Boiled down to a fine stock

I've been taking notes on various issues to write about all day. Watching The ONE talk to Congress tonight has left me with way too much to say. Rather than try to analyze every utterance in an address that had 65 interruptions of applause from the thieves, liars, adulterers, tax cheats and nincompoops (wow, that was actually in my spell checker!) who were eating up everything he was serving up, I will just share a few of my gut feelings.

Today is Fat Tuesday. In honor of the folks in New Orleans busy debasing themselves for several cents worth of beads after consuming several gallons of alcohol I have simmered over the first African American President's first address to Congress to reduce it, like a fine Louisiana Roux fit for a fattening meal, to serve up this salient observation: Despite all his promises, Government can't and shouldn't do it all for us.

The recurring theme in my posts is one of self-reliance and the recurring theme from our President is one of government dependence. To say I am diametrically opposed to the vast majority of what he proposed tonight is like saying Octo-mom has her hands full at feeding time!

In the speech tonight, that hasn't been posted anywhere yet, The ONE spent 95% of the time announcing new programs, spending and initiatives to save us from everything from catastrophic illness (he is going to cure cancer) to hang nails. There wasn't an area of our lives that wasn't put on the plate of Washington programs. He is biting off as much as he can chew. Near the end of his speech, he made reference to a businessman who took millions and gave it to his employees (both current and former) as bonuses. He mentioned a young girl who, despite being educated in a poor quality school, was able to rise above and is working to get her school much needed support.

The amazing thing about both of these examples is that government didn't need to do anything in either case. The people did. We have a President and administration that honestly, hasn't done anything. Obama has never (unless you count running his campaign for President which was really run by people for him) met a payroll and has never been the one responsible for decisions. Biden, the idiot, is in the same boat without oars. This career politician is now in charge of reshaping our economy? The man in charge of the President's economic task force is the man who has run GE in to the ground and is turning the stock in to a penny stock. Almost no one on his Auto Bailout task force owns an American car and a few of them don't own any!

I'd go on but now I am rambling. This week, congress is sending a spending bill of another half trillion dollars to the President and he will sign it. This bill is, once again, full of pork projects soaked with the juices of salivating Democrats drunk, like Mardi Gras revelers, on the power of being in charge. The talk tonight by The ONE about reigning in Government is lip service and is leaving a bad taste in my mouth. The announcers on CNBC, NBC, ABC and CNN are all saying what a great job Obama did tonight. True, the President can whip up a crowd with more flare than Emeril Lagasse "bams" out a Crawfish Etouffe but, like this high in fat meal, the taste is good but it is not good for you. Just like too much fatty food, too much government will be as harmful to the nation's welfare because of waste as a diet of Bananas Foster is to your waist.

If the spending package was the apertif for four years of gluttony, tonight's speech was a look at a menu of high calorie entrees that will leave our country bloated and out of shape. It is time for us to go on Weight Watchers and control our intake of government largesse. Like Governor's Jindal and Sanford in LA and SC respectfully it is time to say no thank you when the waiter offers the dessert tray.

S2

The first cut is the cheapest

You may have missed the news. With all the headlines being reserved for covering Al Franken’s stealing of the Minnesota Senate seat and following Charlie Rangel's ethics violations there probably wasn’t room for this story. Oh, that’s right, major new outlets aren’t covering either of those on the front or any other pages. And they sure aren’t touting the fact that, once again this year, Congress is getting a raise. With, as our Vice-president elect Joe “Jobs is a three letter word” Biden states, the economy tanking and millions of their constituents losing their jobs, the same people telling automotive executives they need to take $1 a year salaries because their companies are losing money will be receiving an additional $4700 a year of taxpayer money. To borrow from those annoying Progressive insurance ads, that’s a whole wardrobe on What Not to Wear or a bunch of “big tricked out name badges”. It is a nice little lagniappe as they say in Louisiana.



The raise amounts to a measly $2.5 million dollars. That’s chump change for a government that spends many times that on pork barrel projects yearly. But the government might be looking to cut their expenditures. Yeah right! The slowdown in the economy has many state governments running in the red. Yeah, blame the economy. States and the Federal government have been running in the red for decades.

In times like these we taxpayers are often asked to dig deep and accept tax increases as a way to balance our government budgets. Bush’s tax breaks for the wealthy are touted as a major contributor to our growing deficit. Unfortunately, like for many global warming alarmists, the facts are not on the tax and spend crowd’s side of the balance sheet.

For you see, there is no shortage of money pouring to the federal coffers. Like the Katrina bloated waters of Lake Pontchartrain filling the gumbo bowl of the Big Easy, Bush’s so-called tax breaks for the rich, like Ronald Reagan’s and John Kennedy’s before him, had money flooding in. Government revenues continue to rise.

Unfortunately, as fast as they are rising, Congress continues to spend like Mardi Gras partiers on Bourbon Street. They are drunk with power and looking for votes by endowing their constituents with pork they same way women at Carnival seek beads with their endowments.

Take a look at these figures from the Congressional Budget Office’s website (sorry it is 2 am and I don't feel like designing a real table here). It shows, in billions of dollars the revenues and outlays of the Federal Government.

Year Revenue Outlay
2001 1,991.4 1,863.2
2002 1,853.4 2,011.2
2003 1,782.5 2,160.1

As fast as revenues are growing, expenditures are outpacing them.

