POLITICAL: The “Chesley Sullenberger” yardstick for assessing “leadership”, Politicians found wanting!

Saturday, January 31, 2009

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/01/the_sullenberger_combination.html

January 17, 2009
The Sullenberger Combination
Lee Cary

*** begin quote ***

Captain Chesley Sullenberger gave us a glimpse of what’s long been lacking in our national political leadership — the complete combination of competence, leadership and courage.

The pilot of US Airways Flight 1549 had, in multiple ways, prepared all his life to save the crew and 150 passengers on his aircraft. When the moment came to apply all that preparation, he calmly announced over the aircraft’s intercom, “Brace for impact.”

*** end quote ***

An excellent comparison to ALL the current political leadership!

Running around yelling: ‘the sky is falling’ is what comes to mind in DC!

Argh!

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POLITICAL: Only “chumps” pay taxes!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/22/feel-like-a-chump/

RAHN: Feel like a chump?
Richard Rahn
Thursday, January 22, 2009

*** begin quote ***

You work hard, take care of your family, and pay all the taxes the government says you owe as is typical of honest, upright citizens.

But what happens to your tax money? It is now going to “bail out” firms that pay their senior executives millions of dollars a year. Congress also intends to spend your tax dollars on an $825 billion “stimulus program” filled with many dubious projects and plain old-fashioned “pork.” Many good economists who have looked at the details of the stimulus package believe it has much more “de-stimulus” than stimulus in it and will make the American economy worse off rather than better off.

While you may have thought you are required by law to pay taxes on all your income, you learn the “important” folks in Washington seem to think paying taxes is optional. Chairman Charles Rangel of the House Ways and Means Committee responsible for writing tax legislation has admitted he did not pay the required income taxes on some of his private income (Caribbean rental properties, etc.); and the proposed Secretary of the Treasury, Tim Geithner, did not pay the required income tax on part of his income from the International Monetary Fund, where he worked for several years.

*** end quote ***

Yup, I’m a chump!

And, it’s not going to change any time soon.

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POLITICAL: Why is the gooferment in the skrule business to start with?

Sunday, January 25, 2009

http://www.pnj.com/article/20090113/NEWS01/901130315/1006/NEWS01

Officials ordered to stop prayer at schools

ACLU wins injunction against Santa Rosa School District.

Carmen Paige • cpaige@pnj.com • January 13, 2009

*** begin quote ***

A federal judge has ordered the Santa Rosa County School District to stop promoting religion and prayer in the classroom and at school events.

*** end quote ***

This begs the question: “What is the Santa Rosa County School District?” and “Why are they running a school in the first place?”

Then, there would be no First Amendment problem.

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CORRUPTION: Barney Frank directing bailout funds

Saturday, January 24, 2009

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123258284337504295.html

JANUARY 22, 2009, 2:45 P.M. ET
Political Interference Seen in Bank Bailout Decisions
Barney Frank Goes to Bat for Lender, and It Gets an Infusion
By DAMIAN PALETTA and DAVID ENRICH

*** begin quote ***

Troubled OneUnited Bank in Boston didn’t look much like a candidate for aid from the Treasury Department’s bank bailout fund last fall.

The Treasury had said it would give money only to healthy banks, to jump-start lending. But OneUnited had seen most of its capital evaporate. Moreover, it was under attack from its regulators for allegations of poor lending practices and executive-pay abuses, including owning a Porsche for its executives’ use.

Nonetheless, in December OneUnited got a $12 million injection from the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. One apparent factor: the intercession of Rep. Barney Frank, the powerful head of the House Financial Services Committee.

Mr. Frank, by his own account, wrote into the TARP bill a provision specifically aimed at helping this particular home-state bank. And later, he acknowledges, he spoke to regulators urging that OneUnited be considered for a cash injection.

*** end quote ***

Maybe they will give you are ride in the “taxpayer’s” Porsche!

How do we have Barney Frank still in politics?

Gay prostitute. Community Reinvestment Act. Banking system abuse. Now this.

