The Super Bowl vs State of the Union

Two topics dominate the news this week: the Super Bowl and the president’s annual State of the Union address.

The Super Bowl is expected to draw some 111 million viewers; The State of the Union address was viewed by some 30 million. The Super Bowl has no real impact on our lives while the state of our union is of upmost important to every citizen. So why the disparity?

It’s simple: The Super Bowl means something to the teams involved and to their respective fans. There will be an end result: a winner and a loser. The State of the Union address and the response from the Republican Party, which controls the House of Representatives, is mere rhetoric, empty words. To borrow from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, they are full of “sound and furry, signifying nothing.” Continue reading “The Super Bowl vs State of the Union” →

What the Polls are REALLY telling us about the Shutdown

Woe to the GOP! Beware of a government shutdown! You will be blamed and if you persist in challenging the president. You will lose control of the House of Representatives and kill any chance of regaining control of the Senate!

These “world will come to an end” warnings were issued by the Republican establishment and often repeated by timid GOP elected representatives who fear — above all else — being thrown out of office and having to get real jobs like the rest of us poor saps who pay their salaries.

Who can blame them?

In the USA they helped to create, jobs are hard to come by and even harder to maintain.

Now, the party establishment and their echo chorus in Congress are gleefully pointing to the latest Washington Post/ ABC News poll that shows that 74 percent of the American people are unhappy with the way they are handling these negotiations and saying, “I told you so!”

Not so fast. Continue reading “What the Polls are REALLY telling us about the Shutdown” →

Cruzing for a Bruising

Some things are worth fighting for. Ted Cruz believes that defunding Obamacare is one of those things and he is willing to use every means available to make that happen.

Some people say his 21-hour talkathon on the Senate floor was tantamount to trashing at windmills. I say he accomplished his purpose. He not only put that issue front and center, he exposed the leaders of his party as weak-kneed scaredy cats.

If you go into a fight you have to be willing to get your nose bloodied to win. Has Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell ever put up his dukes? He is too busy playing footsie with Democrat Leader Harry Reid to fight for anything.

Make no mistake: McConnell has the power to make Reid agree to allow a clean up-or- down vote on the Continuing Resolution passed by the House that would fund the government sans Obamacare by getting 41 Republicans to back a filibuster. However, the lily-livered McConnell and his lieutenant, John Cornyn, are working with Reid to strip the bill of that requirement. Continue reading “Cruzing for a Bruising” →

Why Americans have no confidence in Republicans

Conversation overheard on a street near the nation’s Capitol building.

Person 1: (In a panic) What was that loud boom? Was it an earthquake? A sonic boom? Are we under attack? Where is the nearest fallout shelter?

Person 2: Don’t worry. It’s just the sound of Republicans caving. You’ll get used to it after a while. It occurs quite often, especially around this time of year. Relax.

Yes, it’s an all too familiar sound in Washington, D.C. No one is surprised by it.

You may not be able to hear the boom or feel the tremors emanating from Washington, D.C. from your spot hinter lands, but the results are felt by every American: a sluggish economy, joblessness, higher prices, stagnant wages, vacant buildings and ailing businesses. Continue reading “Why Americans have no confidence in Republicans” →

The Price of Freedom

July 4 is the birthday of our nation. It is the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the document by which the American colonies declared their independence from British rule, which had become burdensome if not tyrannical.

This was, however, not an end but the beginning of a struggle for freedom that would last for more than seven years and cost many of the brave men who signed that document their comfortable homes, their land, their fortune, their children and — for some — their very lives.

The men who met in Philadelphia that fateful day in 1776 to sign that document were not poor, malcontent scalawags. These were men of means who risk everything to give us this nation where

“all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights …”

It is important to remember that, while these men were declaring their independence from Great Britain, they were also declaring their dependence on the God who created us. And in case that was not clear enough in this declaration of rights, they closed the document in such a way that it could not be missed.

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred honor.”

The years that followed were difficult and victory would have been impossible without the direct intervention of the hand of God. Those who doubt this simply do not know their history. How else could a rag-tag army of colonists defeat the powerful British? The miracles that followed are too numerous to mention such as the blinding fog that allowed Washington’s men to escape from Brooklyn or just the right amount of snow and thaw on the icy Delaware River that paved the way for — not one — but three miraculous crossings. Continue reading “The Price of Freedom” →

In an undisclosed location in the White House, unnamed Obama Administration advisors huddle to discuss the impending sequestration. No official transcript exists because (for the record) this meeting NEVER happened.

The mood was grim. The hot topic was a statement from Emily Holubowich, a lobbyists who represents a coalition of 3,000 nonprofit groups fighting the cuts, who accidentally spoke the truth to aWashington Post reporter: “The worst case scenario for us is the sequester hits and nothing bad really happens!”

Advisor # 1: Emily is right. What if nothing bad happens as a result of the sequester? The president is going to look like a doofus. He will be a laughing stock, the brunt of all the jokes on late night TV.

Advisor # 2: We’ve got to turn up the rhetoric. Send out Janet Napolitano to say that we will no longer be able to enforce immigration laws.

Advisor # 1: We already did that, and besides, we’re not enforcing immigration laws now.!

Advisor # 3: We could not enforce them more.

(Silence)

Advisor # 2: We can close the Washington Monument and the White House Visitors Center. That’s never failed in past budget standoffs.

Advisor # 1: That’s not enough. The president said there will be real pain and there must be REAL PAIN! Remember, no pain, no gain for us.

Advisor # 2: We can tell them TSA agents screening airport passengers will have to be furloughed. It will mean long lines.

