Time to Throw Da Bums Out!

I had promised to give the new Congress & Administration one year to settle in and ‘get the hang of things’. But the more fumbling international diplomacy I see, the bigger the spending bills get, and the more entitlement plans that are presented, I just don’t think we can afford to wait anymore. Let’s get them all out! - Out of office and out of D.C.
Members of Congress were never meant to have tenure; the more anti-Federalist of the founders wouldn't have wanted a government that required full-time, much less lifelong, service. Lawmakers usually pitched in for a few years upholstering the work of the framers, then went back to their plantations or law practices. This model of the citizen-legislator held for about 100 years, until government began to expand after the Civil War and the realignments of the 1890s made for safer seats where lawmakers could tuck in for a long ride.
Maybe it is time to kick all the incumbent ‘good ole boys and girls’ out and start over with some fresh faces and ideas. While we are at it, let’s get them out of the beltway and put them back into the states and districts were they are from. Why do we need them in D.C.? With all the technological marvels we have to today they can teleconference, blueberry, phone, fax, mutilate and staple to their hearts content. And they can stay where the people who put them in office have access to them and have the ability to keep an eye on them. You know, like are they really showing up for work, and who is that going into the office continually?
They could eliminate having to buy or rent homes ‘away from home’, and we could turn all the perks like the Congressional Golf Course, dining rooms, and other facilities over to public use. Nancy wouldn’t even need the Gulfstream on a weekly basis. How many billions could be saved?

A man's got to know
his limitations!

Obama orders cuts by Cabinet

Boston Globe - ?5 hours ago? AP And Globe Staff / April 21, 2009 Convening his first Cabinet meeting yesterday, President Obama ordered his agency chiefs to join many American families in penny-pinching, but acknowledged that slicing at least $100 million in administrative costs ...

President Obama has asked his cabinet to come up with 100 million in savings over a 90 day period. This sure sounds good on the surface, until you realize our budget is running around 200 billion per month or 600 billion in 90 days. If this is broken down to be understandable to most of us, it looks like this: 600,000,000,000/100,000,000 To put it another way it amounts to one dollar in savings for every six thousand spent.
Wow, I feel better already!
President Obama promised the country a sharp knife in dealing with the budget, but it seems like he got the butter knife out instead.
"To put those numbers in perspective, imagine that the head of a household with annual spending of $100,000 called everyone in the family together to deal with a $34,000 budget shortfall," Harvard University economist N. Greg Mankiw, a Bush administration official, wrote on his blog. "How much would he or she announce that spending [be] cut? By $3 over the course of the year -- approximately the cost of one latte at Starbucks. The other $33,997? We can put that on the family credit card and worry about it next year."

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the
government from wasting the labors of the people under
the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson

Geithner's choice for deputy secretary withdraws

International Herald Tribune - ?12 hours ago? AP WASHINGTON: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's top pick to be his deputy has withdrawn from consideration. Annette Nazareth, a former senior staffer and commissioner with the Securities and Exchange Commission, withdrew after several interviews ...

At the SEC, Nazareth was a driving force in urging a merger of the NASD, an industry-funded regulator of U.S. brokerages, with most of the New York Stock Exchange’s regulatory arm. The SEC approved the consolidation, which formed the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, in July 2007. That group has come under fire on Capitol Hill for not spotting the $50 billion Ponzi scheme allegedly masterminded by Bernard Madoff.

Before becoming a commissioner in 2005, Nazareth was the staff member in charge of overseeing brokerage firms, market surveillance and stock exchanges. She led the division in 2004 when it designed a program to monitor whether Wall Street’s biggest securities firms had adequate capital and liquidity.
SEC Inspector General David Kotz faulted the program in a September report, saying the SEC failed to respond to “numerous, potential red flags” at Bear Stearns Cos., which collapsed a year ago. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. went bust in September.