I don’t understand?

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POLITICAL: What are “states” and why do they have pension funds?

Saturday, January 24, 2009

State Pension Funds’ $865 Billion Loss Means New Hires Get Less


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_en&refer=worldwide&sid=aw9HrY21Ynno

     

As a budding libertarian, you might ask “why do states have pensions?”. Us old libertarians ask: “What the hell is a state?” A fiction. A figment of the imagination. A collective delusion that enslaves us. A meme whose time has past?


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POLITICAL: Selecting interim senators

Friday, January 23, 2009

FROM A COMMENT ABOUT CAROLYN’S WITHDRAWAL

How about picking some poor taxpayer with an AGI of under 100k, with only a public school education (College is OK if it was a CCNY night school or a community college), with a family of at least two kids?

For one six year term, at which time, the clock will strike 12, the carriage turns back into a pumpkin, and that person — man or woman — returns to private life. I think NY, the country, and the world would be well represented.

Never happen, but an interesting thought experiment!

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How about Lottery losers? Everyone writes their name on a losing lottery ticket and puts it in a big drum. Patterson wouldn’t need a blindfold. Great fun.

How about non-violent felons? They’d be able to tell the other politicians what happens for corruption.

How about a lucky winner form the unemployment office? We know they’d be free and they are looking for work.

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POLITICAL: Unwinding the Social Security Ponzi scheme

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

http://tslrf.blogspot.com/2009/01/entitlements-part-15-social-security.html

Friday, January 9, 2009

Entitlements Part 1.5- Social Security

*** begin quote ***

This brought up enough discussion that some things deserve to be addressed in a venue more public then the comments section. I will address as much as I can in no particular order. Here it goes.

First of all I did not mean anything seriously bad to the older folks who read the blog or your peer group. I poked some fun but it is just that, fun. I take a few friendly shots at just about everyone given the right setting. I am enough of am asshole that if I wanted to say something really mean I would.

*** and ***

The most interesting idea that came out of the comments was what happened in Chile with their SS plan in the 1970’s. If you are as familiar with that as I was three hours ago then read this. I think that is sort of idea is probably the best chance of making our system viable but I still have the same big question/ concern I had about going to a privatized system before reading that article.

*** end quote ***

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Guess who made that comment? It is a good discussion about the Social Security Ponzi scheme and how to plan around it. No need to rehash it here or repeat my comments. You can read them over there.

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POLITICAL: Lincoln may not have approved of O, but Lincoln wasn’t so great imho

Monday, January 19, 2009

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/338/story/59958.html

Pitts: Lincoln might not have welcomed Obama’s election

*** begin quote ***

Actually, Lincoln likely would have been appalled. How could he not? He was a 19th century white man who famously said in 1858 that “there is a physical difference between the white and black races, which . . . will forever forbid the two races living together upon terms of social and political equality.”

How do you reconcile that with all those cartoons of Lincoln congratulating Obama? You don’t. You simply recognize it for what it is: yet another illustration of how shallow our comprehension of history is, yet another instance where myth supersedes reality.

*** and ***

Of course, Lincoln freed no slaves. That’s the myth. His Emancipation Proclamation was a military measure to demoralize and destabilize the rebellious South; it covered states he did not govern but did not apply in slaveholding states that remained under his jurisdiction.

None of which is to deny or diminish the greatness of the 16th president. His greatness stands unquestioned, unquestionable. We would be a very different nation, a lesser nation, without his political genius, his dogged faith in the unsundered Union, his refusal to accept less than Union, even when haunted by reversals and setbacks that would have broken anyone else.

No, the argument is not about Lincoln’s greatness.

*** end quote ***

But, it should be!

Lincoln is up there on my list of “Worst American Presidents”.

As a corrupt Illinois politician who was in bed with more than the railroads, one has to take not of the following:

(1) The War of Northern Aggression. What you call the Civil War. What some call the Second American Revolution. The is no Constitutional, legal, or moral justification for this war. That alone would rocket him too the top of the list.

