What in the Hell has happened to us?

It is easy to blame President Obama, but he's just a symptom. For some reason Americans occasionally decide to hate themselves and go into a major funk. We send our economy into the toilet, start firing people and electing well-intentioned incompetents to national office.

Now Americans are either looking for a bailout or loathing those who are. We express an impotent rage by fighting over tax increases or gay marriage, when the real problem is we have collectively drank the "Stupid-and-Whiny" Kool-Aid.

America, we need to get a grip.

The Carter years, which followed the Ford years, which followed the Nixon years, which came on the tail of the Viet Nam years and the Johnson Administration was our last major Stupid-and-Whiny episode. It's easy to give President Reagan credit for pulling us out of that one, but he only showed us the way.

But I remember once hearing someone say "sometimes you need a Carter to get a Reagan". Maybe we needed an Obama to get who we really need to step up.

In the meantime, America and my fellow Americans, we need to pull our heads out of our fourth point of contact. When we do, things will start to improve.

Here is some "Street Talk" for you

Posted 4/12/2009 5:58 AM PDT on The Sacramento Bee
The problem with the Bee in a nutshell, or perhaps an eggshell:

No Happy Easter. Anywhere. So what's up with that?

Going through the paper this morning, the only person to say happy Easter was columnist Jeanne Phillips, a rather pleasant irony!

The Bee is having trouble, just like other papers are having trouble for a number of reasons. But one in particular is that they are so out of touch with their community of readers that they won't even wish them a happy Easter even though they must know most of them celebrate it.

I'm not talking about images of Christ on the cross for goodness sake! They could have the Easter Bunny, or even images of decorated eggs. For heaven's sake (or not), acknowledge the holiday!

The street talk angle here is simple. People do mention it to each other. Personally, I have other things more important to me than getting all hot under the collar about seasonal greetings (remember Season's Greetings?) but a lot of people do, and for every person who mentions something they are bothered by there is a larger number who say nothing.

Happy Easter and Merry Christmas are not going to save you. But recognizing things that are important to your readers, even if they are not important to you will go a long way to bringing your newspaper to its own salvation.

Happy Easter!

I must need more coffee. I was reading the Google News and saw the headline Madagascar Swears in New President and my first thought was why does Madagascar have to swear in our president?

For all I knew, this practice may have gone all the way back to George Washington.
I’m hoping it only seemed like it took thirty seconds to realize the story referred to Madagascar’s president and not ours.

Then it occurred to me that this could in fact be a useful tradition to begin with our new President. I suggest a very slow sailing ship. Large, luxurious and very comfortable of course. He is the President you know. It could be called Sail Boat One.

In fact, carrying a great idea even farther, we could load the Senate, the House and any elected official in the California State Capital as well. They could all take a big, slow ride to Madagascar and who knows; by the time they return things will probably be a lot better.

They should be back in about three years with a fair wind.

Why we need to be careful with President Obama

Like everyone else, I watched the President on Leno. Unlike everyone else, I’m willing to admit to it. But I figure why not? He’s the President. He plans to spend a lot of my money helping me improve my life so I enjoy any opportunity to listen to what he has to say, and if I watch while I have one hand resting on my wallet, well that’s an old habit and he’s not the first politician who has inclined me to do it.

The balloons and beach balls flew back and forth, which was no surprise. What was a surprise, although now I think I know why it shouldn’t have been, was when the President got a bit testy after Leno asked him about Treasury Secretary Geithner and went into his “I’m the man and the buck stops here” modality.

But once again, I realized why we have to be careful with President Obama. Smart guy that he is, he knew that all sorts of part-time pundits who probably have better things to do with their time would be going on about Leno, the President and the softball questions he would get. So even though there was no real reason for it, there is at least one sound bite with him being serious, determined and presidential.

All part of the act I guess.

Swell, now we are the terrorists.

With regard to bailing out the banks…

The president said. "It was the right thing to do, even though it's infuriating, even though it makes you angry. ... Here's the problem, It's almost like they've got a bomb strapped to them and they've got their hand on the trigger. You don't want them to blow up. But you've got to kind of talk them, ease that finger off the trigger."

Full text at:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Economy/story?id=7119504&page=1

Far be it from me to stand up and defend banks, but Mr. President, that was one hell of a thing to say.

If the public takes a look they will see that one type of institution that is not receiving bailouts is credit unions.

No, we’re not perfect and credit unions have been known to fail. That said, credit unions generally speaking, are prudently run. It is actually ironic because the bankers frequently tell us we are over-capitalized, and that we should put those extra pennies to work. Not lately though.

But comparing them (banks) to terrorists with bombs strapped on and fingers on the button is unhelpfu

A Brief Case For Not Paying the AIG Executive Bonuses.

CONTRACT - An agreement between two or more competent parties in which an offer is made and accepted, and each party benefits. The agreement can be formal, informal, written, oral or just plain understood.


I do not know what the details of the employment contracts that were made between the incompetent pixilated reprobates of AIG and the blood-sucking charlatans of questionable parentage who are now benefiting from taxpayer largesse by accepting $165,000,000 in bonuses.

Note to the respected reader: Bloggers don’t even need to pretend to be impartial.

Consider this:

There must be a good and valid consideration, motive or inducement to make the promise upon which a party is charged, for this is of the very essence of a contract

What is supposed to happen in any contractual exchange is a meeting of the minds: We hired you to make money, not to run us into the ground.

I would submit that there was no meeting of the minds between these execs getting huge bonuses at the expense of the taxpayers who bailed them out because of what resulted from their poor performance.

There was no meeting of the minds.

While I am writing this, the TV is saying they may demand the bonus amount back from AIG if they insist on paying it anyway.

I did the math. That amounts to 0.09 percent. Somehow, I don’t believe that will hurt much.

Anyway, I believe this is a very good case for denying these people their bonuses. I rest my case.

Terrorists

When we incarcerate criminals, we do so for three reasons. The first is to protect the public, the second is to exact penance and the third is to rehabilitate the felons themselves. This works fairly well in the first instance and also the second. Number three has a pretty spotty record.

Rehabilitation is predicated on the idea that the criminal understands, on some level, that what they are doing is wrong and that if we can just tap into that somehow, the felon will see the error of their ways and head down the straight and narrow path. This does not work with terrorists. They are convinced they are right and that their methods are perfectly just.

I bring this up specifically because of Sara Jane Olson, AKA Kathleen Soliah, a convicted urban terrorist who is being released, I believe today, to finish out her sentence as a parolee in Minnesota.

I also bring it up because President Obama keeps getting closer to letting bygones be bygones vis-à-vis the Guantanamo Bay detainees. I have a queasy feeling that he is going to hem and haw a lot as he lets most of them go one by one.

I’m glad he wants to stop torturing them, and water boarding is torture in my opinion. We don’t torture people, even terrorists here in America. But letting them go is something else entirely.

I’m very uncomfortable with the due process issues where the detainees are concerned. I have no doubt that had they been picked up on a street corner on some drug charge, they would have been sprung in a day or two, and the charges dropped a week later for lack of evidence.

I get it. Really.

But everyone knows these are bad guys. Some are worse than others but they are all very dangerous. When we start getting all sanguine about the time that has passed and start thinking they have learned their lesson, we are seriously mistaken.

They hate us. That is fairly common. They are fanatics. That in and of itself simply means it is pointless to try and convince them otherwise.

They are dangerous fanatics who are willing to put their ideas into action. If we let them go, they will.

The president needs to reconsider his plans.

Don’t you get tired of being lied to?

Budget cuts, furloughs, hiring freezes and promises to do better. Yes, we have been hearing all of that and more from Sacramento.

Then we see that from June of 2008 until February of this year, most agencies either stayed the same or got bigger.

Forget bad management. Forget making necessary cuts and applying needed increases. Let us just stick to the lies for now.

Don’t you get tired of being lied to by the people running this state? Don’t you get sick unto the point of death that every time you turn your back or leave the room these people find some way to take advantage of you?

The sad reality is that the best people we have in the state capital are incompetent. The worst are liars, thieves and cheats.

Diogenes would go through a lot of lamp oil searching for an honest person in California’s government these days.

Hopefully the rest of the week will be better.

The DC Flimflam

I spoke about the Pigeon Drop yesterday, but there is another one you need to be aware of. It is called the Rain Maker.

This dodge is actually quite a bit easier to describe because it is extremely simple. The conman convinces you to pay him to make something good happen, or to provide you with something you want. Or perhaps get you out of a mess you are in.

If it works, he will tell you it was because of his efforts, and if you pay him more money he will do even greater things for you.

If it doesn’t work, he will tell you he needs more money.

Do you see the pattern?

President Obama and the Congress are trying to convince you that by spending lots of taxpayer dollars they will fix the problems our country is facing.

Print this post out and keep it in your purse or wallet. Make a checkmark on it every time you hear the President or someone in Congress say, in some way, it didn’t work and we need more money, or that it did work and we need more money.

Have a good week.

