To the Lame "Schmuck" Congress - Goodbye

As we end this rather memorable year we say good riddance to a Congress that will go down in history as the worse collection of losers to ever reside on Capitol Hill, particularly the devious and pathetic leadership. I have never seen the likes of the methods and processes used to pass bad legislation in my memory, and I’ve been around a few years. The reams of paper and convoluted proposals written by the unknown staff of clandestine czars and academic re-treads was exemplified in the healthcare bill, stimulus package, and the recent omnibus budget bill that was killed during the lame duck session. Thank God.

This blatant insult on the American public peaked when a series of rotten bills was attempted to be pushed through this month in the lame duck session by a Congress in which 20% of its occupants have just been voted out of office. Most of the bills were either non-consequential or should have been handled many months ago.

To top off this circus, here is President Obama heroically delaying his Christmas vacation in Hawaii and taking all the bows on legislation that he has been campaigning against for the last two years, once he realized he was on the wrong side of the argument (i.e. extension of the Bush tax cuts), which he said was the cause of the economic disaster in 2008. Then he proceeded to patronize the gay coalition with the passing of “don’t ask, don’t tell”, when 77% of the public was for it, as well as most Republicans. Boy wasn’t that tough to get through! And why wasn’t this done months ago? And who really cares, except the Joint Chiefs?

And then there is the ill-conceived “Dream Act” in the hope of kissing up to the Hispanic coalition. Who created this fiasco? General amnesty for all those poor innocent children of illegal aliens as old as 34, who can join the military or go to college (they don’t even have to graduate) and automatically become citizens. Then they can make any illegal in their immediate family legal, even bring some more over from their home country. Just be glad that reason prevailed on this one, due to Republicans and moderate Dems who shot it down.

Then there is the great peace-maker, Barack Obama, and the Start Treaty with Russia. This stupid treaty calls for the dismemberment of most of the technically obsolete nuclear weapons of both countries and brings them equal in size, which means we have to do most of the elimination. Unfortunately, it has none of the verification standards of past nuclear treaties with Russia. This is supposed to be a “giant step to stop nuclear proliferation” according to Mr. Obama, while he sits on his hands and watches Iran and North Korea proliferate. Nuclear weapons in the hands of the U.S. are not a threat to world peace. In fact, it ensures world peace! How do you feel about nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran, North Korea, Russia, and China? Tragically this treaty passed because Pelosi had all those Democratic lame ducks in the House so the Republicans could not delay ratification until next year, when it would have crashed in a heap.

So let Mr. Obama bask in his “so-called” December accomplishments. We will have a different Congress in 2011 and his agenda for this country will hit a wall, starting with the repeal of Obamacare.

Have a Happy New Year; good things are coming!

George likes the book by George Bush on Amazon.

Mary has develop her own blog which is a big hit.

Beginning to Miss George Bush? Here’s Why.

I just started reading former President Bush’s new book, “Decision Points”, and I find it very interesting and well written. Rather than proceeding to give us his life story and a day to day description of White House meetings, as Clinton did in his book, “My Life”, Bush focuses on a dozen key decisions he made during his presidency, the facts leading up to each crisis, and his rationale that led to each decision. I find it much more enjoyable than Clinton’s rather tedious book.

Early in the book, Bush describes his various ventures, including his childhood, education, and the ten year period after he left college and was trying to find his way, which I found fascinating. Although born to privilege, he never really was dependent on his parents and was determined to make it on his own.

George Bush was truly an entrepreneur and once he became a Governor and then President, he was trained and well prepared for those responsible positions. Notwithstanding the erroneous judgment of most Europeans and liberal elitists who characterize him as an intellectual buffoon, Bush is street smart, has a great work ethic, and an excellent educational background in economics. In fact, he elected to return to school after a period to go to Harvard for an MBA. What I also found was that he has an excellent grasp of history and a real understanding of the American psyche.

Reading this book makes it abundantly clear what we are missing in the White House today. We have a President who is ill-prepared for the job, with no early life exposure to the values and principles of our system and absolutely no connection with the majority of the American people. He is a man who can write two autobiographies before the age of 50, and received a Nobel Peace Prize, without really accomplishing anything other than getting elected and becoming the first “half black” President of the United States.

Nowhere has this been more apparent than his recent trip to Asia (which cost us $3 billion) where he was treated like the leader of a second-rate power, scolded by our Allies and China for his economic policies, embarrassed by South Korea for losing a trade deal that he could have acted upon two years ago, and gaining none of the U.S. initiatives at the G-20 Summit.

They may love Obama in Europe and Asia but their leaders treat him like an underling. It’s hard to negotiate when the other side thinks you’re in over your head and don’t have the support of your constituency.

I’m beginning to miss George Bush.

2010 Election - No time to Gloat

Over 70 million Americans voted in the 2010 midterm elections, representing 42 percent of registered voters, about 1.2 percentage points higher than in 2006. Turnout was up in at least nine states, including significant increases in Florida, Minnesota and Texas; it appeared to be down slightly in several other states, including Ohio and Pennsylvania as the Democrats stayed home.

Even as results from the 2010 mid-term elections were still coming in, America was seeing a shift in the makeup of the political landscape both in Washington, D.C. and in state legislatures across the country. Republicans gained control of the U.S. House of Representatives and closed the gap in the Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate. They had a net gain of at least 60 seats in the House.
Democrats retained a slim majority in the Senate, where Republicans picked up 6 seats.

At the state level, Republicans will control at least 29 governorships, Democrats at least 16, and an Independent will be governor in Rhode Island. Combined with Republican pick ups in the state legislatures, this will have major implications for "redistricting" in 2011, where boundaries are established every ten years for congressional representation, which will favor Republicans for the next 10 years.

To say I’m ecstatic about the results is an understatement, even though it was expected. However, this is no time to gloat and the road ahead will be difficult. We must remove from office the most destructive President in our history. I’m amazed that many of these races were so close and how many people still don’t understand the magnitude of Obama’s flawed agenda. It certainly points out the need to continually hold him accountable for his errant policies and actions in the next 2 years and to counter the toxic propaganda of unions like SEIU, the leftist media and internet, and the misguided theories of about 40 Socialist and Communist “czars” who have found a home in this Administration.

The new conservative-controlled House will be the source of much legislation in the coming months that will refute and repeal the garbage that was past in the last 2 years under Pelosi’s authoritative and intimidating reign of terror. Obama will be forced to veto much of this legislation which will make him more vulnerable in 2012, because he is an ideologue not a politician like Clinton.

Now that the political landscape has changed and the country has sent Mr. Obama a resounding message, it is time for a new leader to emerge, one who loves America and is capable of unseating him, one who can get this country back to the optimistic world power it once was before we elected a President not worthy of his own people.

Obama, Divider-in-Chief

As we wind down this mid-term election campaign there is no doubt in my mind that the Democratically controlled Congress will soon face a tidal wave they have not seen in years. It has happened four times since the 60’s, when the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and governed from the left, the American voters vigorously drove them out of control. This time the rejection will be the most resounding in history.

President Obama, our psychiatrist-in-chief, claims we are “angry, scared, nervous, confused, and not thinking clearly”. Well, we are none of that. We just don’t want what he and this Congress has been dishing out for the past 20 months. The President, who campaigned on hope and change, now sounds more like he’s diagnosing depression rather than offering inspiration. I guess he believes we will resort to our “guns and religion” to find solace.