(2) Income tax to pay for that war. Government debt too.

(3) Freedom of Press savaged when editors dared to criticism him.

(4) Atrocities against civilian populations like Sherman’s “March to the Sea”.

(5) Single handedly destroying the concept of a Union of Equals amd morphing into the USA as the tyrant state.

And, don’t forget, he want to send all the “Negros” back to Africa. A racist among his other “endearing” qualities.

Those are just my uneducated points. There are much smarted folks than I who can give you “Chapter and Verse” about Lincoln.

But, don’t disturb the sheeple.

One of these days I should codify my “worst list”!

But that’s hard on the old BP.

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POLITICAL: the only real way to economically “stimulate”

Monday, January 19, 2009

http://ncc-1776.org/tle2009/tle502-20090118-02.html

Collectivism’s Last Stand
by L. Neil Smith

*** begin quote ***

Politicians must be taught, in no uncertain terms, that the only real way to economically “stimulate” the Productive Class is to stop stealing their fucking money! If the government announced a total tax amnesty, as well as a complete, permanent end to individual and corporate taxes—repealing all unconstitutional economic regulations would help, too—this depression would be over by the end of the week.

*** end quote ***

You have to admire how LNS can “turn a phrase”!

Wonder if it would take all the way to the end of the week?

“Next day” might be a better estimate.

But, we don’t have to worry. It will never occur to the congress critters!

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POLITICAL: Despise Health Insurance Companies? Just wait!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

http://distributedrepublic.net/archives/2008/12/23/simple-indeed-or-the-audacity-cluelessness

Simple Indeed, or The Audacity of Cluelessness
Submitted by Brandon Berg on Tue, 2008-12-23 21:52

*** begin quote ***

The International Herald Tribune showcases the astonishing cluelessness of people who are presumably among the best and brightest of Obama’s supporters:

   When a dozen consumers gathered over the weekend to discuss health care at the behest of President-elect Barack Obama, they quickly agreed on one point: they despise health insurance companies.

   They also agreed that health care was a right; that insurance should cover “everything,” not just some services; and that coverage should be readily available from the government, as well as from employers.

   “We have to keep the momentum going,” said Hijane, 34, who was a volunteer in the Obama campaign and is active in women’s health advocacy. “We are not lobbyists. We are simple citizens.”

*** end quote ***

Get ready for national health care. Delays, Higher Costs, Rationing, and … … yes, sadly, deaths.

That’s what happens when the Socialists take over.

Sigh.

Need a new category … STUPIDITY!

Anyone want to start an insurance company? No. Me neither!

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POLITICAL: Age limit for congresscritters

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/130929.html

Should We Apply the Logan’s Run Principle, Updated for Inflated Life Expectancies Of Course, to Congress and the Courts?
Nick Gillespie | January 7, 2009, 7:43am

*** begin quote ***

The author of Nanny State concludes: “Theoretically, it would be nice to allow citizens to vote for anyone they please, young or old. But since we already have a minimum, constitutionally mandated age limit to serve in place, why not a maximum age? How about at least placing it wherever the average life expectancy falls?”

Because, right now, Washington looks more like Del Boca Vista than America.

*** end quote ***

Sounds like a good idea. There’s even an age limit for voting for Pope!

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POLITICAL: How can the people get an honest shake

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/01/leveraging_election_fraud_with.html

January 06, 2009
Leveraging election fraud with census fraud (updated)
Tom H. Sleeter

*** begin quote ***

Vote fraud can thereby live on, not only through phony votes cast on Election Day, but through phony people being created for the census. It would be wise to be vigilant on this as 2010 approaches.

*** end quote ***

As evidenced by the MN Franken election, keep counting until you get ehr result you want and then urge everyone to stop.

Clearly, the census and vote are gooferment process subject to honest effort and deliberate fraud.

Argh!

It would seem that we have to get the “electing” done once at a very local level and then use representatives all the way from there. Once you vote for your alderman, then they vote for mayor. Then, the mayors select a county executive. The county execs vote for guv. Guvs vote for president.