Prior to joining the Commission staff, Ms. Nazareth held several positions in the financial services industry. As a Managing Director of Smith Barney from 1997 to 1998, she was deputy head of the capital markets legal group. As a Senior Vice President and Senior Counsel of Lehman Brothers, Ms. Nazareth was the chief legal advisor to the fixed income division from 1994 to 1997. From 1986 to 1994, she served as Managing Director and General Counsel of Mabon Securities Corp. and its predecessor business, Mabon, Nugent & Co.
Some might remember that Mabon, Nugent & Company invested 40 million dollars in the failing Global Motors that had brought us the famed Yugo.

Remember that catchy phrase?

Yugo, I go, we all go!

CONSERVATISM vs. LIBERALISIM

History 101 (Crash course)

For those that don't know about history ... Here is a condensed version:

Humans originally existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunters/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains during the summer and would go to the coast and live on fish and lobster in the winter.

The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer. These were the foundations of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups:

1. Liberals (the gatherers)
2. Conservatives. (the hunters)

Once beer was discovered, it required grain and that was the beginning of agriculture. Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early humans were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That's how villages were formed.

Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to B-B-Q at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as the Conservative movement.

Other men who were weaker and less skilled at hunting learned to live off the Conservatives by showing up for the nightly B-B-Q's and doing the sewing, fetching, and hair dressing. This was the beginning of the Liberal movement.

Some of these liberal men eventually became known as girlie-men. Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the invention of group therapy, group hugs, and the concept of democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat and beer that conservatives provided.

Over the years Conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant. Liberals are symbolized by the jackass.

Modern liberals like imported beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish but like their beef well done. Sushi, tofu, and French food are standard liberal fare. Another interesting evolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than their men. Most government social workers, and employee's, personal injury lawyer's, journalists, dreamers in Hollywood and group therapists are liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn't fair to make the pitcher also bat.

Conservatives drink domestic beer, mostly Bud. They eat red meat and provide for their family & community. Conservatives are big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers, corporate executives, attorney’s, athletes, members of the military, airline pilots, teachers who believe in our founding fathers, and generally anyone who works productively. Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living.

Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to govern the producers and decide what to do with the production. Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to America . They crept in after the Wild West was tamed and created a business of trying to get something for nothing.

When a fishing boat comes to the dock, Liberals want to confiscate some of the fish to feed those who cannot fish. Conservatives want to hire people to fish and let them learn how to buy their own boat.

Here ends today's lesson in world history:

It should be noted that a Liberal may have a momentary urge to angrily respond to the above.

A Conservative will simply laugh and be so convinced of the absolute truth of this history that it will be forwarded immediately to other true believers and to more liberals just to tick them off.

And there you have it. Let your next action reveal your true self.

WE LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE, ONLY BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE

Thanks to Ron V.

Note: This is NOT about Republicans and Democrats. It’s a distinction as to what you believe about the Constitution, National Defense, Personal Responsibility, Fiscal Responsibility, and most importantly Freedom!
Moderates are a melding of Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, and all others that believe in the above ideas.

War was declared on the United States of America
2,724 days, 9 hours, 24 minutes and 12 seconds ago.

Conservatives want to end the war in victory for the people of Iraq, so they may also have personal and economic freedom.
Liberals choose to walk away, because it has just ‘taken too long”, AND there would be more money to spend on people in this country who want more hand-outs.

WAR ON TERROR IS OVER!

It must be over! We are releasing prisoners, getting out of Iraq and cutting Defense Spending. So, it’s OVER!

Barney Frank is calling on President Obama to stop the ‘wasteful defense spending’ so that we will be able to spend that money on extended social programs. I guess we will need them, if we bring back all the troops and put thousands of defense contractors and defense workers out of jobs. High paying jobs I might add.

What happened to President Hopeful Obama promising to track down Osama Bin-Laden and ‘take him out’?

But the big thing is it’s over.

I hope so.

I would hate to see this again.

DIPLOMACY Or CAPITULATION??

China expresses relief over Clinton visit:
1 hour ago

BEIJING (AFP) — Hillary Clinton's trip to Beijing has come as a relief to China after the US secretary of state steered clear of human rights and other sensitive issues to focus on cooperation between the world powers.

Just before arriving in the Chinese capital, Clinton told reporters that while she would press concerns over human rights: “Those issues can’t interfere on the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis.”

