I Can't Be Out of Money, I Still Have Checks Left

Congress is working on appropriating $30 billion for the Afghanistan War to pay for the coming surge. The hold up is that Democrats are pushing for billions of dollars to give to school boards around the country to save teachers jobs while the Republicans are saying they want a clean bill for strictly the war.

This administration and this congress have thrown money everywhere. They've bailed out banks, financial institutions, car companies, fannie mae and freddie mac (which needs another $1 Trillion), as well as giving money to massage parlors, strip clubs, prison inmates and more. They haven't worried about it because they have control of the printing presses and can make more money. Not earn, but make.

But the Democrats aren't worried. After all, the Bush tax cuts, which produced the largest growth in the economy in 25 years, are about to expire on December 31, 2010. So beginning January 1, 2011 everyone's taxes will increase. They think that they'll collect more money because of those tax increases. What they will do instead is plunge us into another recession, the so-called "double dip" recession. Tax revenues, which set records for income following the tax cuts, will decrease. Unemployment will increase. Bankruptcies will increase over the record levels they are setting this year. The need for people to be dependent on welfare will increase.

We can no longer afford the spending that this Congress and this President are doing. Democrats seem to think that as long as they can print money and still have checks in the checkbook, that they can continue to spend.

If you think people are suffering now, hang on. The suffering hasn't even begun to start yet. It's about to get much much worse. There are solutions, but this Congress and this President either don't believe it, or don't care and are looking for the destruction of the free market system.

You're welcome to comment.

Brett

Obama and the "F" Word

General Stanley McChrystal was the subject of a story in Rolling Stone magazine written over a period of time. His top advisors and aides were also quoted and those quotes are embarrassing for General McChrystal and President Obama. However true it may be, General McChrystal should not be calling the Commander in Chief and his staff "wimps" or calling Vice President Biden "Bite me".

McChrystal was wrong to make the comments because his commanding officer is President Obama. Imagine a private saying something about General McChrystal in the press along the same lines. It is inappropriate and undermines the authority of General McChrystal just as McChrystals comments were inappropriate and undermines the authority of Obama. Like it or not, Obama is the Commander in Chief. The position he holds is to be respected even if the man himself is not respected.

Having said that, Obama spoke for a few minutes today and at one point said "...whatever decision I make.....". He's just let the cat out of the bag. If he's thinking about a decision and saying that it's a possibility, it's going to happen. McChrystal will be fired.

Apparently, McChrystal has apologized to everyone but the President. I suspect he intends to voice his apology in person with Obama tomorrow. At the same time, McChrystal should resign his position and I think he will. From all I've read, McChrystal is an honorable man and has been a heroic soldier over the years. This tells me that he knows he was wrong in saying what he said and the honorable thing for him to do is to resign his position.

This is where Obama is likely to fail. It wouldn't surprise me abit if Obama comes out and says he's relieved McChrystal of his command even if McChrystal resigns. Where Obama has already failed is that he has no control over his military. He doesn't command respect and he's not getting that respect. It's a shame for McChrystal but he must resign.

This is just the latest in a series of failures by this President. Staying with McChrystal for a moment, President Karzai of Afghanistan is reported to have to called Obama and asked him to keep McChrystal on because he cannot get along with the U.S. Ambassador. Why does Obama keep an ambassador that can't get along with the leader of the country that we're trying to get on our side in defeating al queda?

Of course, there is the failure in the gulf. It's now been discovered that THIRTEEN countries offer the United States assistance in the oil leak and they were turned down. Even half of those countries offering different ways to gather the oil may have prevented the oil from reaching the shores of the United States. Obama failed when it came to getting all of the help he could to protect the beaches, the estuaries, the bayou. He also failed in getting the booms out there. He left a company in Maine holding all of these booms that could have helped with the oil heading to our shores. Obama failed.

