Wiped Out
11/16/2010
It has been quite some time since my last post. The laptop I used for all of my research and posting crashed, everything was wiped out and there was very little backed up. This was a major disruption, but I now have a new laptop and enough pieces back together to move onward.
That is as good of a segue as any… Speaking of wiped out, how about them Democrats? It is funny how the word “historic” is not getting thrown at you every which way like it did in 2008. This past election was very historic indeed. In case you lost count, Republicans picked up 60 seats in the House, with 7 still pending; 5 Senate seats, with 1 still pending, and 5 Governor races, with two still pending. Bringing the totals to 239 House Seats, 46 Senate Seats and 29 Governorships.
As great as those results are, there should be equal or more excitement about the statewide races throughout the country. Republicans made historic gains in State Legislatures of more than 675 seats, which dramatically surpasses the gains in 1994. The chamber switches are all Democratic to Republican, except for Montana where it was tied and is now Republican, and Oregon which was Democratic and is now tied. If you drill down further in these races and the national ones there is even better news. There seems to be a whole crop of New Republicans, which were heavily influenced, if not born from, the Tea Party movement. This will translate into a more conservative Constitutional form of government at every level. The state and local levels of government are extremely important, as they help shape and set the tone for national races.
This was an exciting election. You could feel the energy building up the whole year. I know that I could not wait for the big day. I even carved up a little more time this year to post signs, deliver flyers in the neighborhood and work the local polling station. It's one thing to sit at home and blog, but every freedom-loving American should do as much as they can for the candidate that is most committed to preserving liberty up until the day they cast their vote.
Here is an example of a woman doing her part on Election Day. She is on a little road that doesn't get a ton of traffic, but she felt compelled to remind people to exercise their right to vote. I snapped this picture on my way to work. I have no idea how long she had been out there, but I made sure to thank her for what she was doing for America!
Organizer in Chief
6/24/2010
I am certainly not in favor of airing out our dirty laundry in public. I do think these soldiers should have known better than to trust saying such off-color things with someone that is not a brother in arms. We don’t know if such comments were supposed to be off the record, but our mainstream media and pop culture industry has never been our military’s greatest fans. The most puzzling and disappointing things to me were that Rolling Stone magazine actually had someone embedded with our troops in Afghanistan and that McChrystal actually voted for Obama! As for the rest of it, is it really a story that soldiers use foul language? We have audio of Joe Biden using foul language in celebration of the health care scam. Rahm Emanuel is notorious for his filthy mouth. Is it really shocking that our active duty soldiers do not hold this far left liberal administration in high esteem? Heck, their approval rating among civilians, many of who are completely on the dole, is south of 25%!
General McChrystal has been dutifully serving this country for most of his life. He has spent almost the last decade engaged in war and has spent a matter of months WITH his family over that timeframe. The first thing that came to my mind when this story broke was how Obama dithered over McChrystal’s request for more troops last year. Obama was more concerned with the political consequences than the General’s combat needs. He ultimately took four months to respond and shortchanged the General on the troops. So, I was not surprised with McChrystal's lack of love for the big (O)rganizer.
Unfortunately, I was on an airplane while the U.S. advanced by beating Algeria 1-0 in the World Cup and Obama was announcing that General David Petraeus, Central Command Leader, would be taking McChrystal’s place. If anyone is capable of taking over in Afghanistan, General Petraeus is the first name that comes to mind. I was quite surprised that (O)’s ego allowed him to go with Bush’s guy, but I am glad the soldiers have been given a proven leader. I just wish the Organizer in Chief was as quick to react to the Oil Spill Crisis or in protecting our southern border, as he was in defending his fragile ego. Now that Obama has called up General Petraeus, I wonder if MoveOn.org or any other Democrat support groups will be re-running more “General Betray Us” ads in the New York Times?
Excuse me, but that is just ludicrous!
6/03/2010
Obama's Katrina
5/28/2010
Upon comparing the two events, one could only wish this was Obama’s Katrina and told him that back in April. If it were his Katrina, he would have prepared ahead of time for it and immediately moved this to his highest priority.
