The GM Affect

Interest rates have gone haywire the last couple of days. You won’t hear it reported in the media though. Why? Because it would look bad for certain economic positions and actions taken by the current Administration …at least that’s my take on it…

The problem is that the bond markets are upset about the way the Obama Administration has handled the bond holders for Chrysler and fear the same will happen with GM. At the administrations urging, the judge in the Chrysler bankruptcy case forced the bond holder to take on more risk.

Usually bond holders are the first to be protected in a bankruptcy but this time it was other interests that were protected first. (think Unions) The bond holders took a back seat to almost every other concern.

Before you go saying those ‘evil’ bond holders (lenders) deserve it, think about this. Bond holders invest in companies by making loans to them because they are risk adverse. Investing in normal stocks is to risky for these investors. There reason? They are investing money from pension funds and insurance companies. This money needs to be invested in areas with very little volatility and steady returns with low risk to the money. (think about your pension, you want safety right?)

The way these bond holders are being treated is a huge change from how large restructuring like this normally takes place. And this sets a dangerous precedent going forward. So with a bankruptcy from GM looming on the horizon, the bond market got very, very nervous and everyone backed out of the market in one day!

I’m calling this The GM Affect because it was so awful. We saw rates jump 1% in less than 24 hours ….by the way… That is completely unheard of!

Rates have come back down today, but I don’t know how long that will last. Rates jumped up to 5.5% from a low the previous day of 4.5%. Rates today are back down to 5% but no one knows for how long.

With a very scary economic report just out about a 5.7% decline in GDP the first quarter of this year and about companies slashing inventories and jobs (approximately 2,000,000 more jobs lost) I’m not sure how much longer rates can stay this low.

So while the Administration rolls our their latest campaign touting the ‘good’ that the stimulus package has done and while they roll out the parties for the supposed 150,000 jobs that were created, our economy has had the second largest contraction since 1981. (By-the-way, only about $11 million of the $45 Billion that has hit the economy was for worthwhile make- work projects. The rest was for one-time payments for welfare and Medicare and for the extension of unemployment benefits.)

I know that this sounds like political commentary and I apologize because it is truly not meant to be a political view point. I'm commenting on my concern about the numbers The numbers don’t lie, and since they don't lie, then someone or something else is lying. Could that something be the government, maybe both parties? Some will point back to the Bush administration as an excuse to support Obama’s actions. Guess what? Bush was wrong as well!

All the economic tricks and gimmicks being tried today have been attempted before. We did here in the late 70's to early 80's. and it didn't work. Heck countries all around the world have tried what we are doing and they will tell you it doesn’t work.

Call it Keynesian Theory, call it Social Democratization, call it whatever you want but understand this. If it is illegal for you to 'kite' checks to cover your debt, then why do we allow the government to do it? (Kiting a check is when you deposit a check from one of your own checking accounts into another and then from that account back into the original account in a never ending circle just to cover checks that you right elsewhere, at some point it will catch up to you.

So why are we allowing our government to do a thing that we would be put in jail for doing? Because of some ‘theory’? Does this make sense to anyone?

At some point we will not be able to print enough money to buy our own bonds to fund our bloated and bureaucratic government. I’m hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. Here’s a link to a great article with the bad news/good news that can help you make up you own mind. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-gdp-revised-to-57-decline-in-first-quarter

Contradiction & Accountability

As I watch the swirling controversy over Nancy Pelosi and her constant changing of positions about what she knew about water boarding and other interrogation techniques used on the animals that committed the horrible act on 9/11, I am struck by the level of contradiction in her statements.

Another thing that strikes me as odd is that her colleagues don’t seem to be willing to hold her accountable for her obfuscations. Also, I think it is interesting that many (some in the press even) want to talk about former VP Cheney and attempt to take the focus off of what Speaker Pelosi is doing.

It seems that history has proven one thing time and again. Those who can be defined as Liberal have a close political resemblance to many of the worst actors on the world’s political stage when it comes to double standards.