Then there is the failure to protect the borders. Obama has done nothing to enforce the borders. Two and a half weeks ago, he met with Arizona Governor Jan Brewer. He promised to get in touch with her (through his staff) on his decisions regarding the border. That two weeks came and went, however, on the day that he was supposed to get in touch with Brewer, the interview turned up of Hillary in Ecuador saying that the Obama administration was going to go to court to try to shut down the new Arizona law. Obama failed to follow through on his word to be in touch with Governor Brewer and had one of his lackies (Clinton), announce it.

Obama also failed in sending troops to Arizona. He met with the Republicans and Senator Kyl and Senator McCain both told him that they needed 6,000 troops on the border. Obama said nothing. But once the meeting was over, it was announced that he was sending 1,200 troops to the border. That was a month ago. Still no troops and it's said that even if they do show up, they'll be desk jobs. Not actually working on the border.

Obama failed with the stimulus plan. It's not worked. So he blamed former President Bush. Obama failed with Health care. Oh yeah, he got it passed after the Louisiana Purchase and the Cornhusker Kickback and the perks for Connecticut and others, but he failed to listen to the American people who clearly said they didn't want Obamacare. But that's exactly what we've got.

Obama failed last year with the troop surge in Afghanistan. The military requested more troops in August last year. In December, Obama finally decided to send more troops, but only 30,000. Military casualties have increased.

Last, but not least is the four terrorist attacks on our soil since Obama has become President. One in Arkansas where one soldier was wounded and one died. Two is Fort Hood where 13 died and 33 were wounded. Third is the underwear bomber on Christmas Eve and the fourth was the Times Square bomber in May. These are all going to be tried in criminal courts as is Khalid Sheik Muhammed, the one behind the September 11, 2001 attack on this country. The Times Square Bomber is the only one that is a citizen of this country and as such is entitled to a criminal trial, although because he's claimed the attack was part of the war, an argument could be made that he should be in Guantanamo Bay (another failure of Obama who said it was close in one year which expired January 22, of this year).

Obama's "F" word isn't the one that VP Biden said into an open mike at the time of the health care signing. Obama's "F" word is FAILURE.

You're welcome to comment.

Brett

It's Time For Obama to Man-up

It is time for President Obama to man up. Actually, it's past time, but we can't get a person to do something in the past. We can only move forward, so it's time for the President to act like a man rather than a little kid.

The explosion in the gulf has turned loose massive amounts of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Three days following the explosion the Dutch offered the United States some skimmers to help clean up the oil. They were told no thank you.

Two weeks following the explosion, the Governor of Lousiana, Bobby Jindal sent a request to the Federal Government to allow him to start building berms to protect the shoreline from the oncoming oil. It took until late May for the Feds to say "you can have six" but not 30.

The only thing we've heard the President say during this time is that BP is at fault. BP will be held accountable. This is going to be a major environmental disaster and we need to pass Cap and Tax. We need climate change legislation.

The President is acting like a little kid saying "Johnny threw the ball through the window, spank him mommy." In most families, the first thing that gets done is the window gets replaced, then the punishment is meted out. But not with this President. He spends his time blaming BP. Meanwhile the oil is still flowing in the gulf.

Mr. President. BP will still be at fault six months from now. They will still be at fault a year from now. PLUG THE DAMN HOLE. Then worry about meting out punishment. After all, that's what our court system is for. The only thing you've accomplished is driving BP's stock down. Tell me something. How will BP pay if they go bankrupt before this hole is plugged?

The priority is to plug the hole. BP has been working on it. The government should be putting someone there to oversee the work being done. That person should have an idea of whether the work being done has a legitimate chance. He should be making sure that BP is doing as they say and verify all of their actions. If BP is not doing the job, then the President has the power to shut BP down. All he has to do is gather some experts, from other companies if necessary, and when he's dissatisfied with BP, shut them down and immediately move in the experts and let them take it over and plug the hole.

He should also be waiving any restrictive laws that hinder any help we can get in cleaning up this mess, such as the Jones Act. He should be inviting any and all help to clean up the oil. We are the first to go to the aid of other nations when they have a disaster. We were there for Haiti. We were there in South America after the earthquake there. We were there when they had the tsunami a few years back. Why are we being so arrogant to refuse help when offered during our disasters?

