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.