Truly representative republic!

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POLITICAL: “Government investment” is Orwellian

Monday, January 12, 2009

http://mises.org/article.aspx?Id=1423

Repudiating the National Debt

Daily Article by Murray N. Rothbard | Posted on 1/16/2004 12:00:00 AM

*** begin quote ***

In reality, however, government spending only qualifies as “investment” in an Orwellian sense; government actually spends on behalf of the “consumer goods” and desires of bureaucrats, politicians, and their dependent client groups. Government spending, therefore, rather than being “investment,” is consumer spending of a peculiarly wasteful and unproductive sort, since it is indulged not by producers but by a parasitic class that is living off, and increasingly weakening, the productive private sector.

*** end quote ***

# – # – #

Here’s how to think about the bailouts and other “government spending”!

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POLITICAL: O’s “Raw Deal” and how it ends for us little people?

Monday, January 12, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/how-this-happened.html

How This Happened
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

*** begin quote ***

Will this go on for ten years like the last time? Will it end in World War III, as if following some historical script? Is it possible that we will go the way of Germany in the 1920s, straight into the abyss of hyperinflation and into the hands of a ghastly dictator? It is unwise to rule it out.

And yet, I’m not that pessimistic. It is extremely crucial to realize that there is a difference this time. In the 1930s, technological limits put severe restrictions on information delivery. Government propaganda easily dominated the culture. All of that has changed. Despite everything, people simply do not trust the government as they once did. Obama will enjoy a short honeymoon but it will be over by summer.

*** end quote ***

I’m not so sure. I think Hannity got it right when I heard him say something like: ” … It’s not that these programs get passed. It’s that it’s impossible to kill them. They get a life of their own.”

Look at the Income Tax impoverishing us.

Look at the Social Security Ponzi scheme unraveling.

Look at the Medicare socializing medicine.

Look at the TSA “teaching” us to be “sheeple”.

Look at the double whammy of the monopoly in banking represented by the “Federal Reserve Bank” which is a private cartel of bankers with some lipstick pretending to be answerable to the gooferment. Double! It permitted the NIJA (no income no job no paperwork no hope of being repaid.) mortgages, that it could have prevented with the stroke of a pen on a regulation like short stock. (Requiring a 50% down for the privilege of having ZERO paperwork. Would have ended that REAL quick!) It manipulated interest rates and inflate the currency that allowed the congresscritters to spend wilily nelly with impose a hidden tax on all holders of dollar bills. (That ignited the run up in oil prices. Sadam got knocked off because he dared to suggest to OPEC that oil be paid for in gold. Right idea; wrong to be right when the biggest force in the world is wrong!)

No, I’m not so optimistic how this all ends up!

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POLITICAL: NASA’s Hansen to Obama: Use Global Warming to Redistribute Wealth

Saturday, January 10, 2009

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2009/01/01/nasas-hansen-obama-use-global-warming-redistribute-wealth

NASA’s Hansen to Obama: Use Global Warming to Redistribute Wealth
By Noel Sheppard (Bio | Archive)
January 1, 2009 – 12:51 ET

*** begin quote ***

Climate realists around the world have contended for years that the real goal of alarmists such as Nobel Laureate Al Gore and his followers is to use the fear of man-made global warming to redistribute wealth.

On Monday, one of Gore’s leading scientific resources, Goddard Institute for Space Studies chief James Hansen, sent a letter to Barack and Michelle Obama specifically urging the president-elect to enact a tax on carbon emissions that would take money from higher-income Americans and distribute the proceeds to the less fortunate.

*** end quote ***

Incredible!

Why is this guy wasting his talents at NASA. He should be a socialist politician!

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POLITICAL: Gaza as theater?

Sunday, January 4, 2009

http://knappster.blogspot.com/2009/01/gaza-in-brief.html  

Gaza, in brief
from KN@PPSTER by Kn@ppster

*** begin quote ***

Israel isn’t going to crush Hamas, because their meal ticket would expire if they did. Hamas isn’t going to settle, for the same reason. The show must go on.