Again, it's a simple process. He can designate someone to handle the cleanup. Gather the offers of help and remove any hindrances in our laws that would hinder this. He doesn't have to do this personally, he should have someone appointed to do this. These press people keep trying to compare Obama to Reagan as a communicator. They could have added another comparison by claiming that Obama was great at delegating authority and having them report to him.

Obama also has a Justice Department with an investigative service. They could investigate this quietly and arrange for any prosecution, quietly, and filed their charges, which there is likely to be, when the other priorities are done. There is no need for him to threaten BP. They are still working on this. Why keep harping on how you're going to hold them responsible and that they will pay without due process? He gives terrorists access to the court system, why not shut up and let the court system handle BP when it's over?

We are now 57 days into this and NOTHING has been accomplished. Oil is still leaking. Oil is now on land more coming. For the past couple of weeks, the press has been asking 'Is this Obama's Katrina?' The only thing that accomplished is to get Obama down to the gulf for some photo ops.

Now, in an effort to get the Katrian correlation dropped, he's trying to compare this to the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. This doesn't compare in any way to the terrorist attacks, unless terrorists blew up the oil well. If terrorists did blow up the oil well, then Obama is extremely slow in getting to the bottom of it and making them pay for their actions.

Remember what happened on September 11, 2001. Four airplanes were hijacked and three of them flew into buildings. It was an attack by terrorists. President Bush knew within hours that it was Usama bin Laden that carried out the attack. In less than a month, Bush started bombing Afghanistan. October 7, 2001.

In the past 57 days, the closest Obama has gotten to anything with the gulf other than photo ops, is to play golf. If this was really like "9/11" why is he playing golf? Why is he taking two vacations during the first month the oil spill was going on? This is reminding of the comments liberals made following 9/11. They wished that Clinton was still President so that he could get all of the accolades that Bush was getting. If that's what Obama wants, then there is no hope he'll get his priorities straight. The attacks on September 11, 2001 were planned in advance. The oil spill was apparently due to shortcuts to save money.

Obama should quit worrying about how he looks and start caring more about how the beaches are going to look beause he didn't hop on this as quick as it happened.

Many of the liberals are now saying that it's wrong for Conservatives, Republicans and Independents to complain about Obama not doing what needed to be done because we are supposedly against big government. There is something that you liberals should learn right now before another disaster happens and this President sits on his hands. Government has its place. Protecting our borders. Protecting our country.

This oil spill is out in the gulf. The gulf is not a state, it's part of the area controlled by the government. This oil spill is affecting so far, three states and is about to move to a fourth. One governor cannot deal with the spill because he can't make decisions for his neighboring states. Alabama has to decide what's right for them. Bobby Jindal hopped right on this and said he needed berms to keep the oil away from the land. Will it work? We don't know for certain, but he decided it was his best option and nobody has presented a better solution, so for him to decide to do it to protect his state is exactly right. If he fails, it's not going to be because he was sitting on a golf course, working to keep the press out so they can't see his scores. If he wants to go into a partnership with Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi, he has that ability.

But the President is responsible for all five states that border the gulf. His job is to not just look out for one state, but the country. The governors only take care of their own states.

Tonight, the president is going to address the nation from the oval office. I'll bet that he uses this speech to tell America how it's necessary to end our need for fossil fuels and move to "green" technology. Great idea if it will work. But the problem is that the technology is not there yet. Our immediate problem is that we need oil for our everyday lives now.

I'll bet that he also uses tonights speech to push for Cap and Tax legislation. It's not needed. We don't need our rates going up with higher taxes on energy companies that will be passed on to the consumer.

Whatever he comes up with, you can be sure that it will be nothing but blame. He'll blame BP and threaten them. He'll mock the Republicans somehow and he may even blame President George Bush. But in the end, you can bet that it will involve more regulations denying freedoms, shuffling government agencies and it will cost us more in taxes.

The way this president has performed for the past 57 days, I'd just as soon have him use his speech tonight to resign. The only thing that worries me about that is that Joe Biden would be an even worse president than we're getting right now.