It’s the President who is angry and confused, he can’t understand why we have rejected his policies. His campaign rhetoric clearly illustrates this. Never in my adult life have I heard a President sound like a Chicago ward captain or community organizer pitching black vs. white, union vs. non-union, rich vs. poor, and telling Latinos that they must “punish their enemies” (presumably white people who want to stop illegal immigration and support the Arizona immigration law). Have you ever heard a President talk in such a way to demean the office and with such a lack of class? It almost seems that we have a Caesar Chavez in control of the office. Just amazing!

In other posts, I have talked about the traits of great leaders and showed how Obama has continually failed the test of meeting the requirements of an effective leader. Now he has lost the most important test of a leader……trust. The majority of the American people really don’t trust him or his minions, because we now understand where he comes from, how he thinks, and what drives him. His book “Dreams from My Father” tells it all, and from is the operative word here.

This President is driven by a man he never knew, his father, a professed Socialist and anti-colonist from Kenya. A man he only met once, at the age of 10, but was idolized in his mind by his mother, also a professed anti-colonist. This analysis is clearly laid out in Dinesh D’Souza’s new book “The Roots of Obama’s Rage”. In D’Souza’s words he concludes, “Our President is trapped in his father’s time machine. Incredibly, the U.S. is being ruled according to the dreams of a Luo tribesman of the 1950’s. This philandering bigamist, inebriated African socialist, who raged against the world for denying him the realization of his anticolonial ambitions, is now setting the nation’s agenda through the reincarnation of his dreams in his son. The son makes it happen, but he candidly admits he is only living out his father’s dream. The invisible father provides the inspiration, and the son dutifully gets the job done. America today is being governed by a ghost”.

Remember to vote on Tuesday.

Why This Election Means So Much (Part 2)

In my last post I dwelled on the importance of this coming mid-term election and its potential to change the course of this country. I also talked about what was at stake, the mood of the American voter, what we might expect, and how to avoid electoral mistakes. In this post I want to explore your thought process in casting your vote, what I think you should look for in your candidate, and the role of leadership.

What Factors Are Important to Your Vote?
Obviously, your political bent is a key factor in influencing your vote, but other factors are equally important. As a matter of fact, most Americans tend to be independent and not party-aligned, as illustrated in the recent election of Republican Chris Christi as Governor of New Jersey, a strongly Democratic leaning State, and Republican Scott Brown, in the Senate, winning the seat of Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, a Democratic icon.

Qualities such as character, values, education, experience (non-political experience as well), track record, ideas, motivation, and communication skills should all factor in a voter’s decision. When you look at these qualities they usually are good indicators of potential great leaders. Leadership skill is not only important for a President; it also is for a Governor, a Congressman, a Senator or any public or private official that is head of a productive group or enterprise.

For our elected officials, it is clear that leadership skills are the key to success. Successful leaders are different and have different strengths and skill sets. One thing is sure however, most are charismatic and eloquent speakers and can mesmerize their audience by their commanding presence and message. Think of Roosevelt, Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton; even Hitler, Castro, and Chavez had that skill, so although this attribute is important, it alone does not identify a successful leader.

In delivering these qualities, the methods and tactics a candidate uses are critical and usually separates the great leaders from the mediocre. I believe leadership or leadership potential to be the most important aspect of this coming election. It is essential if we are to change the course of any failing corporation or government. In our politics today, the signs are already there. The mood of America has deteriorated and become angrier, more cynical, sometimes foul, and in some cases even murderous. Joblessness is eating at the core of our cities, creating a powerful need for innovative and courageous leadership to provide the initiatives that will spur employment, revitalize investment in our economy, and uplift our spirit. The failure of leadership in our “ruling class” is in many ways more urgent and more dangerous than the problems we face because our problems won’t be solved without it and because lack of leadership is slow to recognize and little understood.

Voter Empowerment Is What’s Needed Now
Two hundred thirty-four years ago, when the Founding Fathers gathered in Philadelphia to write the Constitution, America had a population of only three million people, yet six world class leaders, at least, were present there as authors of that extraordinary document. Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Adams, Franklin, and Madison all helped to create our form of government. Today we are over 300 million and you will be hard pressed to identify six leaders of that quality in Washington D.C.

Where have our political leaders gone? Have we become too cynical to care? Has making politics a career fostered mediocrity and corruption, or have we become too saturated with information to make clear and informed decisions? I think not. Voter empowerment is the key. If you feel your vote will make a difference and you take the time to understand the priority issues and listen to the candidates, you will go to the polls and find the leaders out there we so urgently need. It’s happening now, be a part of it, and be sure to cast your vote on November 2nd.

Why This Election Means So Much (Part 1)

November’s mid-term election is essentially a national referendum. No time in recent memory has a mid-term election had such importance. The populace is angry; politicians have no credibility, and the policies of our current "ruling class” are out of sync with the majority of our citizens. Interestingly enough, political party, liberal or conservative, left or right, are not the issues, as illustrated by the rise of the so-called, T-Party adherents. They believe that America needs to click on delete and go back to the basics, I mean the Founding Fathers, and start all over again.

The Issues
The issues are really centered on the historical trend of America and the belief that the future for our grandchildren will not be better than their grandparents, and that our reign as the greatest economic force on the planet is passing, and American exceptionalism is in doubt.

The rising influence of government in our lives, discriminating taxation, the redistribution of our wealth as individuals and as a nation, the trend toward 3rd party control of our health decisions, our changing population and out moded immigration policies, our mounting debt, the threat of a different kind of enemy from abroad, and worries about our safety and security, and the apparent waste and corruption in our financial and political class, all contribute to the uncertainty and worry about the future, which in turn exacerbates our economic woes.

What’s at Stake in November?
We are a graphically diverse society and financial, socio-economic, political, and geography issues define our divisions. All contribute to our differences and our free society allows anyone to express their opinions. The newspaper, the Internet, books of many kinds, demonstrations and rallies, are major outlets for this expression. In the final analysis, what we do at the ballot box is more important than anything we can do to influence events.

Although we are the most educated and informed country on the planet we will be lucky if we get 40% of all eligible voters to cast a ballot in this vitally important election. Since many voters push their own special interests and are relatively uninformed on a broad range of other topics of equal importance, our elections don’t always get a result that is in the best long-term interests of the country. However, generally speaking, the American people have made the right decisions during the major periods of crisis in our history. It is probably because regardless of our backgrounds and education, we have that unique quality of “common sense” that seems to transcend our differences. Obviously, the best way to avoid these electoral mistakes is to bring as many of the voters as possible to the polls and avoid “special interests” results.

Since many Democratic seats in both the House and Senate that are up for grabs this November; control of Congress is at stake in this election. Because the growing discontent has been fueled by one-party control of Congress for the last 4 years and now with the Executive branch for the last 2 years; this mid-term election can alter the current course of our country.

The Shot Heard ‘Round the World – Is Silenced

Bobby Thompson passed away yesterday and with him goes a whole host of childhood memories of my youth. As a kid I was a die-hard Brooklyn Dodgers fan and for the decade 1947-1957, I was pretty spoiled. The Dodgers won 6 National League (NL) pennants in that time and should have won 8. In 1950 they lost in the last game of the season to the Phillies and in 1951 Bobby Thompson hit a 3-run homer in the 9th inning with the Dodgers ahead 4-2 in the last game of a 3- game play-off because the season had ended in a tie.

The interesting thing about that 1951 season was that the Dodgers were 13 ½ games ahead of the second place Giants in August and still the season ended in a tie. I thought how could we lose? All we needed was to play .500 baseball for the rest of the year and we’re a shoo-in. Well, the Giants hardy lost a game from mid-August to October. They won 37 of their final 44 games. Quite a feat in baseball!