There are major differences between the two events. Perhaps the greatest difference is the fact that the BP incident was certainly 100% caused by (man) private industry, but the permit & licensing fees and enormous amount of taxes paid by companies in the off shore oil business are to be used , in part, by the federal government to minimize the impact of such disasters. While the media and the administration were wagging their fingers at BP, the federal government was supposed to be implementing the In-situ Burn Plan that has introduced by NOAA’s Oil Spill – Behavior, Response and Planning report back in 1997. Furthermore, as pointed out on the Mark Levin shown on May 24, 2010, the federal government and specifically the President is given the following three options in the Oil Pollution Act of 1990: 1) Perform cleanup immediately (“federalize” the spill) 2) Monitor the response efforts of the spiller 3) Direct the spiller’s cleanup activities.
Katrina, on the other hand, was mostly a natural disaster that was made worse by what man did not do to fortify the levees, which dates back to 1969, all the way up to the local government’s failure to make and carry out some key decisions immediately before and after the storm moved out of the area. Unlike the federal government’s complete and immediate authority involving oil spills, the federal government is not allowed to intervene in storm disasters (i.e. dispatch FEMA) until the state approves it. On top of that, New Orleans had been squandering the funds that were supposed to be used to fortify the levies for 30 years, they did a horrible job of evacuating the city and waited too long to authorize federal assistance. If you believe local government was not responsible for much of the outcome, just compare the prevention and recovery efforts in Louisiana to Alabama and Mississippi. Click HERE for a response timeline for both disasters (hit your browser's back button to return to the blog)
As you will see, Bush responded 100% faster, as he was able to take action before the disaster. He also arrived on the scene almost 250% faster and took responsibility for his shortcomings 230% faster than Obama took any responsibility for the federal government’s shortcomings. While it only took 72 hours for the media to begin blaming Bush, it took five weeks for Obama to face any criticism.
There is scant debate whether or not there is a liberal media bias, even among liberals. Unfortunately, the question many are now faced with is if this administration deliberately chose to politicize rather than federalize this spill. If the answer is no, we are left to wonder if they ever knew their own responsibility or were just unwilling or able to help with this crisis.
"H" is for....
5/21/2010
Tough Tea Party Talk
5/06/2010
You have to wonder how today’s media would have covered the Tea Party back in 1773. Perhaps a better question to ponder would be, how the Tea Partiers would have reacted to such hypothetical media coverage…
We are becoming increasingly more aware of what to expect from the left leaning media in our country. However, the contemptuous statements from some Democrat political figures, has become downright disgusting. Former President Clinton said, “ “legitimate” comparisons can be drawn between today’s grass roots anger and resentment toward the government and the right-wing extremism that bubbled up prior to the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City 15 years ago (while he was in office).” More recently, Mayor Bloomberg guessed the Islamic Extremist responsible for the attempted Times Square bombing was someone “that doesn’t like the health care bill or something”, in response to a question from Katie Couric. It was shocking that the ever insightful and probing Couric did not challenge that notion and suggest an actual terrorist! Perhaps, she was too busy wondering what magazines Bloomberg reads when he is not monitoring New Yorkers’ sodium intake levels?
The fact of the matter is that the modern Tea Party members can be considered terrorists…if you are a liberal politician. The Tea Party movement is certainly terrorizing both Democrats and liberal Republicans, as evidenced by the way the 2010 midterm elections are shaping up. The demand for politicians to follow our constitution has literally forced some to resign and others to change their party affiliation. This is precisely the goal of the movement. The fringe benefit has been the further exposing of just how desperate liberals have become.
Independents and moderate Democrats are no longer buying the formulaic Olinsky tactics the far left have been using for decades. For those not familiar, it is the simple method of creating villains and stirring up resentment between social classes. In this instance, you have a true grass roots movement of law-abiding citizens demanding their employees (elected politicians) obey the company policy manual (U.S. Constitution). Olinsky rules simply call for the Tea Party targets to attack the character of the Tea Party members. If it sounds like a third grade school yard approach to you, you’re absolutely right. However, this is fairly effective when 98% of the media uses the same liberal playbook, and a growing percentage of the electorate make voting decisions solely on eight-second media segments.