This speech should be used to build up the American spirit. Asking the public to come up with ways to move us away from oil and on to whatever else will power us. Wind, solar, hamburgers, it doesn't matter. We have innovative people in this country that could and someday likely will come up with solutions to our dependence on fossil fuels. But, it's not there today.

Man up Mr. Obama. Take responsibility for your inaction in preventing or at least trying to prevent the oil from reaching our shores. Get your priorities straight and quit whining about how terrible BP is. Everyone has been blamed except for Obama. Even George Bush has been blamed for this oil leak.

There is one bit of good news if there can be anything good about a disaster. Come November, Obama is going to be a lonely man. He's going to get up the morning after the election and find out that there aren't any liberals left in Washington DC....except for him.

You're welcome to comment.

Brett

ARIZONA SUCCESS!!!

The new Arizona law seems to have caused a mass exodus from Arizona and the law hasn't even taken affect yet. Those that are leaving Arizona are illegal invaders as well as some Americans with Hispanic descent.

The Arizona law doesn't take affect until July 29, 2010 but schools are reporting a huge decrease in students being enrolled. The areas in which the illegal invaders do most of their business has reported a marked drop off in business.

The Department of Homeland Security estimated that illegal invaders reached a peak in 2008 at 560,000. That dropped off to an estimated 460,000 in 2009. The report from schools and from businesses, is not official, but is a good barometer of what's happening in Arizona.

The question is, where are they going? It's not believed that they are returning to their homeland. Not in the numbers that are leaving Arizona. There have been reports that they are moving to California, New Mexico, Texas and even New York.

This began happening shortly after the law was passed. The law makes it illegal to be in the United States and requires all Arizona police officers to request legal status of those they come in contact with due to some other legal contact, such as speeding or a traffic accident, when there is a reasonable suspicion that the person may be an illegal invader.

This is similar to what happened in the 1950's when President Eisenhower ordered that all illegal invaders be rounded up and put on trains with a destination deep into Mexico making it very difficult to get enough money to return to the border, let alone cross it. When that was put in place and started to be implemented, the illegal invaders left on their own rather than be shipped to the deepest part of Mexico.

The Arizona law isn't as tough as the policy implemented in the 50's. Arizona will be required to get in touch with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for processing the illegals to ship them back home. Once this law goes into effect, we'll then have to see what ICE does as they have threatened to not enforce the law. It should also be stated that the Federal law regarding illegal invaders is much more stringent than Arizona's soon to be law. But the Federal Government hasn't enforced it. In addition our Federal law isn't anywhere near as stringent as Mexican law if you or I were to just visit there, let alone go there without permission and break their laws.

While the Arizona law will greatly enhance Arizonan's safety and security, the unfortunate aspect of this is that to avoid being caught, the illegal invaders are leaving for other states for the most part. They are doing it before the law is enforceable. In a strange way, this is abit confusing. An illegal invaders first act upon entering this country is to violate our laws. Yet, they are now leaving to avoid being caught violating a new law in one state.

On the other hand, California is now going to get a good portion of those illegal invaders. This is somewhat fitting because some California cities, most notably San Francisco and Los Angeles are boycotting Arizona for passing this law. Now they'll get a good portion of the illegal invaders.

I wonder how long before California decides that they must find a way to get them out of California. After all, the children of these illegal invaders will be enrolled in California schools. More state tax money spent on the increased number of children. These illegal invaders will be using hospitals that must take them, again, requiring more money from the taxpayers. How long before California, now in the top three as far as budget shortfall and unemployment rate, will have to come up with a similar to law to get them out of California?

Arizona is to be congratulated on their success with their new law that does not even begin until July 29. Attorney General Eric Holder better hurry up and read the law and sue the state before the rest of the states must follow Arizona's lead to save their economies, and citizens from harm.

If the illegal invaders return the same way they came, maybe they can pick up the garbage on the way back that they left on their way here.

You're welcome to comment.

