You Can't Vote Present in the White House

President Obama was inaugurated last January with bushels full of goodwill. He offered to transcend politics; to open a new era of dialogue and compromise. After some window dressing efforts, what he has given us is San Francisco liberalism enforced by Chicago thugery. During the election last fall, I wrote that I hoped Obama would live true to his word although I doubted it would be possible. Extreme left wing beliefs die hard. Ideologues by definition are not pragmatic. Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, could care less if they get re-elected. This is their moment in history to shove the political beliefs of 20% of the American public down the rest of our throats.

But now they are running into trouble. As time ticks by, and the 2010 mid-term elections begin to play an increasing role in the country’s body politic, those folks who do care about re-election, translate doing what the constituents want, are beginning to back off and stand up to the radical left bullies. As I write this, it has gotten so bad, or good depending on your point of view, in the Senate, there are strong doubts that health care reform based on government takeovers will even reach the floor of the Senate for a vote. Without Olympia Snowe, who the Senate leadership played for a fool, and Joe Lieberman, who left wing Democrats tried to unseat in the last election, the issue is dead in the water. The chickens, to quote Reverend Wright, are coming home to roost. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Obama needs to follow Bill Clinton’s example and move to the middle. Oh yes, and try to actually act like a President. While he is off playing golf or traveling the world pontificating, his left wing cohorts in Congress look like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off trying to do what the American public is resisting. Harry Reid looks like an idiot shifting from thing to thing, all the while knowing he faces the fate of Tom Daschle when he goes back to Nevada for next year’s election. He is weak and whiny. Nancy Pelosi is just plain goofy, and has lost not only all credibility with the American public, but only maintains a 34% approval rating in her home state of California.

Meanwhile, people and our troops are being blown up in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. Obama is still trying to figure out how to vote “present” on his Mideast war policies. Mr. President, you cannot vote present in the White House. Make a decision. Either go in there and win this thing, or get the hell out. But what we will get is Vietnam all over again with military decisions being micro-managed by weak politicians in Washington. There is no compromise in war, only dead people.

Finally, quit dissing Fox News. How pitiful and small you look. You have surrounded yourself with the most radical among us to the point where it is scary. You cannot bully the truth. It’s those people you need to get rid of if you want to move this country in a positive direction. There is no place for animal rights whackos, environmental extremists, communists, socialists, NAMBLA sympathizers, euthanasia proponents, and pot heads at the table in the White House. The truth about these people will come out no matter how much you whine about a news organization actually doing investigative reporting and telling us what is going on.

Mr. Obama, I hope you look in the mirror and learn before it is too late for you, and too late for us.

TO RESTORE AMERICA: FIX ENERGY! FIX CHINA!

What to do with America? Midst all of the ideological claptrap from both the left and the right, serious issues about the future of America and our competitiveness must be addressed. One thing both sides of the political spectrum can agree upon is the need for jobs, jobs, jobs!! Unfortunately, all the politically orientated considerations are taking precedence. It’s time to put those other considerations aside, and concentrate only on what is good for America and its citizens. Without jobs, all of the government programs from the left and the financial manipulations from the right are for naught. Here are the two things that American must address in order to salvage our future.

1) ENERGY: It’s all about energy. There are many reasons for the financial meltdown last fall, but the tipping point came from energy prices. The economy just couldn’t handle $150.00/barrel oil. And given the recent run up in oil prices these past few months, it could happen again.

Energy has been lost in the debate over the ideological tenets of “climate change” from the left, and “drill here- drill now” from the right. Hey, you jack asses, it isn’t an either/or thing. We need it all. We are the 3rd most populous country in the world, and our population is increasing. We need oil. We need natural gas. We need wind. We need coal. We need bio-fuels. We need solar. We need nuclear. We need batteries. We need hydro-electric. If we can achieve this, then we are freed of unwanted foreign entanglements and assured of an independent economic future. It is the bedrock of our economy.

What we DON’T need are ideological lectures about climate change. Global warming was recently debunked in a recent BBC analysis which concluded the problem is actually global cooling. Energy policy based on climate change beliefs isn’t energy development, but political wealth redistribution rooted in the new environmental religion.

What we DON’T need are free market lectures from the oil companies and associated political cronies. At the end of the day, the oil will run out. There is not an infinite supply of carbon based fuels in the world. What makes complete economic sense today will not make economic sense 100 years from now, and we better start now because we are going to go broke or get blown up dealing with dangerous Islamic states, the crazy Russians and Venezuelans, and engaging in bidding wars with China and India for ever scarcer natural resources.

There are going to have to be tradeoffs across the board. The left is going to have back off its climate change rant, allow for offshore drilling and back off environmental extremism when it comes to production of any kind of energy. Ted Kennedy has gone to his reward, and maybe now we can put a wind farm off the Hyannis coast. The left is going to have stop worrying about minnows and the use of water for hydro-electric power. No, that doesn’t mean we forget we need to be good stewards of our environment. It means we have to use some common sense.

The right is going to have realize that if there ever is a time to promote massive government intervention; it is in the pursuit of alternative energy sources. Through direct spending and tax incentives, the government should be actively promoting things like rebuilding the electric grid; assisting infrastructure development for natural gas and hydrogen pumps and electric recharging stations along our highways. There should massive subsidies for solar power and battery development. There should be substantial tax incentives for those who purchase fuel stingy cars and retrofit their houses to take advantage of the new technologies the government is promoting.