The Pigeon Drop, DC Style

It is a kind of confidence game. Without boring details, a person or persons (pigeons) are convinced to give up something of value in order to receive something of greater value. The crooks perpetrating the con run off with the money.

The whole procedure requires someone with excellent verbal and people skills to manage the transaction and someone who is essentially a “stranger”, willing to put his money with the pigeon’s and then lets the pigeon hold the bag the money is in. Only, through slight of hand and misdirection, the money isn’t really in the bag. The con-artist, usually the smooth talking one, has it.

The stranger finds a reason to leave and the pigeon is then convinced by the con-man to run off with the money. Greed, fear, entitlement, whatever, the pigeon flies away thinking he has the money, when in fact he has nothing.

There is more to the game than this, but it is the essence of it. No doubt the internet will provide details if the respected reader is interested.

The President, a man with excellent verbal and people skills, and Congress are taking your money in the form of taxes.
The President and Congress have pointed out that you have been cheated by rich people (who are largely strangers to you) and they are going to take more of their money in the form of taxes and combine it with yours in the US Treasury

The President and Congress are then taking a tiny portion of this and handing it back to you with instructions to run off and spend it on fun stuff to get the economy going again. After all, if you don’t spend that “extra” money things will get worse (fear). Plus, it’s time you got your share of the wealth those rich people have amassed (entitlement). And so the hell what if they actually do work for their money, I want mine anyway (greed).

In the meantime, the rest will be used to do the great things necessary to improve the economy and fix the mess that these rich people and their Republican Conservative cronies are responsible for creating in the first place.

In reality, the President and Congress will spend your money on their own pet projects, the rich people will cut back hours, employees and jobs while passing any other costs on to the consumer with higher prices and reduced service.

Take a look at the bag you are holding. Something in it smells pretty bad.

Pigeon.

Reprehensible, disgraceful and if I had a thesaurus I would also say ignoble.

President Obama is thinking about requiring our wounded veterans to use private insurance to get treatment for injuries sustained in battle. This was brought up at a press briefing and confirmed by VA Secretary Shinseki under the great big dome.


The political wind-socks that work there (Often a loose term for what they do there) said such a suggestion would be dead on arrival, but other bills have been declared dead that found themselves resurrected, so we want to make sure this isn’t one of them.

How can they even consider such a thing? One of our kids goes off to Iraq or Afghanistan and sacrifices everything and yet somehow survives, only to later find out they need to go through their local HMO for treatment?


This administration is clueless about any of the realities of the world. Good God, when is this country going to wake up and collectively agree they made a mistake?

America, you made a mistake.
References below:
First, an excerpt from:
THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
__________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release March 10, 2009
PRESS BRIEFING
BY
PRESS SECRETARY ROBERT GIBBS

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
Q The VA Secretary was on the Hill today and he confirmed -- Secretary Shinseki -- that the administration is considering a plan to have veterans have the treatment for their service-related injuries paid for with private insurance, rather than the government. And there are a lot of veterans groups who have written to the President saying they believe this is outrageous and the government should be picking up the tab for those who served. What can you say about why the President is considering this --

MR. GIBBS: I've not seen what the VA Secretary had to say on this today, so let me go back and get a chance to read up on it.

Complete text at:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Briefing-by-WH-Press-Secretary-Gibbs-3-10-09/

Next we have…

By Adam Levine
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki confirmed Tuesday that the Obama administration is considering a controversial plan to make veterans pay for treatment of service-related injuries with private insurance.
Complete text at:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/10/veterans.health.insurance/index.html

Bernard Madoff is 70 years old

On April 29th he will be 71 years old.

It looks like Bernard Madoff is going to plead guilty to securities fraud, investment fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, false statements, perjury, false filings with the SEC, and theft from an employee benefit plan. There is no official plea agreement.

On April 29th, Bernard Madoff will be 71 years old.

He will face a maximum sentence of 150 years, mandatory restitution and fines up to twice what he gained from his behavior. He has to forfeit any proceeds or properties involved.

On April 29th, Bernard Madoff will be 71 years old.

Last November, Madoff’s company had 4800 clients and issued statements totaling $65 billion. Only a fraction was actually held. He stole over $50 billion dollars. He is expected to go to a plea proceeding where he will plead guilty.

On April 29th, Bernard Madoff will be 71 years old.

Bernard Madoff has ruined people’s lives, destroyed retirements, caused small companies to topple, taken away children’s chances of an education and has quite probably impelled some people to kill themselves.

I have only seen him in pictures, but the man doesn’t even look like he’s in the least bit sorry. Frankly, he looks a bit smug. For a few years in prison, and I’ll wager it’s not the same prison some ghetto kid goes to for boosting a $1500 car, Madoff had one heck of a run at the good life. 150 years indeed.

On April 29th, Bernard Madoff will be 71 years old.

We have no real way to impart justice to this man. There can be no genuine restitution from what little he still has, and he will certainly not have the means to earn anything even remotely capable of paying it back.

He will go to prison, and he will die there. But there will be no true justice.

Justice lost this one.

On April 29th, Bernard Madoff will be 71 years old.

Beware of the Medical Industrial Complex

Is this going to become the Anti-Administration?

It seems like every speech the new President, who I like very much and disagree with about almost everything, is basing his whole administration on the concept of “whatever Bush did, I’ll undo, whatever Bush was for, I’m against”.

Let’s face it, for such a forward looking president; he certainly talks about the past a lot. Personally, I think he had every right to say “nyahh-nyahh” for the first month or so but he and his associates keep bringing up the big mess they were left with.

Why aren’t the people who voted for him rising up and saying “We know! That’s why we gave you the job. Go fix it and stop whining!” Good grief, that’s what I’ve been saying to him and I didn’t vote for him.

I can just see this in the private sector. You have a big problem and hire someone to fix it:

Exterminator: Well yeah, but I inherited a whole lot of rats!

Mechanic: Sure, but I inherited an engine that was really broken!

Today it is stem cells, and the Medical Industrial Complex is lining up at the trough just waiting for more taxpayer dollars to bolster yet another venture that would make money and be self-sustaining if it had any real merit. Yes, public funding was limited but private funding was not.

Let us be clear, the President did not make stem cell research legal yesterday. It was never outlawed. It was never banned. It was never even discouraged. All President Obama did was put it back in the tax dollar feedbag again and yell “belly up to the trough folks, this one’s on the house!”

How does it feel to be the house?

Sunday Musings

Children have a willingness to be excited that most adults seem to lose as time passes. This I suppose is too bad but I think it is also a change that helps to ground us a bit in the realities of life.

I listen to young people go on about some terrible predicament they are facing, or the difficulties of not fitting in or standing out in the wrong way. Kids…what are you going to do with them?

But I have to accept it is harder to be a kid now. Some things have not changed. There are still mean kids, and peer pressure to get into various kinds of trouble. But the world for all its wonders is a more dangerous place than it used to be.

That said, most of the things we hear the kids say sound kind of silly, but we are listening and hearing through the jaded eyes and ears of adulthood. We have the benefit of hard-won experience, having already learned that not fitting in may be uncomfortable but is not world-ending and in fact it is kind of nice to stand out from the crowd.

They haven’t figured out that bullies are just cowards, but we need to remember that bullies are more dangerous than they used to be. I didn’t want to get beat up, but the possibility of a bully killing me was fairly remote.

Kids have this need to be part of the cool crowd, or whatever that is called these days while not understanding that the only reason the group is favored at all is because they have figured out some formula for gaining unwitting admiration of others who are less comfortable with their own station in life, whatever that might be.

If the respected reader disagrees, then explain Paris Hilton to me, or any of the other socialites, male female and whatever falls in between.

Life has its ups and downs, neither usually fabulous nor tragic. And frequently the bad stuff that happes is what helps us grow and mature, and ultimately find the successes that seem to constantly elude the “lucky” people who have everything handed to them.

But kids haven’t learned this yet so we should cut them some slack.

Have a good week.

Human potential

I call it "fringing"


Fringing is the sort of prejudice exhibited when we only pay attention to the fringe element of a group while largely ignoring the rest of it. It is when people assume all gays are like those who dress and behave outlandishly for the media when in fact most are as discrete about their sexuality as others are inclined to be.

It is when people assume that all Moslems either are terrorists or sympathize with them when in fact the vast majority of Moslems are perfectly peaceful people who are just as shocked and angered by terrorist behaviors as anyone else is.

It is when people assume that all the supporters of Proposition 8 are a bunch of intolerant Nazis.

It is when people assume that opponents of proposition 8 are a bunch of perverts who want to destroy marriage and open the door to other truly dangerous practices.

It is when people assume Conservatives are all right-wing whackos.

It is when people assume that all Liberals are left wing nut jobs.

It is when people assume that Moderates are all wishy-washy fence-sitters who haven’t got the courage to stand up and choose sides.

I could go on, and on, and on.

There are, no doubt all sorts of other examples of fringing that the respected reader could come up with on their own. Suffice it to say that anytime we might catch ourselves thinking, or worse, saying things like “they’re all…” we are in the fringing danger zone.

