Thoughts on the Lame Duck Session

Well, it's been almost two weeks since my last posting.  Apologies all around.  School, work, Christmas, and nasty sicknesses spread by my three and one year old walking petri dishes have seriously impacted my writing, and coherent thinking ability.

So, without further ado, quasi-organized thoughts on the travesty of the lame duck session:

Why is it that every time we send a loud and clear message to the establishment Republicans, they pretend they do not hear us.  Are they seriously this deaf?

Issue the first:  The Tax ‘Cut’ Compromise.  Let’s analyze this.  We get a continuation of the current tax “rates” (they are NOT cuts) for two years.  We get a slightly meaningless 2% cut in payroll withholdings (wait until they take that out of your precious tax ‘refunds’ you silly masses).  They get another year of unemployment welfare (let’s face it, it’s beyond ‘benefits’ when it’s beyond two years).  They also give Obama a chance to pretend this is some great compromise on his behalf, to benevolently attempt to ‘hear’ his subjects and prove to them once and for all that Reagan ‘trickle-down’ economics does not work.

Where is the benefit to us?  I’m sorry, I do not see it.  Businesses are not going to dramatically alter their current plans because the inevitable tax hikes has been put off for two years.  Unemployment is NOT going to go down, in fact it will increase once this goes into effect.  What the GOP should have done is to take the offensive like we the people mandated they do on November 2.  They should have said the Democrats had four years to make this deal, and they waited until the lame duck session.  They should have held out and hung this albatross of tax hikes around the neck of the Democrats.  When are they gonna learn that there is NO compromise with these people.  Their ultimate goal is the destruction of American exceptionalism and capitalism.  Our goal needs to be stopping this.  Not going along to get along.  The game has changed.

Issue the second:  This Omnibus Spending bill?!?!?!?!  The loony lefties in the House and Senate had all year to pass their own budget but knew they would have gotten murdered even worse in the election had they done one.  What’s worse, is all these lame ducks who got voted out are now sticking their finger up at the American people while they toss the match into the accelerant, walking away laughing as the fiscal house, already in a blighted state, goes up in flames.

Issue the third:  Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.  If anyone would have actually taken the time to ASK the soldiers their personal opinion of its repeal they would have gotten a vastly different picture.  But no, we, the good, dutiful soldiers, when asked how would it affect the military, looked at ways to accomplish the mission, as we could read between the lines that this was a fait-accompli.  We are not stupid.  We understand and can smell social engineering projects a mile away.  We’ve put up with these experiments for over thirty years now.  But, then again, these libs don’t care at all about the defense of this nation, nor do they care about the opinions of the military.  And this ‘panel’ study of the military is simply top-cover for spineless Republicans to weasel out of moral stances.  We should not be surprised at any effort that is made by Democrats to undermine and destroy our military.  They know the military is, apart from the American armed citizen, the ultimate check on their dream of destroying the Constitution.  And, no, this is not a loony conspiracy.  This is simply based upon sound logic and observation.  Remember, liberals ALWAYS lie.  That is all they can do, because if they disclosed their true motives, they would NEVER be in power.

I’m so tired of this.  My country is on the Highway to Hell and the party we patriots have entrusted our last remaining shreds of hope is simply throwing meaningless obstacles that slow down the federal behemoth just barely.  We are approaching the cliff folks, and the GOP is still just trying to be liked, make friends, and get invited to the next cocktail party.

We Are Doomed - If We Continue Present Course

Wake Up!!!

Riddle me this Batman:  With the entirety of the Western Democracies crumbling under crushing debt; the Greeks, Irish, Portuguese, and Spanish turning to the sole-remaining Western European industrial power Germany , who in turn looks to the US for bail-outs of NEVER-sustainable social-welfare spending programs; what is backing all of this?  Back in the sane years of the US economy, with each dollar printed by the US Treasury backed up by an actual physical piece of gold (still valued for over 10,000 years), there was a level of verifiable trust between the provider of a product or service and the consumer of said product and service.  Fast forward to now.  At least in America, the public sector unions and auto unions have driven to ridiculous levels, the price of domestic labor.  Simply, put, auto workers and government workers are not worth their wages in an open market system.  Consider GM.  The union wages and pension plans bankrupted GM.  The automaker was forced to cut costs in nearly all aspects of their operations, except for their human capital.  The result was overpriced, inferior products (and in an open market, Japanese and other manufacturers quickly overtook these hunks of junk), which naturally decreased sales, which decreased profits, which caused their rapid demise.  Then, we were told the companies were ‘too big to fail’ and the government stepped in, screwed the investors by paying them pennies on the dollar in settlement, handed the companies over to the auto unions, and profited from the entire operation with tax dollars (deficit, tax dollars no less).

