Duct Tape My Head

The Pension Time Bomb

2010-09-18T07:22:00.000-07:00

I had been wondering when the Press would get around to reporting on this emergent matter that threatens to be much larger than the Financial Crisis of 2008-1?. I question the end of the Financial Crisis because I believe we are some part through an inexorably slow jobless recovery that will result in a comparatively lower standard of living as opposed to the roaring nineties. The Pension bubble, as I call it, will be much more insidious and crippling to this middling economy.

We have about 75 million Baby Boomers retiring as I type with my formerly nicotine stained fingers, to steal a phrase from the inestimable Rush Limbaugh. The Boom, from 1946 to 1960ish, now '64 for demographers, started turning sixty in 2006 and was looking forward to a retirement with 8% interest and European travel just a few years back. When financial magazines proclaim that there will be no more recessions and its smooth economic sailing from here to eternity you know the end is near. This is just like the overheated sixties but no one remembers them. Of course some remember the acid soaked Peace Movement and the great music extolling the nirvana of nihilism but on the whole most worked hard and ignored the tumul all around them. It was only the six o'clock news that had the dead counts form the Viet Nam war and the latest smoke-in at the local college. Memories...

Getting back to my point, The Unions and all manner of Government workers were promised lavish retirement packages starting way back then and the percentage of the population enrolling in these Trojan Horses grew and grew until the invention of the 401K that answered the White Collar demands for parity with the great unwashed who built our country and policed our streets. Maybe 'Great Unwashed' is a bit unkind; How's about: 'Largely sanitary until they got to work?' Whatever. The growth of these generous retirement packages, with their spousal support after the principle kicked the bucket and almost total medical coverage for both has led to bankruptcy for two Automobile companies and is a clarion call for all corporate and public organizations to examine their retirement liabilities and make appropriate corrections, if possible. But this time that course of action may not be possible.

Once upon a time if a company could not meet accounts payable the slate was wiped clean by bankruptcy and they started over, in a way, or ceased to be. Pensions got in line for pennies on the dollar, if that. Now the courts are holding the companies accountable, and in the event of inability to pay the Government has set up a program to pay some portion of the former company's responsibility. But even then the check is just a drop in the bucket in comparison to the unlimited health care and full pension that once was relied on in retirement.

So what can we look forward to in this Brave New World where the Government administrates retirement funds for pensioners and even those benefits are now taxable income, compounding the pain? I can for see the rise of income taxes to pay for this burgeoning class of retired workers and the drying up of low wage jobs for entry level workers like teens and college students as the gray haired club has better work ethic and demonstrable skills. No longer will the retired person be able to just sit and enjoy drawing breath: To live is to pay bills, and to stay in your home after retirement means to work until you die to pay the real estate taxes and the growing utility bills. Lets not even mention the Health Care Monster the Government has created to fine us for living in the United States. And all those fines for being born here are going to pay for health care for those who didn't study in school, snuck into the country illegally or are the flotsam and jetsam of the populous.

This is indicative of a national ennui in which the population as a whole has become more slothful by the generation and complacent in its position as global leader. Pensions are just another example of the monumental hubris of our leaders; be they union, corporate or public, they gave away the store a long time ago and we all complicit in celebrating their unrealistic projections. Those raising objections are though to be 'negativos' as we still haven't learned from a half a dozen economic crises that have unfolded as of late. This Government goes from fire to fire throwing salt on it and rushing off to the next emergency. The United States is reaping the rewards of fifty years of loose spending and ludicrous social programs. The audacity of hope and paucity of reason have condemned us to a future of want.

Did this really have to happen: An empire at the peak of its power in the fifties gets busy whittling away at its ascendancy until we all sink under the weight of waning influence and financial debauchery? Yup. This seems to be the way of all empires, it just took us less time than the Romans Phoenicians and Persians. And on a world scale do you think any other country will spend billions on Aids drugs and mosquito netting for Africa and all manner of support for everybody else after our aid spigots have trickled dry? I think not.

We have a ticking time bomb more lethal than a terrorist with a match and a truckload of fertilizer. Maybe we have many problems but the emergence of the pension as a next crisis will show itself soon enough and the warning is issued. We have to re-order this scheme before it bankrupts the country. Or this will be yet another nail in the coffin of our great economy?

Unfortunately those millions who bought it to the overly generous plans will be severely disappointed as their benefits decrease but that hard fact is set in stone. You can't spend what you don't have (unless you're a Democrat).

We have a baby dearth from the 60's to about 1985 (generation X), when another baby boom began. Thy is is a cycle. The children of the Seventies are just not numerous enough to support 75 million Boomers into their eighties with free health care and Social Security. Something has to give. And as for voting blocks, Generation X will reach ascendancy just as the Boomers need the most care. Look for severe cuts in old age benefits as Gen Xers, Ys and the I (Internet generation born after 2000) seek to limit their burdensome tax liability to their grandparents.

This time bomb will go off. Like the Social Security crisis that is put off for a few years now and then, by 2020 there will be no avoiding the huge masses of people demanding their various retirement packages and that's when the rationing begins. You think the Health Care debacle will cripple the economy? We have so many body blows coming to our way of life with this next twenty years that we must choose our leaders wisely.

Hold the Republicans feet to the fire and see the Democrats for who they are. Democrats promise pie in the sky with our children's earnings and never seem to get there. Republicans make you responsible for your own fate and remove the bars to achievement. You decide which country you want: A Progressive Nanny State that limits upward mobility or a Capitalist society where you rise, or fall, on your own merit. The former has been tried in Europe and now they are again on the ropes. The latter was the Reagan Revolution and worked wonders for this country, both domestically and on a national level.

our country calls upon us to support Democracy. Let us heed that call and vote Republicans the majority they need to defeat the Liberals' failed agenda. Your 401K and pension hang in the balance. A secure retirement or rationed scarcity: You decide.

Victor The Contractor

Castle's Fall

2010-09-17T16:31:00.000-07:00

Mike Castle's defeat at the hand of newbie Tea Party Candidate, Christine O'Donnell, Tuesday signaled a new tone for the coming elections. Or should I say that it reinforces the change in the thinking of the average voter. This change is vehemently being denied by the press and decried by both Parties but you get the point: People want a change of leadership in the Nation's Capitol.

Now we are not going to get a new President for two more years, and the Supreme Court changes generationally, not periodically like the Houses of Congress. But there is anger in the streets and home all across this great nation. An anger that can only be expressed by changing who speaks for us when a law is drawn up. Lately it has been lobbyists and the far left and that is making the working 90% who pay for the 10%'s lunacy angry to distraction. Fo while you can raise taxes on a prosperous nation, you can't on a shrinking economy without facing consequences.

Both Republicans and Democrats are reaping the whirlwind for the former's complacency and the latter's complete disregard for the Constitution. And Mike Castle is a perfect example of what I like to call 'haughty.' He really lost because he pulled a Harry Reid and mocked Christine O'Donnell as if we were all still in high School and would be cowed into voting for him because he had more experience. More Experience? That's what we want to throw out! We need new blood down there badly and he has the audacity to hope that we would be as judgmental as he was. He made O'Donnell more likable by likening her to a loser. What filth!

Really, Christine O'Donnell may not be a financial wizard, but she surely can do no worse than the Socialist clowns we have down there now and the mealy mouthed Republicans who vote for 'getting along' rathre than for standing for anything. And I have a saying for that ethos: If you don't stand for anything, You'll stand for anything! A man with no guts can reap no glory. Period.

And Mike Castle is reaping what he sewed. Could he have been more stupid? You don't mock another Republican. live on TV, and not risk a slap in the face at the polls. He is like the stern father who the kids never visit because he always has a lecture for them. It wouldn't be so bad if the 'Stern father' practiced what he preached. I understand that he voted for the first Stimulus bill. Not good. With Liberal votes like that who needs a D next to your name?

And no, Castle did not vote to impeach President George Bush but he did vote to move the investigation along in the belly of the beast. So he voted for it so he could vote against it? Who knows and at this point who cares? Suffice to say that Mike's mean spirited comments lost him an election where he was on the edge of losing anyway.

This is great for the Republican Party! It shows that the voters can take control of choosing representation when they are suitably motivated, regardless of the sarcastic Press and overtly haughty Democrat party spewing their lies. What is more intriguing is the possibilities of a Tea Party sweep of the elections that it is fielding candidates for. I can imagine a change in leadershop in both houses and the newly chastened Congress having to COMPROMISE their guilded view of Socialism for tax cuts and real business stimulus, like tax holidays and the loosening of the union yoke on industry. But maybe its too premature and naive to expect anything but gridlock for the rest of the Obama Presidency.

What I can accurately predict is a defiant Obama lecturing a public that no longer holds him in high regard. I doubt he'll pull a Clinton and head for the middle: He's a true believer, folks. I think he'll be like a whiny Jimmy Carter from here on out. 'Cept this time the Iranians have the bomb and will rattle their collective swords every now and again. The White House will be accommodating, I'm sure, to Middle Eastern fenagling. It will be Israel's mission to quell the beast's anger over there. But I digress again!

My main point is that the old guard Republican is as endangered as the now maligned Democrat. Mike Castle fell into that trap of invincibility: Now he'll have to settle for lobbying, if anyone wants to hear what he has to say. It will take an awful lot of money for any legislator to pay him any heed. And so the worm turns

Victor The Contractor

The Press Gets It!!

2010-09-17T14:28:00.000-07:00

Has anyone noticed that the Mainstream Press is busy these days calling the upset victories of the Tea Party Candidates in the recent election a 'Disaster for the Republican Party' and "The Republican Party Descending into Civil War'? I have some interesting news for you all. After decades of hearing commentators like Rush Limbaugh and others ask why the Press doesn't 'get it' and many fair and balanced policy wonks wondering about the sanity of the Democrat Party I have discovered the 'Pot O' Gold' at the end of the rainbow: The Press gets it! They know exactly what they're doing.

They know that their Brave New World where one is a bit more equal than another can only be achieved if the populace is placated and submissive. They thought the legendary American preoccupation with conspicuous consumption and the like would soften the blow of continual tax increases but the water has been turned up too high on the proverbial frog. The population on the whole is rebelling and the November election can't happen soon enough for them. And the Press is hard pressed to do anything about it!

We are reaping the whirlwind of consequence for our failure to police the culture and thought the 'writing class' would maintain it for us. Instead Academia and the intelligentsia have made Relativism the new religion and Self Image more important than accomplishment. The Press has reinforced the mistaken morality that having morals is a mistake. Like a child with a sour stomach from eating too much of Aunt Bev's candy they are blaming Aunt Bev for leaving the sweets out: A lesson in self control turns into a an indictment of Aunt Bev's generosity. And so it goes that the plan is to nationalize the economy because the Democrats believe that people are the problem and Government is the solution. Of course it is just the opposite, or should be, with the Republican ethos. The good news is that the voters, not the parties, are awake and bothered enough to go to the polls and clean house. Beware all of any legislator who voted for what I call 'Communism Light.'

So what can a newspaper or broadcaster do when the the customer is no longer swayed by their drivel and even takes their patronage elsewhere? Bring on the fear mongering! Tell the remaining and largely aging viewer that their children are being misled and will suffer for generations to come if the let the Conservative crazies dismantle the Welfare State. Alert them to the possibility of losing police coverage, school teachers, public services and the safety net we all came to rely on in the late twentieth century. So few people are self reliant now that a cut in services effects most of us, somehow. Portray the Tea Party as unstable and inexperienced. Even use their religious beliefs against them. All's fair in love and war, after all.

I recently went to back to school night and was baffled at one teacher who bemoaned an overcrowded class of twenty seven. Having been educated in classes stuffed with forty classmates and still being able to learn I don't feel sorry for those children at all. Maybe a little competition for space would do them some good. God knows they may benefit from a break in their daily texting workout, but that is another tale for another day. Suffice to say that the school complex near my home has oodles of money to spend and some five recently built buildings to pay the note on. They're not hurting for money, though they complain of egregious budget cuts. Its hard to feel sorry for a librarian pulling down $92,000; Maybe its just me but I doubt it.

So we have a situation where the Press at large has to demonize what has become a significant portion of the voting population. they are rowing against the tide and they know it. No doubt the Press will claim that the Democrats didn't effectively get their message out and lost because of Republican obfuscation but we get the point. The press is going down with this ship and will keep playing the tune until the water level fill their flutes. Its really too bad that they will no longer get that tingling feeling for Barac after the election. Even today i watched as our President mouthed verbage he no longer seemed to believe and went through the motions of calling for this or that program with little enthusiasm.

Like a College Professor who holds class after finals, he won't be heeded as more than an attendance taker and his words fall on deaf ears. The students are looking forward to the break and the next crop of Professors, filled with speculation as to which will inspire and which will merely make demands. Our Press is like the University Registrar's office guiding students to classes for majors in which there are no jobs. they are only kidding the weak minded and gullible. This naton no longer gets its news at six and eleven and relies on the morning paper to decide the health of the country.

And the next generation doesn't even read the online Grey Lady. The are too busy with fantasy teams and managing their off time. My local Rag the Philly Enqjuirer, is bankrupt, or near it. Who can keep track these days? Newspapers are building great edifices and bestowing generous union contracts just before going out of business. They have just cancelled the TV guide on Sunday and issued a separate paper for viewers to pay for if they want to know what's on TV. And that is why you never let a union, or a Democrat, run a business. Only a Socialist would take a product with declining sales and split it into two items and charge collectively more for it. Idiots! So now you can get a TV guide no one will look at for 75¢ a week when two weeks ago it was free and nobody read it either.

I know the press wanted a world where everybody was equal and a scantily clad news reporter from South America could wear a push up bra into a Football team's locker room and not get catcalled but we live in the real world, remember? The Mainstream Media's role models, like Che and Stalin and Mao, killed millions to make everybody else too afraid to call them on their feeble mindedness. Never underestimate the power of terror to suppress public comment and make a populace docile. Hell, Americans even let strangers look at them in their underwear to get on a plane.

We are not all able to be successful and should not be forced to support the lazy or unlucky. We do not believe that the sky will fall if the Bush Tax Cuts are extended. And we believe in a quaint idea like limited Government and low taxes. Ideas like that are poison to the Brave New World of the Press. A world where questioning authority is heresy and defying bad law is unpatriotic. A sad, sad world.

I say we bid farewell to the Mainstream Media and the spoon fed news anchors. I can get my news in ten thousand places and not feel guilty for having an opinion counter to the Gestapo in the White House. And lets look forward to a change in leadership for Both Houses of Congress. It time for change that leaves more than change in my pockets.

Victor The Contractor

Government Motors and Capitalism

2010-09-03T15:05:00.000-07:00

The American automobile industry is in shambles. According to a September 2nd Article in the Wall Street Journal, GM, Honda and Toyota sales fell at least 25%from last year's levels. Now there were a myriad of factors that exacerbated the sales slump but it didn't have to be this way. These deplorable sales totals are the result of Government Intervention, plain and simple.

Contrary to the glowing picture painted by the press, the Obama Administration is inexperienced and has no ability to run any sector of the economy let alone the production of cars. During the past few years the United State had given and lent billions more and finally took ownership of Chrysler and General Motors. The reputation of Toyota Motors was ravaged and hearings held over what ultimately was found to be operator error in what I believe was an attempt to slow the growth of the share of import automobiles as total sales were shrinking. That last August sales totals were part of the Clash for Clunkers Program artificially inflated the numbers and made the problem worse.

When you sponsor a rebate program to unload slow moving inventory you are really cannibalizing your future sales for temporary profit. What happens after the rebate is a predictable slump as customers stay away until the next rebate. Automobile companies have been doing this for years and have conditioned customers to wait until the next incentive to make a purchase. This has the cumulative effect of reducing profits and making the sales totals more variable as the economy weakens as most customers have fairly new cars. Add to this relentless pressure to feed the growing Union appetite for wages and benefits and you can predict the results. This is a never ending cycle that only a serious recession can put the brakes on. Unfortunately a recovery steps on the gas and you get endless car commercials pushing unwanted offerings to a reluctant public. That is why the car buying experience is one of the most nerve wracking in the retail world. People are always timing the sales ads to score the best savings and giving up future quality to save a few dollars now.

Rebates are one thing, but what do you do when your products are unreliable or unattractive? Toyota, Honda and even Hundai are considered to be better in build and overall quality. There is really no excuse for American automobile companies to serve up ugly Betties and call them Cleopatras. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but for fifty years? Eventually buyers will go anywhere but a GM dealership. Double that for Chrysler. If it wasn't for fleet sales- providing low cost vehicles for rental and lease companies, Chrysler would have given up the ghost years ago. Lee Iacocca had to go and retire and leave the bean counters in charge. Now even the new Dodge Charger and Challenger are underpowered and heavy. How can a car be made of space age materials and ultra thin metals weigh in at 3800lbs? That is ffty pounds more than my 1969 Plymouth Fury. Will these companies ever learn?

The more salient question is: Should we give them another chance to learn? The third factor in this triumvirate of bad business judgement is the ever increasing aid our government has been feeding these corpses to keep them alive. Doesn't anyone realize that the unions will once more drive these two companies to bankruptcy? Ok, GM gave the Union 60 billion or so to manage its retirement health care bill. Does anyone really think that the Unions will not sue when they squander the money on Viagra and administrative costs? And what of the future? As far as I can tell the corporate 'vision,' as it were, has not changed. Serve up a mediocre product and go through financial gymnastics to get anyone to buy it. Then jury rig the earnings statement to pump the stock price up so you can issue more worthless securities to grandmothers and IRS accounts.

This is a recipe for disaster. Or should I say, repeated failure. There is a method in this madness of rewarding incompetence and wasteful spending. I think we are seeing what would happen if the Government ran health care! The press already is suppressing all manner of complaint about Medicare and Medicade as those programs regularly ration care. Ask the folks in the plan and you'll find out how bad the situation is.

If the Administration's record with the Automobile industry is any indication of how they will handle the unconstitutionally seized Health Care industry we are all in big trouble. Better not get sick!

Victor The Contractor

President Obama's Nov. 3 Democratic Leadership Letter

2010-09-03T07:17:00.000-07:00

Dear Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Democrat Leadership,

Today I write to you with a heavy heart and tired eyes as I survey the losses sustained in yesterday's elections. Seeing that we have lost both houses of Congress and some of the Governorships is bad enough, but knowing the impact the election results have had on the party faithful has caused me great consternation and concern. The American people have indicated that they just never understood the good intentions and hopeful ambitions we had for the country when we were elected in 2008. During those heady days we layed out a plan for saving this great country from the ruin that Capitalism eventually causes but the Republicans and corporate interests misrepresented our agenda and lied about our intent. The American people need a strong leader even more today than in the past. Evidence of that is the laughable election results that prove, categorically, that they have been conned by lies about civil rights and the so called 'American Birthright.'

Right now it would many would be tempted to give in and take the easy route of acquiescing to the minority of voters who stole this election from the law abiding citizens but we have a Humanist Responsibility to strive for a common good; a perfect society. We have been commissioned by our belief that life should be fair to the meek or unlucky to level the playing fiend and give them their due. We have a right, no, a responsibility, to take from those who much has been given and redistribute it to those who from much has been taken! The history of America is strewn with examples of the large taking advantage of the small; of the powerful benefitting indiscriminately from the weak. We are commanded by Providence to stop those practices and make low the proud who have enjoyed the bounty this great land yields to them while the workers who till the fields of industry send their children to bed hungry at night, denied the rewards for striving daily to fill the pockets of their masters.