Hillary Clinton is redefining herself to some extent (again?). After going to Beijing in 1995 as first lady to deliver an impassioned speech on women’s rights, Mrs. Clinton has sidelined human rights on this trip, saying she does not want the topic to interfere with central issues like climate change or the economic crisis.

Here are the words of U.S. Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton in April of 2008 less than one year ago. "These events underscore why I believe the Bush administration has been wrong to downplay human rights in its policy towards China. ...

But this year we get this:

Clinton: Chinese 'human rights can't interfere' with other crises

Dissidents held during Clinton Beijing visit

Clinton focusses on selling US treasury bills to China

China still sure of US bonds: Clinton

Clinton says America and China must work together

Clinton: US to 'deepen and broaden relationship' with China


Ahhh, the Fresh Face of Diplomacy!

REGONOMICS vs OBAMANOMICS

With regards to:

Peter Ferrara
Director, Entitlement and Budget Policy, Institute for Policy Innovation

President Reagan’s economic recovery plan included four specific components on which he explicitly campaigned over and over and then implemented once elected.

These were:
1. Reductions in tax rates to restore incentives for economic growth. This consisted of, first, a reduction in the top income tax rate of 70% down to 50%, and then a 25% across the board reduction in income tax rates for everyone. The 1986 tax reform then reduced tax rates further, leaving just two rates, 28% and 15%. Reagan also cut corporate income tax rates and capital gains tax rates
2. Spending Reductions. The reductions included a $31 billion cut in spending in 1981, close to 5% of the federal budget then, or the equivalent of about $150 billion in spending cuts for the year in 2008. In constant dollars, non-defense discretionary spending declined by 14.4% from 1981 to 1982, and by 16.8% from 1981 to 1983. Moreover, in constant dollars, this non-defense discretionary spending never returned to its 1981 level for the rest of Reagan’s two terms! By 1988, this spending was still down 14.4% from its 1981 level in constant dollars. Even with the Reagan defense buildup, total federal spending declined from a high of 23.5% of GDP in 1983 to 21.3% in 1988 and 21.2% in 1989. That’s a real reduction in the size of government relative to the economy of 10%
3. Anti-inflation monetary policy to restrain money supply growth.
4. Deregulation. Reagan’s deregulation plan has now saved consumers an estimated $100 billion per year in lower prices. Reagan’s first executive order, in fact, eliminated price controls on oil and natural gas. Production soared, and the price of oil declined by over 50%.
The results were spectacular. These four components produced a 25-year economic boom from 1982 to 2007. In their new book, “The End of Prosperity,” Art Laffer and Steve Moore call the these years “the greatest period of wealth creation in the history of the planet.” They note that — adjusted for inflation– more wealth and income was created during this Reagan boom than in any other prior period in U.S. history. That’s right, than any other entire period dating from President George Washington all the way up to Ronald Reagan.
But Barack Obama is doing exactly the opposite on each of these four points:
–He is still promising tax rate increases, at least by letting the Bush tax cuts expire.
–He just passed the greatest increase in government spending in the history of the planet.
–He is promising massive increases in regulatory burdens, including global warming cap and trade regulation that would cost the economy another trillion dollars a year.
–The Fed is already furiously reinflating the money supply, sowing seeds of further havoc in the future.
Even the Obama tax cuts do not follow the Reagan economic recovery plan because they are not reductions in tax rates, which is what drives the incentives that govern the economy.
A reduction in tax rates increases incentives by allowing people to keep a higher percentage of what they earn from productive activity. But Obama’s tax cuts are all based on tax credits, which do nothing to improve incentives. They are really just the same as his government spending in terms of their effect on the economy, just like sending more welfare checks out to everyone.
At AmericanSolutions.com, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has proposed an updated version of the Reagan economic recovery program for today. It includes, among other items, a reduction in the federal corporate income tax rate from 35% to the 12.5% rate that over the past 20 years has lifted the standard of living in Ireland from the bottom of the EU to the top. It would eliminate the capital gains tax to match rates in China, Singapore, and other international competitors — a move that would entice capital investment from the world over to America. It would provide middle class tax relief by reducing the 25% income tax bracket to 15%, establishing a flat rate tax of 15% for close to 90% of American workers. Gingrich also proposes that a cut in the payroll tax by 50% for 2 years. He also proposes that our government work to control government spending to balance the budget, something Gingrich himself achieved when he was Speaker of the House. Under his plan, the United States would also adopt a real, comprehensive energy program that would allow production of domestic U.S. oil and natural gas, as well as nuclear power, clean coal, ethanol, and renewable fuels.
Obama keeps saying he is only interested in what works, not ideology. So why doesn’t he include any of the above components that have a proven track record of effectiveness? Why is our president ignoring what works and insisting on embracing an ideology that will simply expand big government?

