Category Archives: Opinion

WALKER WINS WISCONSIN, WHAT DOES IT MEAN

Posted on June 6, 2012 | Leave a comment

People vote their pocketbook and their deepest convictions.  Economics, abortion, gun rights and distaste for the opposing party are the four factors, broadly defined, that figure prominently in any election.  The Walker recall attempt only involved two, economics and opponent distaste.  Economics was the determining factor.

When campaigning for office in 2009, Scott Walker pledged to bring down the cost of state government and to deliver on the economy.  He did both.  Imagine that, a politician who keeps his promises.  It didn’t go unnoticed.  Wisconsin’s unionized government workers were among the very highest paid in any state and so far above their private sector equivalents that a sense of unfairness prevailed among the voters.  Why should I subsidize a government worker with my tax dollars when he or she already makes more than I do for the same work?

Unemployment in Wisconsin is 6.7%, far below the 8.2% national average.  On a per capita basis that translates to nearly 20% fewer people out of work in the state.

A lot was at stake here and everyone knew it.  An all out effort to defeat Walker was made by the unions and the Democratic Party.  The campaign was vicious at times and turned downright dirty when desperate Democrats introduced an unsubstantiated rumor at the last minute that Walker had fathered a child out of wedlock.  Feelings of opponent distaste ran high.  Nevertheless, some 11% of self declared Democrats voted for the Republican.  Fair is fair.

Wisconsin is a blue state.  Some pundits now say it will be in play in November.  I don’t know.  But one thing is sure; the wind is blowing our way.

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BARACK OBAMA AND FRANCE, LIKE TWO BULLIES IN A SANDBOX

Posted on June 5, 2012 | 1 comment

You hit me first!!  No I didn’t.  YOU hit ME first!!

While Obama blames today’s American unemployment on France and Europe, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius threw it back at Barack Obama saying the threat of the European debt crisis originated in the United States.  “Lehman Brothers was not a European bank” Fabius said.

The PIGS, Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain not to mention France and Great Britain have been spending at unsustainable rates ever since they recovered from World War II and now it’s our fault that they ran out of money.  Here at home, our own government set up a house-of-cards in the mortgage market that inevitability had to fail like a Ponzi scheme. When it did, we chose a socialist to solve the problem and he blames France.

The Brits have Monty Python; we have Washington.

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Posted in Opinion, Political philosophy, Political polemics

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A COUPLE OF THINGS YOU PROBABLY DIDN’T KNOW

Posted on June 5, 2012 | Leave a comment

Let the New York Times increase your knowledge, at least on these 3 things.  Ignore my comments.  I never even went to college.

1. Republicans must be as pleased as Punch with Obama’s economic program.  The President is following economic policies Republicans consider ideal and have always dreamed they could put in place.

What should be done about the economy? Republicans claim to have the answer: slash spending and cut taxes. What they hope voters won’t notice is that that’s precisely the policy we’ve been following the past couple of years. Never mind the Democrat in the White House; for all practical purposes, this is already the economic policy of Republican dreams. ~ Paul Krugman

And all the time I thought the Republicans were saying cut the strangling over-regulation, stop stifling oil and coal production, stop passing vague laws for your czars to enforce as they see fit, stop threatening to increase the tax burden when things are already slow and stop attacking success.  In other words, just get out of the way.

2. Obama is slashing spending at a rate not seen since the end of the Korean War.

Look first at total government spending — federal, state and local. Adjusted for population growth and inflation, such spending has recently been falling at a rate not seen since the demobilization that followed the Korean War. ~ Paul Krugman

Mr. Krugman provides this link, Mr. Obama a big spender to a couple of charts that he portends prove his point.  The charts do show a sharp decline in the last 12 months, but the charts are not a picture of spending at all.  They are a convoluted measure of growth rates.  To illustrate – If you spend 100% more this year than last, and then 50% more next year than this, and 30% more on top of that in the third year, then the lines on Krugman’s charts would show a dramatic decline while you were actually spending more and more each year.

3. With Barack Obama as President, U.S. borrowing costs are lower than they ever were before in the history of the country.

Well, U.S. borrowing costs have just hit a record low. ~ Paul Krugman

Wags have often said “You can’t make this stuff up”.  Paul Krugman can.  Perhaps that’s why he won a Nobel Prize.

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OUTLOOK – 2012 ELECTION

Posted on June 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

Just one month ago I wrote there is The Potential for a Landslide.  Since then the following events have occurred.