In that noble thought lies our charge. We have one month; One month by which we can still affect a significant change for the better across this great country. We have an auspicious window, however short, to pass the programs that will guarantee the rights left out of the Constitution. Rights that our brothers in the European Union have enjoyed for decades but the corporations won't allow here. Rights that were implied by the Constitution but lay undiscovered until our Administration brought them to light. Let me detail those unalienable rights.

* The right to own a home: Lets pass a second 'Finance Reform Act.' This would guarantee that all families, however humble their incomes, get a permanent tax holiday if they buy a house and make under $75,000. It would be fair to the working class and help make the rich, those making over $250,000, responsible by levying a 10% surcharge on their homes. Owning a home is as American as Apple pie and Chevrolet, which the American people now also rightfully own.

* The right to free healthcare: We passed a bill and made it into law but the children still suffer for lack of implementation. Lets speed up the enactment of that noble bill and make it effective retroactively to Jan 1, 2010. This way all of those businesses making over $250,000 or who employ more than fifty people won't be able to dodge their responsibilities by laying off workers. Make them pay for the health care of the nation now! They can just reach in to their large savings, gotten by not hiring their fair share of employees, and give the American people a raise.

* On the Cap and Trade bill that was unfairly vilified by our Republican adversaries: Lets pass this before the planetary ecosystems collapse. It was 140º this morning Death Valley, California. The yellow locust is an endangered specie living there and I intend to save it. We are polluting our planet at an ever growing rate and this has got to stop! There is no reason that an automobile needs to go 75 miles per hour. If people want to go fast, let them watch the races on Sunday after church. If they want to engage in poisoning the planet while clinging to their bibles then make it expensive for them to do so. And by mere coincidence, I am calling for an 'electricity free' day every week to be held on Sunday. I wanted to make it Saturday but the Jews made a big fuss; so Sunday it is!

* Card check is as part of our Democracy as again, Apple pie and Government owned car companies that continue to hemorrhage billions while making electric cars that go 40 miles before conking out. An employee deserves to know if his co-workers have vetoed the safety net of a union and thereby condemned his family to poverty and penury. C'mon people! This one is a no brainer. And, by the way, it ensures a solid Democrat vote for generations to come. So this one must be passed by Christmas to give to our union brothers on 'Coldness Holiday Day.'

* The undocumented workers of this country have been contributing for generations and abiding by our laws without the enfranchisement of citizenship. The time to legalize them is now! I want to see a bill on my desk by Friday making this long awaited right into law. If they pick our watermelons then they should get some pork out of the deal. Allah knows they pay too many taxes already! What's an extra 20 million workers to the greatest industrial power in the world? Oh yeah, that's China. Anyway, its time to legalize this potential monster of a voting block.

America is the melting pot of the world. It is the place where everybody comes to celebrate their way of life without being harassed for their religion. I that spirit of oneness we need to have a Mosque at the very base of the World Trade Center. How can the Western Religions not allow this friendly and accommodating faith to establish a healing 'Community center' (not really a mosque at all) to be built. It reeks of the racism of some the darkest days of slavery, say from 1776 to 1965. As a way to ask the Muslims to forgive us for provoking the attack on 9/11 we NEED this complex to show our willingness to blend our values with theirs. To do less would only be seen as capitulation to Western religious bigotry. And I really don't like Westerns, no.

Later today I am announcing the formation of the Pan Africa Aid and Reparation Administration. This program wil be patterned after the Social Security Administration and service the poor: Worldwide. No longer will the most humble of the world starve whilst the most successful enjoy unimaginable riches. America is responsible for the African's poverty and its time to do something about it. Divine Providence will reward us for our efforts. And since my brother lives there its sort of a 'family thing.' Its just wrong for the President's family to be living in squalor, and the American People need to make it right.

Many people have been atwitter lately about my religion and faith. Yes, I was born a Muslim and raised in that vein, but now I am a Christian. I am not Catholic or Baptist or Lutheran or whatever but I am a Christian. Just ask Reverend Wright! He will vouch for me. I sat in his church for twenty years and don't remember a thing about Liberation Theology or Reparation Phenology or Black Panther Neurology but i do remember the love. Yes, I do remember the love.

In the wake of this enormous mistake on the part of the American people I can only say that they are only partially to blame. We did not get our message out often enough and those who wish to continue our collective slavery to corporate concerns lied about our agenda. It is time to redouble our efforts to pass our plan to save America now and without delay. Therefore I am calling for Congress to meet Monday through Saturday until either all of these bills are passed or until the next Congress is sworn in. The window for these lifesaving programs is small and we need to set these programs in stone before the new year.

Additionally, I am in agreement that we should let the infamous Bush Tax Cuts sunset so the rich can start to pay their fair share. The time to "Spread the wealth around," as so nobly put by my esteemed Vice President, Joe Blowhard, is now upon us. This means that the required funding for our new laws will be there and no news taxes, much as I dislike saying that, are needed at this point. Not to worry: all of the citizens we add to the social program rolls are guaranteed votes. And lets explore making the protectorate's citizens like Puerto Ricans, recognized voters. They seem like a very liberal lot.

Let us endeavor to make this country as benevolent as it once was proud. Let us sew the good will of social equality as diligently as we have exported distasteful Democracy in the past. For we are all one planet, one people and one social order. The only thing needed is a country to light the way to that shining city on the hill. A city where all are welcome to the table of prosperity. Let these words inspire us as we enter into our noble quest: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

Thank You and may Allah Bless America,

Baraq Hussein Obama

(Victor The Contractor)

The Resurgence of Values

2010-08-30T08:07:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been hearing reading and listening to media of all kinds belittle, bemoan and minimize the role of values and faith in our society. That a culture based on hard work and 'elbow grease' if you will, can sustain its historic place in the world without the very ingenuity, drive and vigor that established it as the preeminent paradigm of Freedom and productivity is on its face non sensical and childish in its logic. But the major media continue to drone on and on about the non-extant recovery and the obsolescence of drive as our great country staggers toward a double dip in the Recession or worse, a lost decade of stagflation and negative GDP growth. What we need is a return to core values! Take the economy, for instance.

That we can print money to solve our economy's problems is a very short term solution to an ingrained problem which requires a back to basics solution. Expanding the M1 money supply when there is a credit crunch is akin to inhaling a candy bar when you are famished. In a short time you will be worse off for it, and hungrier to boot. That's why short term stimulus never works in the long term. Once the sugar high is gone, the industry has to rely on 'organic' demand, which now has been front loaded by the financial jiggering and even more time is needed for the industry to return to equilibrium. So saving GM and Chrysler have forestalled their collapse for a short time but the inevitable bankruptcy of both companies is now guaranteed; if the unerring laws of economics prevail over the current artifice of bail out and stimulus sophistry. Like it or not, all those retired union guys will someday lose their free Viagra on our dime. Ridiculous!

Moral crusaders like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity really do have their collective hands on the pulse of the nation and their ears to the ground; listening and alerting us to the coming revolution. This time, however, the tide will shift back to the fundamentals that made this country great and ensured prosperity for generations. That the major media like CBS reported a paltry 68,000 participants at the 8/28 Re-dedication to God and Country Meeting at the Lincoln Memorial speaks volumes to their collusion with the political elite to suppress a growing tide of discontent across this country that will facilitate a change in leadership in both Houses of Congress in November. Yes, I said both Houses of Congress. The famed Independents who went for Obama two years ago are both ashamed and embarrassed by his lies and Congress' collective Communist and anti-business tendencies and wish to punish what they see as a mixture of arrogance and incompetence on display in Washington. And its got to stop!

We've got to stop making excuses for most of our elected representatives! They are part of the problem. Where Democrats are openly Communistic and amoral, the decision is easy: Vote them out come November. Where some Republicans have become 'Democrat Lite,' a consideration of Tea Party candidates is warranted. Our Democracy requires us to clean house in Washington from time to time, and that time is now!

Our Country needs a return to Values, Faith and dare I even say God in these times of tribulation. We brought this on ourselves, people. Men and women of good character stood by as Humanists who deny God and Apologists who deny Societal Values (based on solid Biblical tenets) were allowed to ruin our country, subvert our laws and poison our children's minds. Men and women of bad character are in the halls of power. Men like Harry Reid, who openly scoff at our morals and belittle our values. Women like Nancy Pelosi, who laugh at the thought of actually being held to campaign promises and speak of an urgent need to pass a bill so that the American people can find out what it contains. These haughty and arrogant legislators have a big surprise coming in November. Lets not forget Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd, who really should be in jail for pressuring banks to issue mortgages to poor families who wound up losing their homes and causing World Markets to founder. We will pay for those two's arrogance for generations to come if we stay on this heading.

The road will be difficult, as Liberals and Humanists bent on a mild form of Communism, continue to sway the lazy and weak minded of us. Can anyone blame an illegal alien for taking a job we are too cheap to pay an American to do or for an unskilled laborer to collect 99 weeks of unemployment after working for 26? in a country without a moral compass all things are forgivable. Well, I can blame them, but I am old school. Consider that one lazy man may not destroy an economy; but millions of slothful men can. A nation pays for its poverty of ambition: Just research the other nine historical empires that no longer exist!

There is a way back from the abyss: A way of Faith and Action. Faith to believe that one's actions can sway Divine Providence. Action makes that faith real. Think of it this way, A driver may operate an automobile, but it is the engine that creates the movement that is a demonstration of Action. The old 'Faith without Works is dead' (James 2:20) lesson. For who would light a candle and put it under a bushel? (Matt. 5:15 paraphrased). You get the point. Though these excerpts are really about living according to belief they are applicable wisdom for the working world. A country that has unlimited potential accomplishes little unless activity is undertaken. A person who is gifted but lazy wastes precious ability. Not everybody is equally able, but nearly everybody can labor productively. That is our charge: To labor to correct a generation of sloth and rebellion against reason, responsibility and even God. I know this will grate on our Humanist bretheren, but there are no successful historic empires based upon Stanism or Agnosticism. Even Nihilism and Communism result in eventual economic collapse and mass starvation, if Capitalism doesn't swoop in and save the day, much to the chagrin of the Anarchists. Order springs from chaos: That's just how (successful) people are wired. But I digress.

Our country has awakened. Insult to our beliefs and injury to our way of life have galvanized a nation of believers to re-commit to God, Family and Country. In 60 odd days we will send a message about what most of us hold true: The America that works hard and prays harder requires no less from its leaders. All others will be forced back into their 'pockets os Liberalsim' in failing cities where they can only whine about how unfair life is to those who don't work. Wasn't that the Eighties and who was President then? That's right, Ronald Reagan!

This is my country! The country that saved the entire World from Hitler and triumphed over Communism! The land that once sent men to the Moon and, every day, feeds an entire globe of hungry mouths! We can do better! We do have Values! We will re-direct our Government to serve us and not the other way around! And we will shrink the Federal Government from an overlord of every facet of our lives down to a humble servant of our people! Those who work every day and pray every night will have their due! A country united under God, with the right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness! God Bless America!

Victor The Contractor

My Recent Visit to New York!

2010-07-19T20:00:00.000-07:00

I am the Empire State Building. I represent all of the brotherhood of United States Symbols and I have a bone to pick with you. You who seek to weaken this great nation of ours; wether by force or by sewing seeds of discouragement and shame in the hearts of my citizens. I say my citizens because they are mine, not yours. Your citizens, or should I say men of low expectations, who want to return to a time when man feared his rulers and high priests have been busy these last many years bombing our navy, marines and civilians and property in a vein attempt to cow our spirit. You who display the arrogance of the schoolyard bully while employing the strategy of the coward. You who proclaim that we are no better than anyone else while everyone, and I mean everyone, from every country envies our lifestyle and risks life and limb to stand with naked feet on our hallowed shores. You who pen unpatriotic filth on order to distract us from our true birthright as citizens of the United States and speak with a lying tongue about Socialism being fair and Communism being egalitarian when those very peoples struggle under the burden of a disdainful and dismissive ruling class.

I have a score to settle with the cowardly sniveling men who tore down my younger twin brothers, World Trade Center One and Two. I speak for all of the Symbols of the great United States of America when I say that this act is and will continue to reap the whirlwind on your heads and the heads of your children for generations to come. For while we have occupied the lands you are not worthy to posses and have used for evil purposes, Americans will eventually occupy all of the Somalias and Emirates and desert oases and dank caves where you hide and scheme.

When you took down the Towers you made a very grave error in judgement: You erroneously thought that we would become weak and timid like the women you like to beat and kill. You sought to cow our spirits and make us bow down to the 'twisted' wisdom that you teach. You wagered that a country that accepted all comers would lose its essence and the influx of new peoples would soften our resolve. And some of you even believed that preaching that the attacks were our fault and trying to shame us for out-producing, out-working and out-inventing the rest of the world would slacken our thirst for achievement and quench the fires that drive us on as a nation.

To this I say no! No, we will not stop building and dreaming and striving. No, we will not live in fear and hide our light under a basket. No, we will not enslave our women like some who fear new ideas and hate invention. And No, we will not be ashamed of our vim and vigor, of those who serve in our armed forces; men and women who put their lives on the line every day in foreign lands so that we may rest when our daily labors are finished.

For I am the Empire State building and can see two new symbols rising from the ashes of a hole in lower Manhattan. They will be bigger and stronger, fitting heirs to that sacred ground we call Ground Zero. They will be an honor to all of the symbols who came before them and the proof that we will not be subjugated. And all of the absolute heroes who gave their lives to save others, American and otherwise, regardless of religion or ethnicity, in towers, ships and foreign lands stand as silent witnesses to the greatness and steadfastness of our blessed nation.

When men of evil intentions roam the globe, determined men and women of our armed forces will be there, carrying the most hallowed Symbol of all, The American flag, to signify that America stands as the protector of the weak and the provider of freedom for millions and millions again. For this is the last bastion of Liberty, This is the last cornucopia of opportunity and this is the last stand for freedom: A shining city on the hill, a beacon for the oppressed and a symbol of hope.

I am the Empire State Building, am I AM still standing. The United States will prevail. God Bless America!

Victor The Contractor

The Failed Presidency!

2010-07-08T05:14:00.000-07:00

Much has being said and written about the Obama Presidency and the impact it is having on politics and policy in the United States and abroad. A lot of capitol was spent winning this election, be it from selling the idea of a return to ethics or the promise that this would be the most open governance in history. President Obama was going to throw open the doors to the legislative process and even bring cameras into the Health Care Reform Act negotiations. A huge gamble was taken by the Democratic Party that setting such open and lofty goals would be enough to win the election and that there would be enough momentum to govern and reshape the political landscape in their desired image.

Well, I have some bad news. The White House has failed in its bid to keep the hearts and minds it so enthusiastically courted during the last election. Pledging to govern with an open mind and televised process is all well and good until the swearing in ceremony, and then the rubber meets the road. Or in GM and Chrysler's case, the (unwanted) rubber sits in the showroom while the American people pay for a hundred thousand union members to pretend to manufacture automobiles of questionable quality. This Presidency has been the antithesis of open. Nobody knows what is going on in the White House, least of all its principle occupant and his cabinet. From day one there has been an 'invisibility cloak' thrown over the Congress and the White House in terms of access to the process of governance and the legislation.

President Obama has established a Kremlin-like leadership style that dictates from on high and has complete disdain for criticism or even question as to his rationale. His is the affectation of the royal, who decrees and answers to no one. His executive orders are now being challenged in court and he is slowly loosing fungible political power with each loss in court. No matter what political bent you aspire to, a loss in court over an executive order is a loss in the public court of opinion. The interesting thing is that the first loss is the most shocking because most expected the courts to side with his vision of the world. A rebuke by them shows him to be human, fallible and maybe even an outsider who won election but as of yet is untested in the role of leader. And the courts will be no pushover when the President chooses to enact extra Constitutional authority.

This man-child has used his 'Audacity of Hope' spiel to set up a Kangaroo Kingdom where he decrees and the press trumpets his success. No matter that his policies are dooming the economy or that his lack of savvy exposes his Communist agenda at every turn. As a President he looks like a monumental failure already: Allusions the inglorious Carter Presidency non withstanding. This guy has no plan to govern, only an agenda of Nationalization and Socialization. What a pity for those who actually believed in his flowery prose and evocative dream weaving. So desperate were the Democrats to have a modern JFK that they settled for a well spoken but incompetent SOB.

Major Leadership Guffaws:

* President Obama said that the Police "Acted Stupidly" in arresting Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., who was obviously picking a fight with a police officer investigating a suspicious character 911 call. Not knowing the details did not stop the President from offering illumination into his skewed world view. As head of the Armed Services he should have known far better.

* "The American people should know that from the moment this disaster began, the federal government has been in charge of the response effort." Was that an effort to improve his golf game? He later claimed to have convened a special group to oversee the disaster. Why no one had heard of them for sixty days and they waited to act was anyone's guess. Are we talking about oil or the economy here? Does it really matter?

* The White House's tax and spend programs are bankrupting the country even as their economists are decrying Capitalism and proclaiming the failure of a market based economy. This not withstanding the thirteen trillion dollars in debt or the one to two trillion dollar budget deficit we will run in fiscal 2010. But we have to spend our way out of the recession with China's money, don't we? Buying the unions and hapless Progressives: $50 million. Buying the unemployed and the illegal vote: $2 billion. A four trillion dollar budget while taking $2.3 trillion : Priceless.

* The agonizingly moronic lawsuit against Arizona for trying to help the ICE do its job. That the Obama Administration is actively trying to legalize illegal aliens and thus shore up votes hemorrhaging from the Democratic rolls ads a particularly distasteful aspect to this proceeding. That the President 'Justice' Department is suing to sideline a law they are charged with enforcing is hypocritical and leads one to believe that his ends justify any means. This is a new low for even Obama.

* The now forgotten Health Care Reform Act, which saps a trifling $650 an employee in its first year from business with more than fifty workers. That 'fine' balloons as years pass to $2000. I've been reading the numbers and there are too many new taxes to mention here. Suffice to say that this bill is a candy store for the Government and the spending will be legendary! That 85% of our citizens don't want this pig in a poke is of no consequence to the rabidly Socialist White House and Congress. This bill alone could cause an economic depression, but we all get to see a clinic doctor!

* The Cap and Tax bill. Who can say whether this will become law? But the mere mention by the President of conservation during a recession reminds me of the tortuous Carter Presidency, where a man in over his head tried to govern with the advice of fools and the enthusiasm of a funeral procession. Nobody could depress consumption like President Carter. And his speeches met with stock market losses. Much like our present 'Pretender in Chief.' Capping production, consumption or any other aspect of commerce will stunt our recovery and lock in the sub tem per cent unemployment rate. That is only on paper: Unemployment is really in the high teens if you count all those who no longer qualify for unemployment benefits. This bill really is a wealth transfer to 'unable' nations at the expense of American jobs. 'Nuff said.

* The Spendthrift ethos of the White House may cause a Depression. In 1933 our Government defaulted on our bonds. We hit a reset button for debt. I understand that action caused a worldwide debt default and a deeper Depression. I read that only the Netherlands repaid its notes as a point of honor. With a thirteen dollar debt and a deficit swelling monthly we can not afford to be authorizing unlimited stimulus bills that just put off the inevitable collapse of the economy. Do not be fooled, the residential and commercial real estate markets are still in real trouble. With a third of the new mortgages taken out as refinancing and something like a third of housing sales being sold by the banks we are not out of the woods yet. And commercial real estate has not felt the brunt of the foreclosures yet as banks are putting off those proceedings indefinitely to forestall a collapse in that industry as well. Add to that a 9.7% level of (official) unemployment and you have the makings for stagflation and a repeat of the backing and filling of the economy like we experienced in the 1970's. Economies grow through consumption, not Government spending, welfare checks or unemployment extensions. Spending programs, especially on 'shovel ready programs' which are in reality just addendums to existing bloated budgets just drive up our debt. What you sew, you reap. And we are sewing a deep Depression in this country. We shall reap the whirlwind.