Why indeed?

TORONTO PRESS CONFERENCE

TORONTO PRESS CONFERENCE

The Associated Press - 2 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) - Barack Obama's first foreign trip as president - a down-to-business visit with an essential economic ally, Canada - is light on time but loaded with touchy matters.

Mr. President! Mr. President! “I have a question!”
“Uh, Uh, oh very well, what is your name, newspaper and your question sir?” I don’t believe you are on my posed question list!”
“Joe Schmoo from the Northern Plains Dealer, Mr. President.
In light of the following world news stories, the American people would like to know who is tracking these items in the Administration
and what the plans are to act on them?”

COLOMBO (AFP) — The United Nations humanitarian chief John Holmes held talks with leaders in Sri Lanka on Thursday over the fate of thousands of civilians trapped in the island's war zone.

CNN International - 55 minutes ago
(CNN) -- Kyrgyzstan parliament has voted to close a base the US military uses as a route for troops and supplies heading into Afghanistan, a government spokesman said Thursday.

Aljazeera.net - 44 minutes ago
The United States says it plans to press Nato allies to deploy more troops in Afghanistan for securing the troubled country. Speaking ahead of a Nato meeting in Poland starting on Thursday, Robert Gates, the US secretary of defence, said Washington was ...

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited a development program in a working-class Jakarta neighborhood and spoke about her decision to work for the man who defeated her for the presidential nomination, on her second day in Indonesia before flying to Seoul. Mrs. Clinton said she put aside the disappointment of the election to take Mr. Obama’s job offer because, she said, “We have so many of the same views of what we should do in the world.”

The Associated Press - 2 hours ago
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea stepped up its war rhetoric Thursday, saying its troops are "fully ready for an all-out confrontation" with South Korea ahead of a visit to Seoul by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

GAZA, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Israeli forces on Thursday wounded and arrested a Palestinian near the border in southeast Gaza Strip, Israeli sources said.

BBC News - 1 hour ago
The leader of the far-right Israeli Yisrael Beiteinu party has said he backs Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu to form the next Israeli government.

“Joe, I appreciate your question. Of course this is being watched at all levels of this Administration. While Secretary Clinton, Speaker Pelosi, others, including myself are out of the country at the moment, we are not out of communication. All world situations are being monitored. Having said that, I have to spend the rest of this month curing the problems we have in this country. We have to act now and without hesitation. Once we have these problems solved, we will move onto the rest of the world next month. I hope that answers your question Joe.“ “Thank you!

(Robert, Let’s make sure this guy never gets inside the press room again. Now I have to change)

John Deere Wins New Contract!!!!

Despite the cozy relationship that this Administration has with Caterpillar it has awarded it's first agricultural contract for new machinery to rival John Deere.
In his promise to "work smart and make government work smart", President Obama has chosen John Deere to build new machinery needed for the Tax Stimulus Plan.
"We have had a lot of proposals that involved new design and manufacturing, that would only push up the cost of the equipment needed. The good folks at John Deere have come up with a plan to inexpensively modify an old piece of equipment with readily available parts. This is American ingenuity at work, and the kind of forward thinking all of us need to be doing!"
When asked what he thought of the first test run with the prototype the President stated:
"Actually I just kind of teared up looking at it".

John Deere has renamed it's 1941 Manure and Compost Spreader and promised to retro fit all existing equipment as a way of helping this Administration "Work Smart for the American People".
What we will see with the Tax Stimulus Plan;

Workers who make less than $75,000 a year (or married couples who make $150,000 or less) will receive $400 tax credits in 2009 and 2010. Those who make more will receive reduced amounts. But instead of mailing out checks, as the Bush administration did with its stimulus plan last year, the government will withhold a little less -- leaving average workers with perhaps $8 extra per week.