In coming months we undoubtedly will hear talk of stimulus packages, tax increases of all sorts and, dreaded most of all by the suckers of bead covered pork teats, budget cuts. The mammoth proposed stimulus package will add real dollars to our deficit. Dollars we don’t have. The tax increases will be real in that they will take more money for the pockets of all levels of income earners. And the budget cuts will be political double speak that is more nonsensical than a voodoo priestesses chant that you can hear for $25 off Rampart Street in the French Quarter.

For you see, a budget cut in government parlance is really just a cut in the proposed amount of increase. There really isn’t a cut at all. In 2006, the Federal Government gave schools $12.7 billion for Title One programs. Bush froze that amount in his 2007 budget and this was referred to as a budget cut. Government spending on education rose from $786 million to $797 million between the two years. Damn GW Bush and his lack of concern for the children. Just once I’d like to see a government cut that actually reduces the amount we are spending!

Tax increases aren’t a solution and tax cuts aren’t the problem. The problem is a government comprised of spendaholics and Keynsian pump primers. Every morning during the pre-Lenten party the street washers move up and down Bourbon and in the light of day it is amazing to see the aftermath of an out of control drunkfest attended by people whose only thought was of their own Bacchanalian experience. I hope that when we as a nation finally “see the light” regarding our governments excess and similar focus on today’s desires that we have enough capitalist freedom left to employ our own set of street cleaners to once again put a shine our economy.

S2

F ‘em before they can F us

A group of our board members recently took on a construction project for a reception area at one of our largest offices. Busy little control freak beavers that they are, they felt it necessary to oversee the entire project. It wasn’t long until the project took on a life of its own with each member of the committee adding their own touches to it. After several re-designs and building delays, the project is now finished. It came in at ten times the original budget and our company slogan, the one they had etched in concrete, is wrong.


This same group has charge of one of our loosely held affiliates. A few years ago they put in place some new policies because they didn’t feel the affiliate was serving a broad enough customer base. Well, a few months ago, the affiliate, strapped for cash went before this same board and asked for a huge influx of cash to keep them from folding. Being it was a large holding, the board felt it had to give them the money. The board tried to blame the entire mess on the CEO. Their PR team is big at pushing papers so many of the stockholders believe it is his fault.

Right now this group is considering investing in a couple new businesses. These businesses are failing but the board thinks that an influx of our cash is just the thing they need to pull them through. Of course, they’ll demand management authority in return for the cash. With their track record should we let them take over?

You could be dimmer than the star on an atheist’s “there’s no such thing as Christmas” tree and still realize the board I am referring to is none other than the Legislative branch of our government. This collection of nitwits hasn’t successfully managed a single thing they’ve gotten their grimy little corrupt fingers on since the ink dried on the constitution they are supposed to be serving. Now, in these trying economic times, they want increased power, increase spending and plan to take control of private sector businesses. Maxine Waters admitted in session she wants to socialize the oil companies. The money being given to the Auto makers comes with the appointment of a car czar. They want to silence opposing voices through control of the airwaves. I hope to hell at least one of the last four sentences has gotten you riled, scared or running to the toilet!

Congress has been F’ing us royally for decades. They …

fouled up Social Security by robbing Peter’s lock box to pay for Paul’s conspicuous consumption. They …

failed to be judicious managers of the monies we sent them; spending like drunken sailors on shore leave in a South Pacific port town. They …
fixed campaign finance rules to increase their reelection war chests to a size that would make Dolly Parton jealous. They …

fought every effort to increase our supply of domestic oil at a time of growing energy costs. They…

feign indignation when their own are caught with their hands in the public’s pocket and they …

forgive and forget those indiscretions as soon as they are out of the headlines.

The latest proposed stimulus package and their effort to manage the big 3 out of their problems is the biggest F of them all; the one that should keep you up at night.

Dreadlocked war protesters and pink shirted biddies have been using this F word regarding G. W. Bush for years. Unfortunately, like most things, they’ve no clue what they are talking about.
The big F here is for Fascism.

The left calling Bush a fascist and the right calling the current ideas being floated by congress and Obama socialist are both wrong.

Fascism is a more subtle form of government ownership than socialism. Socialism is a system in which the government owns and controls the means of production. Fascism is a system in which government leaves nominal ownership of the means of production in the hands of private individuals but exercises much control and reaps most of the profit by means of heavy taxation. Think of your mother-in-law and you’ll get the point.

It is fascist the way government is hoping to take over via regulatory control major businesses. So what can we do about it?

It might not seem like it but I choose the titles of these posts very carefully. When I say F ‘em, I mean Fire them. We just had an election and, once again, incumbents won a majority of the contests. Two years from now, when the next round of congressional elections happens, vote for the challenger. I don’t care if they are Republican, Democrat, Independent or Libertarian. You have my permission to ignore Socialist, Green and Communist candidates. We need to clean house and get government back under the control of we the people. We have to wait two years for our chance but that gives us lots of time to watch the F'ers

I realize there is not a single link in this post and it isn’t very funny. Sorry. I am in Denver, it is snowing, my skis are in Utah and I have the world’s slowest internet connection tonight. I will make up for it tomorrow.

S2