What I mean here is that those that espouse a belief in conservative values appear to be lambasted for the same hypocrisies committed by those that embrace liberal views. The liberal appears to be able to contradict themselves while avoiding accountability for their hypocrisy.

The Cult of Personality

I’ve come to understand why this is so. I once heard a song by the band Living Color. The song was Cult of Personality and it talked about how ordinary people would blindly follow leaders with dynamic personalities.

What history has shown us is that Dictators, Communist and Socialist use the Cult of Personality to cover their own contradictions and to avoid accountability. They force the populous (you and I) and their political opponents to adhere to one standard while they adhere to another.

This sounds crazy right? But it’s not just the ramblings of a right wing blogger (which I’m not by the way, more of a libertarian/independent thinker type)….anyway, I digress… The way that Liberals use Contradiction and Accountability (or the lack of it as it applies to themselves and application of it as it applies to their political opponents) is spelled out in a strategy written back in the 60’s and 70’s by a political organizer and author named Saul Alinsky.

Rules for Radicals

Alinsky was quite a fellow. His most famous book; Rules for Radicals is basically a play book for causing political change. What is interesting is that the book itself is filled with contradictions, rules for accountability and rules for hiding ones true purpose in order to reach political change.

According to Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Alinsky ) Alinsky begins his book with this tribute: “From all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins – or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom – Lucifer.” That’s right, his book uses the Devil as one of it’s sources for how to rebel.

Not withstanding any religious beliefs, let’s not go down that slippery slope; let’s say we believe the bible to be a book of mythology. As in intellectual observation, it is odd that this author would choose to emulate the ‘evil’ force rather than use the ‘good’ forces for his examples.

He goes on to say; “Organization for action will now and in the decade ahead center upon America's white middle class. That is where the power is. ... Our rebels have contemptuously rejected the values and the way of life of the middle class. They have stigmatized it as materialistic, decadent, bourgeois, degenerate, imperialistic, war-mongering, brutalized and corrupt. They are right; but we must begin from where we are if we are to build power for change, and the power and the people are in the middle class majority.”

The Middle Class as a Pawn

It’s not hard to miss the hypocrisy here. Essentially what Alinsky is saying is that he doesn’t like the middle class. However, the political power lies with these masses and if the rebels want to succeed, then the middle classes must be convinced to align with the rebels.

The reference to ‘our rebels’ is to the rebels that have brought about populist social justice themes and are adherents to socialist democracies or so-called Democratic Socialism which in and of itself is another contradiction in terms. How can one have a Democracy aligned with Socialism, it doesn’t work…

Alinsky also felt that the Liberalism of his time was a farce. He saw that movement as docile and weak. His goal was to radicalize the movement in order to bring about his definition of social change ….Socialism…

Examples of his Words in Action

When we look around the world and delve into mankind’s history we see the works and words of Alinsky in practice. Some practiced his words before he even wrote them. Just look at the movements headed by Stalin, Hitler, Mao Tse-tung. Some practiced his words even while he wrote them, look at Ches Guevara, Castro, Qaddafi, Pol Pot and some practice his words today. Just look at Kim Jong-il, Chavez and other Socialist Dictators.

Now comes the billion dollar statement, the one that will get me in a huge amount of trouble with many who read my blogs. The power structures that currently run the Democrat party were educated in the principles of Alinsky and while they may not actively refer to the writings of Alinsky, they instinctively use his teachings to control the political spectrum whether they realize it or not.

Proof is All Around Us

My proof is evidenced in the way that Contradictions and Accountability are handled by many Liberals and some in the media. There is one standard for those perceived to be Liberal and a completely different standard for those perceived to be anything else.

Right or wrong is not the question here, the facts are the facts and they are visible for anyone who chooses to ‘un-bias’ themselves so that they can see clearly. The truth is that Liberalism today has been hijacked by the activist-rebellious-Socialist of the late 60’s and early 70’s and the truth is that they despise the middle class and look down upon them.