Artur Davis dropped his support for Obama and took the additional step of leaving the National Democratic Party.  Davis was an early and ardent supporter of Obama and gave a resounding speech in his behalf at the 2008 National Democratic Convention.  His defection is a highly significant one.

Another prominent black Democrat, Massachusetts Gov Deval Patrick came out in support of the work Romney did at Bain Capital.  Gov. Davis publicly criticized Obama for attacking Romney over his record at Bain.

Move On.org revealed that donations are not coming in as expected.  The financial aid going to Democratic candidates will be far less than in prior elections.

The National Coalition of Black Churches announced on May 21st that they are withdrawing their support for Obama’s re-election.

On May 30th Power Line blog reported that donations for Republican candidates are pouring in in record numbers.  Campaign spending may even exceed for Democrats which would be the first time in modern election history that that occurred.

Rasmussen announced the results of a poll showing that, for the first time in first time in five-and-a-half years, 50% of all likely voters now trust Republicans more than Democrats on the economy.  And the economy is the number one issue in this election.

On June 1st.Bill Clinton registered disagreement with Obama’s campaign to convince the voters Romney’s business record at Bain Capital is reprehensible.  Clinton called Romney’s performance there “sterling”.

New unemployment figures were released.  The number rose significantly, back up to 8.2% and the stock market plunged – down 274.88 on the news.

Still, the Rasmussen favorability index hasn’t changed much.  It shows the two contenders in a very close race with no discernable recent trend.  Why is that?  Rasmussen polls the general public.  The disenchantment is among political insiders.  The average citizen who answers the phone when the pollster calls is not as up to date and well informed.  It’s the donors and politicians who are paying attention to the details who are backing away.  They sense a loser.

Nonetheless, 5 months is a lifetime in politics, anything can happen.  And that includes a Republican landslide.

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CITIZENS UNITED, THE ISSUE IN A NUTSHELL

Posted on June 1, 2012 | Leave a comment

The liberal faction of the main stream media raises a lot of hoopla over the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision commonly known as Citizens United.  The complaints center on the fear that money plays too big a role in the election process, particularly big corporate money.  George Will has written an excellent piece on the subject for the Washington Post.  Here are the highlights, slightly edited.

The Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision held, unremarkably, that Americans do not forfeit their First Amendment rights when they come together in corporate entities or labor unions to speak collectively.  What do liberals consider the constitutional basis for saying otherwise?

The ruling’s primary effect has been to give unions and incorporated nonprofit advocacy group’s freedom to spend what they choose on political speech as long as they do not coordinate with candidates or campaigns.

Through March 31, the eight leading super PACs supporting Republican presidential candidates received contributions totaling $96,410,614.  Of this, $83,220,167 (86.32 percent) came from individuals, only $13,190,447 (13.68 percent) from corporations, and only 0.81 percent from public companies

These facts refute such prophesied nightmares as The Post’s fear that corporate money “may now overwhelm” individuals’ contributions

While much of the media and most liberals urge Americans to be scandalized about “too much money” in politics, the media’s real concern is that there is more political speech by others yet media advocacy remains unrestricted.

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A LIST OF BARACK OBAMA’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT

Posted on May 31, 2012 | 1 comment

There is a list going around the Internet outlining an extensive number of things the President has accomplished since coming into office.  The author seems to be addressing Obama supporters who are disappointed in the President’s performance.  It’s an impressive list, well documented and straight forward in it’s presentation.  I thought I would check it out.

Here is an example from the middle of the list.

He signed an order banning anyone from working in an agency they had lobbied in previous years. He also put strict limits on lobbyists’ access to the White House.   http://nyti.ms/gOrznV

REBUTTAL. He did sign the ban, but continued to hire former lobbyists to serve the White House. Mega lobbyists Steve Ricchetti, Broderick Johnson, James Heimbach just to mention three.

Not to cherry pick, I started from the top.  Here are the first seven.  They are enough to tell the storey.  Here’s a link to the full list.

Legislative Prowess
Despite the characterizations of some, Obama’s success rate in winning congressional votes on issues was an unprecedented 96.7% for his first year in office.  Though he is often cited as superior to Obama, President Lyndon Johnson’s success rate in 1965 was only 93%.   http://n.pr/i3d7cY

REBUTTAL. True. With Democratic control of the House and the Senate, Pelosi, Reid and Obama had a radical’s field day.