I hated the Giants! The rivalry with the Dodgers was one of the most intense in the NL, as it is today between Los Angeles and San Francisco, but not quite the same, since they are not in the same city now. Even though the Dodgers dominated the league in that decade, the Giants always managed to give them a tough battle no matter how bad a team they had. To top matters, my best friend and eventually the best man at my wedding was an avid Giant fan and he finally had his moment that dim day in October, 1951.

The Yankees went on to beat the Giants in 5 games in the World Series and over the years Ralph Branca (the Dodger pitcher who gave up the homer) and Thompson became good friends and appeared together at many functions when their playing days were over. I grew up to appreciate both of them over the years as good competitors who managed to etch their names into baseball history, even though neither made it to the Hall of Fame.

An interesting footnote to this story is that Yogi Berra, the famous Yankee catcher, attended that famous game with some teammates, eager to see which team they would face in the Series. After the Dodgers scored three times in the eighth inning to lead 4-1, Berra decided he had seen enough and left the ballpark to beat the traffic. That’s when he developed one of his most famous “Yogi-isms” which many of us still use today and will be indelibly engrained in our lexicon, “it ain’t over till it’s over”.

Don’t worry Bobby, you won’t be forgotten and they’ll still talk about your historic feat long after we’re gone. It still ain’t over.

The Gulf Spill - Where Did All the Oil Go?

Although we are not out of the woods yet, it would appear that the Deepwater Horizon blow-out is under control after 100+ days and oil is no longer spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. Also, you should note that all sorts of scientists, environmentalists, and government agencies are out there in planes and ships looking for the oil but can’t seem to find it, except for some disconnected patches. However, you don’t see much of this reported in the media. Some 40-60,000 barrels of oil per day were released for almost 100 days, where did it all go?

Well, a small amount did find its way to the Louisiana shore line and wetlands, and maybe some tainted the beaches in Pensacola, and unfortunately some pelicans and turtles may have been lost but not many relative to their population. Some of the oil was burned, mostly at the site of the blow-out, some of the lighter components were evaporated by the warm temperatures in the Gulf, and most of the rest has been and is being broken up and bio-degraded by the many organisms that inhabit the ocean. How can this happen so fast? Simply, the use of the dispersant, COREXIT 9500™.

The COREXIT™ Story

COREXIT™ has been the go –to dispersant in the oil industry for decades, it was developed by Exxon Production Research (EPR) and Exxon Chemicals, and yours truly speaks with some knowledge about this, since I had a part to play in its development and application in major oil spills. Its inventor was a microbiologist named Dr. Gordon Lindblom, a friend and co-worker I met at (EPR) in 1962. No matter what you read in the press, COREXIT™ is not Dawn™ or Joy™ dishwasher soap. The media love to use this over simplification. It is a unique class of chemical that is particularly effective at dispersing crude oil, which is different from most of the refined and natural oils that you and I come across in our daily lives.

Since the chemical was not patentable itself, Gordon was able to obtain a “use” patent for this class of chemicals for use in oil spills, which gave Exxon exclusive rights for these applications for 17 years. When I transferred to Exxon Chemical I encouraged Gordon to join our research organization and added COREXIT™ to our product line and encouraged him to develop better application techniques for offshore spills. He proceeded to become the world’s expert on aerial spray applications, designing specific equipment for aircraft used in these applications.

In the meantime, we contracted long-term toxicity studies to determine the effect of the dispersant on fish and other sea creatures, as well as evaluate its impact on the food-chain. No significant long-term toxic effects have ever been proven or illustrated, plenty have been speculated.

The Ixtoc 1 Blow-Out

In 1979, when the Mexican oil company, PEMEX, had a blow –out on the IXTOC 1 platform off the coast of Cuidad del Carmen in the southern Gulf of Mexico, I was in charge of the chemical division involved with the COREXIT™ product and spent may weeks and trips to Mexico convincing the authorities in charge of the clean-up that COREXIT™ would prevent environmental damage to their beaches and resort areas. As the spill moved north towards the Texas coastline, the EPA would not permit us to use the dispersants to prevent damage to the U.S. coastline at Padre Island. The Mexicans made the right decision and not one drop of oil ever hit the Mexican coast, while Padre Island resorts were basically closed for many weeks while the manual work of clean-up went on. The IXTOC spill went on for 10 months although it was only in 100 ft. of water, but was worse than the BP spill in terms of volume.

BP’s Handling of the Clean-Up

I believe that the key to minimizing environmental damage in the case of BP was the sub-surface application of the dispersant directly at the well head, combined with the aerial application. This technology did not exist at the time of the IXTOC spill.

We are now hearing rumblings from legislators how BP and the U.S. Coast Guard ignored President Obama’s executive order and the EPA to terminate the use of dispersants early in the process. Thank God, they did or our Gulf beaches would be badly contaminated, our fishing and resort industries would be in shambles, and a lot more pelicans would have died.

So that’s where all the oil went, and now I await a rebuttal from some of my environmentalist friends who are trying to protect us in their well meaning but misguided way.

A Footnote

P.S. Exxon sold its Specialty Chemicals business and the COREXIT™ technology to Nalco Chemicals in the early 90’s and Nalco was the vendor to BP for the spill. To my knowledge no change was made in the formula and Exxon was not involved other than offering counsel in its oil spill expertise. Exxon was not permitted by the government to use COREXIT™in the Valdez tanker spill.

Welfare or Unemployment Benefits?

This corner has been quiet for several weeks as I sit on the sidelines and view the utterly incomprehensible and inept decisions and statements made every day by the Administration. This is covered daily by both sides of the blogosphere and the cable network adversaries. If I were making a living at this, there would be enough grist to write an article every day. So why the silence?

Well, first of all I don’t want to sound like a right wing nut, or another Obama basher. Frankly, there is nothing I could write in recent weeks that would give this President a fair shake and, therefore, I would be just another member of the chorus. Poor leadership and an uncontrolled propensity for deception, political maneuvering, race baiting, contradictions, and hypocrisy, characterize this man from the Gulf oil spill, to foreign policy, national security, and a worsening economy.

To make matters worse, early this week he paraded out three unemployed people in the Rose Garden to announce another “great accomplishment”, the eighth extension of the unemployment benefits program since the recession began. He also criticized those “evil” Republicans who opposed this great achievement and attempted to block it because they merely wanted to offset the cost ($30B) by cutting some expenditures or taking it out of unspent TARP or Stimulus monies. What a terrible idea! Why this is a mere drop in the bucket, what’s $30B to this year’s $1.4 trillion deficit?

Tell me,at what point does 2 years of unemployment benefits become a welfare program? When will these extensions run out? This exercise is a testament to a failed Stimulus package and a contradiction to the “summer of recovery” touted by our totally clueless Vice President. A record 6.7 million Americans have been out of work for at least 6 months, that’s 45.5% of the total jobless, close to the highest ever recorded. The number was 23.4% in February, 2009. How’s that for recovery?

These results confrm several recent studies which conclude that extended unemployment benefits actually raises unemployment rates. If you pay people not to work, they tend to delay looking or get more selective and pass up jobs to wait for the right one, which never comes along. None of us want to deprive our citizens of support in times like this, but if you’re going to extend benefits you ought to make it deficit neutral because the action will stimulate unemployment rather than the economy.

So the beat goes on and this President, his economic advisors, and this bumbling Congress, continue to make the wrong moves that run counter to getting us out of this rut. I keep watching, trying to say something positive about this Administration, and counting the days until November.