The Tea Party movement is aptly named, as it stands for lower taxes and it feels the federal government’s increasing power is intolerable. However, it may be most appropriate, as the name itself forces people to reflect on American history. As one patriot stated, “There is little that is more important for an American citizen to know than the history and traditions of his country and [it] is the means by which a nation establishes its sense of identity and purpose.” Which patriot said that… Rush Limbaugh….Sarah Palin….Glenn Beck…??? No, that would be President John F. Kennedy in an article he wrote in 1962, for American Heritage magazine, while in the White House. He also went on to say, “A knowledge of history is, above all, a means of responsibility – of responsibility to the past and of responsibility to the future … of responsibility to those who came before us and struggled and sacrificed to pass on to us our precious inheritance of freedom … and of responsibility to those who will come after us and to whom we must pass on that inheritance with what new strength and substance it is within our power to add.”
Considering JFK’s respect for American history, his support for tax cuts, not to mention pushing NASA to the moon, you wonder if today’s Democratic party would even be seen in public with their former Prince of America’s Royal Family. I’m afraid the feeling could be mutual. You never know, there might just be one more member of the Tea Party from Massachusetts to add authenticity, if he were alive today!
Transocean Tragedy
4/30/2010
It troubles me to admit my first thoughts after my prayers going out to the rig operators involved in the Transocean accident and their families. Unfortunately, I could not help thinking of Rham Emanuel’s infamous quote, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” I also can’t shake Obama’s lamenting that Americans use a disproportionate amount of energy per capita than the rest of the world. Finally, I thought of what a field day the far left environmentalists would have with this too. Obama, like many of the environmentalists and left wing politicians, simply do not appreciate the amount of work that goes into extracting oil and coal, which we absolutely need to survive as a civil society. Not to mention compete with the rest of the world. I have a grandfather that worked in the coal mines in France in the 1940s. I could not believe the amount of work they did and how dangerous it was for them. Back then they worked in about a three to four foot space and actually had to detonate
sticks of dynamite themselves before piling the coal into little wagons. Their wages were determined by the amount of coal they were able to haul out of the mine.When this administration goes for the throat of the oil industry armed with this new crisis, as they undoubtedly will, you have to ask if we really want to lose the remaining ability to drill for oil on and off our shores. The environmentalists will certainly be demanding the administration further restrict drilling, but do they think drilling will be done elsewhere with more safety and environmental regulation? That would only result in less control, as the global demand will require the extraction of oil elsewhere.
I suggest we pray for the lost crewmembers and their families. I also think we should support our domestic oil industry, especially through this crisis. I hope we determine exactly what went wrong, we are able to prevent it from happening again and there is proper penalty and punishment if there was a violation of law or safety requirements. However, I do not want to see this administration and their liberal media lap dogs make our energy industry their latest villain in their next round of populace propaganda. If it were not for the work of men like those on the Transocean rig or the West Virginia coalminers, our politicians could not fly to global warming conferences or cover the country begging for campaign contributions, and the left wing media would not have the energy to criticize this vital industry and all of its hard working Americans.
Win the Arguments
4/16/2010
While the wound is still open for the 50% of us that actually pay Federal Income Taxes, I could not help wondering how this administration feels about profits on April 15th. On Jan 30, 2009, Obama said, “There will be time for them to make profits, and there will be time for them to get bonuses. Now is not that time.” Perhaps, profits and bonuses are alright on Tax Day? Of course, his blathering was before the people who now have voter’s remorse figured out that was primarily an effort to draw attention away from his administration’s lack of real solutions. It is easy to incite the masses by saying, "… we need to limit CEO salaries" or "…control their day-to-day operations", etc. However, coming from Obama, who has never operated a cash register, much less make a payroll, or this Congress that is orchestrated the longest jobless recovery in recorded history, this rhetoric is insulting and hypocritical.