The same happened with the public sector.  Except, like the car companies, there is no need for a middle man.  All the government needs to do is essentially print money.  Cue Orwellian-phrased quantitative easing one and two.  The state governments of California and New York are broke with public sector-employee spending at NEVER-sustainable levels.  (New Jersey looks like it may yet be saved by a politician who actually gets it, and has touched the third, and fourth, and fifth rails of state politics, tackling the teachers and other unions).  If you think Italy, Spain, Ireland, and Portugal are bad.  Who do you think is going to hold the bag for California and New York?  Texas, and other functioning states!

Back to overseas.  While America has the gas pedal floored towards oblivion, the Western Democracies have already spent themselves into said oblivion and are begging the rest of the world for handouts.  Meanwhile, Greece burns down, students in Britain are rioting, and the Irish companies look ready to flee as their government seeks to loot the only source of their continued income (It’s no wonder so many companies have sheltered in Ireland as their corporate tax rates are so low).  So, Germany, hesitatingly seeks to bail out the socialist-basket cases (probably in continued self-flagellation for their role in earlier wars… I mean seriously, why fund an entire continent of lazy, croissant-snacking, cheese and wine snob leeches?!?!?!).  And the only reason they do this, is because… we hold the bag.  That’s right, we are now increasing the EU/IMF ‘European Stability Fund’ (think of the porkulus bill on a global scale… a public sector union slush fund for the Western Democratic leeches who have sucked our defense dollars dry for over 60 years… and this is with entire consent of our ruling class of Democrats and Republicans (don’t forget, Bernanke was a Bush appointee)).

Now, I am not an economics major.  In fact, I got a C in Economics in college because I thought it boring and un-important (and didn’t show up to an 0800 class).  But, I did predict back in 2001 that the Euro was an unsustainable, utopian pipe-dream.  Seriously, you think the Germans appreciated their cost of living to double overnight (it did too.  I was here then and saw the prices of goods go from 2.59DM to 2.59DM € overnight (now, the wizards of smart poo-poo this observation by saying wages doubled overnight too.  But, doesn’t that prove the point.  Inflation of 200% overnight!?!?  It works both ways.  Trouble is it affects prices before wages.  Don’t give me that logic ivory tower))?!?!?!  And just this week after seeing that the EU was going to bailout Ireland, I predicted we would again be picking up the tab in the same manner we shored up the German bailout of Greece with the start of this ‘Euro-stimulus’ trash.  Do you really need to be some highly educated, ivory-tower, elitist intellectual to understand that if you pay more than you can afford, bad things will eventually happen?

So, then, the ultimate question:  What’s next?  I pondered that this morning when I thought of the next logical step in this process.  OK, it’s musical chairs.  Eventually the music stops and who’s standing solo?  The Greeks found their seat, the Irish have too, Britain and France look to be trying to rebuild their chairs solo, the Germans found their seats after we said, “after you Frau Merkel,” and we look to be scoping out one of the last chairs while China, Japan, Brazil, India, Russia and others who make our chairs eyeball us expectantly.  Who will be holding the bag?  China’s Yuan is tied to the dollar (for now, though their abandonment of it in trade with Russia is disconcerting) still.  And, China has agreed to continue to fund our debt, buying up another large share of it, even after we publically announced we will print worthless money to pay for it (QE2).  Why?  Hmmm… mysterious object flying off our coast (do you actually trust the official explanation… oh, wait a sec, there isn’t)… North Korea rattles its saber again off of China’s coast.  China almost able to replace its US export market in Africa.  A US president who seeks to unilaterally surrender to Russia… even after the Cold War ended.  Taiwan… I’d be quaking in your boots about now.  Remember, money is simply a tool.  Power, and the ability to take, is another tool.  China knows how to wield both.

Is all lost?  Yes, if we continue to elect incompetent morons like McConnel, McCain, Graham, Reid, etc. and vicious, anti-American power-grabbers like Obama and Pelosi.  Sorry, I do not have much optimism.  Romney is not the answer.  Jindal is not the answer.  Cantor just fell like a meteor with his recent comments on Obamacare (preexisting condition coverage is NOT INSURANCE!!!!  It’s a payment plan.  It’s a bailout for the lazy, and tragically, sometimes, unfortunate).  Chris Christie and others like him seem to be the only hope.  People who are not afraid to take on the unions and the leeches in American society are our sole remaining hope.  It will not be easy… and that is why I am afraid.  We need to continue to spread the alarm of fear and doom.  Do you want to see your life’s savings destroyed by fiat by Bernanke and company who’s lust for power transcends borders and culture?  If not, continue to spread the message.