Leadership 101 - Obama Needs the Course

Earlier this year on these pages, http://conservativesideas.blogspot.com/2010/01/economic-or-leadership-crisis.html, I wrote an article about leadership, where I described the traits of true leaders in certain circumstances. I then went on to illustrate President Obama’s actual actions in those types of situations to make the point that he is not a leader. He is nothing more than an ideologue whose friends and associates are cut from the same cloth. Academics, politicians, and bureaucrats who have no experience in the private sector and when a crisis arises always look for someone to blame or criticize rather than take charge.

Here again , we see in the Gulf oil spill the same kind of response that I illustrated in that article, which usually comes from someone who has no operational experience, has never run anything, and whom 53% of us have given the most difficult job in the world. Heaven help us!

If you recall the actions of some our past Presidents or political leaders you will see what I mean. JFK in the Cuban missile crisis, Ronald Reagan in the Iran hostage crisis, George Bush, Sr. in the Gulf War, George Bush, Jr. after 9/11, and Rudy Giuliani during and after the 9/11 attack. These men illustrated leadership, compassion, and a determination that gave you the sense that they were in charge and will take care of the problem.

Contrast Mr. Obama, who 52 days into the crisis has yet to talk or meet with the CEO of BP to go over their clean-up plan and make sure that they are using all the best minds in the industry to focus on this problem. Instead, his first move is to send his Attorney General down to Louisiana to make sure we have someone to blame and pay for the damages (as if anyone thought BP was going to skip town), plus his Homeland Security advisor who knows nothing about off-shore drilling, his Climate Control Chief, who will check on whether this will affect the climate (as if we care at this point), the Secretary of Energy who advised that he will “keep his boot on the neck of BP” (which was very comforting), and Mr. Obama goes on the Today Show to let us know that he will “kick ass” for all those who are at fault and then tells us that his administration was “on this from day one”, which is a total fabrication.

Leaders don’t have to tell you repeatedly that they are in charge of the situation. You know it, usually by their actions not their words. Unfortunately, we are finding out the hard way that what we really have is a leadership crisis. Let’s all pray that we don’t face an international or terror event in the next two years. Heaven knows that Iran, North Korea, the European economic situation, Venezuela, and many other hot beds over the world can erupt at any moment.

Let’s try to get Obama into a Leadership 101 course within the next two years and then elect a real leader in 2012.

Obamacare - The More You Know It The Less You Like It

It’s beginning to be apparent that all we said about Obamacare was true. Nancy Pelosi said, “Let’s pass this bill first, and then we find out what’s in it”. Mr. Obama said “those who like their current coverage will be able to keep it” (not true), and “your coverage and quality of care will remain unchanged”, again (not true).

Soon millions of American workers will discover that they no longer have employer-provided health insurance because employers now realize that it is cheaper to pay government fines than to insure their employees. According to the House Energy and Commerce Committee several major companies have made internal calculations to determine how much can be saved by dropping their employer-provided insurance, paying a $2,000 fine for each employee, and leave their employees the option of buying government subsidized insurance in the newly created private health insurance exchange created by Obamacare.

Well, if the answer is what AT&T just came up with, you can kiss the 50+ year system of employer-sponsored health insurance, goodbye. Last year, AT&T paid $2.4B to cover the medical costs of its 283,000 active employees. By dropping its health plan and paying the annual fine for each uninsured worker, the cost will total $600M, leaving AT&T with a handsome profit of $1.8B. That may be better than the deal they got with Apple on the iPhone! A new income stream compliments of Obamacare.

The unfortunate thing is now that cost will be subsided by the government (or the U.S. taxpayer) across all income levels by those who pay tax. The problem is that with this new set up, low income employees (i.e. $30,000/yr) paying no income tax get an annual subsidy in the new insurance exchange of about $19,400, almost $17,000 more than the current employer-sponsored system as the government pays almost all the premium and most of the out-of-pocket costs. The employees making $100,000/yr get no subsidy in the insurance exchange.

In Massachusetts, people who get subsidized insurance from an exchange are put in health plans that pay health providers Medicaid rates plus 10%. That’s less than Medicare pays, and significantly less than rates paid in private plans. So now that we pushed 32 million more people into the system with Obamacare, and employers will eventually push millions more into subsidized health plans, and no one is doing much about adding new doctors, it looks like people with low reimbursement rates will have to get in the rear of the line.

My doctor just told me that her income went down by 1/3 last year and it may be 1/2 this year. If you have a government subsidized plan, how long will you wait until she gets to you? And how much time will she spend with you? So, Mr. Obama said this will lowers costs, with no change in the quality of your care. Do you believe it?

The Cap & Trade Heist - Part III

Thus far you’ve seen how the same clique of people is planning to benefit from Cap & Trade legislation. Former discredited executives from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, investors in CCX from the Joyce Foundation, the Tides Foundation, GIM, the Center for American Progress, and the Apollo Alliance, the group that actually wrote the $780B Stimulus Bill for Congress, and the 24 Czars who will be running all this from inside this administration.

Mind you, less than six percent of the people in this administration have had private business experience, most of them are socialist organization leaders, union thugs and bosses,evironmentalists, and academics. So now the stage is set to pass this misguided legislation that has already been shown in Europe to be a disaster. Spain adopted it and, like Greece, is on the verge of bankruptcy and will need to be “bailed-out” by the European Union and/or the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for which the U.S. has a 17% liability, 3x as much as any country who participates in it.

Remember the Cap & Trade (or Climate) bill passed the house in June 2009 as Nancy Pelosi hustled it through by a slim 7 vote margin. She was actually able to get 7 Republicans to vote for it, and then it quickly went on the shelf as it was apparent that it wouldn’t get by the Senate, so the emphasis went to Obamacare. Obama would love to get this passed in order to generate the estimated $600B/yr it would provide for the government coffers and help offset the $2+ trillion that Obamacare will eventually cost. This is in addition to the money in increased energy prices that you will bear.

The Progressives need Cap & Trade to complete their transformational agenda and they need to get it done before the November election when they will lose control of the House. The public does not want this bill, but that does not concern this Congress. Therefore, the stage is set for a fight that will eventually break the back of the Obama presidency. They have the investors the technology, and the cover in place, all those no-name individuals who lurk behind the scenes. What is lacking is the law that will open the way to make it happen.

The Cap & Trade Heist - Part II

The people who established the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) claim that when it is fully operational it will be trading carbon emissions valued at $10 trillion/yr. To put that in perspective the New York Stock Exchange trades securities valued at about $14 trillion/yr. Wow! This global warming thing is really going to be good! Sounds like marketing to me.

One of the investors in this is the Joyce Foundation of Chicago. This foundation was established in 1948 by the Joyce family who generated their wealth in the lumber mills and retail building materials market in the Midwest and Louisiana. Its original mission was with religious, charitable, scientific, literary, and educational endeavors, but when the sole heir died the foundation was taken over by a liberal-minded Board which now emphasizes programs for welfare oriented causes, the environment, gun violence, money, and politics.

When State Senator Obama and his friend Valerie Jarret got on the Board, grants were provided that went to the establishment of CCX and other programs for entitlements in the in the South Chicago area for education and gun violence. Since the State is now considering bringing in the National Guard to stem the tide of violence in South Chicago this year and the fact that the schools are still among the worse in the country, these funds don’t seem to have been used effectively.

After Joyce, some of the other usual suspects surfaced to put money in the CCX. The Tides Foundation, which is chaired by Wade Rathke (ACORN) gets money from George Soros and the Center for American Progress. At the end of 2006 the Tides Foundation and Center had assets of $185M and passes money along to many radical and even Communist organizations so that it is “laundered” and donors can avoid a paper trail. More investors have surfaced for the CCX. Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management, LLC (GIM) is a London based management investment firm that focuses on the green revolution and various global warming projects. The Managing Partner is David Blood, former Goldman Sachs executive, so obviously money from credible organizations goes to GIM, since they don’t want to appear to be negative about all these money-losing green projects.