I hope this article is instructive. We really can't keep legislating our rights away and expect to prosper. If we allow this growth of Government to go on unchecked we will have a Socialist welfare state and all of the blight and rationing that go along with it. Even the planners of the Health Care Reform Act admit that rationing will be the order of the day. They rationalize that they will be more fair than an insurance company, but when has a Government run one business efficiently? Name me on, if you can. Even the Post Office is going for another two cent rise for a stamp. So much for streamlining.

Beware of the Democrat who has found the religion of the free market. We've got to sweep the Congress clean of the spendthrifts this November! Anybody who voted for Health Care Reform or Stimulus I or II should be afraid. Very afraid.

Victor The Contractor

Why Character Matters!

2010-06-30T16:36:00.000-07:00

While watching the testimony of Elena Kagan at that dog and pony show in the Senate I was struck by the normalcy presented to the American people. It seemed as if an annoying piece of arcane Pork Barrel or a new safety regulation was being discussed. The civility belied the history that was being written in the chamber. And that history is that a person, with little apparent empathy for the rule of law or precedent, was going to be voted into the United States Supreme Court. Little skirmished admittedly took place but, by and large, Elena Kagan has sailed through the process while revealing very little of her judicial bent. At this juncture I must ask, can a person who has never served as a judge actually have a judicial bent? Of course they can!

Elena Kagan has an extremely Liberal mindset and has proven it when she banned the ROTC from recruiting at Harvard during her tenure there. Nevermind that her actions were explicitly illegal or that she was reversed by the same court she will most probably serve on. Her scant writings make her an excellent stealth candidate for the court in that there is no record to judge her on. But rest assured that any nomination by the Obama White House is bound to offend even the most centrist sensibilities and cast more doubt as to the agenda for the man who would be king. For everyone that serves in that inner circle around the President represents the most Socialist mindset imaginable and the aim is so transparent as to make it a bit of a joke when the press seeks to portray Elena Kagan as center-right.

I could ask who do they think they are kidding, but I know they kid only those who don't want to wake up and work for their own collective future. In that I mean that those who benefit from a system that punishes drive and rewards sloth are enfranchised to sustain and even grow that system's capabilities. The people who have the most to lose are those who are most heavily dependent on it, like the unions, the working poor and the generally indigent, like illegal aliens, the welfare subculture and the like. They will not countenance a challenge to their 'Allah Given' right to feed continually wt the trough of public largess. And they still think that a majority of the voting masses agree with their agenda of punishing those rich white guys who make over a hundred thousand dollars a year.

When you buy your cigarettes one at a time a thousand dollars makes you a target. When you are solidly middle class the poor are envious of your accomplishments and want to drain some of those unneeded dollars from your accounts. Never mind that the middle class is perennially struggling to send children to college to give them a shot at a better life then they were dealt. But I digress again. Suffice to say that any Obama nomination to any post, even dog catcher, will have to pass his litmus test and be a faithful Yes-We-Canner. The problem is that the 'We' excludes anybody who worked their but off to succeed and has attained a comfortable living.

Yes, Elena Kagan is a died in the wool Socialist who would uphold a Federal law to make you eat three pieces of fruit and three vegetables daily. She let that one slip in open session testimony and now the cat is out of the bag. Translated: There is absolutely nothing that the Government can not do to 'improve' your life. If that means limiting choices in food, fuel or entertainment, so be it.

She will be the Justice writing a grand soliloquy extoling the virtues of the Fariness Doctrine when she hopes to write the majority decision affirming the Federal Government's right to legislate how you entertain yourself. In the interest of all voices being heard there will be the local Imam program right after Rush Limbaugh and The Nancy Pelosi hour after Sean Hannity.

Glenn beck will be preceded by the the Sean Penn News Hour and poor Mark Levin will simply be banned as hate speech. I mean, who could effectively joust with the Great One? Mark would be censured as a dangerous political theorist for insisting on a literal interpretation of the Constitution.

All kidding aside, I believe Elena Kagan would be a poor choice for a Supreme Court justice and she has so much to hide that an honest discussion about her life and views would create a firestorm in the press. Those who see things in black an white have huge questions about her ethos and I suspect we all have an inkling of her vote on a possible Gay Marriage Law should it lean over her judicial bench. I do fear for the Union and the balance of the court should she be confirmed. It is really a shame that President Obama hates the Constitution so that he seeks to staff the court with useful idiots who believe they are saving the world but in reality are enslaving us all. And when the financial system becomes too overburdened with legislation and taxes to sustain our bloated nanny state we will have that double dip recession that only the most brave whisper amongst themselves. We are on that track even now.

What is the term for forcing a person to work whilst the fruits of same are disbursed elsewhere without the permission of the laborer? Oh yes, Slavery.

Victor The Contractor

Why Experience matters

2010-06-30T09:24:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been reflecting on why the Obama Presidency is so long on academic credentials yet so short on accomplishments. It has to do with the difference between doers and thinkers. The president has surrounded himself with stars of academia and political strategists who have an agenda to push in the process of governing but little in the way of managing experience. Note that I make a distinction between managing and governing. A governor, as described in the mechanical sense, guides a system that is already operational but requires minor adjustments to function optimally. A manager modifies that system to a greater or lesser degree to achieve a goal.

President Obama is barely able to govern, let alone manage when the need arises. A manager would have set up new guidelines for say, an national oil policy, instead of simply badmouthing fossil fuels and browbeating the corporate world into product reformulations that re-labeled existing technologies as new or green. A manager would have immediately set up a consortium of interests who had tangible experience with oil drilling and the attendant problems associated with it and not filled a room with academics and called it 'expert.' And lastly, a competent manager would not have ignored the whole mess for two months and lied about creating a panel that hadn't met nor had the expertise to deal with such a protracted problem a mile under water.

Even a governor who was worth his salt would have caught on, albeit late in the game, that you have to bring people in with real experience to deal with a developing environmental crisis which may close beaches in four states for years and put a hold on a fishing industry that already lived hand to mouth. That BP decided to pay out unlimited funds, and we know that that is what it will come to barring bankruptcy, is small comfort to those who labored by the sea they are now barred from even dipping a toe into. Why the president waited two months to take control and even now is barring equipment and manpower from aiding the cleanup effort is secondary to the result of such incompetency: He has effectively allowed a monumental environmental catastrophe to occur by neglect.

You may say that the President needed time to formulate a plan or cull information from experts to engage in such a large scale enterprise but there is little in the way of evidence that he payed any attention to the situation at all. His experts write books and even may have a Nobel Prize, which he never gets tired of announcing, but live in clean, un- 'oil stained' ivory towers. They could no more stop a leak a mile down in the sea than I could convince Liberals that balancing a checkbook can help make one aware of ones financial wealth. No matter: President Obama can take time out from his mediocre sporting activities to proclaim the solution to the spill while giving a shout out to his intellectual 'soul brothers' in the New Black Panthers or some such nonsense.

I used to think that we were experiencing a sort of Jimmy Carter Redux: A president who was incompetent who enjoyed a cloying press coverage while trying to browbeat the country into feeling shame about being world leaders and pontificating on the need to lower expectations in the face of adversity. No more. I now feel that the far left splinter group of the Democrat Party is in fleeting control of the levers of power and will die on their collective swords to accomplish a fraction of the Socialist agenda they have been advocating for for a generation. You've got to give them kudos for following their bliss! They truly believe that most people need a Government to care for them and protect them from themselves. But I digress.

All agendas aside, and that is a big aside because I believe this catastrophe could have been avoided, The White House is governing like a blindfolded monkey serving high tea. They are trampling the spirit of the Constitution while happily proclaiming the benefits of their high minded efforts to grant the same 'rights' to Americans enjoyed by the Europeans. Such rights as the right to pay 60%+ taxes, the right to be free of moral restrictions like the rule of law or the maintenance of borders, the right to stay home and be provided for by those evil rich people and the right to limit the free speech of anybody who disagrees with them through the implementation of a very unfair 'Fairness Doctrine.'

Who can bemoan the loss of a few thousand acres of shorefront property in the effort to save us from Global Warming through legislation that restricts the use of fossil fuels. After all, oil is poisoning the environment, whether in crude form or as an oxidized greenhouse gas. This mentality is exactly the same as banning guns because they kill people. Or banning SUVs because they burn too much fuel. Assuming the human race is unable to control its lusts is key to understanding the Democrats' tendency to over legislate and regulate.

But I fear in the case of the oil spill the White House is simply in over its head. Yes, an environmental disaster makes unconstitutional banns on drilling more palatable to a skeptical public. And yes the argument for alternate energy sources is buttressed by our inability to guarantee flawless drilling a mile or so undersea. And Yes, the environmental calamity fits well with that sex crazed poodle, Al Gore's scenario of fossil fuels destroying the planet, if only it were true...

There is no excuse for incompetency in the White House. That's why the press is so adamant about blaming an oil company and not the regulators who are charged with ensuring safe drilling practices. And all the better if you can blame a past President of the 'evil' party. But the claims of the press are a thin veil on the inattentiveness and often brutal arrogance shared by the Democrats and even more so by the liberal apologists who mouth approval every night and with every printed word. You'd think that incompetence could be ignored if it served a certain agenda.

I could mention our porous borders hemorrhaging illegals while the questionbly abled Janet Napolitano declares them as secure as ever. Or the financial condition of our economy, with Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd insisting the housing market is sound after effectively bankrupting the entire world through the transparently unwise lending policies of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But Janet Napalitano was incompetent befroe President Obama came along, he just put her in charge of homeland security, a grave mistake indeed. And as for Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd, they have systematically planned for the ruiniation of the housing industry for decades. Yes, for decades. Under the guise of forcing banks to write mortgages for minorities messers. Frank And Dodd have undermined the financial underpinnings for the entire world. They knew this would happen: They didn't care.

So when you refer to Obama as incompetent, you might want to think of it as, 'Incompetent as a fox.' For even thought there is no management experience in the White House, there are many academics and failed revolutionaries who want to see our country burn. And they have until November Second to achieve their plans. After that, they will melt back into academia and become consultants and lobbyists. Think Harry Reid is worried about what he'll be doing on November Third? He's already got a lobbying gig lined up. Nancy Pelosi will be re-elected by the most Liberal district in the Union, or return the Republic of California to mismanage her winery and hotel.

Management experience speaks volumes about style, substance and ehtics. If President Obama had been a Governor he would not now be President. But, as the press did not cover his wildly Socialist stint in academia or his populist votes while in office, I wonder if experience would have mattered in his case anyway. Incompetent like a fox: Now there's a phrase.

Victor The Contractor

Let Us Clean Up Washington!

2010-03-24T09:13:00.001-07:00

This Administration and the Congress who cloy before President Oabama are a stain upon the soul of the nation. Indelicately put, but inescapably true. I am moved to nausea about the policies this Government is pursuing. The demeaning gloating makes it all the more distasteful to me. If we're lucky there will be a Great Depression to 'wipe the slate clean' and we can start over. I just don't see how winning a few seats in November will change things substantially. We need a sweep of both houses and Impeachment proceedings. It is that simple. The President has failed miserable to uphold the Constitution. He has, in fact, labored to subvert and defame it in his speeches, actions, and legislative agenda. President Obama is part of a fifth column, if you will. An organization of traitors who are trying to dismantle our economy one industry at a time. Their ideals are not those of patriots: They are the ideals of narcissists who believe that everyone will dance to their tune based on a collective cult of personality. The ability of President Obama to give a scripted speech does not necessarily give him the right to change the form of Government of an entire nation. Similarly, the allure of a society where all are provided for equally discounts the reality of competition ingrained in us all and the fact the some will rise and many will fall, even when given a 'level' playing field. Most see the truth that hiring incentives and minority quotas in the workplace have resulted in a somewhat jaded workforce and the promotion of the unqualified to a level that renders them incompetent. The dream of Shangri la evaporates when exposed to the piercing sunlight of human ambition and personal industry. Such extensive delusion is, unfortunately, contagious to a populace who thirsts to be provided for and comforted in their want of largess. We have a citizenry who have no living memory of totalitarianism in its harshest forms and that has been lulled into a false sense of obligation to the rest of the world. The better part of the world is tolerates an unjust tyranny in the form of a Socialism that robs the people of their productivity to support those who do not produce a thing. So we have people who feel guilty about being members of a successful country being coerced to feed and clothe a world of failing economies. And by failing economies I mean a debt sodden European Union, perennially war torn Africa and an Asia still trying, in varying degrees, to emerge from a Colonial stupor and enter the fray of economic modernism. The 1.5% growth that the EU 'enjoys' can not be called success on any level, such are its debt obligations. Most of Africa has a non-existent economy as it is dominated by clans who reinforce their military juntas from the back of pick up trucks. Most of Asia and South America seem to be barely concealed dictatorships running roughshod over duly elected representatives who either rubber stamp or passively abide with Socialist agendas. Growth of 2.5% or more is required to replace infrastructure and provide jobs for a growing pool of the educated and most countries never achieve that mark. But our President, his advisors and a cloyingly obnoxious Congress are spreading their hatred American Exceptionalism and the free market. They call Capitolism a failed paradigm that can only be succeeded by a Socialist model that suppresses individuality and unction and encourages sloth and conformism. President Obama is attacking our way of life, our moral tenets and our raison d etre! Pardon the Frenchie French reference but our reason for being is to maintain and advance freedom from the same tyranny that the Socialists despise and try to teach out of our children in our schools. I believe this Administration and the Congress are attempting an end run on the Constitution in the form of the Government swallowing up as many industries as possible before the November elections. With more than 50% of the economy under its control or outright owned by illegal buyouts in the Financial, Automibile and now the Health Care Industry, the Administration has formed a Government within a Government. He is putting on a show, with the trappings of Democracy but the substance of a dictatorship with a capitol 'D'. One fine example of this twisted ideology is the 'decision' by GM to start importing Renault 500's and rebadging them for sale as in the United States. Take a car that could not possibly survive the Federal crash tests and market it as a new 'Green Machine." Hmmm. This parmesan grater is so small that you have to drive with your arms out the windows. One does need the tiniest bit of humor to avoid tearing up from time to time. But I digress. We have a Government out of control that has become a danger to its citizens. President Obama has already overstepped the boundaries so clearly delineated by the United States Constitution and should be impeached. His close ties to Acorn and other obviously subversive political organs require investigation at the very least. Additionally, Congress, especially Nancy Pelosi and her Senate counterpart, Harry Reid, have so abrogated their responsibilities that there is a pressing need to investigate the financial and political circumstances that had fostered and lead to the climate of secrecy, special exemptions and political favors provided to get their horrible piece of legislation passed. For if we still have a representative Government, then we have the right, no, the obligation, to call for an accounting when our elected officials act in such an immoral and arrogant fashion. When a leader in our midst becomes senile, morally compromised or otherwise unable to perform their functions it is incumbent upon us, the citizenry, to recall them and install saner, wiser persons who are able to perform as promised. As November is coming we are called upon to prepare. To prepare to field candidates who are up to the responsibilities of leadership and the upholding of the Constitution. To prepare to debate and expose those who denigrate our way of life, our belief in hard work, our faith in American Exceptionalism. And to prepare to resurrect the country from the malaise that the relativists burden our society, our collective outlook, even our children, with. For my America is a land not or of promises but of promise. My America is a country that prevails, not is prevailed against. My America is a reprieve for all who seek opportunity and flee tyranny. The ideals we hold dear are the values that built this nation and made it a welcoming light in a dark world, the model to be emulated, the haven for the tired and for the poor to rebuild their lives. Not to disable ambition, but to enable the spirit, through hard work and vigor, to achieve and attain ALL of the blessings that this wonderful nation offers. For it is through honest endeavor and forthrightness that we shine as a beacon that none can dim and none can extinguish. Now let us go to work. Let us share the concerns we have with an open heart and discerning spirit. Let us meet and decide that which is dear to us and that which is beneath us. Let us chose new leaders from among us who will resist temptation and shine a light on the dark actions of the ignoble in Congress. Leaders who share our vision, our ideals and our vigilance so that our generation will never again have to go to Washington to clean out the moral refuse who have squatted there, in our House. This great country of ours requires upkeep from time to time, and a cleaning of the machinery of Democracy is needed when it is gummed up by the muck of greedy men and covetous women. Let us start now! Victor The Contractor

Let Us Clean Up Washington!

2010-03-24T09:13:00.000-07:00

Terrorists Aided By The Obama Administration

2010-03-23T05:26:00.000-07:00

This morning the Wall Street Journal has an article on A6 detailing the release of one of the planners of the 9/11 terrorist attack due to a lack of evidence. Mohamedou Ould Slahi will soon be released by order of Judge James Robertson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, having granted his petition for habeas corpus. The basis of this ruling is that evidence garnered from his torture was deemed inadmissible in court and without it the prosecution had no case.

This gentleman, and I use the term very loosely, referred to as "the highest value detainee and key orchestrator of the al Qaeda cell in Europe," will be released because the administration decided to try him in civilian courts, which have a much higher threshold of evidence than military tribunal. I suspect that quite a bit of the evidence against him is of a sensitive nature in that its publication would compromise national security and that is really the main reason he is being let out of Gitmo.

That is the real problem with trying terrorists in civilian court: Key evidence has to be kept secret or the enemy will learn of leaks or weaknesses in its lines of communication. This policy has lead to the release of inmates only to re-capture them in Iraq or Afghanistan in bloody battlefield conflicts. Will the White House ever learn? My guess is a decided no. I feel the Administration is steering this country into bankruptcy on many levels and a moral vacuum exists in Washington. Gone are the days when public opinion was to be a key tool to 'school' political agenda and keep Government in line. We turned a corner with the passage of the Constitutionally vacuous Health Care Reform Act, which was anything but reform but was an act.

The coming days will see the Democrat Party emboldened to go further out on teh political ledge, but right now the judiciary is playing the the tune set by President Obama and nothing good can come of releasing the 'brains' of terrorism. From now on there will be a hesitancy by intelligence officers to detain suspects: There will be increased pressure to eliminate risks in the field rather than attempt to imprison and glean information from known terrorists. The White House has declared war on the American People with this travesty of justice. What a pity that the rights of the planners of 9/11 are infinitely more important than the innocents who died in the twin towers that fateful day.

Is this the America we want for our children? Is this the Democracy we want to be an example for the world to emulate? Isn't it time we took our Government back from the far left?

A Momentous Day!

2010-03-21T04:17:00.000-07:00

Today is the day! Today is the day that all Americans see the naked ambition of fifteen per cent of the population as they exert their will over the silent, hard working eighty five per cent. Today is the culmination of many years of hard work in swaying public perception, breaking down the walls of decency and building a climate if victimization and entitlement. Today the House of Representatives vote on the Senate Health Care Reform Act.

Never mind that no one has actually read this pork nirvana: This bill that nationalizes one sixth of the economy. Never mind that this bill is a slap in the face to all who work hard and don't expect or would accept a handout from anyone. Never mind that, on its face, the bill is a brazen attempt to subvert the Constitution of the United States and assign obligations to buy a service and criminalization of the God given right to choose. The right to choose NOT to buy a service one may see as a bad bargain, or the right to decide what is right for your own body. Those who have eroded the believe in right and wrong for decades have made a big deal on the right to control a person's body and that the state had no business, indeed no say at all, about what what one put in their body, believed in their head, and even what they did to their unborn children, have now turned that tenet on its head as they grab for the power to regulate every aspect of what we do with the body God gave us.

