One Small Step for Mankind

Okay, a decent election. Obviously, Blogspot doesn't reach Nevada, or that empty suit, Harry Reid, would be two months from retirement, but a bit of progress happened.elsewhere.

Treat yesterday as stopping a car from going off a cliff, but with two wheels still hanging over the edge. 2012, if we don't go back to sleep, could be the tow truck that puts us back on the road. (That metaphor sounds familiar. From whom...? Irritating bastard if I remember right. It'll come to me.) We can't repeal anything Barry and the Socialists did since 2008, but we can stop the decline until they get tossed permanently. Maybe they'll become a singing group. The entertainment crowd already loves them, right?

The new Republicans better have steel in their shorts. Early in the game California is going to show up at the White House in their shabbiest clothes, hat extended for cash. Governor Moonbeam was the sole Dem to unseat a Rep for  governor, so Barry is going to want the rest of us to reward them. The new guys have to say, "Sorry, dude." Letting states fail will make their citizens elect better people, some of whom may understand arithmetic. Of course, Cal will threaten bankruptcy, the Wall Street Progressives will lobby mightily, and it will be game on. If the Reps blink, this election will have accomplished nothing.

Pain is ahead. We asked for it. We need it. For the next two years, clamor for it. Go deaf to the media attacks on Republican hatred of the poor. Get use to the words "crisis" and "emergency." Not only are they favorite attention grabbers in the media, but they allow Congress to authorize new spending, even if we somehow arrive at a "balanced" budget.

Some of the fools and liars are gone. Take comfort in a bit of glacial progress for the human race: a future without daily exposure to Pelosi's frozen, vacant face.

Anarchists

Ever see a G20 meeting? Lots of longhairs in ski masks burning cars, throwing flaming bottles at cops holding shields. I have a few questions for the rabble:

Who made the bottle you just threw? the gasoline you put in it? the cloth you used as a fuse? who mined the phosphorus used for the match? who cut the lumber for the stick? who packaged it? who made the trains, planes, or trucks that transported everything to where you're so pissed off? who paved the roads? who made the asphalt for the roads? who built the bridges they used? who grew the food you eat? who made the clothes you wear? how can you do all this without being part of any of the production? why don't your parents or your government cut you off so you can figure some of this out?

I hate those jackasses. Hate them. It's un-Christian, I know, but I do. Pray for me and vote Republican this year and every year The second part may not save my soul, but it will save the country.

School Vouchers

A doctor I know stunned me the other day by saying he would pay double his property taxes to get more money for teachers. That jaw-droppingly stupid bit of volunteerism showed me how badly we're losing the fight. Even (supposedly) bright people eventually succumb to the repeated lie, in this case that teachers are underpaid. The natural extension of that line of thought (I nearly said crap.) is that we, the cheap-ass taxpayers, are the culprits for the country's pathetic educational outcomes.

I presume teachers know their salary before they accept the position. Why is it okay on signing day, but an outrage on the first day of classes? The answer is simple: teacher's unions. I've heard them complain for my entire life, and no amount of cash, reduced hours, or increased benefits has satisfied them. I don't fault them; it's their DNA. I fault those who've been elected to defend against their relentless siege. The answer? Vote them out so something else can be tried.

Education is our country's best example of government as a poor provider of services. Outcomes are horrible and getting worse, yet it's no one's fault. Like all public sector failings, they just need more money. And why wouldn't we give it to them? Look at how well they take care of it. The U.S. is now the proud home of four high schools costing over $200,000,000 to build - the most recent being $560,000,000 in Los Angeles. Since that school is built on the site where Liberal icon, RFK, was murdered, apparently cost had no relevance. In fact, when the School Board was asked about the cost, their answer was that it was funded by a bond issue, so it really didn't cost anything. And we turn our children over to these people! My suspicion is that when the dropout rate at this palace continues at the old rate, 40%,  fists will rise into air. Somehow, the students will have been short changed because the rich don't pay enough taxes.

Vouchers were an experiment that worked, and as a result suffered summary execution under the Democrats. Teachers unions need Democrats, and Democrats need union money and votes. Four hands held the pillow over Voucher's face.

Free market choices work if given a chance. This November, throw out any incumbent who took money from a teacher's union. Even better, if a candidate in your district promises to dismantle the Department of Education and return decisions to the states, send them a check and stick their sign in your front lawn or window.