Now that the investors are on board we must have the technology for the CCX, so right after the Democrats took control of Congress during Bush’s second term, the infamous Franklin Raines, a Clinton appointee who was presiding over Fannie Mae (FM) used FM money to secure a patent for the U.S. CCX idea. You remember Raines, the housing bust can be laid in his lap for his sub-prime mortgage policies, and he eventually was discredited and exiled to the woodwork, but not after he pocketed $90M ($52M in bonuses) because FM results were so good during this fiasco. He now is a Board member of Enterprise Community Properties an organization dedicated to good housing for all deserving people. It’s trying to undo the mess he created, so I guess that’s why he is on the Board!

Well, we now have the investors and the technology. In the finale, Part III, let’s look at the law and the cover.

The Cap & Trade Heist - Part 1

In my last post I called this Cap & Trade concept the biggest heist in American History. This scam being pushed on an unwary public reminds me of the derivatives market and the consolidated debt obligations (CDO’s) concocted by Wall Street, only this is designed by left wing politicians and environmental zealots to scam money, develop celebrity, obtain government funds, write articles, and make a good living, all in the name of social justice and saving the planet.

Since beginning this blog in February, 2009 I have written several articles related to this subject. It would be beneficial to review these before you get into this subject. They are as follows:

Global Warming Uncovered 12/02/09
Climate Change Facts – Obama Lies 6/29/09
Global Warming and Bad Science 6/11/09
Nuclear Waste: An Imagined Problem 3/16/09

Cap & Trade is a concept that is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions by placing a cap on these emissions based on a company’s current levels and providing cap “credits” to companies with emissions below the cap. These credits can be traded among companies to help those that are unable to “meet” their cap while they change their processes to get into compliance. Obviously, large companies with high carbon footprints can “buy” these credits from companies with smaller footprints who don’t need the credits. This will be costly for the energy-oriented industries so these costs will be passed on to the consumer and as President Obama said “energy costs will sky rocket” but in the long term this will be better for the planet.

His administration’s stated goal is “80 by 50” (80% reduction in CO₂ emissions by 2050), a reduction of 20 tons/person which would give us a carbon footprint like the one we had during the Mayflower days. This goal is obviously unrealistic and unachievable, but as long as most of us don’t know that, President Obama can set it anyway, he most likely won’t be alive then so he won’t be held accountable. Remember, there is no conclusive scientific evidence that man-made CO₂ affects the climate in anyway, it is only a theory at this point!

Well, in order to trade these emission credits we need some sort of commodity exchange, right? Also, in order to set up this exchange we need investors, we need technology to justify the concept, we need laws to develop the rules of operation, and we need some sort of cover so it can operate without a lot of public scrutiny. We don’t want the people to know how all these union and labor groups, elected officials, former scam artists, and environmental and social justice groups are making out on this. So, believe it or not, the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) was set up in 2003. Hummm….…Chicago, now that’s interesting.

This exchange really started rolling when the Democrats took control of Congress, Barack Obama was a presidential candidate, and Cap & Trade became more than a concept in the U.S. Also, remember now what we are doing, trading puffs of air (containing a small amount of CO₂) which hasn’t been generated yet, and currently has no value at all. Who would be crazy enough to invest in that?

Part II of the Cap & Trade heist next.

America Adrift with Inept Leadership and Shady Characters

Are you concerned about where this nation is headed? Is this leadership bringing us together as promised? Do you see a gathering storm in the immigration situation, are racial tensions increasing, does the Iranian nuclear threat have you worried, why have we abandoned our reliable allies for Muslim political correctness, do you feel our homeland is now less secure, and is the massive redistribution of wealth that is currently underway to “fundamentally transform this nation” something you wanted?

Why is our Congress voting on Puerto Rico independence when this question has already been resolved by the Puerto Rican people in previous elections and there’s plenty more important things to do? Why is the White House trying to control the U.S. census? What we are seeing is a massive grab of power and control by the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, a Party which I don’t recognize anymore. Where is the main street media in all of this, and why aren’t they holding this hypocrite of a President accountable for breaking most of his campaign promises after only 16 months in office?

Glenn Beck, a Fox political commentator at 5 PM EST, has finally uncovered the leftist tactical moves going on in the White House with people we have never heard of before, who are part of the Chicago political mafia and have been involved in this economic meltdown and are now prepared to make billions from the taxpayers in an effort to force Cap and Trade and the Green Revolution on this country. The Green Revolution is the biggest hoax in American history. It is no more than a scheme to redistribute our economic wealth to enrich corrupt politicians and strip this country of the entrepreneurial spirit that has made us great. Enron (remember them?) put this scam together years ago.

This is a Progressive action plan to undermine the religious foundation of our country, our Constitution, and the vision of our founding fathers. It is based on the theory of modern progressives that our Constitution is “outdated” and should be an evolving document reactive to developing events and the current social mores, unfounded in basic Judeo-Christian values and based on their definition of “social justice”.

Our system is based on “equal justice”, predicated on the rule of law not on one’s color, race, economic condition, or political status. I don’t know what social justice means or who is the omnipotent regulator of such a justice system.

Anyway, if you’re not able to see Glenn Beck’s program about this sorry attempt to hijack this country, I’ll start with Cap and Trade in the next post. Believe me this is no conspiracy theory, it’s the real thing and it’s going on in our backyard right now.

Will Progressives Ever Learn?

I am writing this on ”tax day”, the day that half of us give to the government far more than we take back, and the other half who pay no taxes, takes back all they can get from our massive entitlement system. Tim Ryan, the Republican Congressman from Wisconsin, said that even before discounting for the uncontrolled spending of the current administration, in 10 years 70% of the population will be pulling out more than it puts into the entitlement system. Imagine what the numbers will be when we consider the Stimulus Plan, the Omnibus budget, and Obamacare not to mention the extended unemployment programs, and all the other “temporary” entitlements put in place by this out-of-control Congress and Administration.

The myth that government can create jobs or control the economy is just that…a myth! FDR proved this during the Great Depression. All those government programs failed to create sustainable jobs and in 1939 the unemployment rate still exceeded 20%, while in Europe the average rate was about 12% in 1938. Even with WWII, when you consider that 10-12M soldiers were at war and 15M people were making tanks and guns, most of those jobs had little use after the war. So in October of 1944 FDR spelled out his vision for a post war America. And you guessed it; it was more of the same. Government subsidized housing, federal health care, more TVA projects, all those goodies compliments of the federal government.

Roosevelt died before the war ended and his successor, Harry Truman, urged Congress to enact this New Deal encore. Both chambers of Congress gave him a resounding NO! No federal program for health care, no full-employment Act, limited federal housing, and no increase in the minimum wage or Social Security benefits. Instead, Congress reduced the income tax rates for the rich and middle class, corporate rates were trimmed, and FDR’s “excess profits” tax was repealed, so that corporate rates effectively went from 90% to 38% after 1945.

By the late 1940’s, the invigorated economy was generating more revenue than during the war when tax rates were higher. Price controls were eliminated in 1946 and the U.S. began running budget surpluses. Unemployment, which was double digit during the 30’s, was 3.9% in 1946 and remained in that range into the next decade.

I’m not saying that our current great recession is the same, the factors that contributed to it are different than those that existed in the 30’s. However, the lesson is clear, when a bipartisan Congress has the will to stop an ego-centric leader who is on the wrong path, it can. The people are beginning to wake-up to the fact we have the power in the ballot box to change things even in a mid-term election.