A God they do not believe in and they do not seem to be accountable to. For we live in a time where the ugliest of motivations are cloaked in compassion. A time where the killing of an unborn child is seen a 'kind' as opposed to saddling a selfish couple with the 'burden' of raising unwanted offspring. A time where the lazy and the losers in the lottery of life are trying to maintain a lifestyle by taxing the driven and conscientious people who make this country hum with productivity. These are times that try the morals of men as those who want to invalidate hard work and drive have control of the levers of power and use that awful responsibility for their own gain and avarice.

Before you go on and whine about the poor and stricken and the addict who can neither care for themselves or have the tools to prosper in this world know this: Life is a harsh taskmaster who punishes the dumb, the lazy and the foolish with scourge and tribulation until they learn to operate within the constraints of civilization. Lessons you don't learn or fail to heed as a child will be revisited repeatedly until you get with the program, as it were, succumb to the destruction brought on your own lusts. Attempts to rewrite God's law, or common sense, for those agnostically inclined, will always result in an unbalanced society that careens hither and yon morally, until it sputters to a halt, mired in the ambivalence of indecision and relativism. A civilization that feels more empathy for the sinners than the sinned against is destined to fail as the criminals achieve a critical mass of sorts and take the controls in efforts to profit from the moral decline.

We have such a state of affairs now. The ugly girl at the dance is now calling the tune, much to the chagrin of the highly offended orchestra. The drop-out who threw stones at the University's stained glass windows now are the faculty; destroying the ideas and ethics that made this country great. There is a joke in the trades that men teach their children to work before they go off to college and get ruined. The ability to define right and wrong is the hallmark of a great society and the lack thereof the talisman of a civilization in decline. The loafers and anti establishment crowd of the sixties are now deciding the tax rate for the rest of us, and they are not amused anymore. They are out for revenge. Revenge on the 'boy scouts' who kept their collective noses clean and worked eighty hours a week and put their kids through college and took care of their ailing parents and saluted on Veteran's Day all across this fine country.

'Liberal' doesn't even begin to label these Marxists! They are really the failed Communists who sewed the cancer of relativism into our public psyche and tried with all of their drug addled reasoning to convince the rest of us that drive and vigor were not valid traits and conscientiousness was tantamount to selfishness and success was to be punished, or at least taxed to support the 'less abled' among us. The Democrat majority in both House and the Marxist in the White House are poised to enact their vengeance today on all those who ignored their pleas for fairness and charity to the losers and lazy in society. Today they can 'get over' on the corporate toadies and millionaires who rule over and abuse the working class. If it were that easy, FDR, LBJ or even Ralph Nader would have so changed the collective zeitgeist to such an extant that this latest populist farce would be ignored, even maligned by the healthy, prosperous and well adjusted masses.

Instead we have an anti-St. Patrick leading the snakes from the swamps right into the halls of power. Its ironic that the 'most transparent' Government in history has hidden its agenda and blocked public reflection on its programs. Its Ironic that even the President is not sure what is actually in the Health Care bill and more troubling that he doesn't care by what process it arrives at his desk. It will be law, no matter how many seats are lost in the coming elections.

This rush to political suicide by an overtly Socialist Democrat Party barely disguises the real intent of this travesty of legislative process: The Health Care Reform Bill is Communism. Socialism is a 'cooperative' between business and Government. Communism's hallmark is the Government's possession of the means of production. I trot out this aged mare to make a point: A government that can Nationalize the better part of a native automobile industry is, by its very nature, Communistic. Such a Government should not be trusted to 'nurse' a substantially healthy industry. Period. If its too big to fail, its just too big.

If the Government can decide that an entire industry needs to be saved and defies its own Constitution to do so, then that Government is invalidate and must go. I trust that the Supreme Court will strike this law as soon as the mountain of lawsuits start. But what do we make of a process by which a minority of the population forces its mindset on the majority? By what authority has G.M. and Chrysler been seized? Its not Constitutional. Neither will this Health Care Bill be.

Yes, Today is a momentous day! It is the day we declare war on Liberalism. Today is the day we record the vote for this Communistic legislation. Today we make plans to campaign against our Socialist Senators, reprobate Representatives and power hungry President. And, pass or fail, we will know who voted for our 'right to choose' and who opted for a 'Stalinization' of our legislative process. It works both ways: Freedom of choice extends to the right to choose NOT to do, buy or consume anything, for whatever reason.

Give me Liberty or give me death!

Victor The Contractor

The Government's War on Toyota

2010-02-03T14:30:00.000-08:00

President Obama's Government is in high gear this week condemning the mechanical problems that carmaker toyota is scrambling to rectify after five fatalities and scores of injuries these last few years. That Toyota dragged its feet in issuing warnings and repair orders is a given but the U. S. Government smells blood in the water and instead of proceeding with caution it is fanning the flames by issuing statements designed to destroy Toyota's reputation. Now I'm not going to bat for Toyota in this instance; they reacted at glacial speed and made some of this mess worse. It seems they ignored a problem or came up with quick fixes hoping the problem would disappear. But to single them out seems opportunistic.

Trimming a floor mat where the gas pedal got stuck seemed to fix most of the problems; for a time. But as the cars aged a plastic bearing started to stick and cars got into accidents because the pedal, again, would get stuck in a depressed position. Instead of issuing a recall they decided to fix the problem on a case by case basis and redesigned the pedal; using a different plastic bearing. That didn't work either and Toyota's new cars, with the redesigned pedal, wound up with the same problem as well as suspected electrical throttle problems. An accident that resulted in five fatalities was perfect fodder for the press to pile on and cite every problem with Toyotas for the last ten years.

Every automobile maker has product problems, bulletins that proscribe repairs during normally scheduled maintenance and outright recalls for important deficiencies; so why would the Government be giving interviews about one manufacturer and ignoring the same problems with other automobile makers? To me, the reasons are twofold. The first is about shoring up support for a key constituency and the second is yet another example of political sleight of hand and misdirection.

Firstly, The U. S. Government is the owner of the means of production of two formerly Giant automobile companies. General Motors and Chrysler are on a form of welfare that negates the need for profit. The new mission for these businesses is to be a place to 'park' all those union workers who were instrumental in bankrupting the companies in the first place. They vote in large numbers, and Democrat at that, so it is paramount for the White House maintain this new welfare class. A crisis like a foreign car maker in trouble is like a gift horse the Administration can use to beat the drum to buy American. Never mind that American cars are really assemblages of the same foreign auto parts the other manufacturers use to construct similar models. And please ignore that the sales Toyota has lost are being made up by Ford, whose products are in sufficient demand that the company has not needed a bailout. Chrysler and G.M. are still hemorrhaging market share and will continue to do so as their product offerings are substandard.

But there is a second reason to focus a the public eye like a laser on the Toyota at the expense of other stories. And this one is so much more serious than the support of an unworthy business or two. The White House wants to distract the American people from more important issues like the growing debt, subversion of the Constitution and the growing problems with Iran.

Today the Iranians launched a rocket they said was for space research but could just as easily be used to lob a nuclear bomb at an adversary. And we all know which adversary they'd like to be 'lobbing' at. It was a nice touch that they put some rodents, two turtles and a worm or two on board, but all sane people know why the Iranian Government would like to master the art of sending rockets into near earth orbit and having them come down in a predetermined spot. Iran with ICBMs: Not a pleasant scenario.

All thanks go to the press for playing up Toyota's problems and minimizing some very real difficulties America is facing. I look forward to the house of cards they will build around President Obama's non-existent record as the midterm elections approach. I can't wait to hear the press lionize the Congress for wanting to improve our lives and demonize the Republicans for trying to preserve that antiquated document: The constitution.

Victor The Contractor

New York Times Commits Suicide!

2010-01-21T05:54:00.000-08:00

The Wall Street Journal has an article this morning in the the Media and Marketing section explaining that the New York Times has decided to charge a fee for access to its online content. The story cited falling advertising revenues but left out the cataclysmic decline of readership as impetus to start charging for information that is widely available, for free, from literally thousands of other websites. With a current hard copy circulation of about 930,000, down from 1.3 million in 1993, the paper is slowly fading as its readership discovers a new invention: The internet.

I'm saying new to them. A traditional NYT reader likes to page through a daily paper and have his preconceptions of the world confirmed over coffee and a bagel. Their children have gone to college and moved out and they have plenty of time on their hands and little to do, even if they're not yet retired. The internet readership, however, is something entirely different. Some 18 million unique visitors stop by and check out the headlines and read on if they find something interesting. By charging a fee after the tenth visit The Times is hoping to generate revenue to replace lost advertising as fewer and fewer people read the paper. Who wants to bet that those casual readers will visit only ten times a week from now on?

The Grey Lady is on life support at the nursing home and all the doctors can think to do is charge family members to visit her to help recoup astronomical health care costs. I does not help one little bit that the content has slipped in quality over the years and the reporting has taken a decidedly Liberal slant. Often articles are sourced by anonymous tipsters who make outlandish claims and then disappear into the ether. The New York Times cloyingly seeks to justify itself to its readers on a daily basis, sliding towards bankruptcy as disgusted patrons give up waiting for it to return to a long lost scholarship.

Reading the New York Times is like watching Dan Rather crash and burn over and over as it's articles are now rabidly Socialist and its editorials are now printed on the front page and couched as news. Its like the National Star decided to clean up its format but resisted the urging of readers to print fact; rather- continue the slurry of opinion and innuendo that that is the hallmark of tabloid underachievement. The Grey Lady ain't what she used to be.

Now she is a strident black ghetto feminist in a gentrified world. A throwback to the sixties when people actually cared whether their neighbors had an 'enlightened' viewpoint and the romance of a Communist state thrived in the hearts of all who didn't want to grow up and get respectable jobs. Well, now most of those hippies are rapidly approaching retirement and they read the Times with bifocals, if at all. 1960 was fifty years ago, and a ten year old is now sixty: So maybe its time to let Liberal thought die a quiet, lonely death here in The United States and take the Times with it. So what if Socialism lives on in privation and scarcity in Europe. Its been so long since Europe has been an economic engine that even they are reconsidering a cradle to grave welfare policy.

Its time to accept that newspapers are shrinking as part of the media and news is both more accurate and timely when harvested from other venues. So any periodical has to provide content the readers want: Not endlessly print their toxic Socialist agenda and then beg the Government for special status and financial aid when it slowly goes bankrupt. Even the NYT admits its loosing money on a monthly basis.

But we are talking about the New York Times, a paper who will present opinion as fact and editorial nonsense that few believe as 'common sense'. Their hubris is equal only to their arrogance at not offering a product that people will pay for, then blaming the customer for walking away in disgust. Maybe another millionaire will decide he needs another decade of write-offs and keeps those aging Liberals in newsprint and bagels.

What a pity. I guess the New York Times is not too big to fail.

The Democrat Party Has Just Been Raided!

2010-01-20T05:29:00.000-08:00

Can you hear the earth rumbling underfoot? A change is coming, and it will do away with 'Change you can believe in,' and leave more than change in your pocket. A lot of people in this country are fed up with the course the Democrat controlled Legislature was plotting and the past few elections have sent a shot across the bow of Liberals and their 'Progressive Agenda.'

The victory of Scott Brown in Massachusetts last night was the latest warning of the coming Republican tsunami that will wash out all Socialist thought for the next generation in both Houses of Congress. I'm calling for a change of leadership in the House and Senate and the realization that President Obama is a one termer, a sort of the Carter Presidency Redux. Before you rain on my parade and say that the Democrat Agenda is still in the works and some of it can be forced through in the next ten days be advised that above even their Communist plans for this country the Democrats love power. And to keep any kind of power they need to be re-elected periodically.

Having failed to set up the National Health Care Consortium that would serve as a revolving door through which failed politicians would recycle back onto bureaucratic payrolls and control about a sixth of the economy the Democrats are forced to stay in power the old fashioned way; by running for re-election. Their plans for a 'United Socialist American Republic' have once again been thwarted by an electorate who refused to sustain the momentum of the Government's rush toward a totalitarian state. It seem that most Americans are not sweet on the idea of paying for illegal aliens to go to American schools and doctors. One only need to examine the effective bankruptcy of California to realize what Government subsidy of Health Care and lavish welfare programs result in.

We have a country that is solidly center-right in its political bent. The Obama election was an understandable aberration in that continuum based on an ailing economy and a vitriolic press exacerbating the problems. You have a bad recession: The party in power gets thrown out. Simple as that. The lessons some took from the election were that the country had swung permanently left and that a European style of Socialism was now possible because most people had realized that they were responsible for fellow citizens' needs. From there it was a short hop to Health Care being a Constitutional right and proposed Cap and Trade (welfare) to countries with failed economies over guilt for our success as a nation. To me it makes little sense but I'm not a rabidly Liberal member of the normally Socialist press, am I?

Well, the voters have spoken a third time and it resonates on a national level. With a Scott Brown Senate win in Massachusetts, Chris Christie and Bob McDonell in the Governor's races in New Jersey and Virginia respectively, the country is forewarned of an unmistakable shift from a silent tolerance of the Liberalism in Washington to repudiation of all things Socialist and maybe even an overcompensation to the right in the coming November elections. There is a Democrat cold sweat epidemic breaking out nationwide and it can only mean a shift to the right politically if there is even a hope of re-election for some of these characters. And while the White House downplays a growing list of election losses and the press decries the electorate as superstitious and stupid for 'clinging the their guns and bibles' the mainstream Democrats are quietly retooling their platform to focus on jobs and the economy. Health Care, Cap and Trade and that 'Card Check' travesty are crosses to be now carried only by Liberals who intend to fall on their swords in November.

I am also noting a curious behavior only engaged in by Democrats and the commentators who subsist on the party swill: They destroy their losers. It started last week with a report the Barney Frank blamed the Senate loss on Ms. Cokely; this being at a campaign rally days before the election. Commentators are also falling back on the tired old explanation that the Democrats didn't get their message out effectively enough and let the opposition frame the issues. This couldn't be any farther from the truth! The Democrats and Liberal press have not only framed the debate but declared it over on numerous subjects when it served their purposes. Others blame 'angry voters' or fear mongering as reasons the Democrats lost. Suffice to say that we'll never hear from the losing contestants again. No one blacklists like the Democrats. Maybe they will become commentators who resurface during election cycles, but not the coming one.

I am interested to see who will press harder to further the Liberal agenda before all the air is let out of the balloon, so to speak. I think its over for all but a vestigial Health Care bill that tinkers with the existing system in some minor way so the Administration can declare a victory. Even that will have to be come to by major negotiations with Republicans and the Democrats are currently loathe to stoop to that level.

Suffice to say that the Democrats influence is going to go into decline and a new conservative mood will permeate Government. A couple of things will make that a must. Firstly, we are all becoming aware that the borrowing that the Obama Administration has engaged in have almost bankrupted the country and that our lender nations are already making noises about the wisdom of our expenditures. Let China pass on one Bond Auction and lets see how 'prosperous' we are. It will cause a depression in about five minutes. That's because all credit is extended on the assumption of eventual payback with interest and China refusing to buy our notes will signal a loss of confidence in our credit worthiness. A collapse of the markets would soon follow. Think 1929; then 1931. Secondly, even if we are able to make payments indefinitely, which I'm not entirely convinced we can, the interest alone is consuming so much of the budget that spending growth is out of the question. We simply have to cut back on spending, and in some cases in will be rather draconian.

Whether it be by Republican or Democrat leadership, we were due to lower spending as a condition of economic survival. And I know that the Democrats wanted to destroy the economy so they could remake it in Stalin's own image but we would probably go into a kind of 'economic receivership' before that happened. Even if it did the Government of China is not a bottomless source or funding. So spending cuts were on the horizon by necessity. And just raising taxes to fund projects results in less taxes in the middle and long run as people and companies progressively shield income from applicable tax.

I want to see how Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid react in the coming weeks to the election results and change in mood of the elected officials across the country. No longer can they ignore public opinion or turn a blind eye to the coming elections. But I really want to know if the will try to ram through some type of Socialization of the Health Care system (and probably fail in the process) or back off and suddenly change focus to the economy. The wise thing to do would be to regroup and wait out a few election cycles but I feel the temptation is too great not to try to get the assorted bills to the White House and sacrifice both House majorities to do so. After all, this is what the Lefties in Congress have been salivating after for a generation. If they can't pass Health Care and Cap and Trade and Card Check now, they will die before the Democrats again have the needed majorities to do so. So they have ten days: Lets see what they do.

Alternately, we have to live now with the fallout of letting a spendthrift Government control our collective destiny. Somebody's got to pay down this debt. And that falls to us. For all revenue derived by the Government comes from the American people. Even if we could stop the growth of Government, and we are not even close to doing that yet, we have to pay interest on some 12.3 trillion dollars and somehow pay that down. We pay it down by borrowing less. I'm not advocating for a total cessation of borrowing because that would cause a Government shutdown as we ran out of money to pay our bills but we need to cut spending drastically. And again, that's where the Democrats come in.

There will be a fight for the heart and soul of the Democrat party during the coming months. Moderate Democrats, who know all too well the mood of the country, will try to 'mainstream' the platform of the party to the center and stress the economy and jobs. They know the old maxim, 'its the economy, stupid,' dominates politics during periods of high unemployment and trying to avoid the problem only throws you under the bus at election time. Alternately, the Left wing Liberals, who should be known as Communists, know this is the last gasp for another generation. It really is the last time the sixties generation will have almost total control of the levers of power, and it looks like they have about ten days to do so. After that they know they are have diminishing influence on policy and have to engage in public discourse to change attitudes, and they are never good at that when larger issues dominate the discussion. Who cares about Global Warming, climate Change or whatever they are calling the climactic disaster de jour is when funding college tuition or unemployment is the major topic of conversation at the dinner table?

Liberals who spout off about the poor in Africa miss the point when our children may not get to go to college. They just sound whiney children to an under or unemployed steel worker. Who really cares about the coming climate disaster when your company is downsizing because they couldn't sell enough product to justify their payroll? Some moderate Democrats understand the lessons the Republicans learned when they took a good flogging last year in the election: A voter's family comes first. It comes first over the political aims of either party, whether or not some minority feels threatened by a cross hanging at the library and regardless of the financial health of a union, bank or somebody who choses not to work or to sneak into a country illegally. And as all politics is local; The issue becomes personal during a recession.

The Democrats have to sort out what manner of party they are, now that what they have been doing has been rejected by the voters. And this is only a prelude to November. True Socialist believers that want a Euro-American model will be sorely disappointed as they pursue an agenda doomed to failure but are compelled by conviction attempt. Moderate Democrats will have to distance themselves from the Party in the short term while they battle behind the scenes for control. Republicans will gradually meander more to the right as they seek to differentiate themselves from Democrats who have just 'found religion.' This will be enjoyable to watch, especially as we the Communist News Network and the Liberal Mass media grow more dour as the election approaches. Their Party is over, at least as they know it.

But we have to do something to rescue our economy from a possible disaster: This hyper spending must stop. We must return to a work ethic that stresses enthusiastic effort and not manipulation of someone elses' productivity. A re-adoption of self reliance and can do spirit in the vein of that great leader Ronald Reagan. And I know just the ticket to stir up some good ole' American controversy: Sarah Palin and Scott Brown. Who more to humble the 'Entitlement Party' then two self made successes?

Let the Democrats dwell on that for a while.

Victor The Contractor

Every Generation Needs a Liar

2010-01-14T05:48:00.000-08:00

This country has been going through a lot lately, what with the toxic political atmosphere and terrorists trying to upend our way of life. Sometimes I wonder who is more of a threat, Al Qaeda and the thousands of minions queueing up to strap on explosive vests or our own Government, with the full weight and authority of the law on their side, trying to dismantle Democracy as quickly as possible. That a terrorist organization is desperately trying to preserve and foster a pre-Renaissance way of life is understandable, once you parse out their fear of progress and the uber-patriarchal nature of their society. What I find baffling is that the Democrat controlled Congress and the White House are so intent on tearing down the very apparatus that enabled them to gain control of two thirds of the Government and cement themselves in the driver's seat, so to speak.