Medical Insurance for Dummies

Question: what's the biggest mistake in medical insurance?

Answer: getting it through an employer.

Think about it. You pay for all the other insurance in your life. Premiums are calculated on your individual risk factors. Multiple insurers compete for your business. States have insurance departments that (supposedly) act as gatekeepers on coverage terms, premium hikes, company solvency, and policyholder disputes. And by the way, assessments to the insurance companies fund the whole shebang, not the taxpayers.

Am I crazy? Couldn't medical coverage enter that marketplace? (I realize those are two separate questions.) How did the employer get in the middle of this you ask? Answer: the government, via tax policy. They allow corporations to deduct the premiums, the only form of insurance that's deductible, and as we all know, tax deduction equals subsidy. Oh wait, I forgot. Not all corporations are eligible. Sub-chapter S corporations and LLC's, which include virtually all small businesses, can't deduct the premiums. Why the different treatment? Could it be a union thing? Is it possible that the government wanted to add a bargaining arrow to the union quiver? Nah...

As you might suspect, I think medical insurance is no different than car insurance, and it can be priced the same way. I don't pay the same as the teenager with the Corvette, and I don't want to pay the same as the obese, diabetic, smoking drunk. Believe it or not, actuaries can come up with right numbers. Hey Michelle! You want a "weller" America? (It's a perfectly crumulant word.) Let people start paying for behavior choices.

Progressives will argue that health care is different because every person, whether insured or not, accesses the system; so in practice, it's not an insurance situation; it's how do we cover the costs. That's true...sort of. Why can't the solution stay in the private sector? Let insurance companies offer basic policies (broader coverages can be added for additional premiums) and calculate the premium on the risk characteristics of the buyer (like all other insurance). Have Uncle Sap pay the premium for the man/woman/family under a specific income level. The fly in this soup, of course, is that a basic policy would necessitate denial of treatment in certain instances; but that's a topic for a future blog entry.

The wandering point of this edition is that jobs are jobs. Health insurance is health insurance. Stitching them together complicates employment and must end if we're going to re-start the economy. Vote for those who'll yank ObamaCare out by the roots. It's the only way to permit fresh thinking into the problem.

Mmmm.... That's Good Kool-Aid

Got a good bit of feedback from a reader. The upshot was that, yes, market forces would be valuable in restoring prosperity, but government is the public's only protection against "greed," AND until the economy rights itself, "they have to do something." Barkeep, another double shot of Progressive Kool-Aid, if you please.

When the debate is framed that way, the Progressives have already won. The question isn't if there should be government initiatives; it's how many. You can't see me now, but I'm punching myself in the forehead and it really hurts. If I have an overarching theme in this blog exercise, it's that government control in the economy is always bad. I won't ascribe evil intent to the Progressives, but their failures litter the globe. Voters willing to surrender any more cash or freedoms to that cabal of nitwits don't seem to know that repeating an action, and expecting different outcomes, is a definition of insanity.

Government, a corrupt pillager in its own right, has shown no capacity to protect us from...pretty much anything. In fact, they've had quite the opposite effect. Take real estate. Beginning with the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, bureaucrats by the thousands star-gazed while the real estate bubble swelled. Fannie and Freddie spent the 80's and 90's perfecting the scam. In the 2000's, the head of Fannie Mae, Franklin Raines, pocketed many millions in bonuses from "profits," all the while funneling gigantic campaign contributions to the likes of Barny Frank and Chris Dodd. So far, the taxpayer has eaten $150 billion in losses on Fannie, and we're not done yet. Gee, I wonder how a cesspool like Fannie escaped effective oversight for so long?

After the 2008 collapse, and the evil Wall Street bankers were paraded in front of the cameras for Frank and Dodd's show trials, where was Raines? Not even a subpoena. He was free to tend to his part ownership in the new exchange that will trade carbon credits. Should Cap & Tax ever pass, he could turn his catastrophic stewardship of Fannie Mae into a personal fortune approaching a billion dollars. And that, my dears (as Fagan called his team of pickpockets), is how they protect us from "greed."

For those who still believe government "has to do something," my only question is, "What's your favorite Kool-Aid flavor?"