I brought this up today because it is the last day of Black History Month, and I have seen a lot of really great articles about the contributions of African Americans have made to America. I’d like to see more and I don’t need to wait until next February.

But I saw nothing about lost potential. No doubt there were some. I watch very little TV, but I do read a lot. I’m sorry to say I missed any lost potential articles. Fringing is one of the biggest culprits in lost potential, if not the biggest.

When some people look at a young African American man, they see a potential gangster where I see a potential police officer. They see a potential thief where I see a potential city councilman. They see a potential drug dealer where I see a potential doctor. They see potential welfare mothers where I see potential small business leaders, managers and CEOs.

Where some people, who often are well-meaning, with only the best of intentions, see potential failure, misery and destruction, I see potential success. I see Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and President Barack Obama. They and so many like them have achieved success, often from beginnings that did not foretell much in the way of greatness.

Potential for good. Potential for bad. We all have both. I would prefer to encourage and reward the potential for good rather than focus on fighting and punishing the potential for bad. I think it works better.

Human potential is truly boundless. I hope you occasionally reach for yours.

From the White House – Keeping Promises (And Me Showing Some Moxie)

The reason I chose to begin this (at least) weekly comment page is because of a fellow reader I know only as rlw895. I was bloviating about the Stimulus Bill failing and rlw895 reasonably asked me what I would do if I am wrong, and how I would define failure. My blog posting titled “A Gauntlet Thrown Down” details our discussion, my definition of failure and what I will do if I’m wrong.

Admittedly, I think I went a bit beyond the Stimulus package but I thought I was being reasonable. I never heard anything from him until just a moment ago. You can go read his comment yourself and my reply below it and then come back if you like.

Welcome back, I’m assuming you read it.

He said among other things, that I should “show some moxie”. Well this I think qualifies. So, if anyone becomes annoyed that I keep reminding them very succinctly about what the President says and promises, and especially when his actions or accomplishments deviate from what he says he will do, you can thank rlw895.

The real irony here, is that until his comment came in, I had considered stopping blogging here! Ha ha! Irony of ironies and one more tiny piece of evidence that there is indeed a God.

It will always be prefixed with From The White House followed by the subject matter. In this case it was the name the White House gave the weekly address this morning.

The President is a great speaker but sometimes the substance of his comments gets lost in the flowery language. The full text follows my summary, admittedly out of context, but I have not changed a word. Remember the full text is directly below my comments.

Without any further ado, below is my summary without comment followed by the full text of President Obama’s weekly address. This came from the White House Official Website, http://www.whitehouse.gov/



· During the campaign, I promised a fair and balanced tax code that would cut taxes for 95% of working Americans, roll back the tax breaks for those making over $250,000 a year, and end the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas.

· I promised an economy run on clean, renewable energy that will create new American jobs, new American industries, and free us from the dangerous grip of foreign oil

· I promised to bring down the crushing cost of health care – a cost that bankrupts one American every thirty seconds, forces small businesses to close their doors, and saddles our government with more debt.

· I promised an education system that will prepare every American to compete, so Americans can win in a global economy.

· This budget also reflects the stark reality of what we’ve inherited – a trillion dollar deficit, a financial crisis, and a costly recession.

· I realize that passing this budget won’t be easy. Because it represents real and dramatic change, it also represents a threat to the status quo in Washington.

· The system we have now might work for the powerful and well-connected interests that have run Washington for far too long, but I don’t. I work for the American people.

The full text version:


Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
Saturday, February 28th, 2009
Washington, DC

Two years ago, we set out on a journey to change the way that Washington works.

We sought a government that served not the interests of powerful lobbyists or the wealthiest few, but the middle-class Americans I met every day in every community along the campaign trail – responsible men and women who are working harder than ever, worrying about their jobs, and struggling to raise their families. In so many town halls and backyards, they spoke of their hopes for a government that finally confronts the challenges that their families face every day; a government that treats their tax dollars as responsibly as they treat their own hard-earned paychecks.

That is the change I promised as a candidate for president. It is the change the American people voted for in November. And it is the change represented by the budget I sent to Congress this week.

During the campaign, I promised a fair and balanced tax code that would cut taxes for 95% of working Americans, roll back the tax breaks for those making over $250,000 a year, and end the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas. This budget does that.

I promised an economy run on clean, renewable energy that will create new American jobs, new American industries, and free us from the dangerous grip of foreign oil. This budget puts us on that path, through a market-based cap on carbon pollution that will make renewable energy the profitable kind of energy; through investments in wind power and solar power; advanced biofuels, clean coal, and more fuel-efficient American cars and American trucks.

I promised to bring down the crushing cost of health care – a cost that bankrupts one American every thirty seconds, forces small businesses to close their doors, and saddles our government with more debt. This budget keeps that promise, with a historic commitment to reform that will lead to lower costs and quality, affordable health care for every American.

I promised an education system that will prepare every American to compete, so Americans can win in a global economy. This budget will help us meet that goal, with new incentives for teacher performance and pathways for advancement; new tax credits that will make college more affordable for all who want to go; and new support to ensure that those who do go finish their degree.

This budget also reflects the stark reality of what we’ve inherited – a trillion dollar deficit, a financial crisis, and a costly recession. Given this reality, we’ll have to be more vigilant than ever in eliminating the programs we don’t need in order to make room for the investments we do need. I promised to do this by going through the federal budget page by page, and line by line. That is a process we have already begun, and I am pleased to say that we’ve already identified two trillion dollars worth of deficit-reductions over the next decade. We’ve also restored a sense of honesty and transparency to our budget, which is why this one accounts for spending that was hidden or left out under the old rules.

I realize that passing this budget won’t be easy. Because it represents real and dramatic change, it also represents a threat to the status quo in Washington. I know that the insurance industry won’t like the idea that they’ll have to bid competitively to continue offering Medicare coverage, but that’s how we’ll help preserve and protect Medicare and lower health care costs for American families. I know that banks and big student lenders won’t like the idea that we’re ending their huge taxpayer subsidies, but that’s how we’ll save taxpayers nearly $50 billion and make college more affordable. I know that oil and gas companies won’t like us ending nearly $30 billion in tax breaks, but that’s how we’ll help fund a renewable energy economy that will create new jobs and new industries. In other words, I know these steps won’t sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they’re gearing up for a fight as we speak. My message to them is this:

So am I.

The system we have now might work for the powerful and well-connected interests that have run Washington for far too long, but I don’t. I work for the American people. I didn’t come here to do the same thing we’ve been doing or to take small steps forward, I came to provide the sweeping change that this country demanded when it went to the polls in November. That is the change this budget starts to make, and that is the change I’ll be fighting for in the weeks ahead – change that will grow our economy, expand our middle-class, and keep the American Dream alive for all those men and women who have believed in this journey from the day it began.

Thanks for listening.

First, why I’m asking why…

Posted 2/26/2009 7:58 PM PST on The Sacramento Bee
Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Press Briefing by OMB Director Peter Orszag and CEA Chair Christina Romer
THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

_____________________________

For Immediate Release February 26, 2009

11:07 A.M. EST

Q. I just want you to address -- or both of you -- just the fundamental criticism that you're talking about raising taxes on businesses and investors in a recession.

DIRECTOR ORSZAG: Well, let me be very clear on that second question. That's just factually wrong. We're not doing that. Any of the revenue changes that we're talking about, whether it's for those making a quarter-million dollars or more, or the itemized deductions that we were talking about before, are in 2011 and thereafter. So the assertion that we're raising taxes in the midst of a recession is just factually wrong. And in fact, we just cut taxes as part of the recovery act, which is exactly what is appropriate from a macroeconomic perspective to boost aggregate demand during a downturn.

My question, is why not?

I mean to say, after listening to the new President’s ardent supporters, all sorts of commenting readers right here at the Bee and the President himself, I have to ask why are we not raising the taxes on these brigands, these leaches on our good American society?

Are these not the selfsame robber barons that have been sucking the very life-blood from the vulnerable throats of the proletariat?

Are these not the evil manipulating villains that have trod upon the hopes and dreams of the common worker?

Are these not the gangsters and marauders that have reaped all of the benefits of America while providing nothing in return?

WHY IS THIS ADMINISTRATION NOT RAISING THE TAXES OF THESE PILLAGING OUTLAWS RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE?

Surely it isn’t the economy. Good grief, they created the mess and are laughing at the rest of us while they read their Wall Street Journals and eat caviar on those fancy water biscuits, laughing at the rest of us while they wash down their breakfasts with expensive French Champagne.

They don’t work, right? They just had everything handed to them, right? So tax them until their eyes begin to bleed! Go into their homes, throw them out and turn them into vast, cavernous homeless shelters!

Seize their assets, sell their children into slavery and take them out and shoot them in the streets like the dogs that they are!

Oh, sorry. I got carried away. It is just that whenever governments decide to transfer wealth, things like that tend to happen.