For in doing so, and by that I mean funding groups like Acorn to stuff ballot boxes with convicts and expired persons' votes and passing legislation that restricts free speech under the guise of 'Fairness' the Ascendant Party will cause a firestorm of resistance from all manner of political bent and sink their own career ships, as it were. And its happening already, due in part to the facetious nature of their aims. No one with a mind for politics really believes in a world where people share unconditionally or where a 'Politburo' will mete out justice on an even basis and a 'Central Committee' will order up the exact amount of bicycle chains to keep Johnny pedaling away until dinnertime. The advocates of the new social paradigm really want to have control all to themselves and are using the dim-witted Liberal pacifist 'perfect worlders' as useful idiots in their quest for national domination.

I'd love to believe that the Government can legislate equality, 'a chicken in every pot, a car in every garage' and 'the right to adequate health care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health', as taken from Herbert Hoover in a 1928 campaign speech and L.B.J.'s Second Bill of Rights. But I know something the Liberals in this country won't readily admit but betray by their very avaricious political practices: People are greedy. Self interested is a more benign phrase, but you get the point. Most people think first of themselves and their families. If a bit is left over, they will give to charities and maybe volunteer at a soup kitchen during the holidays. But by and large, they are adamantly opposed to a whole scale redistribution of wealth on the basis of giving some sort of payback to the unlucky, uneducated or worse, the lazy. And it gauls them even more to hear their Government say that hard work gives the successful an unfair advantage. Only a fool or other 'morally challenged' person would believe in legislating fairness or rewarding sloth.

Enter the 'Equality God', who speaks of all enfranchised citizens as being of one mind and resisters as unpatriotic. President Obama is like the Judas goat who leads the unsuspecting sheep down the ramp to slaughter while wearing the mask of a being at peace with himself. Every generation needs a liar: A lost souls who will lead us down the wrong path. This is a good thing a an ironic way. President Obama is reminding us all that freedom requires struggle against those who would enslave us. Whether by skilled tongue or by deceitful whit, the man shows mighty oratory skills that belie a poverty of wisdom. He knows where this all leads. The programs that have been enacted and are on the way all culminate in a totalitarian regime that would make Che Guevara proud and compel a nod from Josef Stalin.

Such a man is refreshing for the soul, ironically. President Obama is actually not as likable as President Clinton was, as we are slowly finding out. Although many decried Clinton as a tax and spend Democrat while he was in office, he also was seen as a big horn bag and forgiven for his sexual proclivities by many. His personality seemed open and his anger and predatory nature hidden from public view. It wasn't until he he told the world, "It depends on what the meaning of is, is," that most came to believe him a sociopathic liar who wore an affable mask well. President Obama was proclaimed a savior to the lower classes and was the great 'equalizer'. He was 'going to give the country back' to the working class by taking it from the rich old Republicans. "If you make less that $250,000, you're taxes will not go up," he said, easing the swing voters' fears about him being a tax and spend Liberal from the old Democrat mold. Its as if we all wanted to believe so badly that Obama could avert a bad recession and maybe help out the poorer among us that we were willing to deny the obvious; That he was an un-seasoned legislator who preached Communism and revenge politics as a college professor.

Well, we can see who President Obama really is now. To me, He's like a black John Kerry, he speaks well but is a bit disconnected in his policies. But He's also like Jimmy Carter, ready to badmouth our economy, way of life and make us generally feel bad about being Americans. The only real good news is that as he reveals his true intentions and the Congress trumpets his Marxist agenda we have been awakened to the threat he embodies. No longer are the Democrats even pretending to be civil: They are obnoxious and haughty on camera now. When I saw Nancy Pelosi explain away the President's campaign pledge to cover Health Care negotiations on C-SPAN as, "He made a lot of promises on the campaign trail," and chuckled about it, I almost had a stroke. Yes, the Democrats have over-reached and are transparently Arrogant about their ascendancy. And that is a recipe for electoral disaster.

When you forget who sent you to Washington you are subject to recall in the next election in short order. And plenty of voters are so angry now that I can predict a change in leadership in both houses in November of 2010. Its a no-brainer. But there is more to this than politics as usual. The Democrats are setting up a form of Government under the guise of Health Care Reform that will be well nigh impossible to undo when it becomes law. And they know this. This seems to be a suicide mission for the Democrats. But don't feel so bad for them: They'll have uber-lucrative lobbyist jobs in the medical industry. At least Harry Reid and Christopher Dodd will. President Obama will be a highly paid speaker at the Universities where excellence is required of their students but dismissed as greed in the marketplace. Want a lesson in Hypocrisy? Go to college and listen to a Professor condemn Capitalism while preparing you to excel in it. But I digress.

As the days go by this January and the Congress trades our financial future for votes on the health care bill I can't help but note the naked aggression evident in the process. As more Democrats come forward and explain why health care is a constitutional right and that the successful must support everybody else I watch the zeitgeist of the country swing right. What is guy making $45,000 a year supposed to do, make due with less take-home as an illegal gets 'in state' tuition on the collective workers' tab? And all the while President Obama speaks of fairness and equality. Every generation gets a liar who tries to subvert their way of life to support the drooling masses. When I was a child I watched as President Carter, who was an evangelist Christian (oddly enough) despair about the country's problems and offer few solutions. The damage he did took years to undo.

Luckily, We got over that 'malaise' quickly enough with President Reagan. Who elso could be a better example of what a President should represent? Ronald Reagan was a leader who, while being humble, proclaimed the greatness of our country and extolled the virtues of freedom. President Obama seems a pale forgery of a leader: He mouths a calculated agena with hollow and soulless verbage. His lack of emotion reminds me of the heartless meanderings of John Kerry on the campaign trail. Who advises these clowns to sound like a doctor telling his patient of cancer and attaching blame in the same breath with reptilian empathy?

How can a man who sounds so scholarly be so empty morally? As a young man in college I thought the professors had a higer moral standard; something to admire and mirror. Soon enough I learned which Professor threw the best parties. It wasn't until later that I understood that high mindedness is not the same a compassion, when I sobered up. President Obama is a true believer, and that makes him all the more dangerous. He believes in falling on his sword to remake the world in his image; and it is a Marxian image. Obama is an angry man, with an angry wife. And thought they have achieved much, and who can begrudge a President of being called successful, they are mentally beck in the ghetto. Although I still have trouble connecting their Ivy League educations with their populist rhetoric. They are adamantly opposed to sucess by hard work even as they are a shining example of same. I find it ironic that so many Liberals work so hard and accomplish great things only to condemn the system that allowed them to prosper when they finally have attained their idea of success.

President Obama is a glaring reminder of why we must be vigilant in who we vote for and confirmation of that old maxim that there is no free lunch. All of those swing voters who truly believed that we could soak the rich to support the rest are now finding out that they are the ones who are considerred rich by the even wealthier Congressmen who set tax policy. Making six figures? You are the target to nourish 'Mother Congress' as she provides for the poor. Never mind that about fifty per-cent of the labor force pay no federal taxes to begin with. But they do qualify for a tax credit (built-in welfare, to me). And if we get the abysmal health care that Massachussets rations to its citizens we are all in big trouble. If you are over fifty you are completely sunk because you'll have to pay for the fifteen year olds' abortion but your heart surgery will be out of the question.

A president who mis-represents his intention, agenda and policy platform is like a dubious gift to a truth starved electorate. He is easy to swallow but, oh, the indigestion he causes! And as we choke on the hubris of this over-reaching Congress and Marxist President I take hope in the violent convulsion that is to come. The public at large will reject this sociopathic free spending Government as it becomes more evident that we are in for a double dip recession and a no job recovery. And with inflation knocking at our door after thirty years of benign fluctuations, voters will be inclined to throw out the Dominant party. This will not end well for the Democrats.

And we have President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to thank for showing the American people what will inexorably happen when you let greed and laziness supplant responsibility and a hard work ethic when voting for representation. We have a hard time coming, in due partly to the spendthrift nature of the Party in power, and that alone is enough to ensure a generation of Republican ascendancy in both houses and a majority of President Elects. For when the true impact of the massive borrowing and confiscatory tax policy comes to fruition we will have a major recession on our hands and only one party to blame. When one party controls everything, there is only one party to blame.

After November we get to see if a chastened Republican Majority can govern with restraint and probity, or whether they will cloy to the press and the Liberal establishment for approval. I'll bet it will be a mixture of the two. But we will thank President Obama for reminding us what happens when we buy the lie that there is a free lunch. Or that anybody has a constitutional right to be lazy. I wonder what kind of a President Sarah Palin will be, or if she'd even stoop to the job at this point. Its doubtless that the next President, whomever, can not be much more than a caretaker of the national debt and will have no greater ambition than avoiding the national press until some of this crippling debt is payed down, And that may take a decade.

Victor The Contractor

A Merry Christmas for Congress!

2009-12-23T08:41:00.000-08:00

The United States Senate will have a very Merry Christmas this year as it gifts itself around eighteen per cent of the economy. The Health Care Reform Act will effectively nationalize roughly a sixth of the economy and provide for fines and prison time for violation of this travesty of legislation.

No one really understands what the bill in its entirety means because every time an item is revealed it creates a firestorm of controversy and resistance by one faction or another. Suffice to say this unconstitutional exercise will create a cabal of Government Institutions designed to take a fledgeling medical bureaucracy and metastasize in into a 'Health Care Command and Control Administration' that controls progressively larger parts of the economy.

Its not that far reaching to have the FDA control and regulate food as the type of drug and lack thereof has demonstrable effect on health. Certain foods and drink will invariably be banned as poisonous and anything seen as 'not green enough' will be rationed. The cross enforcement of anti-pollution laws and green technologies will bring the EPA to the party as an enforcement arm tailored to regulating all manner of pollution producers. Think of banning riding mowers as creating pollution and a sedentary lifestyle, thus running afoul of the 'Green AND Obesity Police.' Want to smoke a cigar with your Goombahs at the local pizzeria? Fuggedaboudit!

Pizza will of course be banned as a major cause of obesity. Those ovens that pump out CO2 by the cubic yard have got to go, too. And cigars? Not only do they cause cancer, global warming and spew aroma pollutants but the second hand smoke is a weapon used to assault other peoples' health. Now fur wearing can be rightfully banned as the glorification of sport hunting among otherwise 'civilized' people. The practical implications of amassing policy making power in one central administration is almost endless as more and more regulatory commissions join forces for the synergies it affords.

While my examples could be viewed as farcical there are many who are chomping at the bit to do away with the pastimes I have noted and this legislation is the back door into doing just that. I can for see a world where citizen behavior will be controlled, "To provide for the general welfare." Hell, if Congress can push Health Care through then a Cap and Trade bill is small change and a Card check should be passed almost unnoticed. Nobody mention a $20 minimum wage, please...

Of course the American people are screaming at their televisions every night and swamping their respective legislators with opposition but the Government seems to be on a Communist autopilot of late. Our democratic form of Government is morphing into a Politbureau with a Central Planning Committee right before our very eyes and all the press can do is applaud Michelle Obama's choice of evening wear and those 'cute as a button' daughters who don't know which fork to use with salad but eat with their hands so gracefully. I'm so sick of watching the mainstream media dally on about 'The New Kennedys' while our Constitution succumbs to the 'Second Bill of Rights,' first proposed by FDR and is in the process of being made into law as we speak. Its a blessing that the founders of this great nation did not linger long enough to see this sad turn of events.

It is also troubling and a sign of the times that Americans don't know what is 'Constitutional' and what is not. That politicians can appear in the media and even suggest that Health Care is a human right is an affrontery to all who know the Bill of Rights and for anyone to claim compassion on the poor is doomed to be poor someday. For we are spending our children's prosperity so that one party may be re-elected by the masses that they buy new welfare programs for. The next generation will be in the unenviable position of saying 'No' to the entitlements as the Treasury is depleted and China loses its taste for American bonds and the avarice which accompanies it. The rich will always have health care and the average American citizen will have dirty clinics with alcoholic 'pseudo-docs' to provide substandard services. Ask anyone who's actually had to go to a clinic: They'll tell you horror stories.

Yes, boys and girls, there is a Santa. And he has given himself the best Christmas present ever. Control. 'Santa Congress' has engineered a plan to Socialize the entire economy and the first step is the Health Care Industry. They did a dry run with the Finance Industry and a few car companies, and seeing little protest from its citizens, the Government has upped the ante. The Senate is scheduled to vote for cloture on Christmas Eve. Such irony is not lost on me as the Government has finally grasped the spirit of Christmas! But woe to all that this is a selfish spirit; filled with avarice, self dealing and hypocrisy. Congress will rue the day that it opted to declare a dictator in President Obama, even as it denies the fact.

For even with a change in leadership in both Houses next November, the fix is in. The infrastructure will be in place for a 'Democratic Dictatorship' and the new members will yield to the temptation of pork for prurience. Elections have less and less impact as Democrats are increasingly corrupt and Republicans apologetic for having just a hint of morality. Why on earth would anyone believe anything either of them say. There are no 'Blue Dog Democrats;' the last six months' legislation proved that. There are few lion hearted Republicans; as evidenced by mainstream Republicans' reluctance call bad legislation what it is. There are just a few ostracized 'Constitutionalists' who, like Ron Paul, are voices in the typhoon. You can make out a sound but it is drowned by the whirlwind of an insane press.

If I hear about shivers running up a leg at the mention of someone's name again my head will rend the tattered duct tape that hold its contents in and I'll have to wipe my laptop down once more. For the press is now the gossipy sophomore at the high school dance; spreading rumors about what she just heard, as if it was fact, while not understanding the full impact of her words. And woe unto all of those who mistakenly believe that there is any dignity in forcing the productive to support the lazy, or unlucky. That just creates more lazy and unlucky people.

I wonder if the people in Rome started investing in villas in the countryside with high walls towards the end of the empire. Or maybe just a few got out before the treasury was empty and the hoards invaded for the crumbs. There have been ten great empires the earth has been graced with or has suffered, depending on your outlook. And they all started crumbling from within when more people sat and held their hands out while fewer people got up at three AM to make the donuts. Just saying...

Have a Holy Christmas and Happy new Year,

Victor The Contractor

Congress' Unconstitutional Gambit

2009-12-18T13:49:00.000-08:00

This week the Senate has done something I though I'd never see. They are debating a bill they will never vote on and funding for same they'll never have to implement or answer for, for that matter. The senators are fighting over details that will soon become moot points in the proposed Health Care Legislation because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is molding his own plan. Mr. Reid is holding closed door meetings with select Senators and is in constant contact with the OMB on how to bring this bill in under a Trillion dollars or so.

This method of crafting legislation, running on-going negotiations in secret and excluding most majority party members as well as the opposition, runs contrary to the spirit of the first three words of the Preamble to the Constitution: "We the People." This bill is being drafted in secret by 'Harry Ried, the person,' and no one else. The Constitution is further defied by the Spirit of the bill. Legislation forcing a person to purchase health insurance is, on its face, unconstitutional and when this bill passes, as I'm convinced it will, there will be challenges by those who face prison sentences for defying the new law.

This bill and many others are crafted for reasons that few people understand and will take this country in a direction that bankrupts and effectively socializes it. The Health care Reform is not about re-ordering the way we obtain medical care, rather, it marks the Government's shift from being limited by the Constitution to limiting the Constitution's protection of the citizens of the United Sates of America. We have Cap and Trade legislation pending that limits our prosperity by imposing tariffs on economic activity. Add a bill that allows for public union votes to further pressure employers to unionize and embarrass employes who resist. A mandate to purchase a product at a Government set price gets you closer by degrees to a totalitarian state.

I never thought I'd live to see the day that our elected officials would have the naked ambition to try to 'Marxise' our economy and actually brag about it. And it is equally disheartening to watch the overwhelming bulk of the mass media trumpet this agenda as something to be proud of or that, somehow, patriotism is exemplified by supporting a muzzling of the common man's will in all of this. Extending failed welfare policy to other industries will only ensure the failure of the other industries. And muzzling the populace will only eventually lead to- Revolution.

Does anyone think that prosperity will return to this country by curtailing mortgage foreclosures? Will homes appreciate when the Government subsidizes anyone who wants a home and forgives missed payments? Will GM and Chrysler survive the helping hand and substandard products selection the Government is forcing them to offer. Will the American public buy knockoffs of French mini-cars that were unsuccessfully marketed in the U.S. twenty years ago? And will small businesses hire new employes and offer health insurance (at the cost of thousands) when they can pay a fine of a few hundred and force the employee on the Government roles?

I see a different future coming if we stay on this track. A future where nearly every single person's prosperity is limited not by the profitability of one's labor but by the inefficiency and lack of foresight of the committee that oversees said economy. We have tried that once before: That was called Communist Russia, and it failed miserably. Not only was it impossible for a person to succeed by their own vim and vigor but the Spirit of the people was broken and alcoholism and suicide were rampant. They are also huge problems in that paradigm of Socialist Ideology, Sweden. China only survives as Communist in Politics while being rabidly Capitolist in its economic goals: At least they learned what works in the marketplace.

I fear for our Republic. I fear that the framework for a Command Economy will be set by the midterm elections and the Congress will build on it every time they get even the tiniest bit of power from here on out. It is a given that the Liberals in the Congress and even the President are at peace with being voted out if it will further their agenda of a Socialist Republic. What is really irksome is that the Republicans for the most part are complacent as passive onlookers in this process. What on earth are we sending them to Washington for, the Cherry Blossom Parade? And what does the Republican leadership do when confronted by a rabidly confrontational Democrat Party with a decidedly Liberal agenda? Offer watered down versions and claim to be representing our interests. That, my friends, is not leadership. That is capitulation; capitulation to the media, to the Democrats and of thier own ideals.

And capitulation is what got to this sorry state of affairs. What we need is a firebrand of a leader who is not afraid to confront the enemy on their own turf. I say the enemy because those who are endeavoring to consign our way of life and Capitolism to the scrap heap of history I consider enemies of the state and guilty of treason. Every Democrat and Republican who votes in the affirmative for that sham of a Health Care Reform Act will be guilty of treason for trying to undermine the Constitution. The times require a leader who shakes up the establishment and we need to collectively throw out anybody who thinks big Government can solve the world's problems. I'm thinking Sarah Palin and a whole raft of young, fiscally conservative Republicans!

Sarah Palin is exactly what the system needs to shock us back into reality. That is, if we don't get a depression that wipes out half of the wealth of this country. And if we don't grab this country back from the Marxists soon that is exactly what we will have. The failed Liberals from the sixties who burned flags and tore up draft cards are now in office and the those who chose to serve our country are tolerating the hippies' nonsense because the press is overwhelmingly fixated on this new form of Communism.

And relying on elections may not be the salve for our problems because the Democrats have been manufacturing voters, both illegal and dead ones, for decades. Acorn is nothing new: The Democratic Party has been stuffing ballots for so long that they are surprised when they don't win. Think Chicago and the 1960 Kennedy election. We need to throw out all who support the Communist propagandists and those who tolerate them. When a Republican goes along with a spending program for his share of pork he becomes a hypocrite and undeserving of re-election.

