Obamanomics For All!!

The latest we hear from the President Elect is we need another “stimulus package” targeted at the middle class, who we continually hear are hurting from the eight years of failed economic policies of George W. Bush. It appears even after the election, the liberal democrats just can’t stop blaming old Dubya for everything – but they better savor the moment, because after the inauguration on January 20th, the Democrats will have to own up to their incompetence, for example Barney Frank and Chris Dodd for the Freddie and Fannie fiasco. But I’m getting off the point – Obamanomics plans to provide us more stimulus money – but no one seems to be talking about where this money is coming from. Well, it’s coming from your pocketbook, or rather yours, your kids, their kids, and your kid’s kid’s kids. Yes, the very democrats who lambasted Dubya for increasing the federal debt, plan on increasing that debt by leaps and bounds.
To put this in perspective, let’s take this down to a neighborhood example. Say you bought a nice home that was within your budget in a good neighborhood -- you work hard, you pay your bills on time, and you drive a modest family sedan that gets decent gas mileage. You live within your means, and try to save a little for retirement and something to put your kids through college. However, in that huge upscale house across the street, lives Denny the Democrat. He has a much different outlook on life. Although his income really didn’t support the loan that was backed through Freddie Mac for his huge upscale home, he moved right in. He drives a luxury, 5 ton, 3 mpg SUV, just like the one his wife drives. He accepts every credit card offer he receives in the mail and runs each one up to the limit. One day when you inquired how he lives so well on a middle class income, he explained to you what an idiot you are by playing by the rules, that being financially responsible was a out dated notion and you should do the rollover credit card game he does which allows him a lifestyle far beyond his income. After all, if he can’t pay, then he’ll just declare bankruptcy and let those evil rich bastards eat their bills. How dare they expect him to pay anyway – they are big rich banks and have plenty of money.
But then one day, the roof caved in on Denny’s house of credit cards – seems they changed the laws and it’s not so simple to declare bankruptcy. He is facing foreclosure on his house, the repo man wants the SUVs, and Denny just doesn’t understand what he did wrong – there’s no way he could be responsible for his plight. So Denny comes knocking at your door for help. He explains how you can fix all of this – quite simply, Denny tells you to take out a second mortgage on your home, take cash advances on your credit cards, cash in your kids college funds, cash out your 401k, and then give the money to Denny to bail him out of his financial woes. After all, Denny is broke and in debt, so why shouldn’t you be too? Denny further explains that this is in your best interest, because if Denny moves, his house will lose value while it sets empty, which will run down the neighborhood. Neighborhood home values will drop, and the neighborhood will become a slum. Besides, you can afford this because you've been living by the rules and will make adjustments to your lifestyle to pay back all of the debt – this allows you to “spread the wealth around”.
So in case you haven’t figured it out, “you” is the American taxpayer – Denny is the Democratic White House and Congress. They want to put you further in debt to reward very bad behavior by those who don’t feel they should be responsible for their actions.
I don’t know about you, but a certain part of my body is feeling very stimulated by Obamanomics – and it’s quite painful.

They Just Don't Get It....

OK – so this past week, the top corporate fat cat executives from the “Big Three” in Detroit, went before Congress, begging for loan guarantees so they could sustain business operations. It seems they are drowning in red ink since people stopped buying their gas guzzling SUVs or Pickups. Plus, as they have lost credibility with the majority of the American public that Detroit can build a quality vehicle, no one wants their cars either. It seems GM, Ford, and Chrysler are suffering financially due to poor planning and bad management. Times are tough and they were pleading with Congress to help them out of their hard times. I find it odd that Toyota, Nissan, and Honda, who all now build cars in the United States just like the big three, aren’t asking Congress for a handout.

Thing is, these fat cats from the big three, who are responsible for the plight of their companies, all flew to Washington separately in their company provided executive jets. Demonstrating that giving these guys money to help them get well would be the same as giving an addict more heroin and expecting them to kick the habit.

The fat cats just don’t get it.

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

I say “NO”. These days, GM and Ford, stand for ‘Gimme More’ and ‘Forgive Or Refinance (my) Debt’. With the Federal government handing out our tax dollars to Wall Street and the Mortgage industry, our so called “American” auto makers claim they also need a piece of the bailout pie, or they will be forced to declare bankruptcy. The threat of bankruptcy being a gun to the head of Congress – in other words, if you don’t give them billions of those tax dollars, they will put thousands of Americans out of work – and then they wrap our flag around their nameplates as if there is something patriotic about buying a Ford or Chevy and that those of us who bought those little cheap foreign cars are traitors.
So why are these car makers drowning in so much red ink that they have to stand in line for a handout? Well, first they refused to change with the times. Asian car makers figured out years ago, that you only needed one main auto line and one upscale line – like Toyota and Nissan respectively have Lexus and Infiniti. On the other hand, General Motors has Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick, Hummer, Cadillac, Saturn and GMC – SEVEN different lines of vehicles – some of which the only difference being the logo on the grill. Ford at least has been divesting itself from this type of redundancy, but still has Mercury, which is a carbon copy of Ford’s main lineup. Second, Detroit has refused to learn from history. Back in the early 70’s during the Arab Oil Embargo, Detroit was filling our highways with low mileage family sedans the size of land whales and over-powered hot rods. However, the Asian auto makers, specifically Toyota and then Datsun, (now Nissan) had fuel efficient cars ready to sell that allowed them to make major inroads into the American marketplace. A foothold they have exploited to make their nameplates today a part of the American culture. But when 1970s Detroit finally responded to the need for high mileage vehicles, GM gave us the oil burning Chevrolet Vega and Ford the exploding Pinto. Now fast forward to 2008 when gas prices jumped to $4.00 a gallon – while Detroit was filling their showrooms with behemoth gas guzzling SUVs and Pickups, Toyota introduced the Yaris, Honda the Fit, and Nissan the Versa – all high mileage vehicles – again providing America with the right vehicles at the right time.
It seems history repeats itself.

