My Pontification

I am so “tired” of our Governments Hypocrisy!  Both parties offer plenty of it and one does not need to look to far to see it either.  How about the Presidents comment that he doesn’t want to own / run businesses?  Let’s see, he (technically we the tax payer) owns 60% of GM, fired the President of GM, forced the closure of profitable dealerships and recently hired a former AT & T guy who knows nothing about the auto industry to be his stooge inside of GM.  He owns part of Chrysler and has forced a sale of part of Chrysler to the foreign company Fiat.  Here too he has been instrumental in yanking the rug out from under dealerships.  Oh, and did you notice how this Obama Government trampled on the legal rights of Bond holders costing people and the pension funds of hard working Americans a lot of money?  How about the Obama Governments take over of the banking industry and now we find out the money that has been returned was not returned to the Treasury, but put back into the TARP account so they can re-spend it again!  But wait, Obama is not done yet.  Now he is after the health industry.  Once the Government gets their hands on the medical industry they will never let go.  Truth be told, they most likely will never let go of GM either and I question them getting completely out of the banking industry.  But at least I can feel good about this because Obama has assured us all that he doesn’t want to own or run any of these businesses.

How about one more example.  I just love how the Government collects tons of cash from the Tobacco industry.  They like to rail against it and tell us all how much they care about the tobacco related illnesses that people suffer.  Supposedly they keep raising taxes on Tobacco to “help” Americans to give up Tobacco products.  We now fund children’s health care and there has been talk about funding the nationalized health system as well from tobacco money.  Today I read our Government is probably going to give the FDA a whole bunch of power to regulate the Tobacco industry and their products and advertising.  I got an idea, if Tobacco is so bad and so evil then BAN THE DAMN PRODUCT!  Of course they can’t do that because they would have to raise taxes through the roof and would have tax payer mutiny on their hands.  But hey, at least they would like to see people give up tobacco products.

Like many Americans this morning, I picked up my local newspaper and read an AP story about Justice Souter announcing his soon retirement and Obama’s vision for a replacement.  In this article was a quote from Obama regarding the type of person he is looking for and although this, I am sure will brand me as some right wing whack job, I am concerned…a lot concerned.  Obama said:

“I will seek someone who understands that justice isn’t about some abstract legal theory or footnote in a case book. It is also about how our laws affect the daily realities of people’s lives,”

The problem I have with this quote is the desire to direct legal decisions around the daily realities of people’s lives.  The daily realities of people lives right now is not that great for some.  Tough times, no jobs, unemployment benefits running out, homes being taken away from families, all causing some folks to consider desperate measures to turn things around.  So should these circumstances change the penalty for robbery?  How about the pet darling Democrat issue of Abortion?  If most of America identified themselves personally as pro-life (for themselves only) then should this be taken into account regarding the legality of Roe v. Wade?  The left would say no, they would say that the constitution protects that legal right and daily realities should not impact it.  But they would also have no problems using daily realities to strip Americans of their constitutional right to own and bear arms.

Since Obama and many others in power view the Constitution as a living, breathing document subject to the whims of public opinion, this type of statement concerns me.  We don’t need a progressive constitution and quite frankly this statement implies to me a desire to rule based more on feelings then constitutional interpretation and past legal presidents.  But what do I know, after all my political viewpoints rarely if ever align with the progressive movement which I guess just goes to show how unenlightened I really am.

One of the “big” talking points right now is the whole “cap-and-trade” discussion regarding green energy.  Recently the GOP was claiming that if enacted, cap-and-trade would cost the average house hold an additional $3,128 per year in increased bills.  As a result of this claim by many of the GOP, John Reilly who is one of the MIT Professors who was involved in the study, came forward claiming the GOP was not correct and was misrepresenting his (John Reilly) numbers.  Professor Reilly claimed this would only cost the average house hold $215.05 per year (I am sure all of you can absorb that increased cost eh?).  This in turn kicked off a media and blogger frenzy ripping the GOP a new one for their faulty fear mongering math.  So far, many of you (the 2 1/2 people who read this blog) probably have some vague memory of hearing or reading about this.  But, here is what you probably have not read or heard and is rather hard to find reported.

Professor Reilly has admitted that he screwed up his Excel spreadsheet and it would actually cost $800 per year for an average house hold (again, I am sure all of you can absorb that cost too right?).  Now, $800 is a far cry from the GOP claim of $3,100 smacks but the story doesn’t end there, it gets even better!  Apparently, Professor Reilly believes it will only cost $800 dollars IF companies do not pass on their increased cost (taxes) to their customers – i.e. the companies will eat their loss in revenue.  Ya, ask the unemployed, fur lowed and those who have been forced to take pay cuts how well businesses are willing to absorb losses in revenue!  He also feels that the GOP should not focus on the increased tax revenue and it’s correlating impact on the economy but should instead focus on Government giving back the tax revenue to all of us, the impacted Americans.