The elites who head the Democrat party see their continuants as dupes and morons. They revel in the realization that they (the leaders of the party) have finally learned how to control this vast and powerful middle class bastion and now the party will use this control to completely change the face of America.

So what are you? A dupe and a moron? Or are you a free thinker, an independent citizen? How do you view your own contradictions and how do you hold yourself accountable. Shouldn’t our politicians be held to the same standards we hold ourselves?

Alinsky didn’t think so. Contradictions were to be used to frame debate in a way that would not allow for rebutal and Accountability was to be used as a club to bludgeon opponents with, requiring them to hold fast to a standard which nobody could meet.

Think about it… and while you do, here’s a short list of the current day politicians that learned and actively used Alinsky’s teachings to organize communities and run campaigns.
Obama; Clinton (Hillary); Carville; (there are others, simply watch their actions and see how they deal with Contradictions and Accountability). Can we add Pelosi and Reid to the bunch? I don’t think that would be a stretch.

These are not the ramblings of a right-wing zealot, moreover they are the thoughts and research of a center-right realist. After you’ve done the research, I’d love not know your thoughts. Respectfully, thank you for reading.

Danger, Danger Will Robinson

It seems like I’ve been running around like that silly, bubble headed robot from the 1960’s ‘sci-fi drama’, Lost In Space! Danger Will Robinson, Danger!

Why have I been flapping my arms wildly about and pronouncing warnings for so long? It’s because our elected officials seem to have no concept of reality.

Little did I know that when I put the motto of my blog up; Cracked Up, Whacked Out and Completely Out of Control, how right I would be!

From our president who is proclaiming that we will unilaterally reduce our nuclear weapons arsenal while at the same time North Korea launches a test of an intercontinental missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to him bowing at the waste to the so-called King of Saudi Arabia, we seem to have lost our since of pride.

Added on top of these foreign relations miscues are domestic issue missteps such as the bonuses for AIG execs that were approved by a Democratic congress and signed by the president. Did Senator Dodd and the President really believe we would believe them when they said they knew nothing … didn’t they write the bill?

Now we have the situation of an American Flagged ship being held hostage by pirates. This demands a quick and concise response from our government.

Now I hear the Obama Justice department has sent FBI negotiators to the seen as if this were a criminal action. It is not, it is a war. I hear the DOJ wringing their hands over what to do and it sickens me.

‘We haven’t had to deal with this for 200 years…’ bla,bla,bla. Can someone help me out here, how do we deal with scum bags when we have a Navy ship in the area?

Can anyone say; Navy Seals? How about .50 cals and 5 inch deck mounted guns?

Negotiations my eye! In the old days we didn’t send out the constable to try to get Black Beard to stop terrorizing the Barbary Coast did we? Nope, we put a bunch of our war ships out to see and when we found him we blasted the heck out of him!

I’m fed up with the American Apology tour, the diminution of individualism and the fear of naming a ‘thing’ for what it really is because we might offend somebody. These pirates are thugs and terrorist and they deserve to be treated like we are at war with them!

This is NOT a police action. Let the military pop a few of the pirate support ships and put them on the bottom of the ocean and then see if this crap continues. Come on people, let me here a little H**L Yeah! (sorry, got a little carried away with that last part. LOL)

A Lesson on Greed

When you look around the world and see the haves and have-nots, does it make you wonder if this capitalist society filled with greed is injurious to the world?

A powerful question to be sure. I like the answer given by Milton Freeman and countless other modern day philosophers. Is there some benevolent benefactor within mankind that is so pure that they can order our society for us?

The answer is NO. When you look around the world, the truth is that the societies with a free enterprise system (capitalism) have the highest living standards on the planet. As a matter of fact the freest people have the best quality of life.

However, look at the world where governments restrict free trade and control societies. Their standard of living is squashed and the motivation to improve society is squandered.