The Liberal Agenda Begins....

When the Nazis took power in Germany, and the Bolsheviks took power in Russia, the first item on their agenda was to take control of the press and ensure it was a media filled with their propaganda. Now, the power drunk liberals in Congress are trying to do the same in America. Two democrats, Senator Ernest Hollings, of South Carolina and Representative Bill Hefner, of North Carolina are attempting to outlaw freedom of speech in America under the veil of a warped, obsolete piece of legislation called the Fairness in Broadcasting Act. This legislation was tried before, between 1949 and 1987. It required broadcasters to cover ‘controversial issues’ and to do so by offering balancing views – and while not requiring equal time to opposing views, it prevented broadcasters from presenting a single view day after day without offering opposing views. This rule was a condition for a broadcaster to hold a FCC license. In its time, the fairness issues made sense as most individuals only received a very limited number of TV and radio stations, and the FCC wanted controversial issues to be covered in a fair and balanced way. But even with its good intentions, it had an adverse effect -- media outlets just stopped covering controversial issues knowing they would have to commit air time to offer opposing views.
Then in 1984, while not overturning the legislation, the Supreme Court in Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo (418 U.S. 241), confirmed the adverse effect the fairness act had on broadcasting. This led to the FCC abandoning the act in 1987, stating the number of media outlets available to all Americans negated the need for such a Fairness Doctrine. Since that time, the number of ways in which Americans receive news and information virtually exploded -- which provides further validation that any Fairness Doctrine is obsolete in today’s technological world.

So why would these two Democrats want to resurrect such obsolete legislation? There can only be one answer – to silence any opposition to the leftist agenda of the newly elected President. Their goal is to re-create the effect the legislation had in the past – that broadcasters will stop airing any controversial programs. And since the FCC will now be under a Democratic President and Congress, the left will be determining what is controversial and want is not. You can rest assured that conservative talk radio will be high on their hit list, with the entire Fox News network a close second. The leftist want voices of Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, & Sean Hannity silenced or severely limited – and ideally force broadcasters to drop their affiliation with the Fox Network and move to one of the leftist biased networks of CNN, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, or ABC.

I wonder if the next item on the leftist agenda is to force all conseratives wear armbands so they can load us on trains to relocation camps?

Support Our President

The latest we hear from the left is since “their guy” won the election, we all need to pull together, put our differences behind us, and support Barack Obama – for the good of the country. All the sudden, liberals expect conservatives to love them. This again, demonstrates how liberals conveniently forget their transgressions against America. When we needed to get behind our troops, all the left said was our soldiers were killing innocent children and raping their mothers – and the ‘torture’ of prisoners at Abu Ghraib made the treatment of Jews at Auschwitz look like a day at the beach. And the left also forgets how they supported a newly elected president in 2000. Instead of pulling together behind the new president, liberals have done and said everything to work against George Bush and fought him every issue, every cause, every step of the way – and they have called George Bush everything from a Nazi to the Anti Christ.
Now they are holding out an olive branch – well, let the old NCO be one of the first to tell the left what they can do with that olive branch. What I will tell our liberal brethren is that I will maintain the standard they set over the last eight years and be as kind and supportive to Barack Obama as they have been to George W. Bush.

Dr. Feel Good

Thinking about this election and the fact that Barack Obama will be our next president, I could not help but think about another liberal democratic elected president under a climate of “hard times for the middle class”, Jimmy Carter. For those of you old enough to remember 1979, the year before America returned to its senses and elected Ronald Reagan who returned economic prosperity and honor to our country, one of the country’s hit films that year was ‘Apocalypse Now’. In this film, a disparaged, drunken Captain Willard (pictured above) prays for a mission, and for his sins, he gets one.
I liken this to Americans, who every 15 or 20 years, seem to want a ‘feel good’ president, one who promises economic equality for all, making America a good buddy to everyone in the world, so we can all hold hands and sing “I’d love to teach the world to sing”. And after four years of disaster, America always returns to its senses.
So let us see what the next four years bring us. I pray for us all.