The facts I have provided are cited in a book I read recently entitled “New Deal or Raw Deal” (Simon & Schuster, 2008), by Dr. Burton Folsum, Jr., a professor of history at Hillsdale College. I hope that President Obama picks up a copy, it’s far more useful at this stage of his life than the writings of Saul Alinsky or anything that Hugo Chavez would give you.

"You Can Do It" America

Thinking objectively in this crazy world these days is an awesome chore. We have the main street media that bombards us every day with information that is purported to be news but contains nothing more than slanted headlines designed to give the reader a bias before he even reads the article and then spins the article to match the headline so you get their version of the “news”. It seems that the editorial pages spill over to the front page. The sports page is only where I get the facts. Somebody won and somebody lost! Except when you read about Tiger Woods, where it looks like everybody lost (or won), depending on your perspective.

All this is counteracted by talk radio and the dueling cable news network’s which give you their version in sound bites, video clips, and interviews with people that agree with them. There may still be pundits and news reporters that try to give you objective analysis with no spin, but they are a dying breed.

Last night my wife and I called Christopher Lowell, the celebrated designer, who is a good friend and confidante. The moniker “designer” is a misnomer for Christopher, who really is a philosopher, writer, motivational speaker, and an expert in consumerism, marketing, lifestyles, and a forecaster of future consumer trends. You may remember that Christopher Lowell was a pioneer in the early days of cable with the “You Can Do It” approach to interior design and has written 6 books on the topic. This is before cable got on the reality craze and he got off the train.

Christopher now resides in Santa Fe, NM and is working on new marketing techniques using the Internet, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. Obviously, he has a sizable following and an active Twitter network and mentioned the political questions, anger, and fear in many of the messages he gets pertaining to the antagonism and partisanship that now prevails in our society. Christopher is an apolitical person and very sensitive to what is happening to his friends and fans as a result of this economic crisis.

In one of his recent blogs http://www.christopherlowell.com/interactive/blog/?p=1258 he talked about all the good people he meets who are working their tails off for the benefit of their community, city, and town, regardless of what’s going on in Washington. This is the backbone of “American exceptionalism” which we see going on every day regardless of race, religious beliefs, or political inclination. People who wonder why there are others out there who want to kill us and our culture and why they have to send their sons and daughters to a faraway place across the globe to defend our freedom.

Christopher bemoaned, “if only we can hear their stories instead of shows about the kooks and the anger fringe, we will come together regardless of political preference”. Christopher, you have the right idea and I know you will give your followers the right advice because you have no political agenda and you love your country. America needs to buy in to your motto “You Can Do It”.

USA - Not a Banana Republic

Yes, we are now in the throes of a fundamental transformation of the United States, all in the name of “social justice”. Did you ask for this? Do you want this? Do you think that we have an unjust social system? It seems to me that for decades we have been the most charitable nation in history. When we defeat our enemies, we help to build them back up. We are first on the scene in any natural disaster no matter where it happens, and we are generally a moral and just people, admired and emulated all over the world.

There may be things in our history that we are not proud of, like our Civil War and our treatment of black people, etc., but we are no different from most countries with similar faults, and we have taken actions to correct those wrongs. We also have poor people, just like other countries, but we help people in poverty with government programs and private charitable organizations, faith-based and private, and we have spent billions to help people in this condition. Has this eliminated poverty? No, and it never will, because when you just give money to people you become an enabler, and people expect it will keep coming and they protest when you take it away.

That’s why governments that expropriate money from the wealthy class via excessive taxes and other means and redistribute it to poor people, generally have stagnate or shrinking economies. Make a list: Cuba, Venezuela, France, UK, Russia, Greece, Italy, etc. Also, there are countries where the money stops at the government level and goes in their pockets, like many nations in Africa and parts of Central and South America. The key is to provide an environment where people want to invest, create jobs, and grow their businesses. Uncertainty is the biggest deterrent to this, and that’s where we are today in the U.S.

Getting back to fundamental change, poverty is relative. In the U.S. most of our poor people have two televisions, a car, an apartment, free schools, health care even if they can’t afford it, and the opportunity to improve themselves. Giving them more entitlements won’t change their condition nor incentivize them to improve. Yet every time I turn on the TV there is our President yelling at me about how we need to give more money to the disenfranchised and how our poor people are dying because of those bad health insurance companies or because they are uninsured. It’s almost like a Fidel Castro or Hugo Chavez speech marathon with the same old BS. He makes us sound like a banana republic or a third world country; all in the name of “social justice”.

Well, Mr. President, we are not an unjust and oppressed society and we don’t need fundamental transformation. We need a President for all the people and one who builds us up and doesn’t tear us down. We need a government that gets out of our way and makes things easier, less regulations and laws, not more. We have inalienable rights given to us by God not government, and we don’t want to be lectured to. And, by the way Mr. President, we are smarter than you think and we know what you’re up to.

Tyranny Trumps in Healthcare

You haven’t heard much from this corner in quite some time as I have watched things unfold in the health care debate. I predicted that Obamacare was dead after the Scott Brown election to the Senate from Massachusetts and I was dead wrong. I guess I had underestimated Obama’s tenacity to get his way regardless of what the people want. That’s what ideologues do.

Also, I never thought that the complete annihilation of this country right before my eyes on Sunday night would be gross entertainment, as I actually laughed myself silly listening to Nancy Pelosi’s remarks about this fiscal Frankenstein of a bill. She actually said this bill was about the American character, yes Nancy, back-room deals, bribes, arm-twisting, threats, patronage, political payoffs, and the like. Just like our founding fathers designed. She quoted the Declaration of Independence, after a few flubs, something about inalienable rights and life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Yes, Nancy, the right to have the Federal government determine your healthcare and force you to buy health insurance or be fined if you delay, with increasing interest penalties. The right to have 17,000 new IRS agents enforce this and harass you if you don’t comply with this new law. Yes Nancy, the right to have some Washington bureaucrat overrule your doctor by using some actuarial table to decide whether you “qualify” for life-saving treatment, based on your age and some productivity factor. And if your doctor decides to give you that treatment he gets fined because he “spent” too much government insurance on you.

We now have the House of Representatives being controlled by a pot-smoking, flower child from San Francisco, who sounds like she’s still on an acid trip when you listen to the distorted logic in her outlandish utterances. The crazies have been in charge of Congress for the last 4 years and they can’t keep blaming George Bush.

Obama’s remarks were equally outlandish, when he said this illustrated government of the people, by the people, and for the people, with a straight face, when 2 out of every 3 people absolutely reject this legislation. Yes, they both said this was an “historic moment”, just like Medicare (broke!), and Social Security (going broke!). I likened it to Pearl Harbor, 9/11, and the Great Depression, historic all right!

There are good things in this bill that both parties like, and that’s what the Democrats will be selling you in the coming months, but they won’t tell you about the government takeover buried in the 2,700 pages of this piece of progressive garbage. We will test the constitutionally of this bill in the coming months and thank God it won’t be operative for another 4 years, but you’re going to start paying for it now. And as the wheels come off this economy, this President stands by and continues to spend another 2.5 trillion of money we don’t have.

He continues his objective to transform this country into a European style socialist state that we don’t want and can’t recognize. Just another community organizer, but this time the community is the United States of America!

Ryan's Plan Reverses the Path to Progressivism

Paul Ryan, a young Republican Congressman from Wisconsin, is a ranking member of the House Budget Committee. He first introduced an alternative fiscal policy in 2008 called a Road Map for America’s Future, and has since fine-tuned it as the current administration and congressional leadership continues to pursue the reckless expansion of government and a progressive fiscal policy that is leading us towards a European style welfare state, where excessive unemployment, and higher taxes, and reduced productivity become the normal state of the economy.