Tea Party Miscalculation

Went to a Tea Party fund raising dinner this week. Lots of patriotism and fist shaking - which I like - and then we got to God...the Judeo-Christian god of the founding Fathers. Afterward, when I objected to the organizer, she said I could always find another Tea Party to join. I will.

Adding a religious component to a secular crisis is not only exclusionary, it ignores one of history's clearest lessons: religion and governing don't pair well. Even Christianity can run amok. How many people were skewered, hacked, incinerated, drawn and quartered, hanged, or garroted during the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Salem witch trials? Could never happen again, you say? Doesn't matter. We don't have to risk it, and shouldn't.

Any institution with the power to control human behavior must be feared and contained. The Tea Party should focus on de-funding and reshaping a government that has overstepped. Period. The danger presented by Obama and the Progressives isn't an antagonism to Christianity. It's fiscal stupidity and a reduced capacity to survive in today's world. It's their belief we exist for the state. It's the confiscation of wealth and earnings, demonizing capital, class warfare, devaluing incentive and achievement, preventing alternative sources of education. There's way more, but you get the picture.

America exists as an ideal because it allows life's rewards (not entitlements) to be enjoyed while people are still alive. The founders may have been Christians, but they risked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to get out from under a government, not to form a new theocracy. Want to stay true to their spirit? Throw the bums out this November, and never take your eye off the ball again. Oh yeah, and accept the fact that atheists can still be great Americans.

Give It Back!

I'm a little bummed today. Thought I had some juicy stuff about Progressive hypocrisy when I saw that Government Motors resumed making political contributions as of yesterday. The headline is that most of the $91,500 went to Democrats. Knife sharpened, I eagerly checked the list of recipients and tallied up $42,000 that went to Republicans, the most disappointing name being Eric Cantor, one of the architects of Pledge to America. How can the idiot take that $1,000? If he returned it, and made a show of it, he'd bring in way more than that. By the way, John Mica (R), my own Congressman, was also on the damn list. He's in for an earful.

I don't fault GM for giving the money. Their competitors do the same thing, so why not? The real problem is that they can actually get something for the grease. Every government program gives someone an advantage. How do sensible people react? They bribe...I mean lobby. The winners lobby to keep the advantage; the losers to remove it. Laws (ultra-stupid McCain-Feingold, e.g.) have done nothing to curb it. There is only one way to minimize corruption in the government, and that is to eliminate as much of it as possible.

We are in a rare moment in our history. The country has seen our potentially fatal diagnosis and is telling Washington we'll take the cure, no matter the pain. Eric Cantor and the other short-sighted Republicans need to walk the walk, or face a Tea Party heave-ho. I've already sent Cantor and Mica my emails. Fire one off yourself. Doesn't have to be windy - like some blogs I've seen - but it needs to let them know you want them to  GIVE IT BACK!!!

Song Lyrics

Oh, people look around you the signs are everywhere. You've left it for somebody other than you to be the one to care. Jackson Browne, from Rock Me on the Water

Browne would cringe at my interpretation of those lines, but that's what Progressives have done to American society. Nobody has to care anymore because it's Uncle Sugar's job. Creeping nanny-state idiocy, costing billions simply to administer, by union protected bureaucrats, has co-opted the process.  Prior to the social destruction wreaked by Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, family, neighbors, local governments, and charities provided the safety net for our citizens. How did this work? Let me report that the dead did not - I repeat - did not stack up in the streets back then.

The Nanny State violates nature; hence, must fail. All life must strive to survive. No competition? No progress. Something or someone else in your realm chooses to compete and you don't? Extinction. Progressives figured out a (short term) winning formula years ago. Tell voters they have a "right" to things most could earn for themselves if they were willing to make choices and sacrifices. At the same time, demonize those "more fortunate" (implying luck, not industriousness) as mean-spirited, greedy, and undeserving. I'm always amused that these initiatives were championed early on by trust-fund parasites like the Kennedys and Rockefellers.

Progressives even changed the language. "Welfare" became "family assistance," or my all time favorite, an "earned income tax credit." Think about that bit of P.C. asininity. Employees (I refuse to call people workers.) below a certain income receive a check from the federal government, and it's called "earned." Huh?

