Save The Rich

Unfortunately, the American economy is in sorry shape.   We can spend from here until Larry King’s next divorce arguing over who is responsible, but that’s really not going to get us anywhere.  The important thing is we’re in a mess and as we sputter along, we need to prioritize because unfortunately we can’t save everybody.

Think of how it works when several patients need a kidney transplant.  The hospital will screen through 4 or 5 patients in order to find not the sickest patient, but the healthiest patient.   The hospital feels that it’s important that they not waste a kidney on somebody who may die anyway, when it could save somebody else’s life.  Our economy must work the same way.

If you figure we have a choice between funding unemployment benefits and cutting taxes on the wealthy, we must cut taxes to save the rich.   They are the ones who are most likely to survive the current  recession.  If we extend unemployment benefits for the poor, they will simply use it to buy food or shelter.  As Americans, we must be wiser.

That is why, this blog is endorsing the current Republican economic policies as voiced by Marco Rubio and others.   Do not let the Bush tax cuts expire.  In fact, cut the top tax rate.  It may not help the economy, but it’ll get the rich through the crisis and at least that’s somebody.

Obama Throws in Towel on American Butchers

As a free trade advocate, I find myself surprisingly disturbed to read that the United States has ended a 21 year ban on the importing of haggis.  On this Burns night when haggis is the dish of honor for families of Scottish descent, the haggis will not be American made.  The steaming concoction of sheep’s offal, oats and spices stuffed (by tradition) into a sack made of sheep’s gut was banned in 1989 when American officials worried about the dangers of eating offal.  How ironic that the Bush administration didn’t use the same zeal to protect the President from Japanese food.

Obama’s signal that he would be opening the door to the Scottish haggis industry was greeted as a victory by both Scots and free trade advocates, but with nearly 9 million pounds worth of haggis sold in the UK alone last year and potentially hundreds of dollars more sold world wide, I can’t help wanting some of that money for the butchers of the United States.   Why has President Oabama so callously thrown in the towel on the American haggis industry?  I know he would probably say that people don’t think of an American butcher when they think of somebody making a haggis, but before him they also didn’t think of a black man when they thought of the President of the United States.   Shouldn’t American butchers be given the same chance to succeed that he was?  Where is the stimulus plan for the American haggis industry?   I remain extremely disappointed in the President and his short sightedness.

Address To A Haggis

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o’ the puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o’ a grace
As lang’s my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o’ need,
While thro’ your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An’ cut you up wi’ ready sleight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like ony ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!

Then, horn for horn,
they stretch an’ strive:
Deil tak the hindmost! on they drive,
Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve,
Are bent lyke drums;
Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
“Bethankit!” ‘hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi’ perfect sconner,
Looks down wi’ sneering, scornfu’ view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him ower his trash,
As feckless as a wither’d rash,
His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro’ bloody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He’ll mak it whissle;
An’ legs an’ arms, an’ heads will sned,
Like taps o’ thrissle.

Ye Pow’rs wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o’ fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu’ prayer,
Gie her a haggis!

Help Republicans Teabag America

The Washington Monument stands over the Potomac as a massive symbol of the power of teabagging

Come on you moderates and independents out there we know you can’t stand it either.  The rallying cry has been stuck by us Republicans, but we need you to join us as we teabag America.  The teabag movement is a new Republican movement to protest the colossal thievery going on in Washington and the huge economic crisis the Barrack Obama created in the years leading up to his election.

I believe that this is the greatest Republican protest to date against Obama.  Going Galt was a good idea in principle, but after doing it for 2 and a half weeks I finally had to give up when nobody noticed.  Conservatives have a proud tradition of tea bagging this country going back to 1773 when we refused to bend down and yield to the King of England and instead tea bagged him right into Boston Harbor.  However, for this effort to really succeed we need every Tom, Dick, and Harry who is fed up with Obama’s rigid socialist dogma to join us in our protest.  Together we can erect a monument to the everyday citizen who refuses to simply keep a stiff upper lip when Obama tries to reach into our pockets.   Emperor Obama has no clothes and the only way to show the world is by teabagging him.

We tried sending actual tea through the mail, but unfortunately the Democrats and their ridiculous 9/11 provisions have made it illegal to mail tea to congressmen or the President.  Instead simply send them a picture of a tea bag.  If you look up teabagging photos on google I understand you can find a whole lot of them, but take your time to find a good one and send the picture to President Obama or your congressman on April 1st. Remember to  be civil.  As tempting as it is to try and get a rise out of them, you can’t go off half cocked and expect to get anywhere.  This is going to be hard, but if we come together we can still pull it out.