Ryan’s Road Map provides us with hope that our current course can still be turned around and we can restore our economy to the elements rooted in individual initiative, entrepreneurship, and innovation, which made us the envy of the world. It explicitly describes a completely different vision about Health Care, Medicare, Social Security, and Tax Reform that refutes the charge that the GOP is the party of “No” and has offered no alternative to the progressive agenda now being forced upon us by the current Democrat leadership.

Health Care: Ryan’s plan shifts the control and ownership of health insurance from away from the government and employers to the individual, by providing refundable tax credits of $5,700 for families and $2,300 for individuals to purchase coverage in any state and keep it if they move, or change jobs, and with high risk pools being created that make affordable care available to those with pre-existing conditions.

Medicare: This program is secured for Americans currently 55 or older and for those under 55, it creates a Medicare payment, averaging $11,000 to be used to purchase a Medicare certified plan. The cost is adjusted to reflect inflation, and pegged to income. It also funds tax free Medical Savings Accounts (MSA’s), which will keep Medicare solvent for generations.

Social Security: The Road Map preserves the existing Social Security program for those 55 or older. For those under 55, the plan offers the option of investing over 1/3 of their current SS taxes in personal retirement accounts, similar to the Thrift Savings Plan that is available to Federal employees. It allows individuals to pass these assets to their heirs and guarantees they will not loss anything they contribute. It also makes SS permanently solvent by modestly adjusting the growth of higher income accounts and providing a modest increase in the retirement age.

Tax Reform: The tax code is simplified with a form that is the size of a post card; just two rates, 10% on income up to $100k (joint filers), and $50k (single filers), and 25% for higher incomes. It eliminates the alternative minimum tax, taxes on interest income, capital gains, dividends, and the death tax. It replaces corporate taxes with a business consumption tax of 8.5% which is roughly half the average of the industrialized world and will make American companies compete more favorably in the global economy.

I think you will see that this plan is bold and innovative and sets us on the path to a smaller government and lower taxes. Something you may not expect from the party of “NO”.

Party Affiliation is Now Meaningless

I got a call last night around 9:30 PM from the Republican National Committee trying to solicit more money to continue my long term membership into 2010. I get letters and calls every week from Jeff Sessions, Michael Steele, Jim DeMint, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and their aides, all asking for money. I usually tell them to get lost and I tear up and throw out the mail.

I sometimes go into a long tirade with the callers telling them I won’t give a dime to a political party with no leaders, and uncertain message, and no horse to ride in 2012. I guess it took the “Massachusetts Miracle” to wake the Republicans up, but they still don’t know what to do.

Most of you who read my posts know that I tend to support the policies that are espoused by the Republican Party and I have been a registered Republican for many years. Surprise! However, I am quite disappointed in Republican politicians who only spend their time criticizing the President’s agenda, rather than clearly articulating their policies and vision for America.

A good example recently occurred when a vulnerable President went before a conference of House Republicans a few days ago after the Scott Brown election in Massachusetts. Obviously, we must treat our President with respect, but most of these Congressmen completely let him off the hook and failed to ask penetrating questions and to hold him accountable for the multitude of mistakes and bad decisions we have seen from this Administration ranging from the economy, to national security, to foreign policy. Instead, they worked from prepared notes rather than engage him in real debate about the outlandish remarks, mistruths, and manipulation of the facts that we hear in most of his public appearances.

The Republican Party has a cadre of very young and talented Congressmen and Senators such as Jim Spence, Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, John Thune, Tim Pawlenty, and now Scott Brown, not to mention former governors and senators such as Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum, etc. Until I see the Party get behind a few of these fellows and initiate an effort to bring them forward to the public and the opposition and not only showcase them on Fox News, I am unaffiliated.

I guess right now I’m a member of the Tea Party. One of those who are angry and frustrated with what’s going on in Washington and in the financial community and neither Party gets a dime from me until I hear a coherent and consistent message, see the vision, and observe the choices available for 2012. After seeing what’s happening to this nation under the current progressive Pelosi, Reid, Obama agenda, I am in a panic mode and a man without a Party. Perhaps that means I’m an Independent and judging from the polls there’s a lot more of us these days.

Does Progressivism Mean Progress?

Progressive is a term you will hear more often in the coming months and as long as Obama is President. It is a positive–sounding word because it sounds like “progress” or “change” which are words that most of us like, whereas, conservative sounds like “stuck in the past”, traditional, and those boring images. This is where semantics can be deceiving. Remember when “liberal” was very positive, now it’s somewhat of a liability if you are a politician, thus the word progressive. We should learn to understand words in the context they are used, before we make judgments as to what they really mean.

Progressivism in our domestic politics started at the turn of the century; and Woodrow Wilson was our first progressive President. Wilson believed that our Constitution was anachronistic, mired in the past, and irrelevant to modern times. In fact, he felt we should not bother with the Declaration of Independence because it was just a list of grievances against King George III. Wilson put the State before the people and was an elitist as well as a dedicated racist. He even re-segregated our military, and as a believer in the redistribution of wealth, gave us the progressive income tax that we have today. He was a co-founder of the League of Nations which was a precursor to the United Nations, and we all know how those ideas worked out.

Like Wilson, modern progressives do not believe in natural rights but believe that people can be made more perfect by a strong central government, but when left to their own designs will go astray. The founding fathers believed that man is flawed, but they also believed that power corrupts and therefore they set up a system of checks and balances to insure that control is not delegated to a select few.

Progressives also have a strong interest in eugenics as a means to improve the masses. This is the science dealing with the improvement of hereditary qualities by forced selection. One can see this in some of the progressive language in Obamacare, where the elderly are given less preference in health care than the “more productive” segment of the population.

Progressives are found in both parties, with Wilson, Roosevelt, and now Obama being the most extreme Democrats and Teddy Roosevelt a Republican example. In fact, I would include John McCain as one of our contemporary Republican progressives. Progressivism is different from Communism, in that, it does not promote violence or revolution but believes that evolution is the preferred route to transformation. I think you should look at progressives as conservative Socialists, but clearly at the opposite end of the spectrum from our constitutional values of small federal government, rewarding individual initiative, and God-given natural rights.

We need to ponder what the influence of progressivism will be to a centrist nation like us, should progressives continue their dominance of the Democratic Party during Obama’s tenure. Will it affect our social values, our economic growth, our rule of law, and our global status?

More on this later.

The Sad State of the Union and the Presidency

When I hear State of the Union speeches I always come away with a cynical attitude about politicians and the President didn’t let me down last night. He was supposed to talk about the state of the union but we got another campaign speech. Of course, he concluded on a high note about how great we are as a people in difficult times, but continues to be tone deaf to what the people are telling him. He forges ahead with his big government programs and his rhetoric does not match his actions.

We still have a President in a state of denial that he can ever be wrong in anything he does, while he makes me dizzy with programs and initiatives that do little to affect a “change we can count on”. Asking Republicans (or anyone) to give him some ideas on healthcare was disingenuous, saying things were “a mess when I walked in the door”, talking about more exports when he has pursued protectionist trade policies (the Columbia free trade pact has been on his desk for a year), and now saying he’s for nuclear energy and off-shore drilling while pushing windmills and solar for years, is an insult to our intelligence.

In terms of national security (which was hardly mentioned in his speech), he talked about swift action against terrorists, disrupting terror plots, and taking credit for ending the Iraq war. All of this was another affront to an informed public. I was glad to hear that Michelle and Joe Biden are working together on helping military families. Now I understand why Michelle needs 22 aides when all the previous First Ladies had one.