High-quality theatre? Perhaps. But it’s hell on the extras.

*** end quote ***

Interesting perspective. You have to think that it’s a possibility.

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POLITICIAL: Health Care is NOT a right

Friday, January 2, 2009

http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=1761

The health care mess: Functioning in the belly of the beast
Liberty For All
by Roderick T. Beaman

*** begin quote ***

“With Barack Obama’s presidency, the clamor for some type of universal medical coverage system is on a crescendo. The cry today is for a ‘single payer system.’ That type of system is a monopsony, where there is but one buyer for a good or a service, as opposed to a monopoly where there is but one seller. It was Pres. Harry Truman who first proposed government-funded health care service for Social Security recipients. It was a corner piece of John F. Kennedy’s presidential platform in 1960.” (12/23/08)

*** end quote ***

In college, I was forced to take courses unrelated to injineering. In Economics, we were taught surprisingly that there were “viewpoints”. I remember one lesson, the prof was teach about “elastic and inelastic” demand curves. (Simple versus “Field Theory” curves and equations) He had many examples of elastic demands (cars, food, money) and only one of inelastic.

Medical care.

No matter what the supply, what the price, demand was infinite.

The only cure was some type of rationing.

In the “old days” of my Mom’s generation, I remember my appendix operation. There were bills. Doc, Hospital, Surgeon, Gas passer, and Surgical Operating Room. My Mom had insurance but it was different then. She paid all the bills, assembled a big folder, and submitted it to the insurance company. They paid 80% of the total. It was very complicated.

She had limited choice since it was an emergency. But, whenever there was a choice, she was a price conscious shopper.

Today, no one shops. They just demand.

That’s what’s wrong!

Health care isn’t a right. Rights are negatives. If it’s a positive, then someone else is OBLIGATED to provide it.

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POLITICAL: The new powers that be look as bad as the old powers that was

Monday, December 29, 2008

Suprise, suprise. They looked and they didn’t do anything wrong. And, we’ll announce it Christmas Eve so it gets overlooked.

Begin forwarded message:

From: “WSJ.com Editors”
Date: December 23, 2008 4:56:27 PM EST
Subject: WSJ NEWS ALERT: Obama, Staff Had No Improper Contact With Blagojevich, Report Finds

__________________________________

NEWS ALERT

from The Wall Street Journal

Dec. 23, 2008

President-elect Barack Obama’s transition staff had no inappropriate communications with the office of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, according to a report released Tuesday.

The five-page report identified incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel as the only aide who had direct contact with Blagojevich, who is at the center of a corruption probe. Emanuel “had one or two” telephone conversations with the governor between Nov. 6 and Nov. 8 to discuss his own resignation from the U.S. House as well as potential nominees to fill the Illinois Senate seat being vacated by Obama, according to the report written by incoming White House Counsel Greg Craig.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123006506377030963.html?mod=djemalertNEWS

Full PDF of the report: http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/200812230-obamablagomemo.pdf

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Politics: The Gooferment is the Problem, imho!

Monday, December 29, 2008

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123033898448336541.html

There’s No Pain-Free Cure for Recession
Belt-tightening is required by all, including government.
By PETER SCHIFF
* OPINION * DECEMBER 27, 2008

*** begin quote ***

Governments cannot create but merely redirect. When the government spends, the money has to come from somewhere. If the government doesn’t have a surplus, then it must come from taxes. If taxes don’t go up, then it must come from increased borrowing. If lenders won’t lend, then it must come from the printing press, which is where all these bailouts are headed. But each additional dollar printed diminishes the value those already in circulation. Something cannot be effortlessly created from nothing.

*** end quote ***

When will folks recognize that GOVERNEMENT IS THE PROBLEM.

It starts from a flawed set of paradigms (i.e., perceptions) and memes (i.e., ideas).

