You Are Being Tracked!

Not long ago, I was driving on I-96 in Lansing in the rain. Driving 70 mph, I came to an overpass heading uphill and then it would start downhill after crossing the overpass. As I reached the top of the overpass I saw what looked like a lounge chair sitting in the middle of my lane just past the peak of the overpass. I barely had time to figure out if I should go to right lane or to slide over the shoulder to get around it and of course there was someone right behind me. Luckily, I missed the chair as did the guy behind me. I then grabbed my cell phone and called 911 to let them know that this chair was sitting there and someone wasn't going to be so lucky.

When I called, they asked my name, where I was and where the chair is. I told them my name, but wasn't sure which mile I was on. They said not to worry about it that they had my location and name. They did this before I reached the next mile marker to get my bearings on where I was. At 70 mph, that only takes me a minute, at the most,  to figure out where I am.

Cell phone companies can track us. Our GPS systems in our cars know where we are. Who else has access to our GPS systems? When you pull up to a stop light, look at the light and around it. You'll likely see cameras. How many people have received tickets in the mail without having been stopped by a police officer?

Today, it's reported that Facebook can track us and have been tracking what you're looking at on the internet. Not just while you're on their site, but even after you leave it.

Two days ago, it was reported that the new health care law, Obamacare, will require doctors to forward your medical information to the government for them to track.

Now there are two more stories. One an op-ed written by Peter Orzag, the former budget director in the Obama administration saying that democracy should be suspended to allow policies to go through and to offset the gridlock in Washington.

Governor Perdue from North Carolina, a Democrat, says that she thinks that elections should be suspended for two years so that Congress can work on fixing the economy without having to decide between their re-election and what's good for the people they represent.

It's appearing more and more that we have a government run amok. Our Government has borrowed more than they take in for years. It's really blown up the past two years spending more in the past two years through the failed stimulus plans and gimmicks like cash for clunkers, and other things they've done, than all previous Presidents combined.

We've been inundated with sex scandals over the past 15 years in government as well as in the school systems where our children are attending. We've got federal, state, and local governments abusing the money that they do receive either spending money on things that aren't necessary or in voting themselves outrageous salaries and benefits. The Post Office is going broke and we'll likely see a massive reduction in services, which will only add to the mail not arriving in a timely fashion, at the right place if it even arrives at all.

When all of these things go wrong and create a bad economy or unseemly arguments and even threats between party members of the other party and even in the halls of Congress, the government comes to us and says it's the other guys fault and we must all share the sacrifice. In the meantime, these irresponsible people want to know our every movement and monitor our activities. I really expect that the next time the doctor tells me to turn my head and cough, some government official is going to be standing next to me saying "Please cover your mouth when you cough".

The ones that need the tracking are our government officials. Our elected representatives. From our local government all the way to Congress and the White House. Attach the GPS devices to their waistbands. Sign them on to Facebook so that we can see where they are going and what sites they are visiting while representing us. Give them cell phones so that when they go to the hooker everyone knows it from their wives to the voter.

Obama, and the Congress want to know our every movement and want to direct even how we think on different matters, but they can't stop illegal aliens from crossing our borders. They want to direct the size of the toilet in your home to save water, but they can't get the mail system to operate.

They claim that they must do this for our protection from the evil corporations, yet they bailed out and took over General Motors and Chrysler. They became the companies that they claim to hate. They think they know what's best for our health insurance but want to eliminate the experts, the insurance companies.

We are being watched with nearly everything we do. The good thing about them tracking us is that the government fails at nearly everything. If they were going to go to the trouble of tracking me that day on I-96, why did I have to call them? Why didn't they see with their various tracking devices that someone had lost a chair in the middle of the expressway? Why didn't they remove it before I even had to call them and make them aware of it? It makes me wonder if I could have sued them for their failure if I had hit that chair.

You're welcome to comment....but be aware that you're being watched.

Brett

This week, President Obama proposed raising taxes. So what's surprising about this? The only surprise is that he's waited so long to lay out a tax increase plan in any detail. Up to this point, we've just been inundated with "tax the rich" or "make the rich pay their fair share".

I did some checking. According the U.S. Census Bureau, we have 307,006,550 people in this country as of 2009. We have 236,000 that have earned income above $1 million per year. That is .0077% of the people in this country. Please note, that's less than 1% of the people in this country earn $1 Million or more per year.