Advisor # 1: The lines are already long. Besides, if the agents are forced by time constants to stop groping grannies and toddlers, who is going to complain?

Advisor # 2: Scare them. Tell them it means less air traffic controllers. Airplanes will be flying blind.

Advisor # 1: Hell, Reagan fired all of them and there was barely a hiccup.

Advisor # 3: We could limit the number of children who attend Head Start. When the going gets tough, hide behind poor children. That always works.

Advisor # 1: The program is already a disaster. All the benefits are erased by the third grade. It might cause further scrutiny of this program and, worse still, it might stir the pot for real education reform and increase the call for vouchers. That will bring the teacher’s union down on us. No, we’d better drop that.

Advisor # 4: I know! Tell the it will cut out school lunches. Imagine the angst it would create among the nation’s poor parents!

Advisor # 1: Another boondoggle! We’re spending so much on food stamps and other food assistant programs, folks are wondering why welfare recipients can’t take some of that free food and pack lunches for their kids. Better not hit that one too hard.

Advisor # 6: Let’s stay on the subject of the poor. We can bring up the weatherization program for low income homes. Energy Secretary Stephen Chu said it will mean up to 1,000 homes won’t receive free makeovers. Think of all those people who won’t get new drywall, calking and new appliances.

Advisor # 1: Yes, but some smart journalist would point out that we could simply reduce the regulations that are driving up the cost of energy. Energy costs for the poor (and everyone else) would remain the same and we could save millions by eliminating this program. Also, that might trigger another discussion about all the money we’ve thrown at failed energy companies like Solyndra. No, no, that is much too risky. Let’s not beat that drum.

Advisors # 5: I know. We can go back to scaring seniors. They know their Social Security benefits are safe, but if we could tell them there won’t be enough workers to process those checks and they might arrive late . . .

Advisor # 1: At best we’re only talking about cutting less that one and a half cents on the dollar. That’s not going to happen unless we order the federal workers who process those checks to go to sleep at their work stations.

Advisors # 2: Yes, but they already go to sleep at their work stations and it would take an act of Congress to be able to fire even one of them.

Advisor # 4: An act of Congress, hum. What if, what if Congress acts in the 11th hour and gives the president “transfer authority”? You know, gives him the ability to pick and choose where to make those cuts in order to lessen the pain or eliminate it entirely?

Advisor # 1: That would put the ball squarely in our court. We’d have to eliminate worthless programs. We could no longer reward our friends and get away with it. (Cringe) That would be a real disaster!

Advisors 2 – 6: Agreed!

Ben Carson: Yes He Can! (Become President of the United States)

It is becoming clear that the Republican successor to Ronald Reagan may not come from Congress. He may not have executive experience as a governor of a state, though these are the roads most often traveled to the White House.

There is a new name on the lips of the politically engaged. To the uninitiated he might appear a most unlikely candidate.

Benjamin Carson is a physician, a gifted neurosurgeon who has a way with words as well as a scalpel. In fact, many say his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast on February 7, cut the President of the United States, who was seated just a few feet away, to the quick. Some, like conservative commentator Cal Thomas, called his remarks “inappropriate.” Others say they were a breath of fresh air, a lesson in economics mixed with Biblical truths that are indisputable.

The truth is that Dr. Carson, a devout man, did not direct his remarks to the president. He has been writing and speaking about these issues for some time. However, he did not pull any punches in this venue simply because Barack Obama chose to attend. Continue reading “Ben Carson: Yes He Can! (Become President of the United States)” →

Morning in Amerika

It is morning in Amerika and the majority of people who voted to reelect Barack Obama president don’t even know it. Everything appears to be normal but everything has changed. The United States will not be the same.

I have never felt that all was lost after a single election as I do today. The ship of state has been described as a battleship. Its course cannot be changed abruptly. A major correction is a long slow process.

Barack Obama didn’t begin the process that changed us from a democratic republic to a democratic socialist country but he will finish it, or at the very least, take us to the point of no return. Continue reading “Morning in Amerika” →

Big Bird’s Golden Egg

With the nation careening toward a fiscal cliff from which there will be no escape, the national debate has centered on a popular children’s television character who goes by the name of Big Bird.

In last week’s presidential debate, Barack Obama was unable to give us a plan to solve our current economic woes other than taxing the evil job creators. As a result, the president’s polling numbers are sinking and his advisers are looking for anything that might be a distraction.

Grasping at straw, or in this case, feathers, they pounced on Mitt Romney’s promise to put everything in the federal budget, including Public Broadcasting and Big Bird’s popular television program Sesame Street to this test: “Is the program so critical it’s worth borrowing money from China to pay for it? “ Continue reading “Big Bird’s Golden Egg” →

Welcome Back Ross Perot

He was a charismatic guy with big ears and an important message that resonated with the American people. No, it wasn’t Barack Obama. (He had fuzzy words and no message.) It was Ross Perot 20 years ago.

In 1992, using charts and graphs on 30-minute infomercials funded out of his personal fortune, Perot ran the most successful 3rd party bid for the presidency in a century and received 19 percent of the vote. His message was simple: The country is going broke. We have made too many promises we can’t keep. Our level of spending cannot be sustained. This has to stop!

Unfortunately, there was a major flaw in his show and tell which kept those who interpret the numbers churned out by the government from getting on board and taking him seriously. Some believed he was playing the old political game of “envy and greed” in an effort to win votes. Others thought it an honest mistake. Continue reading “Welcome Back Ross Perot” →