I do have a different theory. Could it be that these rich people have connections in Congress, or even the White House itself? Is it possible that influence is being peddled in the recently cleaned streets of Washington DC? Might it be necessary to rise up, gather our arms and our wits about us as we march on the Capitol, drag the politicians out into the streets and shoot them like the…

Sorry, keep getting carried away.

Instead, I’ll present another theory. Could it be that most people who make over $250,000 annually make closer to $250,000 than they do to $2,000,000? Is it possible that most of these affluent people live in homes not significantly fancier than your tract home? Should we consider the slight possibility that these rich folks drag their tired backsides out of bed each morning and go to work after a bowl of Cheerios?

Following this ridiculous thread, imagine that they are the people who run small businesses and are themselves up to their armpits in debt, trying desperately to keep their employees employed and going home feeling sick every night, wondering if they can remain open for business.

And is it possible that the new President, who I like very much and disagree with about almost everything, knows this? And that he also knows that if he nails these people to one of the crosses the IRS is hammering together, that all those little people who work for them might start losing their jobs even faster?

If true, that is not very transparent if you ask me. In fact it sounds pretty disingenuous. Maybe we should consider rising up, marching on DC and dragging them out into...oh, never mind.

Isn’t this the transparent administration? Maybe I was wrong. Maybe a lot of people were wrong.

Transparency

Posted 2/25/2009 9:31 PM PST on The Sacramento Bee
If this administration wants transparency, it is going to have to take the time to instruct its members, particularly those who speak with the press in how the US comes up with budgets and how it manages the process. Otherwise, the Whitehouse press corps is going to dismantle them one body part at a time.

The President swept into office with the voters and the press in genuine love with him. And that is fine, but he needs to realize that the campaign is over for the next eighteen months and he needs to stop acting like a candidate and start acting like a President. If he needs just one warning about “transparency”, I’ll give it to him:

President James Earl Carter Jr.

Governor Carter was also swept in by a loving electorate and doting press as he too said Washington would become America’s fishbowl. He quickly discovered that the halls of DC work largely in the shadows because while politicians regardless of political stripe love to go back home and tell their constituents what they got for them, they don’t like too many people to know what they had to give up to get it.

Governor Carter also discovered that the only thing the press liked more than Cousin Jimmy himself was the opportunity to start throwing darts at him. They did too, because it became clear that the man was a truly decent guy, but he knew nothing about playing politics in the big leagues.

The Congress didn’t care for what they regarded as interference in their affairs and demonstrated this by giving him trouble with various bills he wanted passed. Eventually he actually called them “ravenous wolves”.

Then there was an ongoing energy crisis, a stagflated economy, some very inopportune presidential statements to the public, and a whole lot of lousy foreign policy situations, not the least of which was the hostage crisis in Iran. Add to this an interesting cast of family members and you had a show that no reporter in his right mind would pass up.

Former President Carter began to realize why transparency was a hard thing to achieve. The press corps that loved him so much during the election began to smell blood when the Carter Administration stopped talking so much. The result was Former President Carter becoming Former President Carter four years earlier than he wanted to.

Unlike others of my political persuasion, I do not want the new President to fail. I don’t think that would be good for anyone. But before he was elected I smelled an emerging Carter II presidency and while the big guy on the radio may be looking forward to it, I don’t want that.

The new administration needs to learn how to handle information transparently while doing so in a way that doesn’t suggest they are hiding something. I know this is a contradiction, but if they don’t figure it out there will be a lot more exchanges like this in the White House Press Room.



Excerpt from
Briefing by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, 2/25/2009
THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary


Q I wanted to come back to Chuck's question about the $2 trillion figure that the President used last night of savings over the next 10 years. We were told last night that that basically referred to two things. One is the expiration of the tax cuts on the wealthy that would happen next year. And two is a reduction of what we are currently spending in Iraq --

MR. GIBBS: I think that's a -- I think that's certainly a decent part of it.

Q Okay. But let me ask -- is it transparent to say that tax increases are part of savings? And is it transparent to say that we're going to be saving that much from Iraq when nobody expects that 10 years out we would be spending what we're spending today in Iraq? Even the previous administration agreed to get out of Iraq by 2012. And that's the baseline you're culling savings from.

MR. GIBBS: It isn't -- I mean, if we're not spending the money, and the money doesn't go out the door, and the money doesn't increase the deficit, and the deficit decreases by some amount, ultimately getting you to the President's goal of having a $1.2 trillion to $1.3 trillion deficit in his first four years in office --

Q But nobody expects to spend 10 years from now what we're spending today in Iraq. And if we use that as our baseline, saying, oh, we're saving because we're not spending what we did 10 years ago, I mean, isn't that sort of setting up a funny money comparison?

MR. GIBBS: No, I don't think so at all.

Q Does a tax increase count as savings?

MR. GIBBS: Again, it's -- you've got additional revenue -- as the President I think clearly said, tax cuts for people that are -- for families that are making $250,000 or more a year, quarter of a million dollars or more -- again, that's an increase in the amount of money that --

Q But you said you've identified savings. That's not really a savings.

MR. GIBBS: Again, I think some of this will be clearer when we can be -- can give you physically a budget for you to look at.

It was a pretty good speech.

Posted 2/25/2009 1:20 AM PST on The Sacramento Bee
Our new president, who I like very much and agree with about almost nothing, is an excellent speaker. He may end up giving the old Gipper* a run for his money in that department.

But the speech was long on rhetoric and smacked of a sales pitch. Nonetheless, what I have done here, as much for my own benefit as for that of the respected reader, is remove all the hyperbole, and more importantly, I have only left that which says specifically what the new President is going to do. The process took it from ten pages to about one and a half.

Conceptual order has not changed, and except for an occasional pronoun here and there, I have not added anything. Finally, I have placed the complete text of President Obama's speach on the Public Messages Page.

*For those who are not ancient Neanderthals, the Gipper refers to President Ronald Reagan.

· We are creating a new lending fund.

· We have launched a housing plan that will help responsible families facing the threat of foreclosure.

· We will act to ensure that the major banks have enough confidence and enough money to lend.

· This plan will require significant resources from the federal government – probably more than we’ve set aside.

· I will submit a budget to Congress. Everyone will have to sacrifice.

· We will double this nation’s supply of renewable energy in the next three years.

· We will soon lay down thousands of miles of power lines.

· We will put Americans to work.

· I ask this Congress to send me legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy in America.

· We will invest fifteen billion dollars a year to develop technologies like wind power and solar power; advanced biofuels, clean coal, and more fuel-efficient cars and trucks built right here in America.

· Our recovery plan will invest in electronic health records and new technology that will reduce errors, bring down costs, ensure privacy, and save lives.

· It will seek a cure for cancer in our time. And it makes the largest investment ever in preventive care.

· This budget creates new incentives for teacher performance;

· I pledged to cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term in office.

· We will end education programs that don’t work.

· (We will) end direct payments to large agribusinesses that don’t need them.

· We’ll eliminate the no-bid contracts and reform our defense budget.

· We will root out the waste, fraud, and abuse in our Medicare program.

· We will end the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas.

· We will also end the tax breaks for the wealthiest 2% of Americans.

· The recovery plan provides a tax cut for 95% of working families.

· And these checks are on the way.

· I will soon announce a way forward in Iraq that leaves Iraq to its people and responsibly ends this war.

· We will forge a new and comprehensive strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan to defeat al Qaeda and combat extremism.

· My budget increases the number of our soldiers and Marines. And we will raise their pay, and give our veterans the expanded health care and benefits that they have earned.

· I have ordered the closing of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

· We will strengthen old alliances, forge new ones, and use all elements of our national power.

The Quickest and broadest tax cut ever.

The Quickest and broadest tax cut ever.
Posted 2/23/2009 9:41 PM PST on The Sacramento Bee
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/02/20/The-quickest-and-broadest-tax-cut-ever/

Above is a link to the President’s last weekly address. Read it or not in any manner you like, but do me a favor and take a look at the last two paragraphs. After all of the “Yes, we can!” talk, it was a little surprising to read a series of “No, we can’t” statements.

In italics are a few comments of my own.

No single piece of this broad economic recovery can, by itself, meet the demands that have been placed on us.

If that means we can’t solve our problems by passing stimulus bills, I agree and am glad he sees the error of his ways. But, I think it just means “You ain’t seen nuthin yet folks.”

We can't help people find work or pay their bills unless we unlock credit for families and businesses.

I would submit that unlocked credit, or more specifically debt, is one of the main factors in the average person’s ruination right now. That said, “The Government” has never been particularly helpful in finding people employment. Anyone who has visited the unemployment office knows that.

As to unlocking credit for businesses, I can agree with that but it is not as tight as you may believe. Banks are still lending to businesses that are in good shape. It is just that right now there are many employers that are struggling and wise lending guidelines demand that banks recognize that cold-hearted reality when making business lending decisions. Don’t forget that unwise lending practices are a big part of the reason we are all in this mess.

We can't solve our housing crisis unless we help people find work so that they can make payments on their homes.