Ah, but human nature is not abated. The leaders of these ‘controlled’ and closed societies are greedy. We need only look at the standard of living the leaders enjoy as compared to the poverty they force upon their populous. Is this not Greed?

The problem with heading towards socialism was best stated by Margaret Thatcher when she said that the problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.

But I think there is an even greater problem. When you look at the history of countries that trend towards Socialism and Communism you see what happens when men are entrusted with ultimate power.

Their Human Nature overtakes them and the next thing you know you move towards Totalitarianism. In a free trade, free enterprise, capitalist society with a Republic form or government, the market and the rule of law helps to minimize our human nature and acts as a checks and balance to human greed.

Sure, greedy people do succeed, but so do people those that aren’t greedy. In a capitalist system, the non-greedy can compete with the greedy and many times the non-greedy win. This creates a better society, not control by some authoritarian overseer.

Some would blame our current economic situation of the greed of capitalism, but the truth is that this situation was caused by poor government policy, shoddy oversight and mismanaged regulations.

In other words, this problem was caused by powerful politicians attempting to dictate to industry how they should operate.

Now the USA moves towards Socialist policies and I find it ironic that as our President visits his once vaunted campaign trail in Europe he is being met with cold shoulders and words of warning.

Even the once Socialist stalwart nations of Germany, France and Italy are now looking upon the actions of Barak Obama with disdain. They have publicly questioned the soundness of the Presidents push for governments to spend more money to get the world economy moving again.

What they are saying (without saying it) is that this has been tried before. They have tried it before …and…. IT DOES NOT WORK!

So I leave with this one question. If the great Socialist Utopias of Europe are not willing to go further down this path because they understand that it will only do more harm than good, then why are we the citizens of the freest nation on earth allowing our government to lead us this way?

Watch the video and learn… I welcome your opinion.

Winners and Losers Who Chooses

It's taken me a couple of days to completely absorb the fact that a sitting president just reached into the board room of a major corporation and fired the CEO. Notice I didn't say that the Board of Directors asked for the government’s assistance ...they didn't...

The news has been all over the place on this one, some say he needed to go. Others say the government shouldn't have this kind of power. Even others justify the action 'this one time' because of all the money given to the company to keep it afloat.

As is usual with me, I have a completely different take on the situation and it is one that hasn't dawned on many people yet. My question is not whether government should be in the business of firing CEO's of private companies.

My questions is have we crossing some precipice? Some invisible line that takes into a dark abyss where government decides which companies succeed and which should fail.

I know many will argue that this has gone on for years visa vie tax policy and regulations and I would agree. However, when this economic mess started in earnest and we allowed the Treasury and the Feds to save some investment banks while allowing others (Lehman Bros., Bear Stearns, etc.) to fail, we started down a slippery slope.

Now we are in full slide! It’s not just which banks should be saved and which should be allowed to fail, now it’s giving one company 30 days to fix a problem and allowing another 60 days. It’s firing a CEO and putting in another by dictation rather than a vote by the Board.

When the Obama administration announced that the government would stand behind the warranty of GM’s cars, they took an even greater step towards choosing winners and losers in this economy.

I ask one simple question, how is Ford to compete with GM (Government Motors) when Government Motors has billions of our Tax dollars funding it?

I admire Ford for recognizing its problems many years ago and setting out on a goal to fix them. I admire Ford for eschewing government hand outs and showing the rugged individualism and toughness that is genuinely American.

I am genuinely worried that we are on a destructive path here. When ‘BIG’ Government gets to choose the businesses that will be winners and the ones that will be losers, the people are bound to suffer.

I need only point to one example. Take a look at the history of England. You will see that at one time the government controlled all the car companies. You will also find out that there were waiting lists months and months long to get a new car.

So get ready, if government gets to choose the winners in this economy, you could be standing in a long line for your new GM, your new ‘free’ health care and maybe even your block of government cheese very soon!

Watch the Birdy

Recently in the news there was a lot of furor over AIG giving out millions in bonuses to some of it's top executives. I don't want to get into the argument of whether that was correct or not, I'm sure there are many opinions on both sides.

