Obama's NASA - RIP

American character has been marked by a working for a better life for the future, a better life for our children. In all of America’s trials and tribulations over the years, we have been fortunate enough to elect leaders who inspire us, who give us a vision of what America could be. Until now….

Barack Obama was elected with vague notions of hope and change. The question still is hope and change for what? It soon became clear after his election that his vision was redistribution of wealth, and punishment to those evil capitalists who prey on unfortunates in our society. He gave us no hope or change. He gave us fear of retribution and an oppressive government out to do things that our foreign to our culture. Such are the extremes of the social justice crowd.

It is with this background that we address what Obama has done, or hasn’t done, with NASA. How embarrassing for the United States of America that beginning next year will have to hitch a ride with the Russians to get the space station most of which was built and paid for by us. For the first time since the Kennedy administration, we have no manned space program. None is on the books. What does Obama do? He promotes knowledge of the contribution of Islamic states to science. 

Unfortunately for Barack, NASA will be shutting down what it is best known for in the middle of the 2012 presidential election. How could America, who put the first man on the moon, end its manned space program?  On its face, it defines what is wrong with Obama's America.  It makes the issues crystal clear, and may become the political poster child for 2012.

And if you think it was a waste of money, as Obama to a great degree, and George Bush to a lesser degree, look at how we live. Everything in our modern life from Tang to your 3D television to the memory foam in your springs to your cellular phone…all are due to research done by NASA to promote manned space travel. It would not be a stretch to say that most of our economy right now is rooted in scientific advances achieved by NASA.

And what is Barack doing? Is there a vision for the future? Does he move to inspire new excellence in space exploration? Is he giving us pep talks to go out and show how great America is? No. There is nothing. It is beyond the scope of ideological framework.

Republicans are struggling to find a candidate as we enter the presidential election season. The person who can win the Republican nomination, and the presidency of the United States, will be the person who can point to NASA and say this is the result of Obama, and America will never let this happen again. The Republican candidate must inspire us to restore confidence in ourselves and country.

It’s time for America and its leaders to throw off the bonds of an oppressive government built on punishing the successful instead of celebrating them. It’s time for a restatement of American greatness. It’s time to get America back in the space race…and tell the Russians nevermind, we will drive there ourselves.

Obama's Israel

In the last presidential election, Barack Obama got 80% of the Jewish vote. As a percentage of the population, Jews are an extremely small minority. But the population is concentrated in pockets throughout the country, most notably in Florida. As recent history has taught us, Florida is the quintessential swing state. You can’t win the presidency without it. Realizing that in the 2008 campaign, Obama pledged his unending support for Israel, and stated that Israel’s current borders were not negotiable, and Jerusalem would remain the capital in total. No partition!!!

The question now is why has Obama decided to offend Israel once again, insulting its prime minister again (last time the Israeli prime minister was left cooling his heels in a White House room while Obama got up and went to dinner. He had to leave through the back door by the garbage). The whole sordid mess is so far off the mark, it is beyond comprehension.

The day before Benjamin Netanyahu was flying to Washington for a state visit, Obama announced to the world that the United States believes Israel should shrink its borders to as they were in 1967 before the last Arab/Israeli war. This after he told Netanyahu he would not do that. This after George Bush told Israel we would not do that. This when the Mideast is in turmoil! This when Iran is close to developing a nuclear bomb! This when Israel is, for all practical purposes, alone in the world!

In this speech, he deliberately chose to avoid the use of the word “I”, "me" or “my staff”. He chose to use the word “we” and “the United States.” No sir. Not me. I am not in that “we.” Don’t all of a sudden start using the "collective" country for cover. This isn’t funny. There is something seriously wrong here. What in God’s name is this jack ass doing?

There is no reason for this. Why antagonize our main ally in the region? Why antagonize one of his key political support groups? My major in undergraduate school was International Relations. Even 40 years later, I can spot when something is wrong. And believe me, there is something wrong.

I was among the many who warned that Barack Obama was no friend of Israel. Obama is a product of the left…and not the traditional left that embraces the American Jewish population and its traditional liberal values. Obama is a product of the radical left, and the radical left is anti-Semitic. They are more than pro-Palestinian. Many of them overtly hope for the destruction of Israel.

Who in his administration would support this? Did Hillary Clinton approve? What about Leon Panetta? What about Secretary of Defense Gates? NONE OF THEM WOULD SUPPORT THIS!! And to do it in such a manner as to deliberately insult again the Prime Minister of Israel? It’s not only what he did, but how he did it! All I can see in my mind is Obama’s bow to the King of Saudi Arabia. Is he listening to his leftist friends he has hidden in the White House? I have not heard one word of support for this policy from any of his congressionaly confirmed cabinet members.