It's tough reading numbers and correlating them. But let's give it a shot. According to the Internal Revenue Service, those earning over $1 million per year are paying over 20% of the taxes. Put these numbers together. Less than 1% of the people in this country are paying 20% of the taxes paid.

Here's another for you. People making over $1 million per year are paying 29.1% of their income towards taxes. While people making between $50,000 and $75,000 per year are paying just 15%. So again, let me simplify it for you. The "rich" are paying a 29.1% rate while the middle class is paying 15%. Do we really need to be told that 29.1% is a higher rate than 15%? Apparently so, because here's the quote from Obama. " It is wrong that in the United States of America, a teacher or a nurse or a construction worker who earns $50,000 should pay higher tax rates than somebody pulling in $50 million." So I can only ask, who is it that really doesn't get it? The American people or President Obama? The facts state that it's President Obama that doesn't understand simple math.

Obama has decided to call this the Buffett Rule. If I were Obama, I'd hestitate to use any word that that sounds like "buffet" meaming food. I'll explain that in a minute.
Warren Buffett is not being completely honest when he talks about his secretary paying more in income taxes than he pays. Technically, he's correct, so he's not a complete liar, but he does lead people to believe something that's not true. Warren Buffet pays 15% capital gains tax on his investments. He doesn't pay income tax for work. So he's comparing his secretaries income tax to his investment tax.

I said that I'd explain my little comment about the name of his plan. A report is out by the Department of Justice saying they paid $16.00 for donuts. $8.00 for a cup of coffee, at conferences. This reminds me of the $600 toilet seats from about 30 years ago.
Obama does seem to have a problem with naming his different little policy plans and even his campaign. There's the Buffett Rule a day before the DOJ talks about spending millions on appetizers at conferences and his slogan for re-election seems to be "Winning the Future". After the nearly 3 years we've gone through do you really think that a slogan with the initials "WTF" is something a normal man would use for his re-election campaign (Thank you for that information Bev)?

The good news in all of this is that the Buffett Rule will not come to pass (no pun intended). The Republicans in the House will not vote for raising taxes during a recession.

You're welcome to comment.

Brett

Humility and Honor vs Self Aggrandizement and Embarrassment

George W. Bush speech after capture of Saddam Hussein:
The success of yesterday's mission is a tribute to our men and women now serving in Iraq .
The operation was based on the superb work of intelligence analysts who found the
dictator's footprints in a vast country. The operation was carried out with skill and precision by
a brave fighting force. Our servicemen and women and our coalition allies have faced many
dangers in the hunt for members of the fallen regime, and in their effort to bring hope and
freedom to the Iraqi people. Their work continues, and so do the risks. Today, on behalf of the
nation, I thank the members of our Armed Forces and I congratulate 'them.



And Now Let's hear from  the Narcissist!




Barack Hussein Obama speech, Sunday, May 1, 2011:
And so shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the
killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of my war against al Qaeda, even as I continued our broader efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat his network.
Then, last August, after years of painstaking work by my intelligence community, I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden. It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread
to ground. I met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan . And finally, last week, I determined that I had enough intelligence to take action, and I authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice.
Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad , Pakistan .

The Only Thing Stopping it is Politics

President Barack Obama gave his speech to the Joint Session of Congress last week. It was nothing more than a campaign stop at taxpayers expense. During his speech he told Congress not to play politics but to pass the bill immediately.

Yesterday, the plan was unveiled. The jobs bill will cost $447 Billion. It will be paid for by tax increases and closing tax loopholes (just another way of saying tax increase).

Obama is correct. The only thing stopping this bill from ever getting off the ground it politics. His political games. Not Congress. Oh, don't misunderstand, Congress will join in with the game and Obama will claim politics is stopping it. His lead spokesperson in this is likely to be Representative Debbie Wasserman-Shultz.

The proposal is to close loopholes in the tax code for Oil Companies. If this was to happen, who would pay? According to Obama, Oil Companies. But what he doesn't seem to get,,,,ever,,,,, is that companies, including oil companies, don't pay taxes. They pass the expense of the taxes on to you and I. So he can claim it's a tax or a closing of loopholes for oil companies, but that's just political speak. The fact is that it will be a tax increase on you and I.