Live Blogging of Obama’s Speech Tonight

I just wanted to let everybody know that I’ll be live blogging Obama’s speech tonight at 8PM Eastern time tonight.  I have a toothache and I’ve been alternating vicodin and bourbon which is helping, but I am in no mood for any Obama fish oil salesmanship.  I have no doubt that if he was still in power, Bush would have ended the recession by now.  He was that good.

Grim Job News Offers Hope

Diligent workers like these are the future of the American economy.

There was an excellent story in the Wall Street Journal today pointing out the good news of the current economic turmoil “There may have been a silver lining for the economy in the horrific December job losses reported Friday by the Labor Department. Companies are cutting back so aggressively that they actually might be increasing their productivity even in the face of a wrenching economic shock.”

Let’s face it as companies have been forced to cut out frivolities like expense account lunches and executive washrooms, the result is a meaner leaner work force ready to take on the business world of tomorrow.  You won’t see these employees gossiping around the water cooler when their company had to return the water cooler to Ice Mountain.  With the current housing crisis a cot is all it takes to reverse telecommute and live out of your office.  As workers saw many of their colleagues fired and laid off, they realized that they could take on the responsibilities of their departed coworkers with just a little better time management and eliminating lunch and bathroom breaks.

It may be time for us to reconsider whether a recession is a bad thing.  And who is responsible for this economic miracle.  I believe the Journal itself put it best, “A rise in productivity would be a potentially positive mark on the economic record of President George W. Bush, who has presided over two recessions, a dismal stock market and a housing bust. In the 30 full quarters that Bush has been president, through the third quarter of last year, nonfarm business productivity grew on average 2.6% at an annual rate. That is compared with 2% for Bill Clinton and 1.6% for Ronald Reagan.”

Just Say No to Auto Bailout

I can’t believe this garbage coming out of Washington about bailing out the automobile industry.  This is one grand march towards socialism and for the $15,000,0000,000,000 that they want to give to these auto manufacturers you could fund over nearly 2 percent of the bank bailouts this year.  What do you get for your money?  3,000,000 less unemployed lazy workers.

The reason that our car companies can’t survive is because of ridiculous union contracts.  You see the companies are actually paying their former employees to be retired and they’re paying for their medical costs.  This is especially frivolous when you consider what a hazardous job life on the assembly line is.  Foreign car companies have been quite successful operating in this country by leaving the health care and retirements of their workers to their own devices.  Afterall, if they can’t afford to take care of themselves, the government has social programs that will step up and foot the bill.  If we want to avoid socialism that’s the only way to do it.

Senator Jim Demit of South Carolina has warned, “We’re going to have riots.  There are already riots because of people rioting because their leaving their job.”  This is an excellent point and I think our need for law and order supercedes any desire to take money that was planned to encourage them to make more fuel efficient cars  and loan that money to the car companies to help them out until the banking industry stabilizes and people can get auto loans again.  I suppose the good news is if we do have riots in the streets, there won’t be a lot of cars inconvenienced by road closings.

The Obama Recession

There has been some amazing reporting over the past day and it all points to one thing.  The cause of the recession that currently is afflicting our economy is none other than Barack Obama.  Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh have brilliantly pointed out that what has actually killed the economy are Obama’s ideas.  As Limbaugh says, “ This is an Obama recession.  Might turn into a depression.  He hasn’t done anything yet but his ideas are killing the economy.  His ideas are killing Wall Street. “ I shudder to think of what Obama will do when he has actual power.

You see, the recession began a year ago when Obama started his run for the White House.  His ideas were so scary that people immediately pulled their money out of the stock market and stopped paying their mortgages.  Its just a shame that after 8 years of model government the Bush administration gets blamed for the recession that Obama caused.  If you want real irony–it is the recession that he caused that got him elected.

The problem is there are a large number of other problems that Obama has caused that have all been blamed on his predecessors as well.  We never hear much about how Obama has destabilized the middle east, or heightened tensions with Russia, or how Obama has caused global warming if there is global warming.  We need to hold Obama responsible not only for the problems he will cause in his Presidency, but also for those problems he has already caused.