Whenever I see something that doesn’t add up, my rule of thumb is to look for the money. Follow the money!!! But that doesn’t work here. Is this Obama placating to the Islamists for what he did to bin Laden? Is this Obama imploding because his ideological framework is being torn to shreds by reality? Or is this Obama cunningly and deceivingly and deliberately causing chaos so the government can seize more power. Maybe Glen Beck is right, and God help us all if he is.

This is a dangerous game. Obama is not a stupid man. He knows that his actions will embolden the enemies of Israel. If Iran thinks they can get away with nuking Tel Aviv, Iran will do so. What signal does this send to Iran? What signal does this send to Hamas? What does this signal to the rest of the world?

America, you need to look at this man. This isn’t right. There is something askew.

Local Corruption and the Local Press

We now almost have a complete sweep of indicted Mahoning County elected officials. This past year we have seen a respected judge hauled off to jail, and indictments issued against the county auditor and a county commissioner. Yesterday’s resignation of county treasurer Lisa Antonini coinciding with the issuance of the federal prosecutor’s bill of information relating to illegal campaign contributions is just another nail in the county coffin.

Corruption seems endemic to this area. One would think with the massive clean-up of local politicians just 10 to 15 years ago involving our congressman, commissioners, numerous judges, untold other county and city officials, and untold numbers of lawyers who either went to jail, left the area, or committed suicide, we would learn our lesson. Apparently not! And let’s not forget the fiasco surrounding the disgraced former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, who demonstrated to the rest of the state what we have to deal with up here.

Couple this with the "interesting" behavior of the Mahoning County Democratic Party chairman relating to Ohio Senate Bill 5, it’s a wonder that we have anyone left willing to live here let alone move businesses here. He single handedly set out to destroy the local Chamber of Commerce for doing what it is supposed to do, lobby for business. The attack on the Chamber bordered on bizarre, and affects all of us who are working hard to make this a better place to live.

There is plenty of blame to go around. Political corruption in the local Democratic Party is commonplace…so what else is new! But complicit in what is happening in this one party county is the local press, currently dominated by the Brown family who owns the Vindicator, the only local paper of mass distribution, and WFMJ television, the number one news station in the Mahoning Valley.

The Vindicator continues to endorse these people for office, and then complains when things go wrong. It continues to refuse any local Republican candidates for office a fair shake with smarmy dismissiveness. More disturbing is the tie it has developed with Attorney Dave Betras, the local Democratic Party Chairman. The Betras law firm is a heavy advertiser on WFMJ television. In exchange for the advertising dollars, WFMJ gives him feature spots on its local morning and evening news shows…showcasing him as “one of the best political minds” in the Mahoning Valley. As late as last week, Vindicator columnist Bertram de Souza told him to “take a bow” after his destructive efforts directed at the Chamber and the disruptive tactics aimed at Governor Kasich during several recent visits to the area. Attorney Betras is a fine man and good lawyer. He should know better than to play for cheap headlines.

There are those of us who work quietly behind the scenes to make the Mahoning Valley a better place to live. It gets discouraging, but we keep going and doing our best. Just recently Youngstown was named one of the top five places in the country for manufacturing jobs, as well as one of the best places in America to start a business notwithstanding the corruption rooted in the local Democratic Party and its office holders. That gives us some hope.

It’s time for the Vindicator, WFMJ, and their editorial staffs to take a look at those of us who are trying to do the area some good rather than endorsing and showcasing those who all too willingly dance down the path of destruction and corruption.

This is our home.   As the saying goes..."Don't Sh__ where you eat!"

Why Greece Matters!

If you have been watching crude oil prices over the past few weeks, you have seen some wild fluctuations. Over the past ten days, it looked for awhile that there may have been some relief in oil prices, and the fall in oil prices were being touted as a precursor to a fall in gasoline prices over the next few weeks. Wrong, diesel mouth! Stuff doesn’t happen in a vacuum. There is a cause, a reaction, and a re-reaction to everything that happens in the markets. So for this lesson, heat up some spanikopoda and cut yourself a piece of baklava.

Many forces go into the cost of crude these days, and most of them are bad. Instability in the Mideast, particularly Libya, fueled that the last rapid crude pop. Bad energy policy in the United States that is promoting AND PAYING for fuel drilling off the coast of Brazil but not in our own waters is another cause. In 2011, however, the worst of the worst is bad monetary and fiscal policy in the United States and other countries. Currency matters, and right now ours sucks.

Over the past several years, contrary to what the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department have stated, the United States has promoted a weak dollar policy in an effort to boost exports. Unfortunately, and unintentionally, things got out of hand as the American debt skyrocketed and the economic collapse of 2008 fueled uber spending by the government and massive printing of money by the Federal Reserve coupled with artificially low interest rates. The dollar sank against the Euro, and the cost of importing oil went up and up and so did the price of gasoline, acting as a tax on all of us for our misguided ways.

