Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, Jobs?

When Pelosi sent the Cap and Trade bill to the vote, those were her last words. It's puzzling how she would believe that a bill that will bind up much of the profit margins in many large industries will somehow create jobs? Jobs are created on a need basis. And if you aren't making a profit, you don't need more workers. In addition, we are currently at a 9.4% unemployment rate. And there's about a 12% underemployment rate-people who are working for less than before. So we are staring at a possible 10% unemployment rate, with the majority of those out of work individuals being young males. Then, at the same time, the Obama Administration wants to shut down military operations in Iraq and bring home all those military personnel and ramp down the numbers in the military by mustering out the lower level members. This is just like any other RIF (reduction in force) and will add to the numbers of out of work young Americans. Unless he means to impose a WPA or CCC type programs-which I doubt many of the college educated people would gravitate to-this is a serious problem. And while they are simply throwing numbers out there, it seems that this administration and these committees are not looking to the future, they are simply trying to find ways to push their agendas and feather their own nests. I hope all the young people who voted for Obama in an American Idol type of election are beginning to see what they have done, and what it will do to them. Remember this is supposed to be a government OF the people, FOR the people, not TO the people. Is it possible that Team Obama has just thrown the young American worker under the bus?

The Sum of All Fears

I came across this on another blog today. I would paraphrase but frankly there is so much meat in this post that it's important to view it completely.

"

AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA

By Lou Pritchett

Dear President Obama:

You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.

You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.

You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.

You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.

You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.

You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don't understand it at its core.

You scare me because you lack humility and 'class', always blaming others.

You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.

You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the 'blame America' crowd and deliver this message abroad.

You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.

You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.

You scare me because you prefer 'wind mills' to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.

You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.

You scare me because you have begun to use 'extortion' tactics against certain banks and corporations.

You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.

You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.

You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.

You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.

You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O'Relllys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.

You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.

Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.

Lou Pritchett


Note: Lou Pritchett is a former vice president of Procter & Gamble whose career at that company spanned 36 years before his retirement in 1989, and he is the author of the 1995 business book, Stop Paddling & Start Rocking the Boat.

Mr. Pritchett confirmed that he was indeed the author of the much-circulated "open letter." “I did write the 'you scare me' letter. I sent it to the NY Times but they never acknowledged or published it. However, it hit the internet and according to the ‘experts’ has had over 500,000 hits.

He Who Controls the Food...

...controls the future. Looking at this in terms of where we are seeing armed violence, political instability and war-the common thread is food or lack of it. I've been rereading Orwell's "1984" and the comments that did not alarm me twenty years ago now disturb me greatly. Consider these broad quotes from that book-"Ignorance is Strength" and "War is Peace." In the first, we are confronted with the idea that it is better not to know than to know. Think of the people we seeing Jaywalking on Leno or the characters in the movie "Idiocracy." There are wide ranges of people in our culture who not only do not know the basic precepts of our culture, but they do not care that they do not know. They don't understand the acquisition and maintenance of freedom, but would rather seek out common, lowbrow comforts. Look at how the writing in sitcoms, movies, even animated shows has sunk to lower and lower parameters. We are celebrating stupidity and ignorance at every corner. The case could be made that the recent election results were more a referendum on rejecting reality and demanding that illusions replace them. Is this not similar to Orwell's constant changing of history, literature, songs and games to fit the current paradigm? And when you consider the muting of our freedom of speech by the voices of the poorly labeled "liberals" are we not fairly close to thoughtcrime being charged? As for the "War is Peace" quote-think on the industrial complex. The change in our economy has much to do with the dissolution of the military as consumers as anything else. There are military vehicles that are only built by GM. What happens to those vehicles, who will make them, when GM goes away? And on a larger scale, what happens in the vacuum of development if America allows defense research to stagnate and die while other nations continue to develop new technologies?

The increasing encroachment of government on our freedoms is frightening not because of its scope, but because of the complacency we are seeing in much of the population. I have likened this before to a lobster being slowly placed in a pot of water and not realizing how dangerous this was until he was cooked. If ever there was a slippery slope to socialism, this presidency is it. The only way to change that is to vote in rational, conservative statemen and women at the local, state and federal levels. We are already seeing come to fruition billions in debt that may never be served by our children and grandchildren. We are buying selfish time for this generation and foisting it off on our children. Perhaps all those DINK's can do that without any qualms, but for those of us who have kids, we don't want to see them live in poverty so that spoiled Boomers can spend their retirements playing golf. And keep in mind, I speak as someone on the tail end of the Boomer generation, and I will probably NEVER be able to retire.

This Is What Our President Thinks of Us

For all those who said that Obama's administration would be a renaissance for the US, consider the following word:

"Addressing a crowd of some 2,000 mainly students from France and Germany, Mr Obama said: In America, there is a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world..."-

Yep, that's it. We didn't have anything to do with winning WWII. We didn't liberate France or save the UK from the devastation of the German bombardment. We were just guys who happened to be hanging around. Europe runs the world. All of industry and innovation comes from Europe which is why so many folks seek to emigrate to Europe, right?

Wrong. If that's the case then why do we see so many people seeking political and economic asylum in the freedom of the American lifestyle? Why are so many Mexican, Guatamalans, Koreans, Chinese and Vietnamese moving here rather than Europe? Yet Obama maintains that Europe is the engine that makes this little planet tick. Let's consider for a few minutes the numerous organizations largely funded by US dollars. How about the UN? We pay the majority of the costs for that largely anti-American organization. How about UNESCO? We fund that. What about Red Cross? That's funded heavily by the American government. What about the countless programs that domestically support the indigent and ill even when they aren't residents here? And frankly, look back to international disasters and who do they call? France? Germany? No, they call US. They call the United States because we have the will and the way to make things happen. But our "Dear Leader" would have the world believe that we are lank also-rans incapable of walking down the street without a keeper. Is this what you expect of your elected leader? Or do you expect him to hold his head up as the leader of a sovereign nation that owes nothing to such pumped up puppets as the Saudi Royal Family? To bow before men who are slaveholders and misogynists is to say that you approve. So what's next? Will Team Obama insist on dipping the US flag at next year's Winter Olympics? Will we tie our economy into the Euro? Anything is possible. And remember, those who chose not to ask the hard questions voted for this guy. They have no room to complain as he dismantled our economy and makes us into a pallid doppelganger of our past glory.