Limbaugh points out that Putin is going to take direct control of Russia again now that he knows Obama is going to be leading our country.  Putin retired in the first place because he was always scared of Bush’s ability to see his soul.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see if the United States’ relationship with Iran turns nasty too.  If Obama isn’t stopped it is hard to say what will be left of this once great country by the time he takes over in January.  I know I am waiting anxiously for a steady Republican hand to return to this country’s tiller.

Gramm Notices Shortage of Gumption Too

The latest whiners to complain about the economy are the airlines.  Today they are blaming “market manipulation” for doubling the cost of airplane fuel over the past year.  What’s wrong with free enterprise? People like these whiny Airlines want to blame everything on the Enron Loophole which they say has increase the cost of oil by 25% – 40%.

The Enron Loophole is the nickname for a provision written into the Commodity Futures Modernization Act (CFMA) of 2000 that was drafted by lobbyists for Enron and inserted in the bill by then Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) that deregulated an aspect of the market Enron sought to exploit with its “Enron On-Line” trading program, the first Internet-based commodities transaction system.

Now, chief financial adviser to John McCain, Phil Gramm puts the fault for the nation’s economic woes squarely where it belongs–on the whiners:

“We have sort of become a nation of whiners,” he said. “You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline” despite a major export boom that is the primary reason that growth continues in the economy, he said. “We’ve never been more dominant; we’ve never had more natural advantages than we have today,” he said. “We have benefited greatly” from the globalization of the economy in the last 30 years.

I couldn’t have put it better myself.  This is the same sort of can do attitude my dad.  The only recession is the recession caused by people thinking there is a recession.  As Gramm said, “Its a mental recession”.   The export market is doing great and this economy is booming.  All we’re missing is that can do spirit and some gumption.  The future is right around the corner and its glorious.  If the airlines can’t see it then maybe they should refrain from commenting because this economy is soaring like a DC-10.

Democrats to Blame for Economic Woes

Maybe, its just me, but the more I hear people complain about the economy the madder I get. It isn’t so much that I disagree that the economy is in a bit of a slow spell so much as I get tired of hearing it all blamed on the President. The reason that the economy is having issues isn’t George Bush or the Republicans, but the Democrat party and the local Democrat elected officials. If you want to find states where things are booming, look for Republican controlled states.

Case in point, Texas is doing terrific right now. The fact that Texans don’t complain much probably obscures this fact from the rest of the country, but in this Republican state Maserati sales are up 86 percent so far this year, according to the TexAuto Facts Report.

Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent are expanding their luxury stores at the Galleria shopping mall. New construction permits in the city have jumped by almost 30 percent. The region added more than 100,000 jobs last year. And the mayor just proposed a dream budget for next year featuring more cops and lower property taxes.

Now, this may be a result of belt tightening as well because the Maserati GranTurismo does get 30 mph on the highway, but the point is Houston in particular and Texas in general is doing great. If the other American cities would return to the work ethic that made this country great instead of looking to Uncle Sam for more handouts, they could achieve the same type of success.

“We know that everybody is talking about a recession in the U.S., but we’re not experiencing that here,” said Tracye McDaniel, executive vice president of the Greater Houston Partnership, a business development group. “We exist in this bubble, if you will.”

Clinton Ahead by 10% In My Internal Poll

At the beginning of this primary season my support went 80% McCain, 10% Clinton, and 10% Obama, but as this primary has continued, I now support Clinton 15% to Obama 5%.  The reason is she’s proving herself to be the type of candidate that the Democrats can be proud of.  Whether its drinking Crown Royal, talking about shooting guns, or speaking from the back of flat bed trucks–she’s looking like the kind of Dem this country used to produce.  The kind that we Republicans used to be proud to run against. 

Her latest move to embrace the gas tax holiday that McCain proposed is very welcome, but once more when she’s been told that economists don’t see any value in such a move because the gas companies will just raise prices her reaction was to make it clear that she’s one democrat who doesn’t cotton much to so called “experts”.   She also announced that when she’s President she is going to smash the OPEC oil cartel.  There’s a lady with guts.  I wish her husband had done it 15 years ago.  Then oil would be a lot less today.

Obama of course is against the gas tax holiday, but did you know he voted in favor of doing a state gas tax holiday 3 times when he was in the Illinois state government.  He claims the reason he switched his position was because the gas companies just raised prices to make up the difference.  In any event is that really the type of flip flopper we want in Washington?  In any event Clinton has just shot up another percent as I right this article 16% – 4%