Brett

Politicians Injecting Themselves into Sports

Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm along with Representative John Dingel and Senator Debbie Stabenow have interjected themselves into the sports world.

Unless you were just born in the past two days, you've likely seen, heard and read about the perfect game that was pitched by the Detroit Tigers pitcher, Armando Galarraga on Wednesday. With two outs in the ninth inning, facing the last batter the umpire called the runner safe when it's clear to even blind men that he was out by a step. This is not even in dispute any longer , not even by the umpire that made the errant call.

There are three parts to this story. Politics, sports and government controlled business politics. So if you don't like to read, this may be a good time to close out this blog post. It's bound to be fairly long.

I'll start with sports since this is what led to the creation of government interference. I have been a baseball fan since I was about 10 years old. Not just the performance but the records, the rarity of events, and the uniqueness of the game itself.

Baseball is a game where if you're a hitter, success is defined by failing 7 out of 10 times. It's the only game where one of the defensive players plays outside the lines of play (in other words, out of bounds). It's also the only game where causing the ball to land in the stands is rewarded. It's the only game where the coaches dress in players uniforms.

Early on in baseball, gambling was rampant. Baseball put a stop to it by appointing a commissioner who said that if you gambled on the game, you would be banned. If you know of players that are gambling and don't say something, you will be banned. The commissioner's position is that of protecting the integrity of the game. Keeping it pure from corruption both illegal corruption and the game itself being corrupted.

You can argue that they have failed in the past. Sure, they banned the 1919 Chicago White Sox for gambling and created the name Black Sox Scandal. That caused the Commissioners position to be created. Players that gambled were banned from baseball. But in the 60's and 70's and even the 80's they had problems with substance abuse. First alcohol, then drugs. Players were suspended, fined but not banned. In the 80's and 90's and even to today, the main concern is performance enhancing drugs. From my point of view, this remains a problem.

As for the game itself, we could argue all day about the Designated Hitter Rule and we'd both have good arguments on it. The same thing with how the All-Star players are selected.

But when it comes to the actual playing there are some things that are rarities. For instance, nobody has hit over .400 since Ted Williams in 40's. That's failing 6 out of 10 times. The Home Run record was 714 in a career and it was accomplished by a fat man that didn't look anything like an athlete, in Babe Ruth. That was finally broken by Hank Aaron. Babe also held the record for Home Runs in a season at 60 until 1961 when Roger Maris hit 61. But the Commissioner put an asterisk next to the record because Maris hit his in a 162 game season where Ruth hit his in a 154 game season.

There are statistics on everything in baseball. Highest batting average. Oldest player to win the batting title. Youngest to win the batting title. Most consecutive games a player has gotten a hit. Most errors committed at each position and most errorless games played at each position. Who hits best with two strikes on him and who hits into the most double plays.

Pitching also has its' uniqueness to it. A man stands above everyone else on a mound and throws a ball between 90 and 100 mph at a guy holding a stick 60 feet six inches away. You would think that the odds were in his favor and you'd be right. Remember, a successful hitter fails 7 out of 10 times. But one of the most difficult things for a pitcher to do is pitch a complete game and not allow any hits. What's even more difficult for a pitcher is to pitch a complete game, and have his teammates not commit an error and for him not to give up a walk to even one batter. That means the pitcher faces 27 batters in a game and only 27 batters and gets each one of them out by either striking them out or them hitting the ball to one of his teammates and they get him out. Just to give you an idea, to date, there have been 266 no hitters since 1875. 21 of those have been perfect games, meaning 27 batters up, 27 batters out and there were only two years that two of them were done in the same year. The first time was 1880 and the second time it was this year. The first time it was done, they both took place in JUne about a week apart. The second time was this year, both in May. This would have been the first time that three were done in the same year and all three would have taken place in one months time. Another record for the books.

One thing that seems to happen in every no-hitter, is that at some point during the game a player makes a great play that preserves the no hitter for the pitcher. It's one thing to throw a no-hitter, but you must have help from your teammates and there seems to always be at least one great play, or something lucky that keeps the no-hitter going.