Health insurance subsidies for the unemployed could also have a direct effect, but even with the federal help many may find it hard to afford continued coverage. Workers who lose their jobs must arrange with their employers to continue the coverage and must pay the premiums themselves -- a hefty outlay even with the government now picking up 65% of the cost for nine months for individuals earning up to $125,000 a year ($250,000 for couples). Of course we have already extended the length of time that benefits can be collected.

The federal government will deliver $54 billion in aid to cash-strapped states, with some of the money available to prop up state budgets, help maintain services and keep employees on the job.

Other money could help keep teachers and day-care workers on the payroll. That alone could save or create hundreds of thousands of jobs nationwide, Democrats say.

Counties, cities and municipalities that receive a chunk of stimulus money are expected to green-light so-called shovel-ready projects, using workers and equipment that otherwise might sit idle. The U.S. Conference of Mayors has projected that such projects could yield 1.6 million jobs by the end of next year.

It is pretty obvious that 'creating and saving' jobs means government jobs!

This is known in the business world as more overhead.

A SHOUT IN THE WILDERNESS

One Sunday as I was napping on the back porch, I heard a bunch of
screaming out in the woods behind the house. Hmm. What could that
be about I wonder? Stepping into the kitchen I picked up my .22 rifle
and headed out to investigate. About two miles into the trees I came to the little pond where I sometimes go to catch bream and catfish.
There was a man walking back and forth with two buckets of water, dipping out of the deep end, walking the length of the pond and pouring into the shallow end of the small pond. Each time he poured in a bucket of water he would cuss, yell and throw the buckets down
In frustration.
“Excuse me sir, what are you doing out here and why all the noise on beautiful day like this”?
The stranger looked at me as if I were crazy and said “I am here to fix this pond".
“But sir, there is nothing wrong with the pond! It’s perfect, it’s full of catfish, bream and is spring fed by the aquifer”.
“Nothing wrong with it? Nothing wrong with it? Are you blind mister”? “Sure, this is end is nice, but look at the other end, it’s shallow and muddy and has no vegetation like this end. This pond is out of balance and I am here to make it nice on both ends and in the middle as well”! “But, every time I take water out of the deep end and pour it into the shallow end, it all just levels out again, I’m stumped, but I know I can come up with the solution, I just know it”!
“But sir, you are tramping all over the frog habitat on the shallow end of the pond! If you keep this up, the frogs will die, the fish will die and the pond will stagnate”!
“Now look fellow! I know it may not be a perfect plan, but it’s the one I came up with. I happen to be in charge here. I’m from the government and I’m here to help you”! By the way mister, is that gun loaded? Do you have a permit for it? I can’t believe we have people walking around in the woods with a loaded gun! What is your name”?
"This is another problem we are going to have to fix, just as soon as I get done with this pond"!

Obama sets executive pay limits

Obama Lays Out Limits on Executive Pay

"For top executives to award themselves these kinds of compensation packages in the midst of this economic crisis is not only in bad taste — it’s a bad strategy — and I will not tolerate it as President. We’re going to be demanding some restraint in exchange for federal aid — so that when firms seek new federal dollars, we won’t find them up to the same old tricks".
--Barack Obama

The plan, which represents the most aggressive assault on executive pay by federal officials, includes salary caps of $500,000 for top executives at firms that accept "extraordinary assistance" from the government.

Sounds good doesn’t it? Let’s punish those bad boys and make ‘em
Hurt! But is there any teeth to this pay cap or is it just empty rhetoric?

Let’s look at how the new plan will affect James Owens, one of the members of President Obama’s Economic Recovery Team.

"The board will be chaired by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. Its members include Jeffrey Immelt, chief executive of General Electric, and James Owens, chief executive of Caterpillar. Both companies have strong sales around the world, though both are coping with hard times amid the slowing global economy; Caterpillar said last month that it would cut 20,000 jobs".