I recently heard an ad on the radio where a gleeful woman introduced herself as a government staffer whose entire job was to spread the word about the Earned Income Tax Credit. She said people could use the money to fix their homes, pay down credit card balances, or - and I swear to Allah this is true - take a much needed vacation! Overpaid bureaucrats whose only job is to cheer-lead people into guilt free self-indulgence. Madness.

It feels like voters are ready to stand against the looters and let Nature get back into harmony. Might as well close by horrifying one more lyricist. The times they are a changin'. Bob Dylan

What's the Strategy?

The 'comment" function on this blog sucks, but I got a recent bit of feedback that said, "we're not learning much that's new. How about a winning strategy for the loyal opposition?" Okay, here it is:

Nothing.

Not the Seinfeld or couch potato nothing, but the Hypocratic Oath nothing: Above all, do no harm. The country has finally woken up. If we do nothing more than send campaign contributions, the November bloodbath will happen. Policy discussions are a trap because only the Progressive side will appear in the media. They are on the wrong side of every issue. Send money, fold your arms, and enjoy the continuing self-destruction.

A New Low For Stupid

Saw a picture of a guy yesterday. He was holding up a professional looking sign that said, "A Job is a Right." If you've seen stupider than that, let me know. I may not respond right away, though. I'm seeing a cottage industry here. Already magic-markered a hundred each of: A Home on the Ocean is a RIght; Vacations in Hawaii are a Right; World Series Tickets are a Right; Health Care is a Right. What? That last one's already been taken? By whom? Damn the Progressives. Wait, is that one still available?

They Have Two Trillion!

What's at the core of the I-know-better-than-you Progressives' strategy? Think Willie Sutton. They go where the money is. Their buzz now is that the rich aren't hiring because they're greedy. "Taxpayers bailed out (put in your favorite industry), and this is how they repay us?" The vermin running American businesses are "hoarding" two trillion dollars, and that's why the government has to run deficits to put money in the hands of the poor. Those rich bastards. If they keep forgetting that the purpose of business is to hire people - not make a profit - well, maybe they're not mature enough to have a business. Maybe they need to have their business privileges taken away; get sent to time-out so they can think about what they did, and stay there until they're ready to say "sorry."

Ever watch a card game you didn't understand? Money or chips sit in front of each player. They make bets.  Cards are dealt or turned; maybe held against the forehead. Someone claims the pot. Words are exchanged in your mother tongue, but make no sense. Another hand is dealt. Would a rational person sit down at that table?

Businesses have been facing a stream of destructive taxes and incoherent regulation since the Progressive sweep in 2008. Bills like the 3,000 page financial "reform" act created powers for regulators that aren't even enumerated in the bill. They get to make them up on a needs basis. Huh? Health care "reform" (another 3,000 pager) created 132 new agencies, again with powers not clearly codified. Say what? Then there's Cap & Trade. Is that going to be a costly middle finger to the nation during the lame duck session? When the rules are unknowable, sane people don't play.

Delays in putting money to work is the latest capitalist demon to Progressives. Remember, all that capital has already suffered through the highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized world, but some time in the very near future, an excess accumulations tax will be proposed. Like Willie Sutton, they just have to get into that vault. Once that's done, IRA's and 401 k's will be next. If Obama knows how much capital is "enough," and how much pay is "enough," how can he not know how much retirement money is "enough?" (Sounds like a good title for a blog.)

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing." Edmund Burke

Evil has never been more visible. Rip it out by the roots this November.

Loser Pays

Trial lawyers. Every time I see one of these bloated gasbag hucksters on TV my hope for the country evaporates a few more drops. Like Progressive policies, their goal is to soak the evil rich. For lawyers, that means the insurance industry. If your fist is raised right now, and you're shouting, "Yeah, get those bastards!" remember how premiums are calculated. You ultimately pay for every lawsuit, even the bogus ones. Back to the trial lawyers. Take note of the wording of their ads. Every viewer is a victim who "deserves" something. For those too stupid or unimaginative to come up with a real injury or disease, they can always call the guys who "find you a doctor, who'll find you a lawyer. Think about that...doctors finding lawyers. An invitation to fraud, you say?