The Democrats and Republicans who 'go along' with this tragic agenda are the problem and will be voted out. We've got to stop spending like drunken sailors. This actually gives drunken sailors a bad name because they stop spending when they run out of money or pass out. Our vaunted Government is drunk on it own power and passing out money to everybody who will throw support their way. All at the expense of our children. If you are over fifty you will not be the ones who are saddled with the responsibility of paying this debt. At some point the interest alone will be too much of a burden and an economic collapse will follow. And China can keep their cheap products and will suffer along with us. Our children will never forgive us for being 'The Selfish Generation; Children of the Greatest Generation.'

Our future lies in the decisions our elected officials make on our behalf. Because I believe this to be true we simply have to have a 'Midterm Housecleaning.' If we don't we will have a Command Economy before we know it and will suffer the consequences of being a lazy and uninformed electorate. The pillars are in place now for a Communist State and we have fiddled with sex scandals and tolerated immoral characters while the Constitution burned. All under the guise of Political Correctness. Now we have a society where having values is seen as judgmental and morals as 'hate thought'. Its really a shame that we have squandered the immense power and good will the patriots who served in the First and Second World Wars earned for us with their lives.

Even now their spirits cry out from the hallowed ground they rest in for a return to the values that built this great country. We have got to 'Clean house' in 2010 and send the President into an early retirement in 2012. I'm 'down' for struggle, except now its time for the hardworking people of this country to say "No! No,we will not tolerate another trillion dollar give-away to Corporate Welfare and Acorn. No, we will not allow the Constitution to be ignored for the benefit of those who do not work, earn 'enough' or feel sorry for themselves. And, no, we will not put up with our elected officials ignoring our will and insulting us when we remind the that they work for us."

That I even have to write this shows how very close we are to losing all of the Liberties that generations fought and died for. And we can include those noble Americans who work twelve hour days for many years to pay their taxes, send their children to college and bury their dead. They too deserve an America that appreciates every drop of sweat, tears and blood spilt for Freedom. And Freedom will bring us home. So fight for it before it is a dim memory...

Victor The Contractor

A Government Without Conscience

2009-12-06T06:50:00.000-08:00

I am so tired of Democrat Legislators trying to convince me, no, talking down to me, about the programs that are going to save my life and that it is only fair that we care for those who do not care for themselves. I am even more annoyed that our Republican representatives offer watered down versions of the same non-solutions that generate new bureaucracies and defy the platform they were elected to implement. Lately some Republicans, our last bastion of resistance to a Dictatorship cloaked in shabby Democrat pseudo-logic, have been cloyingly agreeable to programs that end our way of life or have offered 'Socialism Light' legislation that trims around the edges of the march towards societal dependence and that just won't do!

The Constitution makes no provision for Nationalized Health Care, Taxing Pollution or Social Security, for that matter. Politicians seeking to leverage their agenda on an unwilling population have mangled that hallowed covenant and rendered its provisions as tools for domination and suppression of the human spirit. It is little consolation to me that a whopping 1.5 trillion dollars (probably 2.5 trillion in reality) will be spent to gather a mere ten per cent of the population under the umbrella of health care. At 94% coverage, you still have six point of non-coverage; and for what? To throw the 85% or so now enjoying adequate if not excellent coverage into a program designed to manage scarcity and ration benefits on a 'productivity projection?' And have the IRS become the 'Hall of Health Records and collections Agency?'

Firstly, where does Congress get the authority to govern a consumer product at all? 'To provide for the general welfare,' doesn't mean they can force everybody to purchase health care! But they think they can and are trying to right now. Both parties are complicit in this sham of a travesty of a hoax. The health care issue should be approached by rational, considered thought, and solutions come to by good faith negotiating of realitstic and fiscally balanced options, not Chicago style back room deals that buy votes for pork and load our children down with debt for decades to come.

Our nation is in a financial coma right now: The last thing we need is to raise taxes on small businesses, add to the national debt and force Americans to buy a product under the threat of prison. You'd think the President wanted a Maoist Command and Control regime right here in the United States. Oh, that's right, he does. You can tell a lot about a man by his words, whether they ring true, are spoken with honesty and forthrightness and reveal the sum of his intentions. This man is a liar! He sews venom directed at America with his trademark detachment meant to simulate objectivity!. When a friend was arrested for verbally abusing a police officer, He said the officer "Acted Stupidly."

Such statements reveal the resentment Obama harbors against our systems of law. I see the pregnant pauses between words and the slow cadence of the President's replies to non-scripted queries not as thoughtful, considered expressions of ideals but as a non-focused confused attempt at saying anything that will sound coherent while revealing nothing at all. This man plays so close to the cuff that, I suspect, only his wife is sure of the exact content of his character.

From my vantage point he seems oddly reptilian; So, we are stuck with him for the next three agonizing years of doublespeak. The most articulate, clean and presentable man (to quote another stammering idiot) on the campaign trail is, in reality, a thoroughly scripted novice who struggles with impromptu questions because he's not sure what people want to hear. Three years is an eternity in politics, but in 11 months we can render him inert.

We have a golden opportunity here. We can sit and stew about the unfairness of life or unite for a purpose. I say we send a very strong message about accountability and who works for whom. Congress, the President and even local Government work at our convenience. For too long there has been a deference paid to politicians as experts in governance and an assumption made that the common man is not qualified to lead. I'm here to say that I can do no worse than these usurpers. Any of the unelected knows that you can't fiance an ongoing business that produces nothing. That's what we have here. A government bent on - creating more Government.

Lets not believe anything that anyone says on the campaign trail. Lets cast our vote based on their previous record. If a man is bankrupt, fails to pay his taxes or votes to extend the debt ceiling a billion dollars so he doesn't have to cut spending then he deserves no one's vote. This is a no brainer. Vote for the one who walks the walk, regardless of party. I'd take Joe Lieberman over most Republicans: At least he's a known quantity. Most Republicans are like the untrustworthy friend many of us have experienced. They're nice to your face, but you never know what actually goes on behind your back. At least with a Democrat you know there's a socialist agenda underneath the thin veneer on populism.

A Republican can seem empathetic, have the 'right' responses, then vote for a gun ban and say, "Its for the Children," or worse, "The bill the Left really wanted was a complete ban." Well, thank you for voting against your own platform and expecting a pat on the back. They've really got to go. November is coming! The Libs are already downplaying the losses they will sustain and chalking it up to the perennial midterm election ebb of popularity.

Lets give them a deadlocked Congress and a change of leadership. Let them claim, once again, that they didn't get their message out. Oh, we heard them loud and clear: They want a South American style Dictatorship with a Strongman who controls every aspect of our lives. They have talked their talk. Now its time for us to walk our walk.

Lets vote out any Democrat, Republican or Plutocrat who weakens this great nation of ours! Its time to cut spending, pay our bills and loosen the noose around small business' collective neck. Lets give the Liberals pause next November. Lets chase them back into their policy caves and let them bemoan the lack of compassion for the losers and addicts for another thirty years, just like the last thirty.

The Religious right is once again proven so. The Government can't spend you out of out of a recession and can't govern without the consent of the people. The Democrats just forgot that little detail. Victor The Contractor

Sarah Palin for President!

2009-12-04T04:11:00.000-08:00

Its time to realize a sobering fact about the mainstream media, Academia, opinion writers and spokespersons for many organizations who claim to represent public opinion, deliver news or administer governance across this great nation: They have an agenda. Now, to most readers the obvious reaction to that last idea is: Duh! But there are tens of millions average Joes who turn on the news in the morning and believe what they see or hear. They actually buy, albeit with the requisite tablespoon of salt, that a raft of spending programs will shrink the deficit and that only the Government can create jobs. Or maybe the new insight that putting off a breast exam will lessen health care costs in the long run. Whatever. My point is this: When a communications system is overwhelmingly controlled by those who advocate for a decidedly Liberal doctrine there is little room for contradiction, alternate opinions or outright rebuttal.

That is not to say that there are not so called 'voices in the wilderness' who can seem more powerful for their uniqueness, but the masses will receive a daily indoctrination of a slanted agenda unless they opt for a different voice. And people, like all sentient beings on God's ever warming planet (LOL), are creatures of habit. That's why a radio talk show host can 'diss' an entire race and have a new show in six months: because his listeners will follow him to the new broadcast. Both sides of the political spectrum count on this inertia during an election to bring out the faithful. Indeed, it is their life's blood. How many people vote for on particular party because their father and grandfather voted for that ticket. It happens more than you think , even with self identified Independents.

The real battle is for the moderates of both parties. That middle ground where presentation and policy platforms can sway public opinion. And don't forget the scandal! Ah, Scandal. Just the sound of the word makes one take note. I'll never forget a certain silver haired defender of all things far left who breathlessly told us all of now former President Bush's National Guard AWOL charge from 'reliable sources' and broke the sobering news that this scandal would effectively end his bid for the Presidency. Can you imagine the chagrin in the Democrat party when the news didn't put Bush's polling in the basement? It is a strange aside that the story virtually ended the career of a broadcaster thought by so many to be 'balanced'. But when outed as a true Liberal, his party, the public and more importantly, his employer threw him under the proverbial bus. One occasionally still hears him on talk shows, churning among the wheels, suing for the truth of the story, a victim of somebody's conspiracy, after all!

That sordid tale bring me to a grim reality: Conservatives can not expect a balanced hearing from a press that, for the most part, was born after the sixties and desperately wants to rekindle that spirit of camaraderie that comes from burning draft cards and protesting adulthood and the responsibilities it brings. They abhor a sober and considered life and advocate for a sociopathic existence of 'I, Me My' while preaching the need to feel guilt for any achievement and goal attained. Most of us consider a college degree, a wedding, or the building of a career to be talismans of a life in process; not reason for guilt, self loathing, or pity for the less fortunate for that matter. But the press has a tendency to drape their hateful concepts in a language that sounds reasonable and pious, if I may used that forgotten word. They make empathetic arguments for extending health care to those in this country illegally on the grounds of compassion and the reasoning that we are so wealthy and somehow owe the lawbreakers something. Or they take the offensive and claim that recognizing gay marriage is akin to the civil rights struggles of the sixties and that our collective hate and fear is bound up in the denial of such a 'basic' human right. Its always like killing a mosquito with a shotgun with these fellows. 'Republicans want to kill your babies' anyway, so why don't we just get on with life and ignore the very Liberal press.

Here in lies the rub: A populace who wants considered representation is being fed a steady diet of, might I say, lies. These 'untruths' or 'misstatements' as the press is so fond of minimizing are designed to frame the argument and change the subject. An effective tactic to achieve stalemate when losing an argument is to change the subject, introduce an emotional plea or simply go on the attack about a myriad of other issues that strike a chord in those witnessing the debate. The result is, at best, a draw. Some can and do take from the spectacle that neither side has argued effectively and no one is right. This process is no more exposed and patently evident than during an election.

We just had an election where a Liberal leaning press helped pick an extremely weak Republican candidate to run against an 'ABB' (Anybody but Bush) candidate. And with the economy hemorrhaging jobs and banks failing nobody would fault a change of party mentality. And yes, the New York Times advocated for John McCain, a great patriot who is more moderate than Republican. Some would say RINO, but not me. Such a reasonable and accommodating statesman did not fare well because of an economic perfect storm the press played like a Stradivarius. While Senator McCain was painted as part of the problem, Candidate Obama showed us why the old shell game is still the best in town for suspense and surprise endings. When his teleprompter is on he is the most articulate man I've ever heard. When its off he pauses a lot. He looks like he's 'considering,' but he's really grasping for words.

Conversely, Sarah Palin is the most dangerous politician on the planet, bar none. She is articulate, clean and well spoken to quote a certain politician who is known for his gaffes and who was actually describing his impression of the current President. Sometimes politics is like poetry: It really is. There is something infinitely more striking about her that sends shivers up and down the spines of the soothsayers on the left (but no tingles up their legs) and has the mainstream press attacking her relentlessly even as she is now a private citizen on a book tour: She is plain spoken and has common sense. Oh, Horrors! A potential candidate who channels the same kind of no nonsense friendly frankness that made Ronald Reagan so dangerous in debate and so effective on the campaign trail. Whatever you do, don't play her talking, unless to berate and mock her mercilessly on the cable network. This is all great for ratings on cable as the Libs seem to have fifteen networks fighting for their lives and only a limited pool of viewers who can actually afford the products they hawk. The Republicans have one network and have embarrassingly high ratings for a 'right wing splinter group.'

The case for undoing 'Change.' When Sarah Palin speaks the twenty per cent swing vote who have values and are not afraid to vote on them take notice. The media is chomping at the bit to tell us how unqualified she is to be commander in Chief and that her heartfelt religious values are a dangerous departure from mainstream tolerance and probity. Really? I think the current President has proven you can further wreck the economy with the help of, say, 535 other people and still be qualified to lead. Or maybe one could not do worse than to travel the globe apologizing for being American and showing weakness and fecklessness at every public gathering. And, oh yes, how about the style and grace associated with giving a shout out to 'whomever' and in the next few breaths comment on the largest terrorist act directed at this country since 9/11 at Fort Hood, Texas. Nice. And it was a terrorist act by a Muslim Extremist: Don't kid yourself.

Men and women, I am as qualified to be President as this man. Judging from his behavior this first eleven months, one would think President Obama hates this country and everything it stands for. I think, no, I'm sure Sarah Palin could do a better job in the White house. Political commentators are desperately trying to frame the argument against her. They're using the same hackneyed approach that worked with Newt Gingrich: beat the candidate with 'hate-speech' and 'no compassion' arguments until he or she apologizes for some comment and you've won the whole war in one battle. Then the press can bludgeon them with proof they were wrong for the balance of the campaign and force apologies from every Republican who appears in public while polls sag. Newt Gingrich got two million for a book and was pummeled for years. His big mistake? Not ignoring the attacks and forgetting to stay on message.

Sarah has to stay on message and know that with rising polls, the attacks will only grow as the Democrat power base in Washington perceives her as a real threat. We have a golden opportunity to elect a candidate who, at least, seems concerned with us more than world opinion. What's the alternative; re-electing a proven lightweight who wants to curry favor with dictators and murderers? Jimmy Carter is still seen by most as the weakest modern President for the same reasons. We have a repeat of the Carter White House right now, except the Liberals are more emboldened and transparently craven about wanting to dismantle the American way of life.

So lets start supporting the only real option for the 2012 White House now, not later. Sarah Palin may be many things, but she's not a Liberal. And that's far better that who we have now.

There is a storm brewing. An election that will foreshadow the next Presidential cycle is less than a year away. And this time the Democrats have much to fear. They ran on a populist platform with anti-business overtones and now they are reaping the whirlwind: Nobody will hire while they are afraid of the Government. They have stalled the economy through draconian policies and are crafting legislation that will sap drive and kill initiative. And we have nothing in America if we don't have a work ethic. Wealth can all disappear if you don't work to protect and strengthen it. "A little sitting, a little folding of hands and poverty will come upon you like a thief," (Paraphrased from Proverbs 20).

In November of 2010 we have an opportunity to show just who the American people really are. I'm talking about a change of leadership in both Houses, not just a mere trimming here and there. Democrats have had the unmitigated gaul to presume to dictate how we should live, work and what doctor we visit. I say no! We will not go quietly into that dark night of scarcity and rationing the press trumpets as Socialism. We will not surrender more and more of our paychecks to feed the growing beast of entrenched bureaucracy while our children are socialized to accept mediocrity and dependency.

We must, simply put, throw out all of the bad actors who vote for bailouts, porkulus packages, health care 'reform' and bills that legalize here to fore illegal behavior. And I know we can do it! The Democrats are making this so easy for me I should feel a bit guilty, but I don't. They are sewing the seeds of their own election losses every time they appear to condescend and belittle the concerns of the taxed. They work for us, and I don't like their job performance! So I'm voting them out and working to get Sarah Palin in.

America is a place where you can make millions or live in the gutter. But I get to chose my lot, not some bureaucrat who has a savior complex. Live free or die, baby!

Victor The Contractor

There is no Communism; Rather Dictatorship!

2009-12-03T11:43:00.000-08:00

A lot of people these days are talking about the changes that the Obama Administration is trying to impose on the financial, automobile, manufacturing and the very healthy health care industries. The folks, both on Main street and Wall Street, are fearful that our left leaning government is trying to nationalize as much of the economy as possible before the mid-term elections and pass difficult to reverse legislation before the housecleaning, so to speak, begins.

Every day I find some article warning of the coming Communism or the emergence of the 'Nanny State' as the consummate arbiter of spending and the loss of independence and choice those policies will inevitably foist upon us. Now that the Liberals own the guns will they be stuffing flower stems down the barrels or rather turn the weapons on their own populations? Will the symbols and almost incomprehensible power that the US Government wields now be an instrument of enslavement of ideas and liberties? Have the Marxist ideals that have miserably failed in Russia and China taken root in the Halls of Congress and will now be implemented to our chagrin and the decline of our way of life?

The answer is as elegant in its simplicity as it is brief: No. A thousand times no! The explanation, however, will take some 'Splainin,' as Ricky so eloquently put when interrogating the lovable Lucy on TV so many years ago. I won't go into a long dissertation on the forms of Communism but will just say that, in essence, a government of equals, meaning everybody who is sane, has a say in the policies and production of the society at large. The means of production are owned by the Government, which is in turn controlled by every subject of that Government. Simple, huh?

Its a very tempting lifestyle to advocate for; if you're seventeen and don't know a thing about business or human nature. And if it was true that the Obama Administration was arguing for Communism they could at most be guilty of being pie-eyed in the face of an economic reality almost as stark as the Great Depression. I would love to give them the benefit of the doubt, but the benefit would be all theirs and the gullibility would be all mine. So lets call a spade a spade, not to racialize this article, but to prove a point.

The Obama Administration, both Majorities in the House and Senate and about half of the Supreme Court are, in essence, Totalitarianists. What, pray tell, is a Totalitarianist? Well, aside from giving me writer's cramp typing the word: A Totalitarianist is someone who believes in and advocates for the government regulation or outright control of every aspect of a private citizen's life. In a Capitolist society this function would be performed by a tiny part of the personality called the conscience. I say tiny because, it seems, the ability to know right from wrong and act on it has been waning for some time in our society, especially in the over-educated class and anybody holding elected office. Washington is the Nexus of the infestation, but it has now spread to local Governments country-wide. Academia has long been known to be sociopathic to all common sense but that subject is for another article.

At some point the effete intelligentsia and the Democrat Party decided that Humanism had in its capacity the answers for all manner of societal ills and encompassed the need to control others. It no longer was enough to let off child rapists and punish law abiding citizens for their prosperity: the time had come to even the score. We now have the paradigm where the poor will now dictate the terms of employment for the rest of us. No longer will we 'Eat if we work.' We will work and feel guilt for those who can't work, are unable to perform in this greedy society, or simply have decided that working is too 'taxing' on the human spirit for them. And we will support all who opt out of personal responsibility, mostly because we who work are the ones who can afford finance this 'Strawberry Fields' existence.

An Aside: It always struck me as ironic that a generation of the hardest working musicians on the planet in the sixties produced a genre of music that a generation of the laziest people (in the universe) in the seventies and eighties listened to while consuming large quantities of alcohol and drugs. By the nineties everybody was hung over and depressed, Henceforth the music was self absorbed and poorly executed not to mention infantile, but I digress.

What is the preferred instrument to force egalitarianism on those 'type A's' who work their tails to the bone earning while others sit and wait for welfare checks? The Dictatorship. Whether it be a Central Planning Committee or a Strongman in the vein of Juan Peron, nothing says Dictatorship like the suppression of all public criticism, writing and voting on legislation in secret and calling detractors unpatriotic. Next we'll have an unelected board deciding just what speech is free and what is treason. All we need is the resurrection of the Fairness Doctrine to make all opinion 'equal.' Some opinions will of course be more equal than others, but you will know your Animal Farm by who inhabits it.