The proposal calls for a tax increase on private jets. This happened once before, but not with jets. It happened with Yachts. That luxury tax nearly wiped out that business. It certainly set it back for years. An interesting little side note is that John Kerry bought a boat, and stored it in another state because they didn't have the tax that Massachussets had. Kerry will vote for a tax increase, but he won't pay it, and he's one that can afford that increase. Once again, it's politics that Obama is playing by going after those that can afford a private jet. The result will be a business that starts going under, and jobs lost.

The proposal calls for a tax increase on those earning $200,000 per year. Obama has been whining about this since he began running for President in 2007. He's now inserting it into his "jobs bill". Do you really think he's not playing politics? If he really wants to avoid politics, he could talk about the 47% that don't pay taxes but rather get a refund from those that do pay taxes. But now, I'm being political.

Obama stands up and says don't play politics just pass this bill. In doing so, he's playing the politics by making the first accusation while he's the first in line to play politics.

This jobs bill never had a chance to pass. Obama knew this before even arranging for the campaign speech before a Joint Session of Congress. The entire charade that the President is putting is pure politics. Those serious about a jobs bill ought to be asking instead, why is Obama playing politics when we really need a jobs bill?


You're welcome to comment.

Brett

Tax Hikes, Ponzi Schemes and Cowards

Tax and Spend
Following President Obama's campaign speech last week to a Joint Session of Congress, thinly veiled as an important speech on jobs, the plan is now coming out. It's a typical Democrat plan. Tax and spend. He wants to raise taxes on those earning $200,000 per year as well as oil companies and Airlines to pay for his $447 Billion jobs bill that he's sending to Congress.

If you don't pay attention to politics and what's happening in Washington, I would think that you'd be confused by this.

According to the President, he agrees that we shouldn't raise taxes during a recession. But he's proposing a tax hike.

According to the President, the bill will be fully paid for. However, the taxes are geared to pay back this money for this new stimulus (or jobs bill, if you prefer) over a ten year period. But I didn't hear him say the spending would take place over a ten year period.

According to the President, Congress should extend the payroll tax cut, otherwise Republicans will be responsible for raising taxes on the people. But he's proposing a tax increase in his new jobs bill.

Is it any wonder he's failing at running this country? He says not to raise taxes while he proposes raising taxes. His previous stimulus schemes ended up costing the country more and now he's wanting to add class warfare to his list of failures.

Ponzi Scheme

A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulant operation that pays returns to separate investors, not from any actual profit earned by the organization, but from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors.

The above describes social security. Ponzie scheme is how Governor Rick Perry of Texas describes social security. It's now being reported that at the Republican Debate tonight in Tampa, Florida, that Michelle Bachmann and Mitt Romney are planning to attack Perry for calling it a ponzi scheme. Do they really believe that social security is not a ponzi scheme? Or is this them coddling to the media because the media has been talking about Perry calling it a ponzie scheme?

If Romney and/or Bachmann or any of the other candidates go after Perry regarding this, they will have lost a lot of ground in my opinon. I am not advocating for Perry. Maybe on this issue, but I'm not sure that Perry is the right guy for the job. I like him, but I'm not convinced. So my thoughts above are about the issue, not the candidate.

Social Security takes from the workers of today and gives it to the retirees who were the workers of yesterday. The largest group is now retiring. When the last of the baby boomers are retired and drawing social security, there will be alot less workers to pay for the retirees benefits from social security. This is why social security is acutarially assessed as being broke by 2039.

If Bachmann or Romney or any of the others go after Perry for calling social security what it is, they will only hurt themselves. I just hope that Perry doesn't back down and sticks to his guns.

September 11, Rememberance

The anniversary of September 11, 2001 where we were attacked by fanatics is really spoiled. I watched some of it on Sunday morning and saw politics. Leading up to it, I saw politics.

Need an example? In New York, the Mayor, Michael Bloomberg said that first responders will not be invited to the ceremonies. He also said that there would be no religious leaders speaking. One man, supposedly a leader, determining how and who may honor the nearly 3,000 people murdered that day by an enemy that does not wear a uniform.

It reminded me of the news organizations following that fateful day. They decided that it would not be good for the American people to see those attacks so they quit running the visuals of the attacks, "for the good of the people". I believe that we should always see it as long as this war continues. Let the American people worry about their own mental health. With most of the press being halfway crazy, I'm not sure they are the proper ones to decide what is good for others physche.