How do we kill this corrupt process? Adopt the British system of "Loser Pays." The losing party in every lawsuit must pay the costs of the winner. Trial lawyer contentions that this would starve poor people out of the justice system are sanctimonious rubbish (staying British). Lawyers would be knifing each other in the back to get at winnable cases, regardless of the economic status of the plaintiff. The Brits had have a few hundred years of it, and they seem to be doing okay. Of course, with frivolous cases taken out of the system, a lot of lawyers will become unemployed. They're smart people, though. They'll figure something. A few might even find a way to make a living that creates wealth.

The most important inclusion in Loser Pays is the government. No entity on earth is a more dangerous courtroom adversary. They bring unlimited resources, time, and collateral threats to the party. Right now, the citizens of Arizona are footing the bill for defending themselves against Uncle Sugar. Other states (Rhode Island, for example) have passed the same law but aren't being sued. Why not? Could it be that Arizona has two Republican senators and a Republican governor? Is it a grandstand play in a state with a high percentage of Hispanic voters? The reason doesn't matter. What matters is that the federal government is selectively attacking one group of citizens. Other than voter outrage, they face no consequences. Win or lose, though, Arizona taxpayers lose. For a little salt in the wound, as federal taxpayers, Arizonans are also helping pay to sue themselves.

It mystifies me that Republicans don't make Loser Pays a campaign plank.Trial lawyers, like labor unions, bankroll Democrats, exclusively; so Republicans wouldn't be jeopardizing contributions. Championing something so sensible would attract voters.When you elect Republicans this November, demand they change the tort system to Loser Pays. If you don't, I'll sue!

Ivory Towers

It's normal for anyone facing graduation to be anxious. Those with gumption take a deep breath and charge into the world. The timid remain in the cocoon and pile on advanced degrees. The hyper-timid become professors.

The Obama administration is so loaded with professors, it's a mystery there's anyone left to indoctrinate today's students (finally, a good unintended consequence). Asking professors to craft real-world solutions to problems in our economy is like asking a man to explain how childbirth feels. So why do the Progressives turn to academia so rapturously when they've never experienced business? One answer is that the Progressive seeking advice is, or was, another academician. Want to increase your own status? Simple, elevate your peers. What was Obama until he was thirty? Where do you think he'll wind up when he's tossed out?

Another, more probable answer, is that to Progressives, business experience is like a criminal record. While they accept the concept of rehabilitation in theory, they're locking up the silverware.

Progressives hysterically trumpet business failures like the financial collapse in 2008. Uncle Sugar made a boatload of money bailing out banks (some of which didn't want the money), but the banks are still in the cross hairs because the Democrats think it'll get votes. Where the country lost its keister was on General Motors, and Chrysler, and Fannie, and Freddie - jury's still out on AIG. Since the first two are trade union bailouts, they're praised. The other two are government failures, so they need more study. Blue ribbon panels, bi-partisan commissions and such. AIG is a hybrid. It was actually a Goldman Sachs bailout, which should put it in with the banks, but Goldman populates the government as heavily as academia; so... I'm sure a multimillion dollar grant to Yale would clear that one up.

Any Progressive reading this will toss it off as the anti-intellectualism of a mouth-breathing Conservative. Maybe, but I prefer to see myself as the little kid at the famous scene of a truck wedged under an overpass. Adults are huddled, some refer to books, some to rolled out papers, others point or look up. The kid, though, is pointing to the tires, saying, "What if you let out some air?"

Have some fun this November. Flatten some Democrats.

Ah, the 60's

Given enough time, life has a curative mechanism. Death. Some day all those who came to enlightenment during the '60's will be dead, so there's hope.

The brain trusts that have encrusted around our presidents (and a helluva lot of governors) for many years have all suffered from 60's-itis. This was the sliver of time when our national ethic changed. Goals and responsibilities were displaced by rights and entitlements. Politicians, being astute, at least as far as knowing how to get reelected, latched onto this theme. At taxpayer expense, a number of misguided (and ultimately disastrous) initiatives were launched, all under the banner of providing citizens what they deserved. The War on Poverty has probably been the most destructive, mostly because "poverty" is an utterly subjective determination.

While 2007 predates our current troubles, here are some stats about America's "impoverished," as provided in a research paper by Robert Rector. Remember the following the next time you hear a Progressive politician wring his/her hands about cruel America's treatment of its poor::


The following are facts about persons defined as "poor" by the Census Bureau, taken from various government reports:

• Forty-three percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.
• Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, in 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
• Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.
• The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)
• Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 31 percent own two or more cars.
• Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.
• Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.
• Eighty-nine percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and more than a third have an automatic dishwasher.