A Dictatorship is the form of Government being set up in this country. And that's Government with a huge G. Our 'Helpmeets' in Washington already own a couple of car companies, a slew of banks and more signing up for buyouts by the week, and are on the verge of owning the means of treating all sickness. Does anyone really think its a coincidence that the the recommendations for Breast Exams and other disease prevention tests are being scaled back to later ages? The Government knows it will not be able to administrate or afford such large scale procedures on half the population. Its got to cut back now to reduce expectations.

And just wait until they decide that obesity is a lifestyle choice like smoking. Now there's a good chunk of the populace that they won't have to treat. Drink too much, over eat, you could wind up denied treatment for your diabetes and, soon enough, out of a job for your largess. And if you're older than sixty five and get a cancer, the cost of your procedures will be measured against your expected productivity. Brain surgeons are still in full stride at sixty five: not so much for steel workers. Guess which one gets the Chemo?

What a wonderful world it will be. Just like that Disneyland, South America! We can have a Mexico City on each coast. Well, we already have that in California: Do you think we should finally give it back to Mexico, and throw in New Mexico and Arizona as a sort of apology for their troubles? If we wait long enough California will secede and rejoin Mexico on its own, due to its majority being Mexican born. Anyway, we can have a Strongman in the White House. One who runs around with his 'Posse' and holds court, just like a third world country. Then the Congress can rubber stamp everything he wants to do and he can use the National Guard to implement any 'unpopular' policies. Only a fool argues with a bayonet. Wish I could remember who said that.

Yes, the Obama Administration is courting Marxist ideology and forming a Dictatorship to force his agenda upon us. And its ironic that a national press, who decried President Nixon for the same type of cynical behavior (on a much smaller scale), would trumpet this man's agenda and praise every golden word that pours from his tele-prompter, er, I mean, mouth. Yes, this is a different world we live in as opposed to the golden age of the fifties and the prosperity that comes from having the only unscathed manufacturing infrastructure after the war. But the problems are all the same.

We have to earn what we spend before we spend it, Not raise the debt ceiling another trillion dollars and hope the Chinese can stomach another bond auction. Our economy would do well from a tax cut, not a Cap and Trade limit on prosperity. And that's what this White House is all about: Limiting Prosperity.

When I hear we have to, "Spread the wealth around," and "Its Time for people to pay their fair share," it makes me very angry to think that our representatives are going back to their million dollar homes in Prince George County while most of us are scraping pennies together for heating oil. There is a growing disconnect between the working world and the Washington bubble. Those who would presume to dictate our lives have long lost sight of the fact that they serve at our sufferance and can be voted out of office periodically. They think that a Madison Avenue commercial will sway our minds and ensure their deferred retirement from 'protecting' us from ourselves.

Well, maybe most years a slick campaign, irregular vote counts and registering dead people will do the trick. But beware, those who think the Dictatorship is set and Mother Congress will prevail. Unemployment and midterm elections may just be the perfect storm that boots out Democrat majority and derails the Progressive agenda. This time. There will always be some who seek to control all others, whether out of a sense of omnipotence or out of a personal savior complex.

We all have to be vigilant of them. for they are a danger not only to our liberties, but can destroy opportunities of all who enjoy the protections and freedoms we provide around the world. If we fail as a nation, the entire world could slip back into a medieval state; but infinitely more dangerous. A world of advanced technology where the punishment for defying a dress code could be death and a quarrel between heads of state end in a nuclear conflagration.

I say we vote the bums out who supported Cap and Trade, Health Care 'Reform', the Stimulus package and any tax, fee or levy increase. Period. If he's a Republican with no scruples he's no Republican at all. Hey, at least I know where Barney Frank stands. A Republican who runs on a moderate platform and then supports a tax and spend ideology is a liar and should be voted out. Even if they are likable, speak well and are presentable on TV. If he's a Democrat and votes our way: We have a big tent and must welcome him.

I will sing the praises of this great nation, that bright and shining light on the hill. The beacon that always leads me home to Freedom, and protects the Liberties I hold true.

Let those who would have such 'audacity' pry the flag from my dead and calloused hands,

Victor The Contractor

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T06:50:00.000-08:00

In a country besieged with political correctness and deference towards indifference, I'd like to thank the troops of the five branches of our armed forces for risking life and limb on a daily basis to stand in harm's way. All for our way of life.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mary Landrieu's $100,000 Bribe

2009-11-22T04:39:00.000-08:00

Mary Landrieu, Senator from Louisiana, had a choice to make. That decision was whether to vote no on bringing a bill to debate that she had big doubts about or being a good Democrat and voting with the rank and file. She had voiced some rather novel (for a Democrat) ideas about resisting a public option and budget considerations. Or should I say that the Democrats seem reasonable when on camera, then the quietly load up legislation with the items they really want. Be that as it may, Senator Landrieu, along with a few others, held the votes which would allow the bill to be brought to the floor for debate and comment.

But this vote was much more important than just permission to consider. It was a talisman of the Democrat's ability to marshall the votes needed under the stress of a disapproving country and sagging public opinion polls. The bill itself is unpopular now and, aside from a sizable minority of the public who want a nationalized system at all costs, most Americans fear a new Government controlled bureaucracy and the mismanagement and graft that accompany it. Mary knew this and held out for either a change in the bill (too soon for that given the expected wrangling to come) or a 'gift' to the state coffers too large and far reaching to decline to accept. She had to be seen as bringing home some rather large chunk of pork for selling her soul, and the voter's obvious wishes, short.

Well, she got it! A real plumb in Federal Medicaid subsidies. The way the provision is worded it applies to only one state: Louisiana. The cost? A paltry $100,000,000. Doesn't that kick the bill dangerously close to the trillion mark? Or are they going to wring that sum out of the other states' existing health care programs. This bill is looking more like a Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madoff's retirement plan.

With the assent of M. Landrieu the senate has turned a corner. The Senators now know that key players will compromise everything of they feel that, on balance, their particular state will benefit and they can claim credit for same. This sets the stage for some major behind closed doors wheeling and dealing that will make this turkey swell to 1.5 trillion before the ink is cold on the printout. And lots of ink it will take to print this travesty of legislation out: Thew bill is 2025 pages and growing. But Harry Reid will crow about the victory of the common man over the system! That, and the rumoured exemption that Nevada gets from this draconian Government takeover.

This brings up a larger point for me: The Democrat's monumental hubris in the face of falling polls and in defiance of good old common sense. They will shoehorn the American Health Care System into an unprepared and incompetent bureaucracy that can't manage the health care of millions of Americans presently. Demcrats will just add more layers and ignore the tragedy of medical mistakes that follow. Rationing, denial of treatment and, most offensive to me, blaming the sick patient will be on the palatte for administrators trying to administer a bloated and unwieldy system which is in no way set up to benefit the patient. It will exist to funnel money to preferred constituancy, in the now famous Chicago model.

The Democrats are known for overreaching when they had a procedural edge, but the volume and scope of their agenda this time awes event he most jaded political junkie. Democrats are like the fat kid at a birthday party: He has to have three pieces of cake, finishes everybody else's leftovers and screams until he gets the blue rose on the corner of the cake. They continually make a spectacle of themselves on TV cheering about their inclusiveness and compassion while decrying anyone who disagrees with their cause of the day. They smother all criticism with childish and demeaning arguments about patriotism and selfishness. They preach the theory of victimization in that we need a Government that can care for all and advocate compassion while lining their pockets with the spoils of legilation: Taxes.

Their 'Audacity of Greed' is robbing the next generation of its future income and they will leave a legacy of dependency and a financial mess that our children will spend their lives cleaning up. Has anyone ever eliminated a Government Bureaucracy? Once established, these legal monopolies hold tightly the reigns of power over their respective constituants and resist any change, reform or retooling that would lessen their power.

A chill wind blows in the halls of Congress. In November of 2010 lets blow the Liberals them out of office with our own hurricane. The Storm of Democracy!

The New Age of Secrecy

2009-11-10T04:39:00.000-08:00

Has anyone noticed just how many instances of behind the scenes operations are going on in our government lately? Didn't a certain House speaker say that we she would preside over the most 'open and transparent' Government in history?

We have a Health Care Reform Bill that no one has ever read and, at 1950 pages, I doubt that even Nancy Pelisi grasps the full intent of. We have closed door negotiations that the participants emerge tight lipped from and only get a glimpse of the content when someone leaks information. One might suspect that even the leaks are engineered to sway public perception.

On a local front Philadelphia has just settled a transit workers strike behind closed doors and we are still in the dark about the full details of the cost and the long term financial effects of the new contract. We get the same story from the affable Governor ED Rendell every time. "Don't sweat the small stuff," he'll say as he announces the contract, cuts a ribbon on a new mall or raises cigarette or sales taxes to pay for yet more bloated government. The Mid-Atlantic States are replete with politicians who plan tax hikes, local policy and so much more in private meetings. So often does this occur in New Jersey that it is seen as refreshing and even surprising when public meetings reveal the full scope of an agenda. Someone slipped up, we think.

I see a trend here. Perhaps it is stating the obvious but we are entering or have just noticed that we are in an era of secret Government. We get partial briefings from the major media who leave out much more than they share and taylor the information to sway public opinion. I feel like the nightly news is put on by Tass, the defunct Soviet news agency that gave its Republic wildly inaccurate news and was a source of dark humor for those who were in the know. A Ukrain terrorist bombing may be portrayed as a manufacturing accident. Our news media is so left skewed that a moderate view is portrayed as hard right these days. All true conservatives seem to have fled to Fox.

Does anyone remember Cap and Trade or that dog of a bill, the Employe Free choice act. They lie, tabled, until they are slipped into another War Funding Bill or the like. Even their names conceal the intent of the legislation. We all try to put the best face on our efforts when presenting them to a skeptical recipient. But to intentionally mis-inform and lie about the effects, financially and policy-wise, of legislation has become an art with Congress.

The President ran on a platform of open Government where the Health Care Bill would be hashed out on C-Span and legislation would be given the consideration and time it needed for a thoughtful review. Instead we have thirty some Czars, unaccountable and unconfirmed by Congress, who devise policy for sectors of our economy in private meetings with avowed Communists and others who want to overthrow 'Evil Capitolism.'

As H. L. Menken commented on getting the Government we deserve, "Good and Hard," we are now reaping the whirlwind of the Sixties permissiveness toward lawbreakers and drug users. Our thinking was that it was reasonable to question our leadership in an open and transparent society. Well, the leaders of the movement against Democracy learned their lessons well.

The 2008 elections swept them into a decisive majority with promises of change and equality for the less able and a lot of populism hoopla and now they have their shot. And they're not wasting a minute! They have choked off all public dissent in the Major Media, marginalized political resistance and made it 'unpatriotic' to even question policy that may actually destroy our way of life. The Democrat Party have become the 'New McCarthys,' crushing difference and seeking to muzzle even the most benign of criticism.

They are hellbent for leather to turn this country into a mirror of Communist China, albeit with smiley faces on the tanks, and suppress all ingenuity and exceptional-ism as somehow insulting to the less abled. And since we are all victims we all need to be governed as such. Let Mother Congress provide for you, shelter you and care for you in old age. All Mother Congress requires is your devotion, wallet and the odd firearm you own.

Don't be fooled, President obama is a died in the wool Communist. Given his record just ten months in the White House, where the Government is on essentially a spending spree to buy failing companies and run them into the ground, one can conclude that he wants to run or destroy our economy; Soviet style. We are headed for a lower standard of living with this operator: President Obama has already ensured a coming inflation/recession cycle that we've yet to endure. Its coming. And it was all designed in secret. And at the end of the next recession the economy will be further weakened and more companies will be engulfed by the GovernCorp.

And the GovernCorp will lead us to a 'green' world with low cost energy efficient products nobody wants but can't afford not to buy. An Economy run by Czars and central planning Committees. Now where have I heard that one before?

Victor The Contractor: Duct Tape My Head

Food for Thought

2009-11-06T13:00:00.001-08:00

National Health Care's Test Bed: Puerto RIco

2009-11-06T05:43:00.000-08:00

I recently returned from a long anticipated sojourn to the land of me ancestors: Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is a beautiful tropical getaway for travelers in the know and was a melting pot for Spanish, French, Irish Geese and so many more during the Colonial Period when Spain ruled the seas and wars were fought over honor and commodities such as gold and cotton. From 1508 until the Spanish ceded Puerto Rico to the United Sates in 1898 gold was mined and depleted, the island was depopulated of Taino indians and repopulated with Europeans and natural diasters have shaped the culture and ethos of its inhabitants.

My visit re-acquainted me with long lost relatives and introduced me to a raft of previously unknown loved ones. One such newcomer (to me anyway) has been employed by the Commonwealth for decades and ran for office against the corruption as he saw it and is solidly for statehood; a perennial issue that comes to a head with a vote periodically. Puerto Rico is a true colony of the United States: It owes its economic survival to the sustenance provided by the Federal Government and would sink into third would poverty if not for the billions of dollars pumped into the economy. It really is a welfare state and the Puerto Ricans are well aware of their status as a 'stepchild territory'. It is an outpost for the United Sates that hems in Cuba and its strategic importance can not be understated. That having been said, the Island economy is depressed and has been so for many years.

The number one industry in Puerto Rico is administering the distribution of the money provided by the United States in the form of so many programs and a welfare system rivaling any Cold War satellite of the USSR. There was amazing economic activity up to the early nineties, until, that is, the Clinton Adminstration eliminated an enhanced tax status for corporations operating on the Island. Then the companies pulled up stakes for Asia and the economy collapsed. A drive through the southern shore treats you to an ugly display of abandoned and rusting oil refineries among the tropical lushness. A stunning sea bordered by a coastline of deteriorating factories: Disgusting in all of its irony.

This long-winded description of island life is meant to inform you of the mindset of the Puerto Rican people. One of resignation to economic slumber and permanent dependency on the United States. Are they proud to be Americans? You betcha! But many long for statehood and the responsibilities that go along with it. But they are also proud perversely, as I see it, of their health care system.

The Puerto Ricans see Government run healthcare as a right and not a privilege of gainful employment. Understand that the handing out of money is the prime industry there so it follows that a sense of entitlement is ingrained and only a minority, however large it may be, want the sometimes crushing responsibilities of statehood and the status the goes with it. Case in point: California is effectively bankrupt because of its social programs and unceasing support for illegal aliens who neither pay taxes nor re-invest in local communities.

The Islanders are intensely proud that the Obama Administration had studied their model and has decided to take it nationwide. They see the benefits of a centrally run program but have cautions for the White House regarding implementation. Firstly, it is expensive, depleting funds that used to spur economic activity. The Puerto Ricans are sensitive to the financial costs in the long run but trust the Government will make up the lost growth later.

The second caution is more of a warning to our aging population bulge: Rationing. Certain procedures and modalities are just not available for a small 'nation' who never had the budget for the more exotic equipment and treatments anyway. If you get a fatal illness that will consume lots of resources and buy a few months; you go home to settle your affairs. On an island that has commercial vehicles belching smoke and abandoned buildings on every street can it surprise anyone that top level health care simply does not exist?

In a commonwealth that appears to a visitor to be stuck in the 1970s there is no expectation of emerging from near poverty and the achievement of the wild prosperity that the mainland periodically boasts. There is the feeling of just getting along and the hope for more funding from 'Mother Congress'. And as the United States emerges from its recession more money will come: As a territory it is their right. Don't get me wrong, Puerto Ricans are very proud to be Americans. They are simply the victims of 'Mother Congress' socializing and completely controlling their economy. There is no other option for them as the Government has taxed most industry right off the island and has a stranglehold on its income.

When a government can dictate how much money you earn and where you may work it has infinite control over the decisions you make. And that is not the America I want for my children. Don't let 'Mother Congress' Headmistress Pelosi or Chancellor Reid nationalize healthcare. It will be the undoing of the best medical system in the world and have the unanticipated result of suppressing our economy and lead to a lower standard of living. I fear for the Democracy if this dog of a bill passes.

KENNETH FEINBERG: FINANCE THUG (CZAR)

2009-10-28T08:53:00.000-07:00

As I watch the testimony unfold before the House Committee this day I can't help but notice how arrogant and self righteous Kenneth Feinberg really is. His testimony consists of explaining his role as 'overlord', or Paymaster to companies recieving TARP money from the Federal Government. That he seems to be bullheaded is the kindest thing I can say about this man.

Mr Feinburg has decided that withholding compensation from executives and forcing them to take same in 'redeemable' company securities, much of which is tied to reimbursement of TARP money to the Government, eill spur them on to become more productive and diligent in observing finance law. He is also convinced that these same executives will put up with an interloper who regulates their collective income and withholds much of it indefinitely.

We are talking about the best and brightest of Wall Street and the Investment Industry who design money making instruments, seemingly at will and by intellectual dint, and chafe at the thought of regulation of their compensation. They will continue in the employment of, essentially Mr Feinberg, and further limit their income for how long?

I submit that the Government in its monumental hubris is trying to dismantle the Investment Industry and usurp the imagination and energies of the best and brightest who make huge amounts of money for themselves while making huge amounts of money for investors. I can for see a mass exodus of personnel and eventually capitol from these regulation beleaguered concerns to companies who will welcome them with open arms and blank paychecks. We are watching the gradual destruction of all of the institutions who received TARP money and Government sponsored financial terrorism carried out by the likes of Ken Feinberg.

In five years we will read the joyful stories, written by the far left, of how President Obama phased out huge private investment firms in the United States and how that financial blunder somehow improved equality in the paychecks of all earners. In reality the President will have succeeded in driving Capitol overseas as bankers and advisors fled the U.S. and our Investment Industry was decimated. Money will be harder to borrow, if that is possible as noted by today's companies, It will cost more to borrow same and there will be plenty of Government scrutiny over how it is used. Viola! We are entering a time of Socialized banking, if not Communistic in its essence.

Activities like these will have the effect of slaying that 'Ugly Dragon' Wall Street, but have the unanticipated result of lowering wages across the entire employment spectrum in the United States as all manner of spending is curtailed. Luxury Automobiles will go un-purchased as upscale neighborhoods will not be built and the ancillary employment that accompanies a growing economy will not occur.

The stimulus package, with its piles of pork and wasteful spending, will realize what I believe to be its real intention: That is, to facilitate an economic depression that makes the absorption of the Investment Industry by the Federal Government not only viable, but demanded by a general populace who have seem their savings and retirement funds evaporate like the dew on a summer morning. Through a series of unpublicized and underhanded machinations the Government will achieve its goal of total mastery of the economy and will have, in effect, its command economy. It will decide, through who it loans money to, how many bicycles are manufactured and whether little Johnny has a helmet to wear while riding it. And if Johnny has no helmet, he is prohibited from riding that bike in public, period.

I believe this Government is working toward a Communistic command economy and its up to you whether President Obama and his cronies will be successful. All of those who thought that his election would bring a new era of unequalled openness in Government and a new equality of thought are slowly awakening to the ugly reality of a Government dominated by Chicago style intimidation and rabidly Liberal Marxist ideology. To those who believed that A Liberal President would give them a 'leg up' and that there would be no cost will soon come to the realization that for every handout there must be recompense.

When you allow someone to provide something you are too lazy to earn a little bit of integrity is lost. When you come to expect it the loss is complete.

Victor The contractor

Dynamic Duo

2009-10-23T08:50:00.000-07:00

Nancy and Harry out on the town.

Barney Frank

2009-10-23T08:49:00.000-07:00

He really should be in jail!

