does your taxes!!!!!!!!!! The government makes more money when they try to tell business what to do. If you raise the lowest wage earners salaries, then items will cost more, because businesses will have to raise them to cover the cost of those wages. In effect, this becomes another hidden tax. The higher paid people argue that they deserve more than the lowest wage earners, so they will get a higher income. More money for the government. This causes another price rise for the businesses and prices go up. The people for whom this minimum wage increase was supposed to help, now pay more taxes and their dollar is worth less. Businesses make about the same overall. The only group that makes more money is the government. This is not even getting into all of these other issues of capital gains taxes, retirement accounts, housing values (etc.). It is like the only reason to have taxes is not to raise money for the government, it is to force people to live a certain way.

Right now, the Obama administration is acting like a manager who is fighting to keep his job. He has no clue of why he is there. All he knows is that he must do something or else he will lose his job. Whether it is right or not is beside the point, he must keep doing.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Where next?

Now that I have started this thing, there are so many directions to go. Let's keep it simple. The President has been kidnapped, being held for nefarious purposes and the White House may soon be blown up. Wow, 24 is getting interesting. Now let's get back to reality.

President Obama has may great qualities. He is a wonderful communicator (although he would have failed the basic public speaking course I took in college and the instructor course I took in the Navy). He has hit the ground running by having legislation ready that he wanted passed.He is being compared FDR, Lincoln and the other big name presidents. I disagree, I think that he should be compared to the recent democratic president that no one wants to ever admit was a Democrat. No not Carter, LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON. Lyndon Johnson increased the size of the Government with his social legislation AND continued the great Camelot Crusade also known as Vietnam. Johnson had the Senate in his lap for much of his term. How much President Obama can accomplish will not be known for a while, We do know that his $3.75 TRILLION dollar budget will still hurt up in the long run, even if he can fulfill his pledge to reduce the debt in the long run. Imagine this scenario:

You come home one day and inform your spouse that you want to reduce the amount of things you buy because you are not sure if you will have a job in a few weeks. Your spouse looks at you and says, "Not a problem. We can keep spending, after all I still have checks." Or I have not gotten my credit card cut up yet, or something equally stupid.

Finally, I have heard the analogy that the $787 Billion dollar stimulus package is like taking a bucket of water from one side of the lake and pouring it in on the other side of that lake. I disagree it is like taking that bucket of water to the top of the stream that feeds it and pouring it in. The whole bucket will not make it back in and the level of the lake will go down.

"Here endeth the lesson" Sean Connery, the Untouchables.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Blogging or what in the heck am I doing?

First things first. Yes, there is a reason for the title of this blog which will become apparent if you hang around long enough. Who knows, I might even figure out something clever and pithy to tell you. Fifty points to the person who can tell me the artist and song that the title of the blog is from. It may not get you much, but at least you can brag about how old you are and how young you pretend to be.

As you probably guessed, I am a rather sarcastic person in a sarcastic world. But I suppose the big question is: "What possesses a middle aged guy who never was never able to consistanly keep a journal?" (For you folks under 20, that is a "Paper blog". It was like, before the wonderful age of Microsoft...). I tried several times and never got the hang of it. We will see where this goes.

During this exploration, the topics will be varied and sometimes strange. SO..............
Here we go with a "blues riff in B, watch me for the changes and try to keep up"