What I want to point out today is something that many of us missed. While the left hand was waving for our attention the right hand was doing something else that the dolts in the media didn't see.

While the spectacle of Chris Dodd stuttering uncontrollably as he tried to explain his way out of allowing the AIG bonuses without throwing the Obama administration and Timothy Geihtner under the bus was amusing. It served to dupe the one-sided media types.

What didn't get reported this weekend and last week was the fact that the Feds decided to throw and additional $1 Trillion dollars at the market and made an additional $6 billion dollar commitment to keep buying MBS (mortgage backed securities).

Sounds good right? What's so bad about that. Well I'll tell you. They don't have the money ...or should I say WE don't have the money to do this with. So the printing presses were pushed into full gear and just to top the bad news off with more bad news... ready...

We used the freshly printed money to buy our own debt. Now in the real world this is essentially like 'kiting' a check. You know, you go down to the bank and you deposit a check from your own account back into that account.

You don't really have an extra grand in the bank but for a brief while the books show that you do. The government just did that. I dare you to try it! They would nail you for fraud and throw you in the slammer for sure!

But the hypocrisy of all this nonsense is not the worst part. The worst part of all this is that we know, everyone with any common since and historical economic knowledge knows that printing money devalues the currency and leads to inflation.

Our only saving grace is that monetary policy with regard to printing new dollars has been relatively tight over the years and we are in a recessionary time, so maybe, just maybe we make it without getting dinged to hard this time.

It's scary out there. While things should start to improve, we won't see real improvement and wealth generation until the bureaucrats and blow-hards in Washington quit with their Tax & Spend ways.

America, this is our wake up call! We can't spend our way out of the mess this time. We need to save and our government needs to save along with us. It's time to STOP spending money we don't have.

That's my opinion, I welcome yours.

Obama Lied; The Economy Died

Obama Lied; The Economy Died

The title of this article is one powerful statement and I was in shock when I read it. It’s the title of an article written by a conservative author, Tony Blankley.

Before you cry foul! Remember that liberal Democrats used the saying Bush Lied; People Died as the center piece of an entire campaign, not just an article in a newspaper …much more incendiary rhetoric I’d say.

Blankly, playing on this same theme makes some very good points in his op-ed piece in the Washington Post. He posits that Obama ran as one ‘thing’ but is really another.

Take the Preisdents message of ‘change’ as example #1. Obama ran on the promise of change in Washington. His stated goal was a more civil tone and more bipartisanship.

However, what we see happening is Obama and his Democratic cohorts ramming legislation down the throats of the Republican minority. His side is using tricks like only issuing legislation in printed format (not electronic) and expecting thousands of pages to be digested and voted on in just days of review.

When legislation is opposed, the President says; ‘We were elected, it’s our turn.’ And when the Republicans decide not to vote for legislation they haven’t had time to review the Obama team calls them obstructionist.

What change? Sounds like the same ole Washington to me!

There’s more, Obama professed to be for fiscal responsibility and no ear marks. Here again he has lied. We have only to look at the huge stimulus package which was one giant earmark made into law and had nothing to do with stimulating anything!

Other examples of Obama’s lies exist as well. The omnibus spending package with over 8,000 earmarks in the billions of dollars is being pushed for passage. The President says its last year’s business, BUT, if that’s true then why wasn’t it passed last year.

This is another example of the big lie. Obama claims to have inherited the Deficit and he did inherent some of the deficit but in the two months since he’s been in office, he’s tripled the size of the deficit.

The constant, persistent and now accelerated growth in spending and government regulations is killing the markets and slaying our economy. Obama ran to the center as a fiscally conservative Democrat in order to get elected, what he’s become is a Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi tax and spend style liberal!

Obama Lied; The Economy Died; how very apropos.

Transparency Right?

Suffragette America: wham, bam, thank you mam’! Congratulations the recovery and reinvestment act is law!