One flawed paradigm / perception is that the “benefits bestowed” come like magic rainfall from the heavens. It’s a miracle. What we don’t see, or chose not to see, is the sausage being made. Money extracted by force (Who voluntarily pays the mob in gooferment?) to fund the “benefits”. Minus of course the huge “handling fee” to do the “extracting” and “bestowing”!

One flawed meme is that there is such a thing as “government”. In our minds, we create the Wizard of Oz illusion that there something, (or even more laughable, that we are part of something), bigger than ourselves. No, what I see are craven immoral human beings dress up in fancy clothes pretending to have power over us. To “govern” us.

In the beginnings of human civilization, there were Tyrants. Then, came Kings. Now, we have Politicians.

There are all just people. Give them no more defference than you would a street thug. Be careful they can hurt you. But, don’t kid yourself that the Politician is any different than the Mafia Don.

Keep your pitchfork and torch at hand. Their time is coming.

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POLITICAL: Gooferment bailouts mere prolong the inevitable

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

http://www.lewrockwell.com/tucker/tucker115.html

The End of the US Piano Industry by Jeffrey A. Tucker

*** begin quote ***

Today government is even more arrogant and absurd, and it actually believes that by passing legislation it can save the US car industry. It can subsidize and pay for uneconomic activities, and pay ever more every year. The government can also pay millions of people to make mud pies because mud pies are deemed to be an essential industry. You can do this, but at what cost and what could possibly be the point? Eventually, even the government will have to accord itself to the reality that economics reminds us of on a daily basis.

*** end quote ***

It’s hard to envision a sadder time in American History.

The gooferment bailing out the UAW union.

That’s what this is all about.

The unions wield enormous political power.

And, like a parasite, they eventually kill their hosts.

Look at the Teacher’s Union and education. The ports with their union. The railroads with their union. Government workers and their unions.

And, don’t make the mistake that the Union is looking out for its members.

Sure, they do from time to time, but that’s to preserve the illusion.

Example, State of New Jersey hasn’t contributed to the pension plan for several administration. It’s under funded by 3T$. Think the Union has grabbed the politicians by their privates and insisted. No, they are all in bed together.

Example, UAW hasn’t insisted that Automakers align the executive’s interest with the worker’s. It’s a scandal that a CEO makes more than the line worker in salary. CEO’s shouldn’t make more than a 1$/year anytime. Give them stock options that vest in 5 year increments (i.e., 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, …). Then stand out of the way as the thinking shifts to long term value.

Example, the Delta bankruptcy screwed all the retired pilots. Hear anything about that?

Unions are an institution that needs to be reinvented.

Where’s my “union” for bloggers?

Argh!

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POLITICAL: NJ Menedez supports UAW bailout!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Dear Mr. Reinke:

Thank you for contacting me to express your views on the auto industry rescue plan. Your opinion is very important to me, and I appreciate the opportunity to respond to you on this vital issue.

Without a doubt, the American automotive industry has been a major pillar of our nation’s manufacturing success. Unfortunately, decades of poor business practices have been exacerbated by the recent credit market freeze pushing our nation’s auto industry to the brink of collapse. Such a massive failure would have dire consequences for a struggling economy that saw more than half a million jobs disappear in November alone. With one in ten American workers relying on the automobile industry, failure of this industry could result in the loss of more than 3 million jobs as the ripple effects reverberate throughout the entire economy. New Jersey alone would lose over 65,000 jobs.

There can be no denying that short-sighted management decisions have played a major role in the decline of the Big Three. However, simply letting these companies go bankrupt would cost millions of American workers their jobs – workers who were not part of that decision-making process.   As a member of the Senate Banking Committee, I have paid close attention to the proposals of the automotive industry. Initially, the heads of the Big Three testified before Congress and essentially asked for a blank check. Their plan included little transparency or oversight and provided few details on restructuring or financial solvency. This was simply unacceptable, so Congress demanded that they return with a comprehensive plan.

