My Name is Jimmuh!

If Jimmy Carter were dead today I would sign up to believe in reincarnation. Some readers won’t remember his presidency and trust me you are happier for it.

James Earl Carter sat in the White House during the worst period of inflation in my lifetime; there were lines to buy gas even on the days when you were allowed to, mortgage rates were above 20%, Americans were being held hostage in Iran but Jimmy filled his days with tasks vital to this Republic such as scheduling the games on the White House tennis court.

Now we have Barack Hussein Obama. Iran is about to go nuclear and their electorate is being shot dead in their streets. That same nation is finding on their electoral recount that the candidate chosen by the demented clerics gained more votes than on the first time around. A bit like Minnesota really where, back in November, the GOP candidate for the US Senate was ahead but since then every recount has turned up more votes for Al Franken.

But I digress ……

Then we have North Korea threatening Hawaii or somewhere like it. Iran is promising, not threatening mind, to wipe the only democracy in the Middle East of the map. Never mind that Israel is our only ally in that part of the world and there we are now seen as thugs favoring the Islamists.

At home, our finances are out of control, courtesy of Obama. He wants to dictate your healthcare; his congressional minions are voting for the biggest tax and control legislation in the history of the country, the dollar is in a slide because the Chinese don’t believe the lies of people like Geithner, Boxer or Pelosi and are fleeing the currency.

But there stands Obama yesterday in Carter’s virtual shadow, promising to take another look at “Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell" and swearing to replace the light bulbs in the White House.

Let’s be honest though, he did concern himself with one bit of foreign policy. He did declare his support for the socialist President of Honduras who fled his country after he had tried to subvert his own constitution and “do a Chavez”, namely to be “President for Life”.

Fortunately, for that small country, their Supreme Court prevailed backed by their law enforcement and by their military.

Let’s hope we don’t need it here ever but if we do, let’s hope the same forces will come to our aid.

The time to really get worried will be when I see Obama sitting by a fire wearing a very ugly sweater while dreaming of revocation of the 22nd Amendment. For those in Lake Havasu, that's the one limiting a president to two terms.

Make no mistake though, it will be an ugly Cardin sweater as, whatever else she does, I’m sure Michelle doesn’t knit!

It only hurts when I laugh .........

I contend that our sense of humor is formed early in life and, once in place, it’s tough to change it. If I’m right then it could explain why some of my attempts to inject a little levity into these posts fall ominously flat. But rest assured dear reader there are no such attempts in this one because some things are just not funny however hard one looks.

Like many people, yesterday I spent many hours “working the ‘phones” trying to cajole a handful of politicians to wake up and smell the coffee with respect to the Cap and Trade (C&T) legislation before the house. I lost by a margin of 7 votes. But my loss is nothing compared to the potential damage done to this country and its people if the Senate does not see and correct the errors of the House’s ways.

Despite the fact that while on the path to the Oval Office, Obama opined that a nuclear-capable Iran “was 100% unacceptable”, a few weeks ago he conceded that he could accept an Iran using nuclear-generated power capability. One is forced to wonder why it’s OK for Iran to do it but not OK for the US?

Also on the campaign trail and since, Obama has declared that his goal is to make wind and solar the cheapest forms of energy. Just about the easiest way to do that is to make the others such as coal, oil and gas more expensive. Cap and Trade is meant to do precisely that for it is the tax that dare not speak its name, and Democrats are hoping in particular that no one notices who would pay for their climate ambitions.

With Obama depending on vast new carbon revenues in his budget and Congress promising a bill later this year, perhaps Americans would like to know the deeply unequal ways that the costs would be distributed across regions and income groups.

Politicians love cap and trade because they can claim to be taxing "polluters," not workers. Hardly. Once the government creates a scarce new commodity -- in this case the right to emit carbon -- and then mandates that businesses buy it, the costs would inevitably be passed on to all consumers in the form of higher prices.

Stating the obvious, Peter Orszag -- now Obama's budget director -- told Congress last year that "Those price increases are essential to the success of a cap-and-trade program." And that gem was in the wake of an Obama pronouncement earlier in 2008, “that electricity rates will skyrocket”.