OK.  I’ve rambled enough.  Hope it’s coherent enough.  Remember folks, I’m just a simple person who understands the times.  And, thank God Almighty, I do not place my hope in the institutions of men, otherwise, I’d be pretty much suicidally-hopeless.

But, hey, sorry to interrupt your Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, and NFL games.  Lenin was wrong.  Religion is not the opiate of the masses… American materialism is.

Obama Recess Appointee Violating Federal Law with Impunity

File this under further criminal abuses of the Obama administration.

Last week, the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) gave permission to the Transportation Security Administration to vote whether or not they would be represented by organized labor unions.  Bear in mind that this decision is in direct violation of the Congressional legislation authorizing the creation of this disgrace of a Federal Agency.

Craig Becker
(what's it with these Liberals and their Skeletor-like physiques?  See also Dick Blumenthal, Tim Geithner, etc.)

In all this recent fervor over the use of risky (especially for very-frequent travelers) and invasive scanners, and the border-line sexual molestation of physical searched, what is lost is the fact that this decision is precisely why House Republicans wavered on President Bush’s call for the federalization of the airline security system.  Further lost is the fact that the head of the FLRA is Craig Becker, “a former top lawyer with Service Employees International Union and the AFL-CIO, whose nomination was rejected by the Senate [in February], 52-43” (by a Democrat-majority Senate by the way).

So, let’s review shall we?  The SEIU (largely FEDERAL (read Obama’s) employees) and other organized labor unions contributed $74.5 million to candidates in the 2008 campaign including $60.7 to Obama’s.  Obama then rewards his labor friends (oh, sorry, employees) with the nearly $1 billion slush fund disingenuously labeled an economic ‘stimulus’.  This slush fund largely rewards federal labor employees, protecting them from the ravages of the Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Andrew Cuomo-induced recession.  Then, in keeping with his regime’s practice of governing against the will of the people (including his own Democrat Senate!), he recess appoints a long-time labor buddy with histories in the SEIU and the AFL-CIO, who then violates federal law by giving permission to organize federal labor unions.  And people wonder how these hucksters manage to stay in power!?!?!

This administration is a criminal enterprise.  It is organized fraud perpetrated on the workers and producers of American society.  This regime is now blatantly, and with abandon violating Federal Law to empower its political base.  The comparisons between this regime and other banana republic and/or African oligarchies are striking.  And whose job is it to enforce the law?  Good luck getting Obama crony and reverse racist Eric Holder to do his job!  Congressman Issa, it falls to you and the future Congress to investigate this most recent and all the other abuses of power and outright violation of law this regime is guilty of.

AAFES - An Organized Criminal Enterprise

OK folks.  Something has to be done with AAFES (Army and Air Forces Exchange ‘Service’ for you non-military types).  I’ve been sitting on the sidelines far too long.  Maybe this is just an isolated experience, but I’d appreciate a comment if you’ve had a similar experience.

The PX at Panzer Kaserne habitually sells products that are factory seconds (and obvious ones at that) with no disclaimer, at full price, and with complete abandon.  This will continue until we servicemen and family members, who constantly get screwed by AAFES, do something about it.

1.  About two years ago my German wife bought (and returned) an article of clothing at the PX.  It was a German-manufactured article and had a small label on it.  It read “Zweiter wahl.”  That means “second choice” in English.

2.  Also about two years ago, we purchased an Hitachi plasma TV, 42 in.  I know… Sweet right…  Well, it worked for about two months, then developed a fatal flaw.  AAFES would not accept it as a return, but sent it off to get ‘repaired.’  Three months later, we got back out TV which worked for about one week and then experienced the same flaw.  Thankfully, the AAFES people took back the TV and refunded the money in the form of a gift card (hey, no competition has its benefits!).

3.  A month ago, my wife bought a pair of Buffalo shoes (a popular German brand name).  There was a strap loop completely missing on one of the shoes.  It wasn’t broken.  It showed no signs of damage.  It was just not there.  Factory second.