At a dinner party shortly after Obama began publicly demonizing, ostensibly just the CEOs of companies “requiring” government bailouts, I engaged in a conversation about the “stimulus” and CEO bashing with a liberal friend. At a certain point, her husband cut short his own conversation to come into the room we were in to blurt out, “No one person is worth that much money.” His wife could wind up in a cardboard box begging for cheese from her local congressman and still pull the “D” party line at the ballot box, so I decided to get her all worked up more for fun than anything else. However, I could not let her husband’s outrageous comment be flung into the air like something that would foam out of Chris Matthews’ mouth, so I decided to turn that into a teachable moment. As the great Margaret Thatcher said, “First you win the argument and then you win the vote.”
Less than twenty four hours later, I decided to do a little research, put together some data and send an e-mail to everyone in the room to address that brilliant comment. As an employer myself, I wanted to give these friends a more thoughtful perspective. My response went something like this….
The notion that, "no one person is worth that much money" may or may not be true, depending on the person and the circumstances. It certainly warrants a deeper look into how much they actually earn, what they produce, how much society gains and how many people benefit from their success. Can you really put a price tag on Bill Gates' value?
We can certainly discuss who’s to blame for the financial crisis and how, both the existence and lack of regulation, created this horrible crisis. However, we cannot transform our society into European Socialism or replicate the Lost Decade of Japan to correct it.
After that discussion, I thought these figures and the attached supporting spreadsheet might better explain how the government and media are using class warfare and the usual rhetoric to make people think this economic crisis is the fault of greedy CEOs:
The Top 50 Employers of the Fortune 500 provide:
11,950,157 jobs or 239,000 jobs on average
At $30K per job (which is an extremely conservative number just for illustration), that would produce $7.17 Billion in employee salaries
By using an average tax rate of 30%, these salaries would generate $2.151 Billion in Income Taxes (not including PP Taxes and Corporate Income Taxes)
The Top 50 CEOs by Compensation:
Earn an average of $79.6 (mil)
That average drops to $52.5 (mil) if you simply drop the top 5
Fortune 500 CEOs:
Earn an average of $15.0 (mil)
That average drops to $11.89 (mil) if you simply drop the top 5
How much does Angelina Jolie make per film?
While an average salary of $79.6 (mil) or even $52.5 (mil) is undoubtedly an enormous amount of money, you have to consider the salaries and taxes generated under that person's leadership. I don't know of any single movie star or athlete that employs 239,000 people or generates $2.151 Billion in income taxes alone.
Now take all of this information and put this into real perspective. These 500 CEOs, who on average actually earn $15.0 (mil), represent far less than 1% of all CEOs in the country. These CEOs actually represent only .167% of all CEOs!! The mean annual wage of a CEO in this country during 2007 (the year I used for all of these statistics) was $151,370.
Once our government starts throwing around language like… "…not the time for profits and bonuses" or "controlling executive compensation," everyone should be concerned. Despite their continuous encroachment on our liberty through our wallets, we must keep in mind the people of this country and around the world depend on our private sector and their executive leadership to produce goods, services and livelihoods.
I can tell you that there is quite a bit of truth to the belief that the quickest way to silence a liberal is to introduce them to the facts.
The Latest Unemployment Numbers
4/05/2010
It's Time To Take Our Country Back
3/28/2010
It is unfortunate that our government has embarked upon taking over the world's greatest healthcare system less than six months after the birth of our first child. This comes on the heals of taking over our auto industry, penetrating the investment sector and an eleventh hour raid of the student loan program.
Any reasonable and somewhat informed person knows this is nothing but a shifting of power from the people to the government. While some people are perfectly fine with a top down authoritarian government controlling more and more of their lives, the majority of Americans are opposed to living in such an environment.
I certainly refuse to sacrifice my liberty and freedom for the promise of a self-serving politician or their cohorts. I plan on doing whatever I can with the limited time I have to resist this failed form of governance. The first and easiest thing I could think of was to share valuable information that is so badly ignored or twisted by today's media and pop culture figures. I plan on adding interesting links, history of events from Liberals and Conservatives in the "Contributions" sections, video footage, sound bites, contact information, founding principal resources and calls to action. My goal is to keep it short and sweet and update the blog often, so people will visit or track it.
Ronald Reagan said it best, "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same."