It’s amazing to me that some of his erstwhile supporters are now feigning surprise but they shouldn’t. He promised you skyrocketing utility prices and he is determined to deliver on that.

Hit hardest would be the "95% of working families" Obama keeps mentioning, usually omitting that his no-new-taxes pledge comes with the caveat "unless you use energy." Putting a price on carbon is regressive by definition because poor and middle-income households spend more of their paychecks on things like gas to drive to work, groceries or home heating.

The Congressional Budget Office -- Mr. Orszag's former roost -- estimates that the price hikes from a 15% cut in emissions would cost the average household in the bottom-income quintile about 3.3% of its after-tax income every year. That's about $680, not including the costs of reduced employment and output. The three middle quintiles would see their paychecks cut between $880 and $1,500, or 2.9% to 2.7% of income. The rich would pay 1.7%.

But the greatest inequities are geographic and would be imposed on the parts of the U.S. that rely most on manufacturing or fossil fuels -- particularly coal, which generates most power in the Midwest, Southern and Plains states. It's no coincidence that the liberals most invested in cap and trade -- Barbara Boxer, Henry Waxman, Ed Markey -- come from California or the Northeast.

Coal provides more than half of U.S. electricity, and 25 states get more than 50% of their electricity from conventional coal-fired generation. In Ohio, it totals 86%, according to the Energy Information Administration. Ratepayers in Indiana (94%), Missouri (85%), New Mexico (80%), Pennsylvania (56%), West Virginia (98%) and Wyoming (95%) are going to get soaked.

Another way to think about it is in terms of per capita greenhouse-gas emissions. California is the No. 2 carbon emitter in the country but also has a large economy and population. So the average Californian only had a carbon footprint of about 12 tons of CO2-equivalent in 2005, according to the World Resource Institute's Climate Analysis Indicators, which integrates all government data. The situation is very different in Wyoming and North Dakota where every person was responsible for 154 and 95 tons, respectively.

Democrats say they'll allow some of this ocean of new cap-and-trade revenue to trickle back down to the public. In his budget, Obama wants to recycle $525 billion through the "making work pay" tax credit that goes to many people who don't pay income taxes.

But $400 for individuals and $800 for families still doesn't offset carbon's income raid, especially in states with higher carbon use. All the more so because the Administration is lowballing its cap-and-trade tax estimates.

Its stated goal is to reduce emissions 14% below 2005 levels by 2020, which assuming that four-fifths of emissions are covered (excluding agriculture, for instance), works out to about $13 or $14 per ton of CO2. When CBO scored a similar bill last year, it expected prices to start at $23 and rise to $44 by 2018. CBO also projected the total value of the allowances at $902 billion over the first decade, which is some $256 billion more than the Administration's estimate.

The White House budget office was asked for the assumptions behind its revenue estimates, but a spokesman said the Administration doesn't have a formal proposal and will work with Congress and "stakeholders" to shape one. They also pointed to recent comments by Mr. Orszag that he was "sure there will be enough there to finance the things that we have identified" and maybe "additional money" too. In other words, Obama expects a much larger tax increase than even he is willing to admit.

These "stakeholders" are going to need some very large bribes, starting with the regions that stand to lose the most. Led by Michigan's Debbie Stabenow, 15 Senate Democrats have already formed a "gang" demanding that "consumers and workers in all regions of the U.S. are protected from undue hardship." In practice, this would mean corporate welfare for carbon-heavy businesses.

And, of course, Congress is its own "stakeholder." An economy-wide tax under the cover of saving the environment is the best political moneymaker since the income tax.

Obama officials are already telling the press, sotto voce, that climate revenues might fund universal health care and other new social spending. No doubt they would, and when they did Mr. Obama's cap-and-trade rebates would become even smaller.

Cap and trade, in other words, is a scheme to redistribute income and wealth -- but in a very curious way. It takes from the working class and gives to the affluent; takes from Miami, Ohio, and gives to Miami, Florida; and takes from an industrial America that is already struggling and gives to rich Silicon Valley and Wall Street "green tech" investors who know how to leverage their political clout.