Are there poor Americans? Of course. Should there be a safety net? Absolutely. Are Progressive politicians exploiting Americans' generosity to create an ever-expanding, dependent underclass, one that is a reliable voting bloc? Yes! When the economy is robust, do they simply raise the threshold for "poverty" to keep the numbers headline grabbing? Yes! They've been doing it for fifty years because we let them.

November's coming. Throw the bums out. This time, try to elect someone who's never owned a tie-dyed teeshirt.

Corporations! Look Out Behind You!

So it begins. Most talking heads on the business network, CNBC, but particularly Mark Haines and Erin Burnett, have been turning up the heat on corporations for "hoarding" cash instead of hiring people.While the economy rots, corporate profits are at a record. Heartless bastards! CNBC being a GE company, and therefore Progressive in its leanings, may be floating an Obama trial balloon - an excess accumulations tax, perhaps. We'll see.

Got a news flash for you, CNBC: businesses are formed to make money for the owners. Period. Employment is a byproduct of a company's success. It is not a societal responsibility. Okay, Progressives, you're turn. Lean closer. I have a secret for you. Ready? Since cave days, businesses have found ways to get more done with fewer people. No, I'm not kidding. It's called productivity, and higher productivity increases profits. What happened to those poor people who got fired? Who paid their bills and kissed away their tears? Gee, I don't know. How about this? Maybe they learned a new skill, one that some other business needed, and they lived happily ever after.

For the entire Obama administration, businesses have been in a defensive crouch, hands over their ears, eyes squeezed shut.  Almost weekly, an industry was selected for condemnation, their leaders paraded in front of the cameras and set into the stock. TV cameras weren't allowed into the health care deliberations, but they were hardly scarce for the public scourging of those enemies of the people. Along with character assassinations of their executives, businesses have also been bombarded with two years of  indecipherable new regulations and unquantifiable tax burdens.

So,you craven capitalists, why aren't you hiring? The Leader needs you to blindly risk your nest egg so the unemployment rate will drop and his wealth-destroying policies can seem effective, at least until he's slithered into a second term. I'm warning you, if you don't open those purse strings voluntarily, he's coming for you. After all, it isn't really your money. Is it? Not when the collective needs it so badly.

Be afraid. Vote them out.

Unions

Being somewhat juvenile, I still get easily exercised over things that are screamingly unfair. For example, there are Conservative members of trade or public sector unions. These unions are allowed to charge dues, then use the money to promote Progressive candidates and causes. How is that even legal? Why can't members opt out of paying for the political activities of their union? This has to be a free speech violation. Some would counter that corporations make political contributions, too, so things wash in the end. Not true. Corporations can't collect from their employees against their will, and corporations have the wishy-washy habit of funding both parties rather than promote a particular ideology. In 2008, for instance, 70% of Wall Street money went to Obama. If anyone knows of a Republican candidate who received 70% of union money, let me know.

How about strikes? When trade unions strike, their members can collect unemployment. The law requires employers to buy the unemployment insurance that the striking employees collect. Do you see the lunacy? The employer is required to finance the strike against itself. For a little salt in the wound, after the strike is settled, the employer's unemployment insurance costs rise because of high payments made to the striking employees. No one else qualifies for unemployment if they walk out. Why unions?

Both of these unfairnesses (sometimes I make up words) are because Democrats made the laws, and Republicans were asleep. Politics is (was, and always will be) the process of buying and holding power. Democrats have had generations to slant the playing field using taxpayer money. It may take a generation or two, but there's still time to reintroduce fairness into government; and the ironic solution is to get rid of a lot of it.

This November, and every November thereafter, elect people whose entire platform is to remove Progressive cancers from the body politic. A little pain; a world of gain.

Housing

I saw Henry Cisneros, HUD Secretary under Bill Clinton, on a business show yesterday. The topic was whether or not to start up another tax credit program for new home buyers. He was for them because construction has always been such an important sector of the U.S. economy.

Cisneros is an articulate, accomplished man - and emblematic of the Democrat brain lock that is worsening a bad economic situation. Henry (insert the sound of a face slap), we already have too many houses! If we don't build any more for a year (another slap), we'll still have too many! Wanna know what's going to get construction healthy again? (I can't describe the sound of shoulders being shaken, but that's what goes here.) Do you? The marketplace!