But all is not honey in Euroland. The European Union has its own share of fiscal and monetary problems, albeit approached much more conservatively by the European Central Bank and the Bank of England (the only member of the European Union to maintain its own currency), hence the stronger Euro against the dollar.

In Europe, while members of the Euro Zone share a common currency, each country maintains its own fiscal policy with no accountability other than promises to other Euro Zone member countries that each will maintain certain debt and growth levels. That hasn’t worked out so well. Countries like Germany and France have exercised fiscal restraint promoting pro-growth policies and are doing well. Other countries, like Ireland, Greece and Spain, have gone hog wild on social spending and are now European basket cases economically.

Greece seems to be the worst of the offenders, and went to the EU last year for a bailout to save the country. Germany seems to be the EU member with the bucks, and loaned money to Greece as the German population went nuts. Germany, translate the EU, required the Greeks to impose strict spending limits…and the Greek citizens went nuts with rioting in the streets for weeks.

The Greek government managed to get things under control, but things began to unravel several weeks ago when the Greek government went back to the EU for a redo of the bailout. Germany balked… and last week Greece leaked it would consider leaving the Euro Zone and re-issuing its own currency, which for all intents and purposes would be worthless.

Traders dumped the Euros, and the Dollar experienced the most rapid strengthening in years. Thus, oil prices started to come down as traders and speculators unwound their position calculated in Euros to move into position calculated in Dollars. Hurrah…the problem was over for you and me. Experts were predicting a 50 cent drop in gas prices over the next few weeks.

Over the weekend, the Greeks met in secret with the European Union, which is claiming the Greeks cannot leave the EU much like US Government said to South Carolina just before the Civil War. Holly Drachmas, Batman!!!

Although some rapprochement was made with the EU by Greece, the uncertainty is still there. And here is the kicker, the financial condition of the United States is not all that much better than Greece, and traders are once again looking for a safe haven. Where that safe haven used to be the dollar, now it is commodities and oil shot up $5.50/barrel today! So much for cheap gas!

This is the price we are all paying for our government’s misguided fiscal and monetary policies. And that’s no feta!!!!

Usama Bin Laden - A Victory Too Long

It was stunning feat for the United States. It was a spectacular success for the Navy Seals. It was a pitiful ending for a complete scum bag who thought he could bring down the world, but ended up with a bullet in the head. I am glad President Obama decided not to bomb Bin Laden’s compound. I am glad Bin Laden understood he was a dead man, and that it was an American soldier looking him in the eye as he pulled the trigger to kill him.

The whole thing seemed anticlimactic. It took just forty minutes for our special ops to fly into the compound, kill him, gather intelligence, and fly out. Bin Laden was deprived of his long desired battle glorious as he entered into Islamist martyrdom. And now his body is fish meat at the bottom of the ocean. All in a few hours!

9/11 is the defining event for the 21st Century. Our nation was changed forever. We have relinquished our freedoms to an intrusive government in the name of security. Our economy is in shambles. We fought a war in Iraq. We are fighting a war in Afghanistan. We are fighting a non-war in Libya. People are dying. Our finest are dying.

To a demoralized nation, the death of Usama Bin Laden is a needed lift, however temporary it might be. His killing capped off a weekend of “events.” This weekend we watched a royal wedding. We watched Pope John Paul II beatified. We watched a White House Press Corps roast. And we watched our troops kill Usama Bin Laden. What a world we live in!

But now we must get back to the tasks at hand. The problems we had last Friday are still the problems we have today, most of which can be traced directly back to the 9/11 tragedy. The solutions are not easy. The country is divided politically as never before except for, perhaps, the Civil War. Our currency is in the toilet. Our position of economic supremacy is at risk. We, as Americans, are still trying to find our footing once again.

Add to the mix my doubts about Pakistan as a reliable partner. Do you really think the Pakistani government didn't know that Bin Laden was living in a mansion in a walled compound 100 yards from the Pakistani Military Academy located by one of the largest garrisons in Pakistan in a town that houses primarily retired generals? How stupid do they think we are? How many people died because Pakistan didn't play straight with us?

Tonight I had dinner with friends and toasted President Obama who showed guts I didn't know he had; President Bush who laid the intelligence groundwork to form the foundation of the operation; our troops who risk their lives daily;  the memories of those killed on 9/11; and all who have died in the wars and terrorist attacks before and since. I know we should be celebrating this national triumph…but somehow it seems like a victory too long.  Rather than cheering, it's time for quiet contemplation.  The true battles are yet to come.

God Bless America.