Let’s recap, Professor Reilly’s math is only accurate IF businesses do not pass on their increased costs and IF Government gives back the collected tax revenue.  Does anyone else see the flaw in this numb nuts thinking?  We are more likely to see the porn industry go out of business then see either one of those options take place.  But wait, it gets even better.

According to Professor Reilly, not only would it cost $800 smacks per year per house hold, but if the above assumtions did not become reality, then the actual cost to you and I would be the GOP stated figure of $3,128 PLUS his (Professor Reilly) $800 dollar figure.  So if businesses and Government act as they normally do, then all of us could / should see an increase in yearly energy realted expenses to the tune of nearly $4,000!

Now I suppose that since the Obama administration wants to use this energy tax to fund socialized medicine (universal health care), that we should all see our costs break even or go down once we no longer have to pay any health care / insurance costs.  I am also confident that neither the Obama administration or any other future administration (GOP or Demecrat) will ever need more revenue to fund socialized medicine beyound the $4,000 per family generated from this energy tax.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t intend to hold my breath none…I’m affraid I might pass out.

Here is some follow-up reading:

• The Weekly Standard
• The Hill Blog
• Glenn Beck

The Washington Post has a new Op-Ed piece by Charles Krauthammer called “The Great Non Sequitur“.  In it Mr. Krauthammer points out how bogus President Obama’s stimulus agenda really is and how truly magician like the President has passed it by the American people.  Remember in the President’s speech how he indicated 2 trillion dollars in identified savings?  Well according to Krauthammer, the President’s budget director has since acknowledged that 1.6 trillion of that money only existed if the United States were to keep the surge in Iraq until 2019.  According to this article, that is “11 years after George Bush ended it, and eight years after even Bush would have had us out of Iraq completely.”  Another wards, it’s a sham designed to make you feel good – do you feel good yet?

But the biggest magician act yet is the Presidents claim that the lack of energy independence (something he and his party are largely responsible for), education and lack of universal health care are the real reasons our economic system has imploded.  Notice, it was not the power hungry stupidity of our elected leaders who lowered and also refused to re-enact restrictions on the housing industry (largely the Democratic Party including the then Senator Obama), it’s not the highly educated wall street CEO’s who played the “get rich quick” games at the expense of American’s or the fuel companies sticking it to us because they can, no it is our need for carbon cap’s (increased taxes), universal healthcare, and more federal dollars pumped into the education system.

There are several things that have played a major role in the collapse of our economy and employment market, and from where I am sitting those three bullet points of President Obama’s focus really are not related to the problem nor are they now the fix.  To be  honest, I don’t consider the individuals who played key roles in the economic collapse to be the best characters in fixing our economy – but I guess that is why I am blogging about it and not sitting in Washington passing legislation that ultimately will bring about the $10 dollar loaf of bread.

Read Charles Krauthammer’s Op-Ed piece here (you may need to register for free with the Washington Post to read it).

I recieved an email with a link to Fred Thompson explaining the economic bailout.  I must say, I could write and write forever in an attempt to tell you what I think.  But after watching Mr. Thompson explain it, I decided there just is not much more to say.  So enjoy!

OK, I wasn’t going to post anything about the VP debate tonight but I changed my mind.  My mind, my blog, I can do what I want.  We all knew it was going to happen, who won and who didn’t.  Well I am going to argue that looking for a winner and a loser out of this debate is a stupid way to spend your time.  They both won!  And now I am going to tell you why (I know, you were holding your breath).

I really don’t believe any of the ”undecided” really found themselves making up their mind off of these two.  Furthermore, there was no one from either party saying “WOW, he/she did so good, I think I will switch sides”, nor will they.  They both did their job and did it fine.  Neither one damaged their candidate beyond all recognition.

Now here is what I am taking out of his debate.  Personally I believe we are voting for a couple of clowns.  We have four clowns standing before us and we are going to pick two out of the four.  Take for example the charge (which Palin did not argue against) that McCain wants to tax our health coverage.  WHAT?  You have got to be kidding me!  Folks this man is not a tax cutting conservative.  I personally don’t trust him but I see nothing to help me trust Obama either.  How will this insurance tax hurt you?  What about your employer?  Will they have to pay on their part of your coverage and you on yours?  What about if the company pays 100% of your insurance will they pay the tax still?  What about the small business owner that offers real crappy but better than nothing insurance coverage, will they have to kill the coverage or will the cost not be worth it for you the employee?

One thing is for certain (to me), no matter which set of clowns get elected, we as Americans are going to have to fight them every step of the way or we will pay dearly.  I just don’t see how either of these candidates are really good for America, the solution to the problems we are faced with.