According to Forbes, this is James Owens compensation package for
2007. Now personally, I don’t care how much any CEO or Executive
Makes. I think that is between them and the shareholders. But, just for the heck of it, let’s see how this ‘salary cap’ will affect him.

$ 1,512,504.00 Salary
$ 300,000.00 Bonus
$ 0.00 Other Annual Compensation
$ 0.00 Long term incentive plan payouts
$ 918,626.00 Restricted stock awards
$ 0.00 Security underlying options
$ 221,307.00 All other compensation
$ 7,136,911.00 Option awards $
$ 4,442,998.00 Non-equity incentive plan compensation
$ 2,575,395.00 Change in pension value and nonqualified deferred
compensation earnings
$17,107,741.00 Total Compensation

So at first glance, it appears that Mr. Owens would lose $1,012,504.00.
Or would he? Might he just put oh, lets say $200,000 into his bonus plan and $800,000
into the item labeled 'Other Annual Compensation'?
Even if he did take the 1 million dollar pay cut, does it really hurt him? Of course not. CEO
salaries are nothing more than 'walking around money, for many of them.
I am all for CHANGE and a better method of doing things,but I firmly believe that I don't appreciate being misled by meaningless DoubleSpeak.

Where's the beef?

Air Force One to Williamsburg??

Obama takes first Air Force One trip to Williamsburg

Let me see if I have this correct. Obama takes his first Air Force One trip to Williamsburg?
Williamsburg, Virginia? The town that is 152 miles from Washington, DC?
Did he just need to take a ride and try out his new 'wheels'?

Are you kidding me?

Has anyone thought to calculate what it cost to fly Marine Corp One to Andrews Air Force Base?
Then load up on a 4,000 square foot flying office and travel to Virginia? (152 miles)
How many military people and staff did this require?
Did the C-141 cargo jet that carries the Presidential Limo and staff cars make the trip as well?
Was the Air Force AWACS plane flying overhead?
Was the military and air traffic control on special alert because the President was in the air?
How many millions did this cost?

Are you kidding me?

Is this the same person who criticized the ‘Big Three’ CEO’s for taking a corporate jet to Washington from Detroit?
Is this the President that is calling for personal responsibility and a ‘new way’ of doing business?
Is this the President who has promised accountability and transparency?

Is this the President who is asking for a Trillion dollar spending plan?

Are you kidding me?

Are you kidding me?

Lets just hope he doesn’t take it to Camp David next week!

...Bill

A plea to Congress and a Fractured Fable

THE SILVER SCREW

Once upon a time, a young lad was born without a belly button. In its place was a silver screw. All the doctors told his mother that there was nothing they could do.
Like it or not, he was stuck with it . . . He was screwed.
All the years of growing up were real tough on him, as all who saw the screw made fun of him. He avoided leaving his house . . . And thus, never mde any friends.
One day, a mysterious stranger saw his belly and told him of a swami in Tibet who could get rid of the screw for him. He was thrilled. The next day, he took all of his life's savings and bought a ticket to Nepal .
After several days of climbing up steep cliffs, he came upon a giant monastery. The swami knew exactly why he had come. The screwy guy was told to sleep in the highest tower of the monastery and the following day when he awoke, the screw would have been removed. The man immediately went to the room and fell asleep.
During the night while he slept, a purple fog floated in an open window. In the mist floated a solid silver screwdriver. In just moments, the screwdriver removed the screw and disappeared out the window.
The next morning when the man awoke, he saw the silver screw laying on the pillow next to him. Reaching down, he felt his navel, and there was no screw there! Jubilant, he leaped out of bed . . . . And his butt fell off.
The moral to this is:
'Don't screw around with things you don't understand -- You could lose your ass.'
---- Congress is noted for screwing around with things they don't understand - like the economy. That's why we are all losing our asses!

....Padroo

U.S. CONSTITUTION

May it Rest in Peace

Obama's First 100 days.......