The Feminzation of Amerika

2009-10-22T18:34:00.000-07:00

Every time I turn on the television, radio or pick up a newspaper I'm confronted with the glaring specter of a society where opinions are soft and fuzzy and often apologized for as they are offered. The only strident voices allowed seem to be from the whiners and victims of our society. Those who blame others for their problems, attack long established morals or religious tenets are lauded as open minded and crusaders for equality and anyone defending same must do so in hushed, deferential tones. Anyone who proffers the opinion that we are self responsible or should have any behavior code at all is villified or pilloried in the town square of public opinion. Its as if the whiny thirteen year old schoolgirls in the play yard have taken over the school and what was once common sense is now heresy by their twisted logic Those who disagree strongly are accused of hate speech because the mass media seems to want everyone to have the attention span and opinions of an infant; unquestioningly absorbing what is offered and easily placated when uncomfortable.

The media is bursting with strident feminists who dominate the airwaves with their unhappy wisdom that indicts all of the values that built this great country and their solution to any problem is more legislation a more feminine, nurturing approach. These women, (and presumably the castrated men who sit sidesaddle and agreeingly preen for them) are a miserable lot who, one one hand, know they can not have the typical American experience of a normal family because they are much too independent change diapers but on the other endeavor to make all other women feel inadequate and unworthy because they have that great American dream. An american dream that consists of more than money and status, a life where self respect and Godliness and common sense dignify human existence and material gain was attained for what it could afford, not for bragging rights. We are all made to feel uncivilized or angry for having opinions that differ with the touchy feely Left. The world seems to be filled with men who have lost their masculinity and are docile, pliable and effeminate in the face of growing antagonism towards anything in the way of decisive thinking. Thank God they don't fight our wars...

THE FAB FOUR!

2009-10-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

My version of Congress' Powerbrokers:

My American Community Survey Odyssey

2009-10-19T06:10:00.000-07:00

It arrived in the mail one day: The American Community Survey. Always interested in the census Bureau, I opened it to see what kind of census they would conduct next year. They couldn't be asking for information now as they were a year early, right?

Well, I was so wrong. What I opened as a 28 page survey that asked so many probing questions that I was taken aback. It was one thing to ask how many adults and children lived in the home: That, I consider the mandate of the Census Bureau. But the longer I read the more appalled I got. Questions like, 'Income earned by your children,' and 'When you leave for and return from work every day,' left me offended at the intrusiveness of the inquiry and the brashness of it all. I decided to do some research.

Instead of the typical census every ten years the Bureau decided to run a survey every year for about ten per cent of the population in perpetuity. The Census Bureau site was all very positive about this program and its benefits. I became suspicious of the reasons, such as road construction and the like. The federal Government doesn't fix local roads. What business does the Government have collective so much info in one place anyway? After all, the IRS already has my family's financial info, does it not? I decided to look into what other Americans were saying about this Survey.

What I found were horror stories from other citizens. Multiple mailings of the survey, followed by twenty or thirty phone calls in attempts to conduct the survey by phone, followed by multiple visits to the house by workers from an organization called Acorn who represented themselves as 'Census takers'.

Well, after much thought, and reading about the fines for non-compliance from $100 to $5000,

I angrily torn the survey to shreds and deposited it in the circular file. That was the most satisfying part of this whole story. I told my wife not to fill any surveys out and not to answer questions if the Acorn people called. She, of course, though I was loopy and didn't see the point of thwarting a census until I told her about the number of bathrooms, leaving for work and children's earnings questions. She said, "Lets wait until we get the letter threatening fines," then we would discuss it.

I forgot about the whole incident until a few weeks later and, Viola!, another survey magically appeared in my mailbox. This time I was going to be pro-active and I lit a fire and watched it burn in my fireplace. How satisfying.

A week later the phone calls started. The first call was polite but firm and I told them no information would be provided and hung up. The answering machine recorded another inquiry the next day.

A third call at dinnertime made me decide to put this caller in her place. After all, if they call while I'm eating, they cross some undefined line and deserve my ire. Relatives can call: Telemarketers are verboten!

A 'Representative' from the Census Bureau started asking questions about my family and just launched into the survey. I told her that I found the questions intrusive and that they were probably unconstitutional And that I was not going to tell them when I went to work or what my children's earnings were. She told me that answering the questions was mandatory and that there were fines for non-compliance with the survey. I asked to speak to her boss at the Census Bureau and she said the she was with an outside firm 'authorized' to conduct the survey. I told her the makeup of my family and that she would get no further information, period.

This woman was persistent, if nothing else. She said I had to answer the questions and started talking over my objections about the law and fines and sending people out to 'interview' me. I was hot now! I told her the my dogs have a taste for Census workers and would appreciate the extra meal. I added that I would love to go to court and prove how unconstitutional the collection of this intrusive information really was. She just kept droning on and on. Finally I said she would get no further information and hung up.

There were more 'hang-up' calls from the various unknowns during the week; more than usual. Then, blessed relief, it all stopped. A few months later The Census Bureau suddenly decided that having Acorn run data collection for them was a really bed idea and cancelled the contract.

I have a real problem with the Census Bureau using any private firm to gather information. This is supposed to be a counting of the people every decade, not a continuous rolling audit of their personal lives and many intimate details. All of this sensitive information is kept where? As if the Government was above reproach and would steadfastly guard your private data, who are they kidding? And what if a particular party wanted to know when someone was at work so they could pay their home a visit? A 'law and order; President like Nixon would have loved to have this information: So don't imagine for a minute that the information would be sacrosanct.

There seems to be a trend to this: The Government, under the control of the Democrats, want to establish a record of Americans' coming and goings. The Liberals want to collect much of the same information under the guise of reforming healthcare and store if with the IRS of all places. The trend is for much more involved information on Americans' movements, lifestyles and revenues with an eye toward, I believe, later supervision and control of same. Should we be alarmed? You bet your hind quarters, we should be!

If we don't get more vigilant and vote these Marxists out we are inviting our own enslavement in the greatest country on earth! President Obama has the Reagan speech craft and the Nazi symbol obsession. He already got elected by a population hungry for a nanny state. Now we will see if more than half of our citizens will tolerate a seventy per cent tax rate to have their needs met; albeit with rationed benefits and substandard service.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Edmond Burke must be spinning in his grave.

2009-10-18T19:34:00.001-07:00

I just can't get over the resemblance between these seals. Obama loves his seals, doesn't he? I used to think Obama was a repeat of the Carter presidency, but now I'm thinking otherwise.

The Drumbeat for Failure in Afghanistan

2009-10-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

Can you hear it? The rumm-a-tumm-tumm snare drum beat for withdrawl from Afghanistan that grows daily as the media warns President Obama of the firestorm that is coming. It started as a whisper of expectation wrapped up in the congratulations of victory and new way to govern, with the consent of the people. The big question is: Who are these consenting people?

The press can be likened to a thousand headed Hydra: Attention from just a few eyes can lead quickly to oppressive and invasive scrutiny, and often, attacks so vituperative and concentrated that the object of its ire is forced to reverse policy and apologize ad nauseum or retire from public life in short order. Remember the media vaulting Howard Dean towards the Democratic Presidential nomination and, within the space of a few weeks, painting him as unstable and dangerous because of a few screeches uttered during a private campaign rally? Does anyone really think the media was concerned about his sanity? Maybe they had marching orders to advocate for someone else and waited for something, anything, to destroy Dr. Dean's credibility.

We now are faced with the same hackneyed approach, written out in longhand and slowly unfolding, in the war in Afghanistan. The days of blaming a previous administration for causing a quagmire are drawing to a close. They can blame the Military itself for strategic blunders for only so long until the buck works its way up to the Commander in Chief. The press was adamant about wanting the U.S. out of the Middle East during the Bush Administration. They had to moderate their collective angst and give the new President a chance to live up to his promises of abandoning an unpopular war. But now, in October, 2009, I am beginning to see the rumblings of discontent over our prolonged 'police action' as those who wait become more impatient. Additionally, the war is no longer going well as the President's weak diplomatic overtures have emboldened resistance to the U.S. presence and the body count piles up.

I am beginning to believe that we have a 'Jimmy Carter' clone in the Oval Office. One cannot be nice to terrorists, apologize for innumerable wrongs and beg for world approval without appearing to be weak. We already know the heart of the Iranians, but like everything else this Administration says, we have to suspend disbelief and common sense to buy their version of reality. Conversely, Middle Eastern countries respect action, not words. Sometimes you have to smack a mule with a two by four to get its attention, then things go much more smoothly. Words will not sway our adversaries, action will.

But President Obama wrongly believes that he can have it both ways. Talk tough before an election and do little once in office. He can't even get the funding to close Guantanamo Bay Detention Center yet he persists in making speeches that make little sense. he is closing it, but not yet. He wants prisoners to face civil trial, but pays other countries to take prisoners off of his hands. His schizophrenic policies always leave you guessing as to whether he is a consummate tactical genius or simply afraid to make a decision.

Afghanistan will be President Obama's undoing. He will have to send many thousands of additional troops, about sixty thousand and half again in support functions that add up to the better part of a hundred thousand troops. That is commitment by anyone's measure. The press will mutinee, with the far left that comprise the bulk of the media put in the unenviable position of defending, even promoting, Obama's social agenda while strongly disagreeing with his continued invlovement in foriegn matters. I look forward to watching the extreme Liberals on CNN defend President Obama's commitment to five more years of war and occupation of one of the most prolific producters in the opium trade.

There are so many twists and ironies in this issue that I can only watch in wonderment as those who dropped acid and burned draft cards now will defend the policies of blowing up poppy fields and children who are dressed in explosive jumpsuits. We've come full circle when the Peacenicks are funding warriors sealed in mine-proofed trucks patrol the mountains for exploding roads and the cities for 'human bombs'. I can't wait to see Wolf Blitzer advocate carpet bombing as a humane way to 'resettle' a town. Maybe Andrea Mitchell can make it sound like 'progressive policy'.

Trainwrecks

2009-10-16T07:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday a balloon captured the media's attention for the better part of the afternoon as news cameras shot every possible angle and commentators waxed eloquent about a six year old child who might be inside this doomed craft's basket. No one really knew, until it gently touched down on terra firma, that the boy had been hiding in a cardboard box in the garage after he untethered the craft and the commotion began. The boy was fine and lots of soap was sold on TV as the great unwashed focused intently on the unfolding tragedy.

Today a baby stroller rolled in front of a subway car; mom watching in horror as it was dragged the length of the station. The baby survived, miraculously, with a bump on the head. But we were all riveted by the tape and the sobbing mother.

Maybe its just me, but isn't it ironic that the world focuses with laser-like precision on a spectacle but often ignores real issues that could directly effect their lives, sometimes adversely and substantially. The average citizen in 2009, even with our vaunted education system and advanced societal values, is still a tribal being who is captivated by catastrophe and will suspend all activity to watch an accident; not once, but over and over again.

We are like kittens; attention flitting here and there until we catch a glimpse of a shiny object. Then we are obsessed with the light, and possessed by its glow, until it fades and we are once again searching for new stimuli, never satisfied, never satiated, ever craven.

2009-10-16T05:19:00.000-07:00

The Baucus Health Care bill that came out of the Senate Finance Committee last week contained a provision that mandates each state to offer Insurance through the Motor Vehicles offices. They are kidding, right? Now New Jersey can apply the service that has made its DMV offices legendary to health care? I can imagine waiting all day for the 'privilege' to buy an overpriced policy where I wait all day to register my vehicle. And add to this the infamous service,foot dragging and rude attitude that pervade the Division as a whole and you'll have more people going postal than fans forcing down hot dogs at an Eagles tailgate party.

This is really good news for the consumer as the local DMVs are usually staffed with the best and brightest who will be more than happy to explain policies for extended periods and walk you through every aspect of your important health care choices. Actually, its the exact opposite. New Jersey DMV employes are, by and large, in over their heads at any position and show it by proceeding at a pace that would have a snail gasping for air. This is a really bad idea and is so typical of what our Government has become. Government has become a bloated cancer sucking the vitality from hosts until its needs eventually kill everyone infected.

I'll bet you a dollar this causes a firestorm.

Nancy Pelosi's Vision

2009-10-15T12:28:00.000-07:00

Nancy Pelosi was on the tube just a few minutes ago saying that a public option is a key part of any Health Care reform the House of Representatives will pass. She does not think the Senate Finance Comte's bill is adequate as it does not contain a Government funded program.

This woman is bent on nationalizing the entire health care system regardless of cost, rationing of care and the destruction of the most advanced medical system in the world. Those of her ilk are salivating at the prospect of seizing control of one sixth of the U.S. economy and all of the power to legislate behavior the goes with it.

If the Government controls Health Care, it can deny care to those who don't abide by their rules. Drink too much, smoke or even indulging in too much sugar intake could put you out of compliance with any of the many rules I can forsee a National Advisory Health Care Board would come up with. There are almost no limits to the rules such a commission could come up with to engineer behavior on a national basis; in an effort to protect you from yourself. I can imagine parents punishing children for playing any sort of contact sport as it may be proscribed by the authorities. Could you be denied health care because you drank and drove? What if you eat too much? There could be a long list of diseases that you would be ineligible to get treatment for because of your diet, activity or other choices.

Social engineering on steroids. All thanks to Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and President Barack Obama. The libs could finally protect us from cradle to grave and get rid of all of our disgusting habits in one fell swoop. Eat red meat, smoke, like sugar cookies? No coverage. Engage in 'risky behavior' like skydiving, or later on, touch football? Verboten!

There was another culture who eschewed smoking, red meat and strove toward a 'perfect race', the Nazis. And let us not forget that they were Socialists too. If you delve into history you can find examples of the very same problems we suffer from today and the stories of those who gave their lives to free us from such oppression. The Socialists are back and they once again promise equality regardless of ability. I know this story: It always ends with economic disaster and a national humbling.

The Second Stimulus Package

2009-10-14T16:55:00.000-07:00

I hear that the White House is going to give approximately 52 million people checks for $250. The money is supposed to offset a missing Cost of living increase in Social Security, among other things. Recipients like retired railroads workers, veterans, and others are among the listed. A paltry thirteen billion will pay for this small 'gift'.

This seems to be the beginning of the second stimulus plan. President Obama thinks the public won't stand for another $789 billion in pork ridden handouts:I think they would as many Americans still wrongfully assume that a few 'rich people' will pay for all of this largess. I am watching a piecemeal approach to the idea of stimulus take shape in Washington. A few billion here, a few billion there, and soon you're talking real money, as someone once astutely noted. Barack Obama will, with the aide of a thoroughly corrupt House of Representatives and Senate, spend another trillion dollars over the next fiscal year on 'essential economic relief' for the American people to help them through these troubled times.

Its really too bad that the press is so far left that Chairman Mao watches in admiration and wonderment from beyond the grave. Even he could have benefited from an entire industry happily devoted to guiding a whole populace toward the yoke and away from liberty. There are so few who report real news anymore, and most seem content to repeat the same liberal ideology until the unsuspecting watcher is programmed to think not for himself but for the greater cause, whatever that happens to be at a particular moment.

If you ask me, the Government is guilty of treason and should be voted out, lock, stock and barrel. Then the can re-apply for the jobs we pay them too do and be a little more wary of their constituents. The press should be ashamed of themselves for advancing such an obviously Communistic and un-Godly agenda that promotes everything that scarred the BeJesus out of me when I read Animal Farm and Brave New World as a child.

We are not all equally gifted! Some fail! Some do very well. Most will perform to the best of their abilities if sufficiently motivated. This 'piecemeal' stimulus bill amounts to a payoff for future voted to the Democrat party AND an incentive to slack off a bit. As much as I hate buying votes, I think the message that these programs send is infinitely more dangerous. As paople come to depend on 'little extras' here and there they will look to the party as their own personal piggy bank. It will soon be unthinkably to vote for anybody but a Democrat as more and more voters are bought off and get lazy.

After all, it much easier to watch liberty die from a thousand small cuts than voting to lessen your own income when the pervasive attitude is one of selfishness and gluttony.

2009-10-14T06:29:00.000-07:00

Our fearless leader, Commissar Obama, received the Nobel Peace Prize last week for advocating for peace and opening up lines of communication between the U.S. and advasaries around the world. Too bad he, in essence, got the award for being a flaming Liberal and spending 11 or so days in office.

The Nobel Prizes were supposed to be awarded for achievements in particular fields, not 'the promise' of future agendas or advancing an agenda in line with the Socialist paradigm. We've seen the reduction of the Nobel reputation from one of vaulted honor to a cheerleading squad for what amounts to Communist ideas in governance.

Its such a shame that President Obma accepted an award that insults the intelligence of the average adult who knows the difference between accomplishment and good speech-craft. That Obama gives a great call to dependency is not the same as actually making us dependent. Maybe the Nobel Committee is trying to warn the world. The prize and the notoriety that accompany it alert us to the danger of getting too cozy with those who think the Government is the end all the parent for its wayward subjects.

And the Scandinavians are such a paradigm of success in that area! The highest rates of suicide, alcoholism and sex addiction in the world, a health system that abandon s you at 65 when disease is most likely to strike and a tax rate that makes New York look like a tax free zone.

So lets all make a toast to the Nobel Prize Committee for calling a spade a spade: Obama is cut from the same Socialist ridden, nanny state, cradle to grave cloth as the Northern European countries who both abhor the United States successes and suckle on the teat of the capitolist system for their sustenance.

But be forwarned: Once the most successful engine of economic growth in the world is brought into line with the lukewarm policies and stagnant growth of the Europeans, the party will be over for countries who survive only because they live off the scraps from the economic table. For once the table is gone and the Socialists have had their way in dismanteling Capitolism, All countries will have to survive on their own productivity and a world-wide depression will ensue that makes the event of the 1930's look like a summer afternoon tea party with the effite at Martha's Vineyard.

2009-10-13T14:31:00.000-07:00

The Senate Finance committee passed its version of the Communist Health Care Bill today. Olympia Snow, that famously liberal Republican masquerading as a 'moderate', jumped the shark and voted for this turkey. Lots of luck on her re-election, though I doubt the Vermonters realize that she just ensured budget deficits for decades to come with the Federal mandates and set asides required to implement this pork monster. Romuor has it that Vermont and a few other states, like Harry Reid's Nevada, have an additional five years to phase in the mandatory plan. Special rules for those who would surely be defeated for sure on a level playing field. But we are dealing with Democrats here; are we not?

The insurance industry turned negative on the idea of mandatory health coverage this weekend, when it was revealed that the fine for individuals not purchasing coverages dropped to $750 from somewhere above $1000. Great news for singles who will shell out, albeit reluctantly, $65 a month for the fine and bypass the multiple thousands that a real catastrophic policy would cost. The insurance companies know this, and seeing their captive market evaporating, they switched to opposing the bill in any form.

That's good news for those who know that nationalizing health care, even while calling it a co-op or a 'temporary' public plan, is tantamount to signing a death warrant (by neglect) for seasoned citizens and, more ominously, a license for the Government to legislate what we eat, drink and how we live. Make no mistake, the Democrats have a dream, and that dream is one of a Communist society where all will be provided for according to need and all will contribute according to their ability.

Sound familiar? The problem is that this kind of adolescent 'dream', where everyone plays well with others and gladly contributes to the common good discounts one key trait that I've seen in people from the most low to the highest born: Greed. Yes, Greed. And that trait is so transparently on display in every level of our government today that I can scarcely imagine that such an obviously corrupted body of legislators, such as exist in Washington, are trustworthy or even morally equipped to direct and implement a national healthcare system when they can't adequately fund Medicare, Medicade, Social Security or even the U.S. Postal Service.

Pardon me, the Postal Service is a quasi-independent organization; so we can't blame the Government for their constant hemorrhaging . Its really pitiful when the U.S . Governemnt uses artifice to sidestep responsibility for yet another failing social program, but that's just my opinion.

More to come...