I’ve been thinking, maybe we should let these companies collapse. From what I can tell, its going to be rough for all of us if we bail them out and it’s going to be rough for us if we don’t. So what’s the positives if we “LET ‘EM BURN”? Well the way I see it, it will teach some of them a lesson and it will teach some in our congress a lesson too. It might even teach the foreign countries that are heavily invested in us a lesson as well (they might be slow to reinvest). Heck it might even help change the balance of power from the foreign countries to the U.S. investor / worker all in one swoop. It might even help the misery from this all to end a lot sooner instead of being dragged out for the next few years. Oh, and it will keep from having a bunch of pork barrel spending added onto an already outrageous $700 billion bailout package!

Just my 1/2 cent opinion on the matter.

I have a hard time believing that John McCain is really the candidate of choice for republican voters.  He couldn’t get past being the independent voters choice in his last attempt, why now?  Seems odd to me that when he couldn’t get republican support in the past and republicans complain about him now that somehow they still are voting for him.

Add to this mix the whole Romney / Huckabee angle and I just don’t buy the McCain support.  Romney (prior to suspending his candidacy)  and Huckabee were spliting a large number of republican voters.  The Romney / Huckabee supporters hardly seem like the McCain type of voters and yet supposedly they are.

Now since I like a good conspiracy theory, I thought I would throw one out for anyone who stumbles across this blog. The way I see it, we have two possibilities for the McCain nomination.  One option is that even though republicans have been complaining very loudly about McCain and even though he was unable to get their support previously and even though he is at odds with republican voters on some key issues, they still like him enough to vote for him.  The other option (this would be the conspiracy option) is that the GOP had their nomination hijacked by independents and democrats.  Here is what I mean.  When Ronald Reagan ran he pulled democrats (blue dog democrats) as well as republicans.  Could it be that McCain is benefiting from a similar pattern?  Perhaps there are democrats that are not happy with their choices (or should I say choice in the form of two different faces) and are joining with independents and some republicans allowing McCain to lock up enough votes to sail into the GOP convention for the nomination.

Regardless of which scenario is correct, if I was a GOP official I would be scared to death of the impending John McCain nomination.  John McCain and the rest of the party officials can try and claim he is the best to beat Hillary (who probably will not win the nomination) and maybe even Obama, but if republicans stay home out of disgust then we will see McCain and probably many other congressman hitching a ride home on the Straight Talk Express!

We have all read or heard the stories about files and records gathered on the citizens of Germany and Russia during their “non-democratic” years, and although I do not want to be tagged a conspiracy nut, a recent article I found on Reuters (read here) should certainly cause one to contemplate the thin line of separation between the good guys and the bad guys.

It appears that the FBI will be spending $1 billion of our tax money in a quest to build the world’s largest database of biometrics (finger prints, etc.). According to this article, the FBI has already started accumulating finger prints and palm patterns as well as facial pictures and wants to expand the amount and types of information used to identify people both at home and abroad.

Now I am sure that the intent is to keep us safer from terrorism and crime and I suppose that when used by good, honest individuals it would not be a threat. But is it not a fine line of separation from “Big Brother” of the past to “Big Brother” of the future? Is this not the same exact thing but without the manila folders and file cabinets? A project like this is simply one bad political leader away from being misused. I wonder how much of our “Boston Tea Party” birth right Americans have sold for an increased feeling of security served to us on one of Uncle Sam’s fine china platters.

So did you hear the joke about the politician who tried to scare the children to get at mom and dad? If only it was a joke (read here). But the politician was the Mayor of Seattle and the scare…well let’s just say Santa and the Reindeer and the toy factory are about to sink to the bottom of the ocean! It seems the Mayor of Seattle thought the city would hand out energy efficient light bulbs at the tree lighting ceremony while telling the children that Santa and the Reindeer were about to drown if mom and dad didn’t become more “green” (use the energy efficient bulbs).

I don’t know about you, but I am sick and tired of local, state and federal politicians using our children to sucker or scare us adults into doing something when we know better or have differing view points. How about the local school “politicians” who threaten to shut down sports or some other activity if we don’t float them another $8 million dollar bond to misappropriate? They know the parents are afraid that if “little Johnny” can’t play football then he won’t be able to go to college. Hey mom and dad, guess what? The odds of “little Johnny” receiving a scholarship to the local University are pretty stinking slim and in the end you are gonna put on your big boy/girl undies and help them through college. So how about you start thinking about what’s best for your family and not “play the lotto” with “little Johnny’s” academic future!

Personally I don’t have a major issue with the city handing out eco-bulbs though one could argue it was not the best use of tax payer money (especially if the city has not fully converted itself to eco-bulbs yet). But do we really need to cause any more grief and stress on the parents or take one more bastion of innocence away from the children? First the retailers got a hold of Christmas and twisted a lot of the happiness and meaning out of Christmas for both adults and children and now the politicians are attacking! Great, all that’s left is for the Retailers to complete the circle by attacking the official politician’s holiday of April 15^th.