Washington DC 2038
2010 Was Not A Good Year To Be President

Today Rick Campbell, one of our senior VFW members at age 92, is here to reminisce a bit and give us a history lesson. He says he is so old that he learned to drive an internal combustion engine car (remember those) with a manual transmission. He once owned a typewriter. He remembers when bicycles had one speed, phones had two-party lines, and cameras had something called film. As incredible as this may seem, he says that when he was young, it was common for people to smoke in restaurants and public places. He is from a different time; almost a different world.
He is one of the last surviving Marine Medal of Honor Winners from the Vietnam War.

I'm sure all of us are far too familiar with the tragic events of
2010, so Rick is not going to plow that fertile field again. Instead,
he is going to give us a personal look back at the conditions which led
up to that fateful year, in a speech titled '2010 Was Not A Good Year To Be President.'

'2010 Was Not A Good Year To Be President'

Yes, 2010 was long ago and far away.

As we look back on history, it appears that some Presidents had an
easy ride - times of growth and stability. Teddy Roosevelt, Warren G.
Harding, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Bill Clinton come to mind. Those were good years to be President.

Others were elected just when the Republic was facing terrible
crises: Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt ,Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. They rose to the occasion, even though they were controversial and widely hated while in office. Not such good years to be President.

Just a few years prior, in 2008, the country began foundering. We
were in the sixth year of the Iraqi Occupation, and the economy was
flat. The mainstream press clearly wanted a Democrat elected.
Although we didn't know it until some years later, oil producing
nations had colluded to secretly buy their own oil on the open market,
driving oil prices to shocking levels above the true demand price-
reaching a high of $162 a barrel in October, 2008, just before the
general elections.

Their purpose was simple: to effect regime change in the United
States. And of course, the U.S. economy was already in a real estate slump and also suffering the curse of stagflation; slow growth and high inflation.

There were a million’s of home foreclosures.

Independent truckers went under by the thousands.

Airlines failed. Airlines with names now long-forgotten: United,
Delta, Northwestern, American. All now merged, of course, into the one lone U.S. carrier we love so much: Southwest.

Against this backdrop of weariness of the war on terror, and economic
distress, the American people were ripe for a demagogue, and they
certainly got one in Barack Hussein Obama.

He and his running mate Joe Biden inspired them with vague
notions of hope and change; of a world in which diplomacy settled all
international problems, of free universal health care, of abundant
alternative energy, of peace and love.

It was a vision too good to resist.

The Republican nominee, a name you probably haven't heard in years
anyone? Yes, it was John McCain, an obscure Senator from Arizona had no clue how to run a national campaign, and a platform nearly as liberal as Obama's.

The selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate looked brilliant
at first. Unfortunately, the liberal media attacked her without merit and
Katie Couic and Charles Gibson ambushed her at every turn.


Even so, the McCain/Palin ticket might have won the election if it
weren't for the fact that 16 percent of conservative Republicans did
not turn out to vote for anyone, remember?

After Obama's decisive win, the country was positively giddy. A Democrat House, Senate, and President. At last an end to gridlock in Washington. Camelot!

When Congress convened in January, 2009, the 44th President of the
United States did something unique in history: he made good on his
campaign promises.

Certainly most Americans never really thought he was serious during
the campaign. But whether because of inexperience, idealism, or simply incompetence, he followed through.

In Obama's first One Hundred Days, the Congress passed his
initiatives, and he signed them into law as he said he would.

He repealed the Bush tax cuts, and increased capital gains taxes.

He enacted a windfall profits tax, and instituted price controls on
gasoline and diesel fuel.

He passed universal health care, which added an additional 10 percent tax increase on all working Americans.

He tried to offset this with a huge tax increase on tobacco products which put thousands of farmers and more people out of work.

He signed the Immigrant Amnesty bill which created 12 million new
citizens instantly, each with entitlements.

He closed the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, and summarily
released all the detainees.

He repealed the Patriot Act, and cut funding for espionage, and
eliminated all terrorist listening and wiretaps.

Most important, he began the complete and immediate withdrawal of all American troops from Iraq.

He ignored the advice of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who wanted to
retain bases in Kuwait and Qatar. Instead, he went with the recommendation of Secretary of Defense John Murtha (He had fired Gates by this time) and ordered all troops back to U.S. soil.