The plan they later presented on their second visit was much improved and contained a number of important concessions and safeguards. My primary concern with any taxpayer assistance for the Big Three is that there is proper oversight, and that we include safeguards to make sure these taxpayer loans are repaid. This is why we included provisions clamping down on executive compensation, requiring the automakers to issue stock warrants to the government, and prohibiting the companies from issuing dividends until they repaid their taxpayer loans. This legislation also included efforts to address the long-term competiveness of the auto industry. The Big Three have spent the last 20 years fighting fuel economy standards for their products, much to their own detriment. In the long-term, we will require automakers to adhere to strict standards in building cleaner, more energy efficient vehicles, which will benefit America’s national interest as well as the Big Three’s bottom line.

As you may know, the Senate failed, by a vote of 52 to 35, to even bring this issue to the floor for consideration. I voted in support of cloture because I believe this is a vitally important economic issue that, at the very least, warrants debate and consideration in the Senate.

Regardless of your views on this particular piece of legislation, I believe we can all agree that our economy is in a serious recession and more must be done to assist American families. Please rest assured that as your United States Senator, I will do everything in my power to protect jobs and restore our economy so the American Dream is attainable once again.

Thank you again for contacting me with your concerns. For additional information on this issue and my other legislative priorities, please visit my website: http://menendez.senate.gov. It is an honor to represent you in the United States Senate.

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POLITICAL: Rush points out that Powell is an “inside the beltway” person

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_121508/content/01125106.guest.html

Rush Responds to General Powell

December 15, 2008

*** begin quote ***

The Democrats and the liberals always have, and I guess McCain and Colin Powell are showing their true colors. Here is Colin Powell telling the Republican Party what to do after he voted for Obama! I know what really has Colin Powell upset, it’s because I said his endorsement of Obama was about race, and I’m not supposed to say those things. These things are supposed to go unsaid. The Republican Party nominated Powell’s perfect candidate. The guy’s going after moderates, independents, Democrats, a guy who is not conservative at all, McCain, didn’t stand up for much conservative, and he’s out there now saying he won’t support Palin if she seeks the presidency again, or he might not.

*** and ***

What’s going on here with this Colin Powell thing is that the Washington establishment — Powell’s not a Republican. McCain’s not a Republican. These guys are not even mavericks. They are Washingtonians. Washingtonians have their own culture and their own desires, and it is to matter. They don’t care who’s in power, they just want to be closely associated with whoever is. That’s the name of the game and they want press adulation. They want to be loved and adored by the media, they want fawning treatment, they want to be thought of as something special, unique, dignified and so forth, and that’s the Washington establishment. These guys are Washingtonians. And what is a Washingtonian? Who are these people? Ladies and gentlemen, they have driven this economy into the toilet. Washingtonians are tone deaf in terms of how you and I actually live and the things that matter and are important to us. Washingtonians are grabbing as much power for themselves right now as possible. Washington does not live in the rest of the country, does not live in the same world we do. What they’re doing now is looking for ways to silence opposition. They don’t care about the timid ineffective opposition. They like Republicans and conservatives who are ashamed of their views and their fellow citizens. What they want to do is silence people like me because they can’t abide debate or opposition or challenges to their status and their authority.

*** end quote ***

I only listen to Rush from time to time. I’ve heard him urge Bush to stand tall and be the fiscal conservative. Bush spent like there was no tomorrow.

Bush’s legacy is the TSA. An army of gooferment employees and voter for the Democratic party. When does the TSA go away? NEVER! We should be taking a lesson from El Al. The airlines should be COMPLETELY responsible for security. As they should have been all along.

Arm the pilots. A cheap and easy solution. Arm the people. The policy of “victim disarmament” kills us.

Simple direct “solutions”.

Drug gangs fighting over turf like during Prohibition? End the drug war.

Prison overcrowding? Pardon all non-violent drug offenders.

Drug addiction? It’s a medical problem, treat it that way.

Bailouts? Chapter 11! Or, 7!!

Immigration? End welfare. (We want to take the plastic bag off the Statue of Liberty. Bring us all the refuse of the world willing to work hard in America. The land of OPPORTUNITY; not welfare. We have fat poor people to quote one bright observant fellow.