Politicians - my code word for Democrats - live in dread of market solutions because their fingerprints don't appear on the happy outcomes. There are, of course, some unhappy outcomes, which they live for ("Never waste a good crisis.") Each overswing of the pendulum is another opportunity to burrow deeper into the economy, to pump addictive, regulatory medicine into a body that only needed a good night's sleep.

These naturally occurring excesses in the economy should be welcomed. They punish the stupid and greedy (real estate speculators, for example), and then life goes on; nearly everyone a bit smarter and wiser. Think of market excesses as natural disasters. While nasty to experience, they serve a greater good. Florida would die without hurricanes; they recharge the water systems. Forests require fires to propagate. Floods are nature's way of saying, "Why the hell did you build a city below sea level? You can rebuild it, moron, but I'll be back."

America got drunk on hyper-consumption. Households are accepting their hangovers. This November, elect people who will force the cure on the government. Treat it as an intervention. The next (and last) speech I want to hear from Obama should begin, "My name is Barack."

Stealing

Webster defines stealing as, "to get, take, or give slyly, surreptitiously, or without permission." Sounds like the Progressive plans for redistributing wealth, except they aren't being sly about it. Does that disqualify it as stealing? I'm sure Bill Clinton would do a fine job parsing it that way.

Isn't conspiracy to commit a crime also a crime? Why aren't Obama, Pelosi, and Reid in leg irons? I heard Obama's campaign interview with Bill O'Reilly in 2008.When asked about his plan to redistribute wealth, Obama leaned closer to O"Reilly, smiled, and said something like, "C'mon, Bill, you and I have more than enough. What's wrong with spreading some of that around?"

That question contains the mind-blowing assumption that my wealth is Obama's to distribute. Want to spread some around, Barack? You have a checkbook, open it. Maybe get Biden to cough over more than 1% of his earnings for a change.

I don't question the noble intentions of Progressives. I share their aspirations for our citizenry, but I see individual success arising naturally from hard work, thrift, and discipline. They see it as a series of transfer payments from those who have worked hard, saved, and exercised discipline. In the end (and doesn't the end justify the means?) so what, right? Wow. There isn't enough room in cyberspace to list all the downsides, but the biggest is this: after government confiscates the wealth, who gets it and why? Those of us who watched in horror as the health care bill made its way through the congressional chow line understand exactly how the loot will be divided - politically. Democrats will identify purchasable voting blocks and create rules that stick the funnel down the right throats. The nation's vitality and swagger will sag a bit more, but they'll be more entrenched than ever, and that's the real goal.

Of all the things on this earth to fear, keep government high on the list. Your vote is the most powerful weapon against them. Find candidates who want to drive government back into its cage. Put these people in office and keep them there. If they ever succumb to the drug of power, throw them out and find a new bunch. The fight never ends. Stay tough.

Can't Stand Prosperity

Prosperity. Should be a good thing, wouldn't you think? It is until its evil twin, Complacency, takes over. This happened in the U.S. two generations ago. Early manifestations were things like auto and steel industry execs surrendering to ridiculous demands (thirteen weeks vacation, e.g.) from the unions. No reason not to. Fighting is such a messy business, and they had no real competition. Pump the new costs into the price of the products and go back to sleep until the next contract renewal. We all know how that turned out.

Today's "social justice" charade has the same foundations. Who the hell are "community organizers?" Who pays them? Where does the money come from? What's expected from them for the pay they get? The answer is that they are political operatives paid for by the taxpayer, and they are expected to deliver votes for Democrats, something they do quite efficiently. These parasites continue to exist - for now- because for generations, Prosperity fattened the population while Complacency stood guard. Growing shortages from the treasury each year weren't enough to jostle Complacency from its nap, so the lengthy slumber allowed an army of looters to organize and grow. Nearly fifty unopposed years of undermining the capitalistic structure that has sustained its life. No "benefit" (appeasement) given along the way has been received with gratitude. All are eventually deemed insufficient and are more evidence of the "meanness" of capitalism. Now the unthinkable has happened. The parasites have control, and working Americans are dumbfounded by the successful treachery.