Our government is borrowing and this bill is so freaking huge, both colossuses’ of Memnon couldn’t prop the thing between them if they tried. It’s ridiculous! Throughout the history of mankind this type of unchecked spending has collapsed societies.

While I am on the topic of ancient civilizations that no longer exist can I just scream out Rome! Thank you but I am dumbfounded by all of this and not in a good way. I can’t believe the people that are think certain aspects of this bill are good.

“Like, yo dude, I found an extra twenty-five dollars a week in my paycheck! It just appeared magically! Cool!” These knot heads don’t get it! Somebody will pay …all of us will pay… and we’ll pay and pay and pay!

Maybe it has all gotten to me but I see all of this borrowing as being a little like we have this giant drill and we’re boring through the earth. In the end we will pop out the other side and be siphoned into some impoverished third world nation but nobody will notice because it’s been such a slow downward spiral.

For many we are just nibbling on the sweet illusion of socialism but not quite ready for the commitment. Some are excited, some are exasperated and I just may be resigned to what is happening. Trust me I don’t want that and I am almost confident in saying that you don’t want to see it happen either, what a nightmare!

Now I know I am being a little rough on the new bill and some say we need to give it time. All I can say in my defense is that we’ve seen this before and it hasn’t worked. But this time we have ‘transparency’ so everyone can see what’s going on. Right? That makes it all different…

The seductress is Lady Transparency. She’s all dressed up for us and promises the fulfillment of our wildest fantasy, a government that is for the people, by the people and keeps the people free. A government with no corruption and where we can spend all this money and do ‘good’ for ALL people.

But underneath the seductive trappings is a two-timing tramp that is telling lies and stealing from us. You need proof, then just look at the new government web site, recovery.gov. It’s one huge piece of Socialist propaganda. The so called transparency is fiction, read the fine print and the asterisk on the site. Transparency my a**!

Hold on America! I started this blog entry with a song so I’ll end with one. Back in the USSR, you don’t know how lucky you are boy, back in the, back in the, back in the USSR!

Shut Up and Get Out of the Way!

There ...I said it! The talking heads in the government need to just shut up and get out of the way. What gives me the right to be so pointed? Well I'll tell you.

I have a unique perspective, being one of the few people in the mortgage industry that didn't go gonzo and make loans to every breathing Jack that walked through my door. I didn't get rich off the housing boom and I wasn't part of the "problem."

I sit everyday watching the stock markets, analyzing the bond market and reading about the mortgage backed securities market trying to give my clients some direction about where interest rates are headed. Right when I think I see a trend developing, BAM! something happens that causes huge volatility in the market!

That 'something' that causes volatility and turns good markets into bad is usually very simple to identify. It is a press conference. Not just any press conference, it's usually a press conference by the President or one of his newly appointed minions.

Case in fact, on Tuesday, February 10, 2009, Sec. Tres. Geihtner has a press conference to announce how the Treasury plans to move forward to 'fix' the crisis, the markets tank and theirs huge volatility everywhere. It's not directional, it's just panic selling without solid trends. It's mindless and crazy.

So what's going on? Well the markets begin to settle and everyone is becoming comfortable. In many cases trends are forming and they are good trends, Whew! We can breath a sigh of relief right?

Wrong! Before a good trend has a chance to take hold and before the capitalism side of our capitalist economy can begin to do what it does, someone from the government announces some new spending, printing or borrowing plan that throws everything out of whack again.

The markets can fix themselves with some oversight and some slight tightening of regulations. But before a real fix can take hold two things have to happen!

One, the government has to Shut Up! Stop telling the markets what your going to do and start listening to what the markets are saying. Step two, is to supply the markets with what they say the need! THEN..... GET OUT OF THE WAY!

If the government officials would quit trying to get face time so they can claim credit for the fix then the fix would come a lot sooner. I for one am tired of seeing the people that got us in this mess claim that they have the fix to get us out.