Certainly unemployment is a factor, but most of the defaulting borrowers have jobs. They should never have been approved for the loan in the first place. That was one of those unwise lending practices I mentioned earlier. And I’ve already stated my opinion regarding how well The Government finds jobs.

We can't produce shared prosperity without firm rules of the road, and we can't generate sustained growth without getting our deficits under control.

We have firm rules. We just need to enforce them. And while deficits will not in and of themselves prevent sustained growth, in this case I agree. The question is, how will we get the deficit under control? Presidential Plan Number One right out of the gate has just increased it.

In short, we cannot successfully address any of our problems without addressing them all. And that is exactly what the strategy we are pursuing is designed to do.

Sorry, not true and it is in fact a weasel statement designed and included as an escape hatch when this plan fails. It is in fact the first time our new President, who I like very much and agree with about almost nothing, has said something that actually angered me.

Mark my words, when the failure is “non-acknowledged”, it will be spun in a way to blame the opposition for holding him back and not being allowed to do enough.

None of this will be easy. The road ahead will be long and full of hazards. But I am confident that we, as a people, have the strength and wisdom to carry out this strategy and overcome this crisis. And if we do, our economy -- and our country -- will be better and stronger for it.

Life is never easy and big government types won’t accept that government can’t change that. The long road full of hazards is another weasel statement and the biggest hazard we face economically is political types applying political solutions to real problems. They make decisions that look good but don’t deliver. Rather than accepting responsibility when that happens they deny the failure until they can blame someone else for it. Both “R’s” and “D’s” do this.

Then the statement of confidence followed by…”If we do…” "If", why not "when"? I read this as “If we fail, it really is your, the public’s fault. And you know what? Since the public put him in the big chair, I happen to agree.

A Gauntlet Thrown Down!

First a link:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/02/20/The-quickest-and-broadest-tax-cut-ever/


Next: The opinion Piece: Political Colors

http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/story/1641424.html?pageNum=1&&mi_pluck_action=page_nav#Comments_Container

The Comments:

CreditUnionMan wrote on 02/22/2009 05:45:47 PM:
"Or, perhaps, bipartisanship may not be such a worthy goal after all."

I read the whole thing, but there it is. Bipartisanship always loses importance once you have the majority.

Well folks, when this stimulus bill fails, and it will fail, I'll know who passed it. Call it accountability. Call it blame. Call it partisanship. Call it whatever you want to. The new team has blown it big time right out of the gate.

rlw895 wrote on 02/22/2009 06:06:50 PM:
CreditUnionMan: I'll call you. Define failure. You've told us what you will do if the stimulus bill fails. What will you do if it doesn't?

CreditUnionMan wrote on 02/22/2009 06:36:02 PM:
Failure is defined as having the same problems a year from now and being no closer to solving them. Or, how about eighteen months? twenty-four?

I define failure as not solving the problem. What do you define failure as?

And if I'm wrong, I'll admit I was wrong. You don't know me, but if you did you would believe me when I say that. Heaven knows, most all of my friends and family know my opinion, most are classic liberals convinced the package will work.

Rest assured, I will be reminded of my folly if I'm wrong.

CreditUnionMan wrote on 02/22/2009 06:51:27 PM:
rlw895, I'm going to give you an even better answer (that in no way conflicts with the first!)

This link is from the White House:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/02/20/The-quickest-and-broadest-tax-cut-ever/

It has the President's own words. I'll give him two years, is that fair?

Click on my name and you will see I have a blog here at the Bee. If I am wrong, and what he says will happen happens, then I will admit right there on my blog that I was wrong.

How's that? Plus, you don't need my approval to write on my comments page, so you can remind me publicly if you like.

Fair enough?

My promise:

If the President achieves and sustains everything he said below, I will state publicly on this blog that I was wrong. In fact, I will state it on every blog that I write, both now and in the future.


The salient points made by the President:

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will start having an impact as soon as a few weeks from now, in the form of the quickest and broadest tax cut in history:

By April 1st, a typical family will begin taking home at least $65 more every month.

The President is committed to taking on the massive deficits we inherited.

“On Monday I will convene a fiscal summit of independent experts and unions, advocacy groups and members of Congress to discuss how we can cut the trillion-dollar deficit that we’ve inherited.”

“On Tuesday, I will speak to the nation about our urgent national priorities.”

“On Thursday, I’ll release a budget that’s sober in its assessments, honest in its accounting, and that lays out in detail my strategy for investing in what we need, cutting what we don’t, and restoring fiscal discipline."

“3.5 million Americans will now go to work doing the work that America needs done.”

“There will now be shovels in the ground, cranes in the air, and workers rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, and repairing our faulty levees and dams.”

· “Companies -- large and small -- that produce renewable energy can now apply for loan guarantees and tax credits and find ways to grow, instead of laying people off”

· “Families can lower their energy bills by weatherizing their homes.”

· “Our children can now graduate from 21st century schools and millions more can do what was unaffordable just last week -- and get their college degree.”

· “Lives will be saved and health care costs will be cut with new computerized medical records. “

· “There will now be police on the beat, firefighters on the job, and teachers preparing lesson plans who thought they would not be able to continue pursuing their critical missions.”

· “And (to) ensure that all of this is done with an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability, I have assigned a team of managers to make sure that precious tax dollars are invested wisely and well.”

· “95 percent of all working families will get a tax cut -- in keeping with a promise I made on the campaign. “

· “And I'm pleased to announce that this morning, the Treasury Department began directing employers to reduce the amount of taxes withheld from paychecks -- meaning that by April 1st, a typical family will begin taking home at least $65 more every month.”

· “It is only a first step on the road to economic recovery. “

· “We can't fail to complete the journey.”

· “Will require stemming the spread of foreclosures and falling home values”

· “Doing all we can to help responsible homeowners stay in their homes”

· “It will require stabilizing and repairing our banking system”

· “Getting credit flowing again to families and businesses.”

· “Reforming the broken regulatory system that made this crisis possible.”

· “Recognizing that it's only by setting and enforcing 21st century rules of the road that we can build a thriving economy.”

· “It will require doing all we can to get exploding deficits under control as our economy begins to recover.”

· “No single piece of this broad economic recovery can, by itself, meet the demands that have been placed on us.”

· “We can't help people find work or pay their bills unless we unlock credit for families and businesses.”

· “We can't solve our housing crisis unless we help people find work so that they can make payments on their homes.”

· “We can't produce shared prosperity without firm rules of the road.”

· “We can't generate sustained growth without getting our deficits under control. “

· “We cannot successfully address any of our problems without addressing them all.”

· “That is exactly what the strategy we are pursuing is designed to do.”

· “I am confident that we, as a people, have the strength and wisdom to carry out this strategy and overcome this crisis.”

· “And if we do, our economy -- and our country -- will be better and stronger for it.”

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rlw895 wrote:
"Everything?" Come on, show some moxie. How about 90%, 75%, 50%? And many of these are not measureable by objective standards. Pick a few that are.
2/28/2009 12:59 PM PST on The Sacramento Bee
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CreditUnionMan wrote:
I'll accept your selection.

Sunday Musings

My sister died of brain cancer when I was four years and five months old. It was a devastating experience. I started school when I was four years and nine months old.
That experience was not much better. Today, I would be labeled a troubled child with behavioral issues. Back then I was simply a discipline problem.

I could not have put it into words back then, but my problem was injustice. The profound injustice of losing my sister and no one willing to talk about it or her. The petty injustice of having to go to school when I didn’t want to. And the simple reality that life goes on and sometimes you get school teachers that are not very good at it.

Mrs. Brewster, and that is her real name, was not a good kindergarten teacher. I don’t even say that it was her fault. You have to so something for a living. But she was one crummy teacher and not a very nice person either.

One day, I was stood in the corner for some infraction. I probably deserved it. I was not a good student. But I believed my treatment was not warranted in this case and said so. Mrs. Brewster walked over and slapped me across the face. Hard.

I told my parents she had hit me. My mother didn’t believe me and my father said I must have deserved it and gave me a good one of his own. So much for justice. Although, what never occurred to me until much later was that nothing in writing had been sent home documenting the slap. I know now that only the principle got to wallop the kids. Again, so much for justice.

More defiance on my part, more slams and slaps.

Eventually, I came to realize that’s all they had.

I spend some time over on the forums, mostly the one about gay marriage rights but others as well. You gain a unique perspective, listening to the ideologues on both sides of an issue yell at each other without listening at all. And every so often, someone leaves a post that more or less voices their opinion, states there is no reason for this discussion in the first place, suggests the Bee shut down the site and finishes off with “We won, you lost, end of story!”

I’ll bet they slap their children. Because that’s all they’ve got. They parrot some lines they heard on the radio or read in a brochure, decided they liked what they heard and that’s it. End of story. I’m right and you are wrong. We won, you lost, end of story.

I’ve even googled some of the lines I’ve read and found the damned brochures and sites they see them in. Don’t they have any original thoughts? When pressed for a few, then they just call each other names.