The technology is there for all of the above. What is lacking is the political will to compromise on our ideological beliefs, and the inspiration to overcome entrenched special interests.

2) China is sucking the oxygen out of the world. They have unlimited labor, and apparently unlimited financial resources. But it didn’t get to where it is today being honest. Its dictatorial political system allowed it to develop the purest capitalist system in the world, with no political dissent, no labor unions, no freedom of movement, no benefits, minimal pay… and it kept its currency valued 30% below the value of the dollar. It used predatory tactics to usurp most of the base manufacturing from the United States built on the backs of Chinese slave labor. It is a totally export oriented economy. You cannot compete with people who cheat without impunity.

As a result, China has amassed unlimited amounts of currency, especially the dollar, which it is now using to buy up any natural resource it can get its hands on, driving up the prices on basic commodities for just about everyone else in the world, including us.

We have all seen the pictures of modern China, with the massive factories and buildings in Shanghai and Beijing. It looks like America. It is not. This is a communist dictatorship that realized there is a lot of money to be made in a capitalist world. With no checks and balances, it has developed a two tiered system of wealthy Chinese, and very poor workers. And we have turned a blind eye dazzled by the possibilities of doing business in China and its huge population. It is a false dream. China is for China, and will exclude and regulate foreign businesses operating within its borders, and throw them out if it suits them.

America must bite the bullet. There can be no free trade without fair trade. The United States must devise a workable and enforceable plan to insist the Chinese let their currency float along with the other major currencies. We must insist that China move to rapidly expand its domestic market for Chinese produced goods and services and limit the amount of its exports in favor of that domestic consumption. That means that Chinese wages are going to have to go up in order to stimulate demand. There is insufficient space here to discuss the issues of the total lack of health care in China, from the government or otherwise.

Unless these issues are addressed, our standard living will approach theirs rather than the other way around. Unless these issues are addressed, we should rethink our policies of free trade until we can get fair trade.

China and Energy are the two most important issues facing the United States today. Failure to address these issues will result in failure in all other American endeavors, and we will be the poorer for it.

American Fear

The latest Rasmussen poll shows for the first time since polling began; we as Americans believe our children will have worse life than us. This is a stunning reversal of the traditional American view of the future. Rasmussen states the reason behind this is that something is askew. One obvious source of the current pessimism is the economy. The other is more disturbing. Americans believe that Washington has ceased being responsive to them. Washington is not listening and is going about implementing an agenda that Americans don’t want. Included in this are radical adjustments to our cultural mores, bailouts, and yes…health care reform.

This is ironic given that Obama got elected on a platform of “hope”. Instead, Americans are feeling hopelessness in ways Americans have never felt it before. Rasmussen says it is something intangible. Rasmussen is wrong. It is very tangible. What Americans are witnessing is the executive and legislative branches of the government running amok, serving ideological goals and fringe interest groups rather than the American people as a whole. Americans are frightened, and they should be.

1) Hollywood Morals: Elite academic social workers might not know why a group of black gang thugs would beat up and kill a black honor student. But those of us living in the heartland do. Turn on your television to any MTV awards show, and then come and talk to me. Violence is EVERYWHERE. And in the process of shoving that crap down America’s throats 24/7, the ACLU and its Hollywood cronies have removed religion in any public discourse and replaced it with secular humanism. Anything goes. Feel good. Live for the moment…unless you happen to be a black honor student walking home from school in Chicago.

2) Special Interests: The left wing leaders in the House and Senate and the Supreme Leader in the White House have totally ignored large segments of society in their ideological driven efforts for the government to take over our health care system. Seniors know they are going to get the short end of the lollipop, and just wait until the 20 somethings realize the government mandate to purchase health care or go to jail to be monitored by the IRS. Obama has jumped into bed with the worst of the health care lobbies, including big Pharma, and select health insurance companies which will benefit directly from the cuts to Medicare and Medicare Advantage. The AARP, which is an insurance company first and senior advocacy group second, stands to make billions.

3) Government selected winners and losers: Ask the workers of Saturn about how winners and losers are chosen in this country. Ask the employees of closed auto dealerships the same question. Ask the GM workers in Ontario and Dayton, Ohio, about who wins and who loses. Ask the white collar employees at Delphi who gets punished and who gets rewarded. Ask the unemployed factory worker vs. the selected union elite as in the Service Workers Unions or in the Public Employee Unions. Then talk to the chronically unemployed worker in East Liverpool.

4) Climate Change: Isn’t it funny how the same people who advocate income redistribution are the same people who are harping on this now debunked theory of climate change. The same scientists who said we are going to burn up by next summer are now saying we are in for global cooling…which is what they were saying 20 years ago; also accepted as dogma. No, it has nothing to do with global warming, and everything to do with shifting the means of production to other parts of the world and lowering the standard of living here in the United States. Yes, the US, consumes 21% of the world’s energy. Bad United States!!!. But it also produces 27% of the world’s GDP. How do you spread the GDP figure around to other countries? Force us to use less energy!!! HELLO!!!!

5) Foreign Policy: GET ONE!

Unrest is brewing in the country. It is an unrest the likes of which I have never seen before. The middle class and working folks of this great nation are at the breaking point. If the current administration truly wants to foster “hope”, then it needs to listen to the people the administration is supposed to serve. Serve is the operative word.