And I dare you to tell me there's a whole new crowd in charge now and they didn't have anything to do with this mess, come on....I dare you... ;-)

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Finally we might get some movement on solving the bank and mortgage mess! It is about time. I've always said if the problem is really bad loans then get them out of the system and everything will be fine.

Now we here that's exactly what might happen. New Tres. Sec., Timothy Gheithner has suggested the creation of a 'bad bank'. This bank would be an aggregator used to accumulate the loans that are in default, essentially removing them from banks books and getting them out of the system.

This 'bad bank' would absorb all of the delinquent assets and turn our banks back into 'good banks' again! Stupendous. But wait, here's the ugly part, there's not enough money left in the TARP fund to buy all the bad loans.

The answer might be to seek investment capital from the private sector. With enough government guarantees on returns, that money might come flowing in fast and furious. However, the real ugly part would be if the American tax payer were to be burdened further with those guarantees.

For now all we can do is take a wait and see stance on this. This is the most logical decision to be made by the Treasury since this whole thing started over two years ago.

Let's hope Timothy 'the dodger' Geithner is right. I think he is, it's what the economist I follow have been saying for a while ....and they are all conservatives so maybe they all got it right this time.

What? 'the dodger' comment above? What's that all about? Sorry, it's just my swipe at yet another Obama appointment where the appointee had a tax problem....but that's a subject for another blog isn't it.

Sorry, back to the subject at hand. If the Secretary of Tresury is correct on this one, the fix could be in and we might see our economy improve as early as the 4th quarter of this year.

But the recovery may still be blunted if the Democrats are successfully in Porking America again with this huge, over inflated, pork barrel, pig belly so called stimulus package. Again, we will all just have to wait and see.....zzzzz.....zzzzz..... Somebody wake me up when this nightmare is over please! ;-)

Porked Again!

While the President lectures America's CEO's about excessive pay and the Vice Pres plays buddy-buddy with Al Gore, the Democratically controlled Congress voted to hand $93,000 to each and every member!

So the earmarking will stop under the Obama administration, right? Of course that's unless you take into consideration that the $800 billion stimulus is nothing but one HUGE earmark!

Now the Dems have found a new way around future earmarks, you need only look at their most recent actions. They just gave themselves $93,000 per congressman as pocket change.

It's being sold to us as 'a necessary increase to help out constituents'. Bull Sh%#! It's an earmark without being an earmark!

It has been intimated by the Vice President that its patriotic to pay taxes. It has been suggested by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi that we all have to tighten our belts. So tell me something, why don't the politicians have to tighten theirs?

I thought we were going to get some leadership out of the Obama administration. Turns out we're all just getting Porked Again!

Taxes Must Be Voluntary?

Timothy Geithner is approved or as the next Sec. Tres. Who is Geithner? If you believe what many senators and congressmen and women have said about him, he's one of the most important appointees to be considered since the Carter Administration!

Geithner's resume is long and distinguished and it's true that he's not dolt. You don't get to be the President of the New York Region Federal Reserve without having some solid smarts!

But here's my problem. Mr. Geithner has had some tax problems, as in, he didn't pay them. That's right, he 'avoid' paying some taxes through an accounting error.

When pressured about how he managed to miss calculate his tax liability to the tune of more the $40,000, Mr Geitner was more than disingenuous. He blamed the mistake on the fact that he uses Turbo Tax to calculate his return and 'the program' must have missed something.

Here's the interesting thing, the mainstream media gave him a pass. His lofty stature and humongous brain are just to important to America in this critical time. So much for objectivity int he news media.

My problem with this entire situation is not that he miscalculated his tax burden by more money than many people make in a years time, my problem is with the nonchalance he displayed in dealing with the issue. I have a real problem with this 'big brain' not being able to figure out his taxes or at least being smart enough to understand that NONE of us can figure them out and that's why we have to pay others to do it for us!

Let's up their correct, let's hope his 'big brain' can get us out of this economic mess and the country moving again!

Obama in One Word... Amazing!