I don’t ignore injustice and I won’t ignore bullies on either side of an issue, even if I find myself allied with them in purpose. So I don’t give a damn if it has been voted on or not. Maybe in the Amerika these clowns come from you can shut off discussion, but in America we don’t do it that way.

Economic Vanity: The Yellow Brick Road, Part Two

When we last left our hero he was trying to demonstrate how facial cosmetics might possibly be applied to a pig with some positive effect. In the first episode, he suggested that handing taxpayer money back to taxpayers hoping they will go to a movie and order butter with their popcorn was an even worse idea than passing a stimulus bill at all.

Instead, since the stimulus package is a fait accompli, he suggested the money be handed to the pirates and brigands that are Corporate America with instructions to use it to supplement their own investment in an industry dedicated to economically extracting our natural resources in a responsible and environmentally friendly manner.

This will come with the warning… scratch that… the genuine and very legitimate threat of violent penance should they cheat or cut corners. He also knows he is dreaming about all of this, but so is DC so, so what?

But it takes more than mining, farming and chopping down trees.

Assuming the money keeps flowing out of Washington like water from Meribah, it should continue to help build processing plants that turn natural resources into primary products. These raw materials and parts will then be used to manufacture finished goods and machinery. Domestic and foreign consumption are certain to follow.

New jobs will be created in construction, first for the industrial complexes themselves followed by housing, retail and schools for the people they will employ and their families. Transportation, research and development and even jobs that can’t be described because they will be the result of innovative technologies not yet even created!

Pie in the sky predictions from some nutcase with his head in the clouds?

Maybe. But in their own way, this is precisely what the president and Congress are telling you right now about a stimulus bill, now passed, that for most Americans will result in a few bucks more in their paycheck (and will be lost later) that they will run out to the mall to buy an iPod with.

My suggestion, that is to say using taxpayer dollars to bring manufacturing back to this country, could work. What the President and his pals are doing though, will not work. I have no doubt they will claim it worked regardless of the outcome, but it won't work.

I’ve been reading the actual bill that was passed. Next time I’ll tell you some things your stimulus dollars are going to that are not making the news. (Example: Over $3 billion for rural sewer systems.)

Economic Vanity: The Yellow Brick Road, Part Two

When we last left our hero he was trying to demonstrate how facial cosmetics might possibly be applied to a pig with some positive effect. In the first episode, he suggested that handing taxpayer money back to taxpayers hoping they will go to a movie and order butter with their popcorn was an even worse idea than passing a stimulus bill at all.

Instead, since the stimulus package is a fait accompli, he suggested the money be handed to the pirates and brigands that are Corporate America with instructions to use it to supplement their own investment in an industry dedicated to economically extracting our natural resources in a responsible and environmentally friendly manner.

This will come with the warning… scratch that… the genuine and very legitimate threat of violent penance should they cheat or cut corners. He also knows he is dreaming about all of this, but so is DC so, so what?

But it takes more than mining, farming and chopping down trees.

Assuming the money keeps flowing out of Washington like water from Meribah, it should continue to help build processing plants that turn natural resources into primary products. These raw materials and parts will then be used to manufacture finished goods and machinery. Domestic and foreign consumption are certain to follow.

New jobs will be created in construction, first for the industrial complexes themselves followed by housing, retail and schools for the people they will employ and their families. Transportation, research and development and even jobs that can’t be described because they will be the result of innovative technologies not yet even created!

Pie in the sky predictions from some nutcase with his head in the clouds?

Maybe. But in their own way, this is precisely what the president and Congress are telling you right now about a stimulus bill, now passed, that for most Americans will result in a few bucks more in their paycheck (and will be lost later) that they will run out to the mall to buy an iPod with.

My suggestion, that is to say using taxpayer dollars to bring manufacturing back to this country, could work. What the President and his pals are doing though, will not work. I have no doubt they will claim it worked regardless of the outcome, but it won't work.

I’ve been reading the actual bill that was passed. Next time I’ll tell you some things your stimulus dollars are going to that are not making the news. (Example: Over $3 billion for rural sewer systems.)

Economic Vanity

As I have said here before, the Economic Stimulus Package cannot work because it is nothing more than handing taxpayer dollars back to the taxpayers with instructions to spend them on frivolous goods and services.

It is the economic equivalent of vanity.

The bill will briefly stimulate local economies but this effect is sustainable only as long as stimulus dollars are available to spend. It will not typically result in new jobs, and will only temporarily stave off the loss of existing ones. Indeed, it may not even do that.

At the end of this Yellow Brick Road, the only economies that may possibly be stimulated are those belonging to the countries that supply us with television sets and iPhones.

There is a way it could work, but it may violate antitrust laws.

An article that I wrote and never posted referred to economies as quasi-living machines lacking any sort of conscience and caring about nothing. The one absolute and constant reality of any economy is that in the beginning, as surely as God created the Heavens and the Earth, economies require something to be created from nothing.

This of course is impossible.

Unless it was created a long time ago and we pull it out of the ground now.

We have become so used to a service economy that we have forgotten that it is possible to use raw materials. We still have them, but by and large it became too expensive to extract them, either because of labor expenses or the cost of mining in a way that is environmentally acceptable.

Enter the Stimulus Package, the Magic Money, and the BailOutBucks. Whatever we call them, they are perfect for going back to the dirt under our feet and pulling things we can use out of it.

Instead of giving all this cash to ordinary people who will typically squander it even without instructions to do so, give it to the big, evil corporate entities with strict instructions that this is to alleviate the costs of once again producing raw materials and selling them to manufacturers.

If they cheat, then they get to build the brick walls they will stand in front of in their corporate board rooms as the firing squads are led in.

You seem to think I’m kidding.

America was built on the land with materials pulled from the land. Stimulus dollars could effectively allow us to rebuild America, but like it or not, we need Corporate America to do it.

Otherwise, we will just watch more TV.

Do you really want this budget deal?

It will result in a $14 billion tax increase.
It will result in $15 billion in spending cuts.
It will result in $11 billion in borrowing.

It will waive environmental rules to speed up works projects.
It will provide tax credits to small businesses and tax reductions to Hollywood.

The voters will have to approve five separate measures in May.

Borrowing money from mental health funds.
Borrowing money from children’s health programs.
Changing the way the lottery works.
Changing the way we handle school financing.
Creating a spending cap.

It could change but this is essentially it as of now.

I am inviting replies, and I promise not to respond (by this, I mean argue with you) unless you ask me to answer a specific question.

Sunday Musings

When did we become mean and why are we so frightened?

I realize that blogs and comments on articles are hardly scientific. But it isn’t just blogs and comments. I hear it from real people. They are frightened, and frankly, sometimes they are mean.

I have listened to otherwise very nice people tell me that they think if an illegal alien comes into an emergency room, that they should not be treated. In effect, they believe we should let them die if it comes to that.

Let them die. Is that what we do in America? Do we just let people die?

I read about a drunk driver killing an innocent, and it turns out he’s here illegally. The focus of the story becomes his illegal alien status when the problem in this case is drunken driving, not illegal aliens. The vast majority of drunk drivers who kill and maim innocent people are here quite legally.

Some say that the children of illegal aliens, whom I suppose most are illegal also, should be denied an education.

Is that what we do in America? Deny children an education because we don’t like their parents?

I wonder if other countries are so fixated on illegal immigration. I’ve done some basic research, more in the way of just glancing around. By and large, it would appear that most countries have illegals.

They don’t start printing everything in two languages. They don’t speak multiple languages in the classroom and they certainly don’t debate the idea of issuing drivers licenses or anything else that might somehow lend legitimacy their residency.

Nor do they label them all potential terrorists or drug dealers. They don’t make them into villains. They simply recognize them for what they are, and when they come across them, they are detained and deported.

There is nothing mean about it. There is no real fear displayed. They just deal with it.

Deal with it. Isn’t that what America used to be famous for? Dealing with the problem?

Any police officer should be able to detain someone for unlawful entry or for overstaying their visa.

Emergency room doctors are required to report all sorts of suspicions already. They can treat someone and also call Immigration.

If a child meets the address requirements for a school district, then they should enroll him or her. If they have reason to believe the child is here illegally, then they can report it.

And regarding each of my admittedly oversimplified solutions, they could all be appended with “or not”. We expect professionals to make on the spot decisions all the time and if they choose not to pursue their suspicions about someone’s status, we can just assume they have their reasons.

However you might describe the current state of affairs, we are not dealing with the problem.

We need to start.

Happy Saint Valentine's Day!

My father was pretty predictable in some ways. For example, if I felt like an argument, all I really needed to do was walk into the room and say something like “Ronald Reagan being elected president was the worst thing that ever happened to this country.”

Sometimes he was really depressed, so I would venture that Richard Nixon was not only a crook and a liar, but that also he looked funny and probably smelled bad. It never failed to lift him out of his depression and sally forth against this pinko-liberal offspring that his wife insisted belonged to him.