4.  Tonight, I’m reading a classic to my son (my first book successfully read, incidentally).  It’s called “Are You My Mother?”  I’m sure many of you have read that book too.  After a few pages, I completely loose where I am in the story.  Why?  Well, probably because it skips from page 20 to page 45.  It goes to the ‘end’ of the book and then starts over at page 20 or so again.  Oh, and the classic “Fish Out Of Water” had such horrific binding, I’m surprised I got through it without tearing the over-glued pages together, or tearing out the other loose-hanging-by-a-thread pages in other sections.  The books, by the way, were up and sold out in a matter of days, as those kinds of old, sentimental books are hard to come by here.

AAFES 'Quality'

Four times is NOT a coincidence.  This is ridiculous.  Who is ordering this stuff???  I want an audit.  CID fraud agents need to take a good hard look at this store’s operation.  I smell kick-backs.  Do any of you have ideas on how to actually combat this?  ICE will not work.  I don’t know how many times I’ve made complaints to them with no action.  These jerks get to run a tax-subsidized organization (poorly, I might add), charge us the equal price to anything anywhere (seriously, how many of you stateside shop at the PX???), sell us factory seconds at full price, offer horrific customer service many times (all in the name of hiring unqualified locals), and display disgusting self-righteous smugness when confronted with these things and answer with the company motto of “We are her to ‘serve’ you.”  Please sir!  May I have another?!?!  THWACK!!!

If I ever get to run for Congress, I will make it my platform to abolish AAFES and start over.  It is corrupt, inefficient, and unnecessary for the most part.  And you apologists who think it’s philanthropic, try to tell me they do not make a killer profit.  Don’t give me that “It goes to MWR stuff.”  Sorry.  I don’t golf.  And if I did, I’d rather pay a higher greens fee than subsidize these officers’ courses with my, and especially, my junior soldiers’ meager salaries.

A Brief Response on Keynesian Economics

So, last night a friend of mine posted a cartoon from the 1930s depicting the FDR administration as a runaway wagon headed for disaster spilling money everywhere it went, its occupants drunk on power.  My buddy remarked how amazing it was to see history repeating itself in Obama.  And then, the big lie appeared... A friend of my friend stepped in with the usual liberal claptrap, indoctrination that we all received in our US History class:  FDR's New Deal ended the Great Depression.  So, I felt compelled to weigh in:

Well, I think the controversy released herein is a direct result of the big lie that our generation has been taught due to the liberalization of the school system.  That is that FDR was great.  The underlying ugly truth is that the liberals have to lie about FDR because he did more to advance the concept of Statism more than any other American president (until Obama).  There are three theories on what ended the depression: 1.  FDR’s Keynesian government spending policies; 2.  WWII and its associated demand and increased production overturned classical market forces causing an acceleration in GDP; or 3.  The economy self corrected.

I posit that a combination of 2 and 3 is true.  Statists (including Obama) hold to #1 because it empowers their lust for a larger federal government and more control.  Right now, in Europe, we are seeing the results of 50+ years of Keynesian theory destroying the socialist-light welfare policies of the EU.  The US is sprinting in that direction.  GDP is determined by 1. Consumption, 2. Private Investment, and 3. Government spending.  Whenever the Government spends money it has to a. take it out of your pocket and give it to someone/thing else, b. borrow it, or c. print it.  All three of these methods are by definition net losses to productivity.  This simplistic accounting alone should stand Keynesian theory on its head.  True, the Federal Reserve can slow what happens to the economy (ie. Adjust monetary policy to slow the effects of a downturn), but the Government cannot spend its way into prosperity.

The economy always corrects itself.  That is the nature of the market.  The fact that it goes up and goes down, without singular control, is the reason Statists (Marxists, Fascists, ‘liberals’) despise the market economy.  FDR did nothing to spur economic recovery.  If anything, he prolonged the Depression.  But the wonderful thing about the American involvement in the market is that even with tyrannical attempts to control it by Statists, American generally find a way to better themselves, enrich themselves, and turn the economy back on the right course.

After the conservative resurgence of Goldwater, combined with the economic writings of Milton Friedman and the subsequent Reagan Revolution, we, as a country have no excuse for not stomping out the lies of Keynesian economics!  Shhhh!!!, the real reason for it is that there is a sizable segment of the Republican Party that simply want to be the ones in control of this Keynesian spending!

This big lie of FDR is just another example of how the left stays relevant.  They take over our education system, take the place of parents in raising children, and indoctrinate them to take their place.  We, as a nation, will never stamp out Marxist/Statist philosophies (or at least marginalize them) until we address this fundamental fact.  Without the world of academia, they have no method of perpetuation (plus, they don't believe in nuclear families anyway, and with their belief in abortion rights...) so, they would die out from simple attrition.