I am proud to be an American today! I proud for many reasons, to many to be able to list here today. Our new President has been inaugurated!

His speech was inspiring. He is one of the best orator since John Kennedy. His clear and concise message was one of hope for everyone in our country.

His message to the world was one of stern warning tempered with hope to help the worlds less privileged.

I loved our 43rd President. I admired his principled nature and the way that he did not waiver in his undying devotion to keep our nation safe.

No matter how much you hate President Bush, if you are truly honest, you cannot deny that our nation is safer today because of his willingness to have his name sullied while he did what he thought was right. But his time has come and gone and it now a new day and a new time.

Change is upon us and that change appears hopeful. All Americans should be proud today and everyone should put their differences aside and pray for the success of our new leader!

A Tribute to a King

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

In our nations great history, we started out with these words emblazoned on a piece of parchment. Our forefathers boldly presented this document, the Declaration of Independence to a despot that enslaved through high taxation and a self proclaimed 'divine right' to rule.

While our country was born on this proclamation, it's dream was never realized by all who lived on American soil. Many peoples were burdened with a very real slavery that was hidden from the light by the guise of States Rights.

This contradiction would be partly solved by a great man who would become president, Abraham Lincoln. Yet even the War between the States (the civil war) could not fully resolve the inequality that slavery in America had caused.

It would not be until many, many years later that a man would come along that could so capture a world with his message that we would all stand up and take notice. With his Christian teachings, his Gandhi type insistence on non-violent protest and his spell binding oratory, Doctor King inspired a nation to recognize a heinous truth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk

As a nation we were forced to recognize our prejudice. Doctor King died for his cause, martyred by a mad man, but his legacy lives on. Today we honor a King, Doctor Martin Luther King.

Tomorrow, 46 years from his great speech in Washington, we honor his legacy as we inaugurate the first black man to become president of this once prejudice and dividend nation.

Even with all the economic problems and the anger and divisiveness and strife around the world; Today, on this very special day, I am proud to be an American!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdJ7Ad15WCA&feature=related

Tax Cuts For the Rich? Oh No!

That's right, you heard me, tax cuts are coming ... or continuing .... depending on who you are listening to. The Obama administration has signaled that tax hikes are definitely off the table and that tax cuts may actually be needed to get this economy moving again.

Amazing isn't it? Looks like our new President is a very savvy politician and a pretty bright guy. We were all worried that his Tax the Rich mantra during the campaign would ruin the country.

As it turns out, it may have been a ploy to keep his liberal/socialist base pumped up and headed to the polls. When in reality he has had a mindset to rule as a centrist all a long.

The thing I love here is that even a democrat is acknowledging that lower taxes stimulates the economy and creates growth. But while they talk about the need to lower the taxes to get things moving again, they still signal that taxes will need to be raised in a couple of years.

The argument is that spending cuts alone will not be enough to stem the tide of a rising deficit. I say hog wash! Spending cuts alone stemmed the tide of rising deficits in my household. Was it painful? You betcha! Was it necessary? Damn straight!

According to an article on MarketWatch.com, tax stimulus that give tax payers $500 at a time doesn't stimulate the economy because we (the consumer) just put that money in the bank as savings. However, lower tax rates that can add $10-$20 per week to a paycheck add just enough money that it doesn't get saved and increases consumer spending.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Tax-perks-stimulate-economy-coming/story.aspx?guid=%7BDD44159D%2DD4AD%2D45C7%2D8AE6%2D5B765653CDA5%7D

So here we go again! Spend, Spend, Spend! Note in the article that 'saving is bad'. The implied message is that spending is good. However, in that very same article some economist state that saving IS good and we should encourage it.

In the end, even though there is a glimmer of hope that someone in D.C. 'gets it', it appears that the inmates still run the asylum .... So, I'm going to save, save, save and hope that these idiots finally get a clue. Until then, watch your wallets, their safe for now, but at some point the government is coming and they will force you to give them your last thin dime!