And on Valentine’s Day, he would invariably look through the little school valentines and read them out loud: “Be my one true love…signed JOE!” Or “Steve” or whatever.
There were plenty of Nancys, Janes, and Marys as well, but he didn’t pay attention to them.

He believed that the boys should give valentines to the girls, and girls should give valentines to the boys. Frankly, that makes more sense to me too. But of course, popularity is one of those natural concepts that schools and other governmental entities are always trying to fool with, and the result though well-meant ends up being silly.

Some kids are liked more than others. Without any regulation of such practices, some kids will get a boatload of valentines and others won’t get any. Ergo, every kid in the classroom gives every other kid in the classroom a valentine.

Now I see, in my youngest son’s school district anyway, that they don’t exchange valentines at all because it is disruptive and has nothing to do with providing a well-rounded education. I can say this with authority because the school sent a letter home telling me so. It certainly stops people like my dad from having all sorts of sarcastic fun.

Happy Saint Valentine’s Day, and Joe, wherever you are, I can only hope you got over me.

Triskaidekaphobia

I’ve never been superstitious. Knock wood on that!

Actually, I have one superstition. I don’t know if it is a Scottish thing, or just a family thing, but I am very superstitious about trimming photographs. The less rational part of me becomes very uneasy whenever it occurs.

This became apparent to my wife not long after the wedding. Prior to marriage, we discussed career plans, children, finances and what habits one of us (me) would give up.
Curiously, the subject of trimming photographs never came up in conversation.

One fine Saturday about a month after the wedding, she proudly hands me an album. My interest was feigned at first as I took it but upon opening it became quite genuine.

OMG as the young texters write, You Cut Pictures!

She had trimmed pictures here and there, in order to get them to fit on the pages. I’m having trouble writing this even now.

I suddenly felt the need to sit down, although I don’t believe I actually lost consciousness. My wife in the meantime was quite worried, wondering if her new husband was about to expire permanently. I know I was sweating and I’ll wager I had turned snow-white. This was bad. This was real bad. This was The Titanic Has Hit An Iceberg Bad!

A few moments later, I had recovered enough to explain to her why I became so upset, and then like a gentle missionary speaking to some savage group of headhunters on a distant island, I told her with as much gravity that I could possibly muster about her injudicious folly and gave her dire warnings about never doing it again.

She said, “That’s silly”.

That’s silly? That’s silly?

Good heavens! The headhunters have rejected the missionary and are rubbing oil and spices all over him! They can’t understand the horrible path they have chosen! She is the love of my life and I can’t save her!

But I continued to try to get her to see the error of her ways and finally she turns and says “School Photos”.

I swallowed hard. I knew where this was going.

She said “the wallet sized photos all come on one sheet. Your parents had to trim them.”

I said nothing, and refrained from thinking about at least fifteen years of school photos, six to a sheet and quite intact, in the envelope they came in, in a case in my parents closet.

But she figured it out.

“Your parents never cut them up and put them in wallets?”

I stayed silent.

“Why did you think they sold wallet sized pictures?”

I didn’t answer, and had never really given it much thought, but thinking about it now, I guess I figured it was just a way of making money. Anyway, most of the pictures were awful. Who wants to see a nine-year-old with a forced smile and so much Butch Wax in his hair he looks like the progenitor of Jimmy Neutron?

With time our marriage re-stabilized, and while I suspect my wife still cuts photographs to this very day, she must do it when I’m not around. I rarely open albums though.

Happy Friday the 13th!

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

An operating automobile being necessary the security of a person’s job, the right of the people to have and use automobiles, shall not be infringed.

A functioning Nordic Track possibly being necessary to the reduction of a prominent waste line, the right of the people to purchase expensive exercise equipment and then hang laundry on it, shall not be infringed.

I received an email from someone asking my position on gun control since I had skipped over that one in my position statement the other day. I replied that in my opinion, people should keep very careful control over their guns. Furthermore, if they want to wear short-sleeved shirts, that is their business!

Furthermore, if they want to wear short-sleeved shirts, that is their business!!

Furthermore, if they want to wear short-sleeved shirts, that is their business!!!!!

You know!! Keep and “bear” arms….bear or bare arms as in not clothed…

Oh, never mind.

I absolutely believe that Americans have the right to arm themselves to the teeth if they want to and the second amendment to the US Constitution says it right there, plain as day. I don’t see what the controversy is. The other two versions I created clearly show that you can still buy cars and Nordic Tracks and use them pretty much anyway you want to. Frankly, we should keep better control of our automobiles and Nordic Tracks should be outlawed altogether.

The FOUNDING FATHERS gave the reason for the right to have assault rifles, but they clearly did not make the reason a requirement.

They did not make the reason a requirement.

I can have guns without belonging to a militia just as I can have a car and use it to go see Neal Diamond live at ARCO Arena. I can make payments of $59.95 every month for thirty-six months while I hang my shirts for work on my Nordic Track.

Does that make sense?

For the record, I don’t have any guns and this former Marine, if he had a magic wand, would wave it and make all of them disappear. Guns may not kill people, but people kill other people a lot more efficiently with guns.

But there are no magic wands, so there you go.

Just watch where you point that thing!

Perhaps the United States is relevant after all.

Actually, I always thought it was, but since the recession was announced and progressed into what is now called The Cavalcade of Trillions* the rest of the world, who over the last couple of years has suggested that the United States was no longer relevant vis-à-vis international affairs, seems to be thinking differently.

The alphabet soup of European market exchanges fell, as did those in Asia. And of course, Wall Street itself, but hey, we’re getting used to it. It would seem that even today, when the United States catches cold the rest of the world contracts pneumonia. So much for irrelevant notions of irrelevancy.

Could it be that these other countries don’t think our new president, whom I like very much and agree with about almost nothing, is up to the job? Or, it could be that they have realized their level of self-deception based on jealousy and the popularity of US-bashing in general has blinded them to the realities underscoring just how important the US really is to the rest of the planet? Maybe they are just a bunch of whiny schmucks who are just like the home-grown variety, the only differences being language and stylish clothing.

Personally, I think it is ignorance and arrogance. They think that we will ultimately solve our problems the same way they would and do solve theirs. They assume the banks will be nationalized. They think this because in their minds, government is always the solution. Ultimately, so goes the belief, the only entity with the resources to solve big problems is THE GOVERNMENT. Funny, but didn’t I hear President Obama say that yesterday?

I would point out that “government resource” translates into “taxpayer dollar”, and that every one of those dollars comes from you and me. Oh, but wait. There will be prodigious borrowing as well and since we Americans are so bloody unstable the cost will be high. The taxpayers providing those resources are currently attending the second grade. Teach them proper manners so they will be sure to thank you for the debt you plan to let them inherit.

Could the banks be nationalized? The answer is yes, under US law it could happen, but it requires they be in receivership or in serious danger of failing. Generally speaking they just get swallowed up by another bank and six months after all the jocular “business as usual” statements from the two CEOs standing next to each other “like an old married couple”, the CEO of Loserville Bank bails out with his golden parachute and most of the employees that worked for him start looking for boiled shoe recipes.

As I write this, the $700 billion last year is turning into reliable projections of $2 Trillion.

Let the rest of the World worry about our troubles as much as they want. It proves what we’ve always known. The US is just as relevant as it ever was and will continue to be so for some time to come.



*I made that up but it is a cool name.

I really like our new president.

Really, I do. But I find I need to keep reminding myself of it. Of course, I like the girl that sells me bagels at Raley’s too, but I wouldn’t have voted for her either had she been running. But then, I actually saw her out running one evening in what appeared to be the amalgamation of a bikini top and track shorts. Maybe I would vote for her. I’ll also wager she doesn’t eat a lot of bagels.

Suffice it to say that every time President Obama opens his mouth I keep looking at the note I wrote in the palm of my hand that says I will give the man one hundred days before I start pounding on his every thought, word, deed or policy.

And I will.

Probably.

In the mean time, someone sent me an email asking what I am. After some email banter, I came to understand that he wanted a position statement from me. In addition to making me feel terribly important, this gave me something to write about this morning.

Metaphorically, if politics were a college, I would major in conservatism and minor in libertarianism. The libertarian in me is more like a stain that won’t wash off. (How often do you find nested metaphors in a blog?) Frankly, I find them to be just a bit too socially Darwinist for my taste.

Bruce on Marriage:

I firmly believe that the ideal family model is one man traditionally married to one woman, both completely devoted to the best interests of each other and to those of their children. Now you can’t get much more conservative than that, can you? Actually, you can but we won’t go there.

But the libertarian stain on my collar won’t leave it at that. Libertarian Bruce demands to know why the majority, in the guise of The Government, thinks it can tell people that just because an arrangement is not ideal, they are not allowed to participate in the process at all.

Curiously, the same crowd that insists on coed wedding cakes frequently decries liberal notions of idealism when some pinko city councilperson decides the people in his or her district are too damned fat and pushes laws restricting business licenses for fast food outlets.