Fiscal Responsibility
Within days after taking office, he signed an Executive Order ordering an audit of government contracts, and combating waste and abuse.   http://1.usa.gov/dUvbu5

REBUTTAL. True. The Order added the requirement for contractors to disclose their political party affiliations when applying for government contracts making it easier to reward those who had done political favors for the President and his party. 

Created the post of Chief Performance Officer, whose job it is to make operations more efficient to save the federal government money.   http://n.pr/hcgBn1

REBUTTAL. True. But his appointee to initiate the post never served due to her personal income tax problems.

On his first full day, he froze White House salaries.  http://on.msnbc.com/ewJUIx

REBUTTAL. Not really. On his first full day it was a proposal and not a freeze.  And it didn’t stop federal employees from getting increases in their income.  It only stopped raises within grade. Increases could still be given as bonuses or the raising of pay grades without the need for promotions.  The proposal was more fanfare than substance.

He appointed the first Federal Chief Information Officer to oversee federal IT spending. http://www.cio.gov

REBUTTAL. True. Each government agency already had a Chief Investment Officer. The creation of this new layer of oversight provided the means to control all of the agency career CIOs by one czar appointed by and beholden to the President.  It also added and an unnecessary expense

He committed to phasing out unnecessary and outdated weapons systems, and also signed the Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act to stop waste, fraud and abuse in the defense procurement and contracting system.  http://bit.
ly/hOw1t1     http://bit.ly/fz8GAd

REBUTTAL. Defense Secretary Gates called this a controversial move.  I am not qualified to judge the advisability of it. However one thing is clear; it dismissed one third of private contractors, replacing them with civilian government workers.

Through an executive order, he created the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.  http://bit.ly/hwKhKa

REBUTTAL. This is better known as the Erskine-Bowles commission.  The Commission made many recommendations for the President and the Senate to include in the Federal Budget.  None were adopted.  Harry Reid’s Democratically controlled Senate hasn’t presented a budget in 3 years, contrary to law.

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EX BLACK CAUCUS MEMBER LEAVES THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

Posted on May 30, 2012 | Leave a comment

Artur Davis was an early and very strong supporter of Barack Obama in his run for the presidency.  He held the position of co-chairman of the campaign and served as a Congressman representing Alabama’s 7th District from 2003 to 2011.

LA Times reports:

Renouncing the party “is no light decision on my part,” he wrote. “Cutting ties with an Alabama Democratic Party that has weakened and lost faith with more and more Alabamians every year is one thing; leaving a national party that has been the home for my political values for two decades is quite another.”

But “wearing a Democratic label no longer matches what I know about my country and its possibilities,” he said.

Although he may not have articulated it, Mr. Davis has recognized what other Democrats have not.  This is not the party of Roosevelt, Truman or Kennedy; it’s something else.  Mr. Davis has not left the Party, the Party left him.  In his youth, the former Congressman believed wholeheartedly in the principles upheld by the Democratic Party.  He has held fast to those principles and that is why he sees the need to leave.

Barack Obama is head of the Democratic Party and his platform is indistinguishable from Soviet style Socialism.

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RULES for RADICALS by SAUL ALINSKY – THE WAY AHEAD

Posted on May 29, 2012 | Leave a comment

RULES for RADICALS by SAUL ALINSKY – THE WAY AHEAD

Today we add Commentary to the final chapter of Rules for Radical

If you have read the full review you have gained insights that few others have into an important part of the political world as it is played out in America today.  You will grasp the political element behind Republican ridicules of Obama and his teleprompter and Joe Biden’s antics.  It becomes clear why the Democrats came up with the slogan “Republican War on Women”.  You understand that compromise is difficult because it is a solution.  And solutions deprive one or both sides of an issue that could be used to their advantage as long as it remains unresolved.  Rules for Radicals is a simple book but a highly enlightening one when you see how the author’s teachings are manifested time and again in current events.

Synopsis of the chapter entitled The Way Ahead
The middle class is the largest group in America. The focus, now and in the future, must be on winning the middle class.

These “are a fearful people, who feel threatened on all sides:”. “Seeking some meaning in life, they turn to an extreme chauvinism and become defenders of the ‘American’ faith”. “They don’t know what, if anything, they can do. This is the job for today’s radical – to fan the embers of hopelessness into a flame to fight”.

Students who come to college from middle class backgrounds must be taught to reject their parent’s values and way of life as “materialistic, decadent, bourgeois, degenerate, imperialistic, war-mongering, brutalized and corrupt”. No one is better equipped to organize, agitate and convert the middle class than those who have escaped it.