Viola! In One Hundred Days, by May of 2009, it was all done, and the
vision was complete. He did exactly what he said he would do.

And so it was in the summer of 2009 that things began to unravel for
Obama.

Of course, the economy needed a tax cut, not an increase, and
unemployment quickly rose to 18 percent. Even attorneys and economists were put in the bread lines. Hard times.

Price controls on gasoline immediately led to shortages and gas lines.

The global cooling trend we have seen for the past 25 years first
became obvious in 2009, exposing the CO2 global warming fraud. People were justifiably angry.

Federal deficits increased massively because thousands of baby
boomers, facing job loss and much higher taxes, simply gave up and
took social security.

Although the superb U.S. health care system was thrown into disarray,
the bright spot was the creation of the Federal Department of Health
Care, and the immediate hiring of 250,000 administrators, inspectors
and auditors, the only job growth in any economic sector in 2009.

By February 2010, the U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq was
complete. It was a very expensive undertaking.

And then in March, the gradual Shiite insurgencies from Iran turned
into a true Iraqi civil war. In May, Iranian tanks crossed the border
and quickly took Baghdad. Although the exact number is not known, at least 230,000 Sunni Iraqis died as we stood by.

Iran also quickly moved into undefended Kuwait.

President Obama did exactly what he said he would. He sent Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Tehran to meet with Iranian President Ahmadinejad. He refused to allow her plane to land and she was forced to finally land in her previously described "Hail of Bullets" in Kosovo as the Muslims and Christians there had returned to conflict and ethnic cleansing.

After two weeks of high level talks, Obama and Ahmadinejad agreed to allow Iran to retain Iraq and Kuwait to create stability in the middle
east, with the understanding that Israel would not be disturbed.
Clinton was allowed to fly to Tehran so that she could personally 'broker' the deal.

Clinton returned to Washington, and explained the agreement in her
famous speech, in which she proudly noted that the Obama
administration had finally achieved 'peace in our time' in the Middle East.

So there was some surprise at the rocket attacks on Tel Aviv on August 14th. President Obama said, 'This is not the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad I knew.'

The Obama administration decided it would be de-stabilizing to take
sides in the conflict, and approximately 29,000 Israeli civilians died
during the summer and fall.
American Jews were appalled at the inaction. Yes, in 2010 most
American Jews were Democrats, but because of 2010, they are solid
Republicans today।

Now, I am not even going to go into the statements that there would be no lobbyist in the
Obama Administration. We all know how that turned out after the Patrick Fitzgerald
indictments of Bill Clinton, The Secretary of the Treasury, Tom Daschele and the other players
in "The Liberal Attempt to Socilize the Economy". Much has been said about this already.

As awkward as it was, everything might have turned out all right for
the Obama administration going into the fall mid-term elections of
2010, if it hadn't been for the dirty bomb in the Port of Long Beach.

The administration had cut funding for the inspection of containers,
because they felt it showed a 'lack of trust' in the international
trading community.

It wasn't really a very big bomb, and thank goodness, not a real
nuclear device, but nonetheless it contaminated some expensive real
estate - Newport Beach, Palos Verdes Estates - and ultimately caused the death of 14,000 Americans. People were especially annoyed that
Disneyland had to be closed for decontamination.

And so, in the midterm elections, Republicans regained control of
both the House and Senate, and the rest is history.

The impeachment proceedings against President Obama for 'failure to
protect and defend' were swift and nearly unanimous. Vice President
Biden resigned. Newly-elected Speaker of the House, J.C. Watts,
became the 45th President of the United States.

But you know the rest of the story well.

Republicans finished the war on Islamic fundamentalists, largely by
aiming ICBM's at Mecca and Medina.

No Democrat has been elected President since.

Republicans have held both Houses of Congress.

History of Western Civilization and Economics are now taught in all
public schools, and in English only.

Marriage is defined as one man and one woman.

And there are border fences, north and south.

We old codgers remember the ancient Confucian curse: 'May you live in interesting times.'

"Well, 2010 was an interesting year, but it was not a good year to be
President."
.................

'Men may argue forever what wins wars.
But the man with the rifle knows'.

Major Jerry Van Waggner USA ret
Infantry