Then he had the audacity to talk about putting all earmarks on the Internet, when he signed a stimulus bill with almost 9,000 earmarks, more of the hypocrisy that is a trademark of his presidency. Not to mention his scolding of the Supreme Court for “opening the floodgates” to corporate and foreign campaign contributions; after he just raised more money in history for his recent presidential campaign while the current rules were in effect and won’t tell us where all that money came from.

By contrast, the Republican response by Bob McDonald, the newly elected governor from Virginia, was well organized, concise, and focused on the issues that concern voters as evidenced in the recent Massachusetts special election. No heart-tugging platitudes or a lengthy list of initiatives, McDonald said it very clearly, “the Federal Government is doing too much”, illustrating the disconnect between Obama and the people.

If you ever had any doubt that Obama is an ideologue leftist who thinks government can create jobs, prevent poverty, and spend your money with abandon, you should be convinced after this speech. Given the poor performance of this administration, this President continues to push his progressive agenda despite putting this country on the brink of insolvency, and severely weakening our national security by giving foreign combatants and terrorists the civil rights of American citizens. One of the basic tenets of elite liberals is that the public is stupid or just doesn’t have the time or desire to become politically informed. This speech was an excellent example of that.

Obama will eventually pay for this condescending address to all the informed voters of this nation.

In America: The People Talk

The results in Massachusetts last night illustrate a point I’ve been making for some time in this corner. The people eventually call the shots and if you have an arrogant President and Congress who think they know what’s best for you and then proceed on a path completely out of sync with what you want, the ballot box is how we do it in America. I’m just surprised it came this fast, even before the 2010 mid-term elections in November. We’ve seen it in Virginia, New Jersey, and now Massachusetts. Two of those states are so blue that this result is an utter rebuke of Mr. Obama’s policies and those of the Democratic controlled Congress by their own constituents.

We are a centrist country and move left or right of that periodically. If either party allows extremists to get control, the inevitable happens. The Democratic Party is currently controlled by the radical left. This President has deceived the voters by campaigning as a moderate, broken most of his promises in his first year, and has laden himself with advisors and staff that promote socialist, radical, and even Communistic approaches to government.

From this we can only conclude that Obama believes these theories and plans to follow this path, as illustrated by his track record, education, associates, and friends. For a long time most Democrats have been in denial. They have followed him down this path because his story was truly an American one; he is youthful, eloquent, and an African-American. Truly a statement of how far we have come as a nation. Too bad he is arrogant, aloof, close-minded, and a poor leader. Yes, he seems like a nice person with a lovely family, but these are dangerous times and there are serious questions about his leadership and the outlandish dealings in Congress.

The people are tired of corruption, self- serving special interests, back room deals, and creating legislation on the fly. They don’t want big government that tells you what car to buy, how to heat your house, what you can eat, what kind of medical treatment you deserve, and what your salary should be. An administration that believes it is solely the economy causing the tea-party demonstrations of “angry red-necks”, is in total disconnect its the people.

Will the results in Massachusetts finally get Washington to listen? Not likely, but I believe Obamacare is dead and we will eventually get bi-partisan healthcare reform and it will be much better than this deplorable legislation that is currently on the table. If not, a lot of Democrats will be out of work in November.

An Economic or Leadership Crisis?

As President Obama concludes his first year in office, I attempted to evaluate his leadership skills since that is a key characteristic of great Presidents. Also, as a student of Leadership, it’s clear that successful leaders are different and have different strengths and skill sets. One thing is sure, however, most are charismatic and eloquent speakers and can mesmerize their audience by their commanding presence and message. Think of Roosevelt, Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton; but even Hitler, Castro, and Chavez have that skill, so this attribute is important but not essential for great leaders.

What do people expect from their leaders? Usually, the following four things:

1. Purpose, Direction, Meaning
2. Trust
3. Optimism
4. Action and Positive Results

In delivering these things, the methods and tactics a leader uses are critical and separate the great ones from the mediocre.

Characteristics of Great Leaders

• Leaders have vision and develop a plan to implement that vision. They don’t make promises before they determine if the plan is feasible or achievable. Plans help them make go-no go decisions.
Think about GITMO and campaign promises.
• Leaders never look for blame in others. They are accountable and take action to make changes to correct poor implementation.
Think the Christmas Day bomber, Bush policies.
• Leaders never blame their predecessors for their problems or what they “inherited”.
Think the Bush policies, the recession, Iraq.
• Leaders admit when they make mistakes and don’t let their ego get in the way.
Think GITMO, Iran Policy, Stimulus, Healthcare, deficits, unemployment.
• Leaders encourage debate and try to reach compromise or a consensus among their managers or constituency.
Think healthcare debate, cap & trade, global warming scandal, Pelosi & Reid, Congress.
• Leaders don’t take credit for achievement, they know their limitations and look to give credit.
Think economic recovery.
• Well lead organizations are coordinated and provide a consistent message.
Think Robert Gibbs, Janet Napolitano, Joe Biden, Pelosi and Reid, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and the Czars.
• Leaders do not deride their organization in public or apologize for its behavior. This will demoralize their employees or constituents.
Think European Tour, Nobel Speech, Copenhagen Climate Conference, Latin American Conference Speech, Reagan’s quote “that shining city on the hill”.
• Leaders will support and come to the defense of their allies and not worry about offending their enemies.
Think Israel, Iranian demonstrators, Columbia, South Korea, former Soviet nations, Eastern Europe, Poland missile defense, Honduras.
• Leaders never come to conclusions, particularly in public, until they know all the facts.
Think the Christmas Day bomber, Louis Gates affair, Fort Hood shootings.
• Oh Yes! Leaders never say “knock on wood”.

Now I would like you to grade our President……… Enough said!

The Decadent Decade

I am writing this post on New Year’s Day 2010 at the end of a turbulent decade that started with the Y2k uncertainty of the previous computer decade and ends with another uncertainty of greater magnitude: The economic viability of the United States.

After realizing that Y2k was an overblown concern, we continued on a spending binge of great proportions as we ran up the largest consumer debt in our history and started a 10-year housing boom that was encouraged by our politicians, relished by lenders, and virtually ignored by our Federal Reserve which kept interest rates at record low levels and fueled the fire.

In the midst of this excess, we were savagely attacked by a cowardly enemy hell bent on killing Americans for religious reasons. We lost over 3,000 innocent civilians in New York, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania on one day in September of 2001. We became engaged in a war with an invisible enemy that can’t be identified by a uniform, a country, or a government; only a concept called radical Jihad. This is an enemy with no great army or high-tech weapons, but one that uses human suicide bombers, women and children as human shields, and puts no value on life or human rights. No country other than the United States by the shear force of its values, its will, and its extensive wealth, can fight this evil. We will be in this war for many years and we will eventually prevail, but future generations will have to shed their blood again to preserve the American dream.

Then, like a flash, we end the decade with an economic meltdown unlike anything we’ve seen since the Great Depression, a fitting end to a decade of financial excesses and greed.

In my life of 7 1/2 decades, I may not see the end of another decade, but one thing I do know for sure; no matter how politically divided we may seem to be, the freedom to express our opinions without retribution, to welcome all diverse cultures to our shores, and our dedication to human rights and the value of the individual, will permit us to survive and flourish in the decades ahead regardless of the challenges that are put before us.

I want to wish all of you who read this column a Happy and Healthy New Year. I will continue to inform you as best I can on the important issues of the day, and trust you will use your right to be heard, so that you can impact the future destiny of this great country in a positive way.