Commentary
How could this college professor possibly have developed such a dismally incorrect perception of the vast middle class? Psychological projection would account for it. According to Sigmund Freud, projection is a defense mechanism where a person “projects” their own unwanted motivations, desires, fears, feelings and opinions onto someone else – if most everyone else feels and acts with the same fears and emotions that I have then there can be nothing wrong with me.

Also note the lightly veiled contempt for American ideals expressed by adding cynical quotation marks around the words American faith. The author has no faith in this, his country. In fact, disdain for America is a theme that recurs again and again throughout the book. It should not be surprising to see the same attitude toward America coming from Barack and Michelle Obama because it was the Alinsky model of community organizing that Barack followed and briefly taught to ACORN activists in Chicago.

There many things very sad about this closing chapter. The author ends his work with the same hopeless view that he began it. The professor’s only vision for the way ahead is to the drag America’s youth down into the same hellhole he has created for himself. Presumably, then they would fight for…, fight for what? The author never says. I submit they would fight for those very things they so soundly rejected. But they would fight the opportunity to take them, not for the opportunity to earn them.

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BE BOLD, BUY STOCKS

Posted on May 24, 2012 | Leave a comment

The news couldn’t be worse.  That’s when stocks are the cheapest.  Five days from now or five weeks from now they could be a lot cheaper, but we don’t know which or whether.  But 5 years from now here is what we see.

The European crisis will have passed its nadir.  Barack Obama will no longer be running the United States into the ground.  Romney will have turned the country around, unemployment will be dramatically reduced.  Paul Ryan’s plan, or one similar to it, will be in place to harness the national deficit.  Revenues will be up as the economy improves.  The national debt will still be high but concern over it will have lessened because the country will be working again.  Consumer and business confidence will return just as they did when Reagan followed Jimmy Carter.  Americans will feel proud of their country and their president and not be embarrassed for having elected him.

Wishful thinking?  Yes, some of it, but nothing unrealistic.

Wall Street spends too much time projecting the future by looking through the rear view mirror.  Politics is taken with a grain of salt as presidents come and go while companies remain flexible, accommodating Washington’s policies.  The investment community still thinks the best bet is the assumption that Obama will be re-elected.  However, his re-election is quickly becoming more of a possibility than a probability.  Chickens should wait until the election.  Daredevils can buy now.  But stay away from solar panels and windmills.

UPDATE: For the record, the market as measured by the Dow Jones Industrial average closed at 12,529.75 on the date of this post.

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CANDIDATE OBAMA IS GETTING HIS CHICKEN FRIED IN KENTUCKY

Posted on May 23, 2012 | Leave a comment

Barack Obama has captured 57.9% of the votes cast in the Kentucky Democratic primary. That may not seem so bad until you consider he is running against nobody and nobody won 42.1% of the votes. Of course the ballot doesn’t say “nobody”, that would be silly. It says “Uncommitted”. It is understood that uncommitted is nobody. Any fool knows that. The Party’s primary voters know that.

The man is having trouble in Arkansas as well. It looks like he has won it 42% TO 51%. At least in Arkansas Obama ran against somebody. Arkansas, Kentucky, Obama and Hillary, the four have a mutual history. During the 2008 Democratic primary campaign Clinton was doing better than Barack was in Kentucky. Obama said it’s because Hillary’s home state of Arkansas borders on Kentucky (which it does not) whereas my home state of Michigan does not” (which it does). Karma anybody?

Obama has lost support of the Catholic Church, much of the Jewish community, those white blue-collar workers not working for the government, and many of the unemployed youth. And now he is losing his own party’s elected officeholders. Not one single Democrat in the House or the Senate voted in favor of Obama’s budget. The prominent black mayor of Newark, New Jersey has been blunt in his criticism of the President’s attack on capitalism in his Bain Capital push on Romney.

Who does he have left? He still has the solid support of voters from the black community who vote brotherhood loyalty above all else, ACORN, welfare recipients, Bill Ayers, Rev Jeremiah Wright and a majority of the illegal aliens and dead people who vote. Such a motley group would not be enough but Obama also still has academia, the MSM, Hollywood and all of those people who always vote Democratic because Republicans are so mean and greedy.

You can judge a politician by the constituency he serves. My vote will be cast for a candidate who supports live citizens striving to be self sufficient. My vote will be cast for the candidate who serves the common man with common sense. My vote will be cast for the candidate who is proud to stand and say “I am an American”. As you can see, I cannfor Barack Obama.

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