Runaway federal spending? Cut the federal budget 10% every year.

Lifetime politicians? Stop paying them. Stop pensions for them. Stop free healthcare for them.

On and on, there are simple solutions that increase our liberty.

The Washington politicians haven’t been listening to ANYONE. Let alone Rush.

A plague on all their houses!

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POLITICAL: Make “health insurance” personal!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122852525037084565.html

DECEMBER 6, 2008, 11:16 A.M. ET

For Workers, Medical Bills Add to Pain as Firms Fail

*** begin quote ***

In May, Jevic Transportation, a New Jersey trucking company owned by buyout firm Sun Capital Partners Inc., told employees in a letter that it was shutting down and terminating insurance. “Continuation of these plans via Cobra is not an option since Jevic no longer provides any group health plan to any employee,” a human resources official wrote.

*** and ***

Until the company shut down, Archway had deducted health contributions from employees’ paychecks. The contributions, along with the employers’ share, go into a pool that funded Archway’s insurance plan. Blue Cross and Blue Shield was the administrator of the plan, so employees and doctors would file claims with the insurance firm, which would determine if they were valid and then pay them. Archway would then repay the insurer. Typically, this process could take a couple months to complete.

*** end quote ***

Another argument for the gooferment to make health insurance deductible to the ordinary taxpayer as it is for employers.

Time to stop the fraudsters.

The Archway example sure was “deceptive”. imho

Time to have a paradigm shift.

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POLITICAL: Is this the end of “public financing”?

Friday, December 12, 2008

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=abPrh.QKY5Tk

Obama Spent Four Times as Much as McCain at Race End
By Jonathan D. Salant and Kristin Jensen

*** begin quote ***

Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) — Barack Obama’s record-breaking fundraising gave him four times as much cash to spend as rival John McCain in the final months of the presidential campaign.

*** end quote ***

So much for his “public financing” pledge. Now can we finally bury the McCain – Feingold Unconstitutional attack on Free Speech?

Funny that McCain was knifed by his own law.

And, maybe he would not have made a good President since he was deceived by Obama’s renege.

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POLITICAL: Rat’s nest of Chicago

Thursday, December 11, 2008

http://www.spectator.org/archives/2008/12/10/the-tainting-of-the-president

The Tainting of the President-Elect

By Jeffrey Lord on 12.10.08 @ 1:05PM

*** begin quote ***

Wait a minute.

“I had no contact with the governor what….”

That’s the money quote from President-elect Obama in his first comment on the arrest of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich for trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat. What was that “what” about to become before Obama stopped himself in mid-sentence in front of the cameras as Al Gore and Joe Biden sat by, stonefaced? The word “whatsoever” perhaps? In which case, did the new president stop himself because he knew that to say “no contact whatsoever” was something that would be provably untrue? According to a now hastily retracted statement by aide David Axelrod, the president-elect had indeed “talked to the governor” about the vacancy.

*** end quote ***

I found this hard to believe also.

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Posted by reinkefj

POLITICAL: Policies need to make sense. Common sense.

Monday, December 8, 2008

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/130326.html

New at Reason: Steve Chapman on the Case for Gay Adoption
December 1, 2008, 7:00am

*** begin quote ***

Laws against gay adoption say, in effect, that a child may not be adopted by gays even when the adoption is in the best interest of the child. But as Steve Chapman writes, the real meaning of family values is that the best interest of the child always comes first.

*** end quote ***

Regardless of how you feel about “gays”, I personally PREFER “gay adoption” to “gooferment foster care”. Many of the horror stories come from the gooferment trying to insert itself into every facet of our lives.

First priority, should be two parent heterosexual parents. But clearly, we don’t have enough of those to go around.

“Best interest of the child” would get them permanently placed ASAP!

Once that’s done, we can tackle the other thorny issues. Like abortion, marriage, infidelity, teen sex, and all the other “moral issues”.

BUT first things first.

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