If you believe the country's direction is suicidal, join the fight. Don't just point to this November, though. If Republicans take Congress this fall, the victory will be nothing more than a speedbump in the Progressives' momentum. Nothing accomplished by the Obama/Reid/Pelosi monster can be undone without sixty Republican senators and a Republican president. This means you have to stay focused for years. Your opponents will never let up, so neither can you. Commit your time, your money, and your big mouth to killing this army. Not just a slight cough and low-grade fever. Dead.

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." Thomas Jefferson Wake the hell up out there!

This Manchurian Candidate Got Elected

For those who've never seen it, The Manchurian Candidate is a movie about an American soldier captured by the Chinese during the Korean War. He's brainwashed and reprogrammed to be a lethal weapon in the Chinese plan to install a president they can control, thus taking over the U.S. The plot is uncovered, and the soldier commits suicide before he does any irreparable harm. 

For fun, change the brainwashing characters from Chinese communists to...let's say...Marxist college professors Cloward and Piven, and pastor, Jeremiah Wright; and let's throw in (like a bomb?) anarchist, Bill Ayres. Now we need a candidate. Let's use...Obama.You know, this is pretty good casting, especially Obama. He makes no secret of seeking the company and counsel of all these Marxists during his college years, and beyond. He even spent a block of his childhood in an Islamic country. Radical Islam is currently our biggest threat, so, yeah, he's perfect for the role.

Yikes... Other than the suicide, I think we're living the movie.

America, vote Republican this and every November. You'll occasionally elect someone too cozy with a crooked business, but those blips are easy to recover from. Bad Republicans will cost you money. Bad Democrats will cost you your freedom.

Greed

When is demanding more money for less work not greed? When it's done by a union. When is demanding to keep more of what you've earned greed? When it's done by a capitalist.

Alright, now that we know who the evildoers are, answer this: over the past fifty years, what has driven manufacturing out of the U.S.? How did public education become so bad? Who attacks unarmed opponents at political rallies? Whose votes do the Democrats continue to purchase with taxpayer dollars?

Obama says he knows how much money is "enough" for everyone. Do you? That was a trick question. If you're a union member, or part of the 50% of the country who pays no income taxes, the answer is: there's no such thing as enough. As long as one person has more than another, social justice is being thwarted. If, however, you're a capitalist, Obama's answer, as of today at least, is probably the Ben & Jerry's (ice cream) model - roughly ten times the amount earned by the lowest paid person in your organization. Over time, Progressive wisdom will undoubtedly tweak this to eight times, then five, then two, then parity. Ah, social justice at last. No other incentive is necessary.

Incentive! Spit after you say it. Progressives understand it's just a code word for greed. The absence of incentives in the public sector has nothing to do with its appalling performance. The problem, as anyone but a capitalist would know, is that every failed and failing program suffers from understaffing, and its Siamese twin, underfunding. Even with nothing to gain (or lose) by doing a good (or bad) job, the public sector presses forward, often absorbing the brickbats of unappreciative capitalists. Only capitalist refusals to pay their fair share of taxes are keeping these unnecessary, overpaid, Democrat-voting-block unionists from transforming America into the utopia envisioned by The Leader. (We love The Leader. If you're having any difficulty warming to him, try singing along with the choir of small children who were taught to sing his name and praises during the last campaign. It's still on YouTube. Keep a small bucket handy.)

To summarize today's lesson, government's insatiable appetite is not greed, or power lust. Only capitalists can be greedy. Make sure you understand where your candidates stand, and vote accordingly this November.

"No" is the right strategy

"No" or "No!" In the face of imminent danger, this is what a sensible person would demand. Republican candidates should embrace this as their 2010 campaign strategy (and beyond), not apologize. Seventy-five years of Father Christmas policies by both parties have finally set us at the edge of the roof, an overindulged child wearing a sheet as a cape, certain we can fly.

Unaffordable expansion of health care benefits, global redistribution of wealth under the laughable disguise of "climate" control, "jobs" bills targeted to unions in politically friendly states, eliminating the secret ballot for union certification, bloated government having the gall to tell businesses what they should pay executives. These and almost every other initiative of the Obama administration scream out for "No!" Job One for the Republicans: Apply the brakes. No other campaign promise should be necessary to win overwhelming support in November.