On Wednesday, Armando Galarraga pitched for the Tigers against Cleveland. Each batter he faced failed to reach base. At one point, a ball was hit off of his foot and went straight to the third baseman who threw the runner out. There's the luck that happens.

In the ninth inning, the first batter hit the ball deep to left centerfield and the centerfield ran after it and made a great over the shoulder catch. There's the great play. The final batter is the one we've all seen. Called safe despite getting there a step after the ball for the 27th out. But the umpire called him safe.

As far as I'm concerned, Galarraga pitched a perfect game. Hopefully, this long dissertation helps you understand, if you don't pay attention to baseball, how difficult, rare and special this game was for this pitcher.

The umpire admitted that he blew it. He even said "I ruined that kids perfect game". In the two days since that game, I have not heard one person on radio, tv or in person say that the runner had beaten it out for a hit. Even GM gave Galarraga a brand new car for his perfect game.

There is only one way to overturn an umpire's ruling. The Commissioner of Baseball could do it. Bud Selig is the Commissioner and he has decided against overturning the umpire. If he did, it wouldn't affect the outcome of the game. The only things it would affect is the batter would not be credited with a hit. The following batter would not be credited with an at bat, and Galarraga would be given credit for the perfect game, which he did pitch.

Now the politicians. Today, Governor Granholm declared that Galarraga pitched a perfect game. Senator Stabenow and Representative Dingel are saying that they will introduce resolutions saying that he pitched a perfect game. To top it off, yesterday, Robert Gibbs said during his press briefing that he hopes the Commissioner will overturn it. When he was informed that Selig had just decided not to overturn it, Gibbs quipped that he'd have to see that an executive order was created to get it done.

Their hope is that the Governors proclaimation and the Congresspeoples resolutions would entice the Commissioner to overturn the umpire's call. This is meant to apply pressure to the Commissioner.

This is not governments place. First of all, Major League Baseball is a private business. It's not a government run business. This seems to be a lot of arrogance on the government's part to not just think but force a private business to do something based on their beliefs even if against the private businesses opinion and rules. Do we really want government applying pressure to business for governments benefit?

I believe that Commissioner Selig should award Galarraga the perfect game. Whether he does or not, I will always see it as a perfect game. But, if government applies pressure and then baseball follows through, what will the government apply pressure to next and in what business? They've already taken over General Motors. Again, not the governments place to take over a private business. While I may agree with the Governor, the Representative and the Senator that this was a perfect game, it's wrong for government to proclaim it and force baseball, by either proclaimation or embarrassing them into it to decide for it.

The next time Government wants private business to do something, and issues a proclaimation, resolution or executive order, what's to stop them?

Lastly, there is GM. They gave a car to Galarraga for his gem. If they do this for perfect games all of the time, that's fine. I have n0 problem with someone being rewarded for something they've done well and in baseball, this is perfection. But there's a line here. GM is now owned by the citizens of the United States. Is it proper for a government run company to be giving away cars that are now owned by the American people?

I don't care if Galarraga is paid a couple of million dollars a year. He excelled in his profession and if someone wants to reward him for it, I'm all for it. But, it's not the governments place to use taxpayer money to reward anyone. Since GM is owned by the taxpayer, I fall on the side of not awarding him a car. Now if it was Ford or Toyota, a private company, that rewarded him with a new car, that would be proper.

What makes baseball the perfect game to me is the imperfection of the human element and still players overcome the odds and perform. The imperfections of an intricate game is what makes baseball what it's been. Armando Galarraga should and is holding his head high for his achievement. He pitched a perfect game. He doesn't or shouldn't need government to tell him. It would be great to be recognized by Baseball for his achievement, but deep down, what really matters is that he knows it and he knows the rest of the world knows that he pitched a perfect game. If you really want to be technical, he pitched more than a perfect game. In a game where 27 outs are needed in 27 at bats, Galarraga got 28 batters out in 28 at bats. Another record. Government interference is not needed, nor is it their place.

You're welcome to comment.

Brett