Bruce on taxes:

I am not against taxes, nor am I against tax increases. I am fully aware of the need for taxation and the benefits they provide to me as a citizen. Wow, I wish I had Mao’s little red book to wave around right now!

I am against waste, and raising taxes to compensate for it is abhorrent to me as a conservative. I think people should take responsibility for themselves and for their lives and stop waiting for The Government to come to their recue. Libertarian Bruce says to hell with government. Dump the whole thing and save all kinds of money. Now all I need is a farm, some barbed wire and a cache of military surplus supplies and weapons.

I suppose at this point I need to say that in my metaphor there is also room for a few electives to round out the degree and they are classically liberal. Thinking about those, I have to accept that some people need more help than others and that the people, in the form of The Government, will benefit as a society by helping them to develop and should be willing to invest in their potential.

Bruce on the death penalty:

I’m against the death penalty in principle, although I find myself making exceptions. You will never see me standing outside San Quentin holding a sign because I couldn’t care less about people on death row. I have no doubt they deserve it, I just don’t think we have the right to kill them. That said, I have no trouble with the idea of prison cells taking the form of pits with a grating over them.

Bruce on abortion:

I am most definitely prolife. That said, I wouldn’t outlaw choice because I remember when women and girls went to back-ally butchers and I won’t bring that back. I’ll just work on creating a world where people will always prefer to keep their babies. It is curious how my only truly moderate position leaves me with almost everyone mad at me.

Well, I’m rapidly approaching my self-allotted one thousand words. Hopefully this will give the two or three people reading this who actually care some insight into the guy who will probably be whining about the President for the next four or eight years.

I see he just announced at a news conference that The Government is now the economy’s only hope. Look at the hand Bruce, look at the hand.

BailOutBucks

It is tough to compete with the taxpayers, but that is what banks that refused aid from the Troubled Asset Relief Program are doing. In saner times when banks went belly-up, fortunately a rare occurrence, other banks would buy them at bargain prices thus bringing their value back to reality and would then proceed to fix the things that were wrong with them in the first place. Or sell them off piece by piece. Usually a little bit of both.

Now however, using taxpayer dollars and a whole boatload of them at that, these banks are being kept alive in spite of their disastrous investment and lending decisions, usually with the same command structure at the helm. Perhaps minus a well compensated CEO, but hey! We’ve plugged up that leak, right? Don’t get me started…

It is rather like absolution without contrition. The worst offenders didn’t even have to admit they did anything wrong. They were “forced” to take the money, although I don’t recall any lawsuits being filed by them to stay DC’s order. Hmmm. And rather than offering prayers and dropping a ten-spot in the poor box, they are instead handed a big basket of cash and told to go out and sin no more. One major bank has been to the anti-confessional twice so far and it has only been six months since this all started.

While all this is going on, other better managed banks and credit unions are trying to compete in a tight market, only now we have the added burden of doing so against huge institutions that are very well funded with what will end up being almost unlimited taxpayer dollars. This was sold to us with the “To big to fail” tagline. Watch that morph into the “We’ve invested too much to stop now” mantra.

The biggest humbug of all is that so far it hasn’t even worked. Three of the biggest recipients are way down, one nearly eighty percent. This could be blamed on the economy, but when compared to the banks that didn’t take the BailOutBucks, we find that the economy seems to be hitting TARP-Takers much harder.

Things will take a while to play out, and who knows, maybe the geniuses in DC will be right in the end, but I doubt it. The biggest problem the Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen create whenever they get involved in any kind of enterprise is they turn it into a social experiment. I’m already hearing them say things like there being more important things than making profits for the shareholders. That is true in social settings, but not in for-profit businesses.

I’m beginning to think Fidel Castro actually died already and has been reincarnated in Washington.

Sunday Musings

It was not exactly the best job I ever had, but I think I was happier there a greater percentage of the time than in any other job before or since.

Those old enough to remember Woolworth’s five-and-dime stores may also recall that there were Woolworth’s Garden Centers. I worked in one for a number of years before running off to the Marine Corps, which was certainly a more satisfying vocation, but I was almost never happy there. This may in fact have been by design, but that is for another musing.

I knew nothing about plants or gardening when I was hired but the boss insisted that I carry around the Sunset Garden Book and that when asked questions, I refer to it before running off for help. I still ran off for help a lot, but before long I knew a lot about plants and gardening. I still do.

I loved the place so much because of the people who came in to shop there. Exceptions can always be found, but for the most part, our customers were in their own version of a hobby shop, and like any ten year old looking at a model of a P51, the fifty, sixty and seventy-something’s eyes would glow as they looked at a bare-root rose or a six-pack of strawberries.

It wasn’t all fun and games. When the forklift was offline, a common occurrence, we had to unload sacks of fertilizer by hand, tossing them to each other like a smelly bucket brigade. I’m convinced all the practice tossing steer manure around prepared me for a management position in financial services. The garden center was definitely a two-shower per day job.

Most jobs allow and even require some professional distance between the shopkeeper and the customer. Not so at the garden center. These folks were in our store living part of their own personal dream, and when things were good they would share their passion. When they were not so good their pain was evident, and quite real. They needed help and came to us for advice and a cure.

I guess people are a bit different when they are immersed in whatever gives them joy and satisfaction. Who knows but it was fun being around them and being part of it. I still get that kind of satisfaction now, because I do have the opportunity to help Members of my credit union to reach their goals and live their dreams. Unfortunately these days, most are just struggling to get by.

I never did get the hang of that professional distance thing. I’ll be glad when things turn around and pick up again. I like the joy in their eyes and haven’t seen as much of it lately.

I don’t think state workers are all that upset

Yes, the furloughs have resulted in a 9.2 percent pay cut. I realize that. I know! But it isn’t really a pay cut. Out here in the real world, a pay cut goes more like this:

Boss: Hi Joe! We’re cutting your pay by 9.2%! Now go back to work!

Joe: Wow, so I have to take two Fridays off each month?

Boss: Ha ha! No Joe, you’ll still work full time. But now you will do it for less money!


Joe begins to walk out of the boss’s office.

Boss: Oh, Joe!

Joe: Yes?

Boss: Do you remember Sam?

Joe: Yes...

Boss: I fired him this morning. You’re doing his job too! Don’t you feel special?

State workers will get two three day weekends a month for a short while, since this won’t go on much longer. They may lose a little money, but I suspect they can file for unemployment insurance of some sort for the days they are losing. Plus, assuming they drive they will not have to pay for gas or parking. And many probably buy their lunch, so they will lose that expense as well. Oh, and child care! Won't need that!

Hey! There is no need to hit the old Starbucks or Peet’s Coffee either! Home-brewed coffee is less expensive and usually better anyway.

I suggest you leave the TV off and spend some time with your kids. Go to a park and fly kites or stay home and bake cookies.

Frankly, I think this is punishing people in the private sector more than the state workers. All the people who serve the coffee and the lunches and provide the child care are the real victims here.

Stop whining. It isn’t so bad.

The Adventures of CreditUnionMan

The biggest single concern I had about our new president was that he might decide that for good or ill, he knew best. This was a reasonable fear because most presidents believe the same thing about themselves.

After yesterday’s speech and announcement about the stimulus package, I believe my fears will be realized again with President Obama. He knows what he wants to do and he is going to insist upon following the path he chooses, because the American people voted for him and for change and dog-gonnet that means he can do no wrong.

Perhaps I exaggerate. We’ll see.

What I do know is we have had eight years of a fellow who followed his own course, or a particular course…who knows if it was his own, despite popular opinion, despite advice from his own party, regardless of opposition he kept doing it his way.

I think we just elected ourselves another one.

The Adventures of CreditUnionMan

o the state employees who will have to take unpaid days because the governor and his compatriots are too incompetent to put together a budget, please believe me when I say I’m sorry. I do have sympathy for you, but you have to understand it could be much worse.

Out here in the private sector, we deal with incompetent leadership too. In case you haven’t noticed, there are businesses that have failed to the point they are firing thousands…tens of thousands of employees. The firings are coming in waves. Just when employees who think they have dodged the bullet manage to relax, another round of layoffs hits, sweeping them out too. And a lot of these companies are taking BailOutBucks supplied, in part by the very taxpayers they are firing.

And our new president has responded to all this by limiting their CEO’s income to $500,000 per year. Maybe they’ll start taking a Friday or two off each month to compensate. Who knows, the guy sitting at the table across from you at Starbucks tomorrow may just be a furloughed CEO! Who says we have nothing in common with rich people?

Just in passing, I didn’t notice what the president said about the CEO’s deferred income. I should look into that.

Personally, I think any company that accepts BailOutBucks should require the CEO, the CFO and the COO to resign and stand in front of the corporate offices for a month wearing chicken suits and holding signs that say “We’re the ones who lost all the buck-buck-bucks”

Well, it was just an idea.

So I suggest that you look at your own budget and decide what you need to cut for your furlough days and if you can’t be happy about still having a job, then maybe you can at least be grateful for it, because there are a whole lot of people in worse shape than you are right now.