Paul Krugman even giving a hint at the suggestion that we are in the wrong in any way, shape or form, for what happened on September 11, 2001 only proves that some of the press doesn't have an elevator reaching the top floor.

We were attacked by al queda. We didn't provoke them. We didn't invite them. They attacked us. They chose to take flying lessons and skip the classes on landing them. They chose to board the planes carrying box cutters as weapons. They chose to fly the planes into four buildings and only American heroes prevented them from achieving their entire goal.

Am I worried about collateral damage in Afghanistan, Iraq or even Iran? Not in the least. It's the enemy that is hiding behind the skirts of their women, or behind the toys of their children AFTER they attacked our women and children and other non military personnel, I'm not the least bit worried about blowing up a mosque if that's where the terrorists are hiding. Those that murdered our citizens are cowards and were cowards. They prove it by hiding behind their women and children and sending those same women and children off to the store with bombs strapped around their waists.

Paul Krugman has the problem. Not America.

You're welcome to comment.


Brett

Obama Proves He Can Save Money

President Obama proved on Thursday night that he does know how to get things done without spending money...at least his own money, for his own benefit. Before a joint session of Congress, Obama gave a campaign speech. It cost his campaign nothing. He had a captive audience in both Republicans and Democrats from the House and Senate. He also had a national television audience free of charge to his campaign.

We know that it's campaign season because Obama, a very Liberal Democrat, has proposed tax cuts and even dared to call the end of the payroll tax from a year ago, a tax increase if it's not extended and claimed that the Republicans would be responsible if the payroll tax cut was not extended.

He claimed that his bill that he's going to forward to Congress in a few days, would be deficit neutral and not increase the debt. The estimated cost is $447 Billion. He didn't say how he'd pay for it, but claims it won't add to the debt nor the deficit. Didn't he also make that claim about his stimulus package in 2009? Following that debacle, the deficit quadrupled and the debt increased three fold.

He is true to his Liberal roots in that he thinks the only solution to the economic problems in this country comes from Government. The only thing he's proven with all of his schemes is that the answers the government has are the wrong answers. His plan has not worked!. In fact, all of his little schemes have failed.

The claim by Obama, and Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schults (D) Florida is that his plans saved the country from falling into another Depression. How does one prove this? There is no way to prove this, nor disprove it. We do know that the only thing that has been successful in turning an economy around is to lower taxes. Reagan did it in the 80's to much success. Bush the younger did it in 2001 and 2003. Each of those tax cuts increased revenue to the federal government because people were making more money following the tax cuts. That added income meant they paid more in dollars in taxes, even though they paid a lower tax rate. That added income meant more spending by citizens which caused the economy to move forward in great numbers. It created jobs, which of course, lowered the unemployment rate, eventually down to a rate of 4%.

Obama also slid back to his Liberal Democrat roots by calling for those that have been "fortunate" (as though all of those that are rich didn't work for it and earn it) to pay their "fair share".

This is just another stimulus package. His stimulus packages have never worked. Remember Cash for Clunkers? Failed. Remember the $800 billion stimulus? Money that went to unions, and cronies and of course to African men, in Africa, to teach them how to wash after sex to avoid STD's.

Remember that his stimulus package would prevent unemployment from exceeding 8%? Unemployment shot up to 10.2% and has settled in at 9.1%. The 8% unemployment rate was packaged as a nightmare before the stimulus, now it seems like a dream to get that low.

His speech was a constant cadence of "you should pass this bill immediately". He ended each paragraph with it when running through what he wanted. 'The bill will put more first responders in jobs, you should pass this bill immediately.'  'My bill will put more teachers in the classrooms and help our students and strengthen our schools, you should pass this bill immediately'. 'This bill will help restore our infrastructure including a run down bridge between Ohio and Kentucky, you should pass this bill immediately.'

That last line was a good example of this being a campaign speech because he's been losing so much support in Ohio, that they are almost to the point of dropping the O's in Ohio because of the "O" in Obama.

Obama had a national audience, in a prestigious setting, where the utmost respect is shown for the office of President. Congress stands up and applauds the President. Not the man, but the office. Many in this country don't understand that. They see a standing ovation for the President in Congress and they consider it for the man, not the office.

It's slick advertising at no financial cost to the President. He was able to make a speech, in a forced friendly group at no expense to his campaign but rather paid for by the taxpayer and the media. There could be a cost in ethics if the American people that don't follow politics ever catch on to his schemes.

You're welcome to comment.

Brett

Let The Silly Season Begin

With two weeks until fall begins, in a year prior to an election, the silly season has already begun. Obama is in full campaign mode, although it can be said he never left campaign mode since the last election in 2008. On the other side, the Republicans are lining up almost as long as the unemployment lines to take that job away from Obama. The press is already inserting themselves into the election, which is to be expected.

Let's start with the Republicans. This should have been an easy year for any candidate to run against Obama. In Mitt Romney's case, he's made it look easy until recently. He gives a speech once in awhile, but the rest of the time he seemed content to assume the front runner status and not say much.

Newt Gingrich shot himself in the foot within hours of announcing his candidacy. Herman Cain has stayed on message, but he's seen as on the fringe. Ron Paul is in again with the only difference being that he's not going to run for his Congressional seat at the same time. That has more to do with his age rather than confidence in his Presidential bid. Tim Pawlenty never got off the ground and dropped out after the Iowa straw poll. We've been told that John Huntzman will be a formidable candidate, but other than that, I've heard nothing about or from him. Former Senator Rick Santorum is also running,  but he seems forgotten until he appears on the dais at the debates.

Representative Michelle Bachmann is a tea party favorite and has been at or near the lead and withstands the attacks on her in the press by the press as well as by those that consider her a Right Wing Extremist. Now, Governor Rick Perry of Texas has entered the race and taken a good sized lead. This has brought Romney out in public again. Finally, there is Sarah Palin out there running around the country, who hasn't announced yet, but may...or may not.

Thus far, the most blatant stunt by the press has been against a man not running. Former Vice President Dick Cheney was promoting his book and last week appeared on the Today Show on NBC. Following the interview, as they went to commericial, they didn't just cut out as they normally do but rather slowly backed out with the camera shot to include a woman standing outside the window who held up a sign, blocking the window showing Cheney as the camera panned back, pushing for the arrest of Cheney for war crimes.

As for President Obama, he has never stopped campaigning or whining about former President Bush. We are seeing the same thing in Obama as we in Michigan did with former Governor Jennifer Granholm. Within months of Granholm taking office, the economy in Michigan began falling like a rock. Her favorite line was "I inherited this from John Engler.." the former three term Governor who was term limited out after 2002. Her re-election bid in 2006 was all about how Engler had destroyed Michigan. Engler had a 3% unemployment rate, while Granholm's soared to over 15% unemployment and still she was re-elected. Now we're seeing the same thing in Obama.

We've been hearing "it's Bush's fault" from day one with the Obama administration. Bush had an unemployment rate that reached as low as 4% and hovered at 5% for most of his 8 years following his tax cuts. 5% is consider full employment. In his last year, it moved up to 7%. Obama promised that unemployment would not reach 8% if his stimulus was passed. It passed and unemployment grew to 10.1% and is now stuck at 9.1%.

Obama spent the first two years with no meetings with Republicans. On the other hand, his party held a filibuster proof Senate and a wide margin lead in the House. He didn't need Republicans to get his agenda passed. Yet it still took over a year to get his health care plan passed. Now he spends his time giving waivers to his followers (who wanted health care passed but don't want to be part of it). Over 1,700 waivers so far.

His incompetence  was on full display with his lack of ability to get anything done when he had both Houses of Congress on his side. He has not had the people on his side. In the last election the Tea Party was created and became part of the Republican party. They are Conservatives standing up. This  caused the largest turn around in an election in over 70 years. So Obama now rules with executive order, implementing more than 600 regulations on businesses during July.

The silly season used to refer to the lead up to Christmas when people would rush around in preparation for the holiday and do some crazy things. Now we include politics. Christmas' silly season is about four weeks long. Politics will last about 14 months. Yesterday, James Hoffa warmed up a union crowd in Detroit for President Obama and declared war on Republicans. An odd thing for them to do since these are the same people that claim we've gone into two wars on a credit card. Now they want to declare war on Republicans allowing Obama to continue to put everything else on a credit card.

Let the silly season begin? We can't stop it from beginning.

You're welcome to comment.

Brett