Make no mistake, Cap and Trade is all about Tax and Control and not about environmental concerns both real and imagined. We need look no further than Australia and Spain, both of whom tried similar measures and then abandoned them as useless.

Well, I’ve kept my promise about no humor in this post but there is a little irony.

According to the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) the Earth’s temperature has remained flat since 2001 in spite of rising CO2 levels. But science doesn’t matter, data doesn’t matter. Only emotion and political ambition count. Al Gore was awarded a Nobel Prize for Peace.

So was Yasser Arafat!

Long Live Nick at Nite!

Well there were a couple of good things on TV on Wednesday evening. For a start there was “Rhoda” and “Frazier”. Then, if you really looked hard, there was one of my favorites, another rerun of “Barney Miller”.

All those programs had one thing in common. According to Nielsen, they all beat out the ABC Love Fest about healthcare.

I always loved “Rhoda” and her mother was just like my mother-in law, G-d rest her soul.

On the broadcast last night, Obama had the gall to reiterate his spurious assertion that, “he would allow me to keep my own doctor”. What right does this man have to allow me to do anything?

He has forgotten, if he ever knew it, that I employ him. His predecessor knew it as did the first President Bush. Clinton didn’t but we know what drove him don’t we?

But, all that aside, again we see a lawyer parsing words. He can make the claim he did but how can you and I elect to continue our current health insurance if our employer does not offer it anymore? There was a book written back in the 60’s by the guy who put Avis on the map. The book was titled “Up the Organization” and it contained several memorable quotations. One was, “If you are not in business for fun or profit; why are you here”? Some businesses I suspect were formed initially just for fun but the ones that survived learned quickly that the fun has a price. And the price has to be paid out of profits. Clearly, therefore, if a corporation can optimize profit by cutting cost it will do so. In fact, in the case of a public company, it is obligated so to do.

Add to all this and decide, as the Obama plan does, to tax the employee’s health benefit and claim still that the individual has a choice …………… Unless you’re a union member that is because the Bill specifically excludes those people from that added penalty.

A few other snippets and observations about the Kennedy Bill and Wednesday’s infomercial.

Members of Congress are exempt from any requirement to use the proposed system. It took a line-by-line analysis by John Fund of “The Wall Street Journal” for that to see the light of scrutiny.

Even ABC are now rethinking their participation in the broadcast because it was obvious that Obama could not explain some provisions of his own legislation. Once or twice we saw the “deer caught in the headlights” look. Surely though, the piece de resistance was the admission by Obama that he would not necessarily look to the government scheme in the case of his own wife and family.

Perhaps for the first time, ABC and the Obama administration are relieved that their opus was bested by a rerun of “Barney Miller”!

Call the Bimbo!!

I had some bad bosses in my working career but I had some good ones as well. One of the best knew that his job was to stay the hell out of the way as long as I did my job. In turn, I knew that if something stood in my way I only had to ask and he would run interference for me. His wife was also a "trip” and, for years they’d joked that if she died first he should get a bimbo. After a dinner party one night in San Diego, she got sick and, as she embraced the commode and wretched, a concerned husband asked, through a locked bathroom door, if he should call a doctor.

“No”, came the strangled response from the echo chamber of the toilet bowl. “But you might want to call the bimbo.”

Yesterday, that was my day. The last thing on my mind was writing this Blog. But to satisfy the prurient, no bimbos were hurt in the production of this post.

Anyway, now that preamble is over and done with, let’s start in:-

Watch ABC this evening and you’ll soon know why it is now known as the “All Barack Channel”. There is nothing unique about a major network conducting their evening news from the White House. What is new though is then to present an infomercial covering one aspect of this administration’s policy, namely healthcare.

And, have you seen ABC’s on-screen promotion of this sham where, in which you are invited into, and I quote, “His House”? Now, I did not go to school in this country so I missed Civics 101. On the other hand, I did study for my naturalization test and there I learned that the president’s residence was more properly called “our house” or, in more formal terms, “The People’s House”.

ABC also proclaims that its program will present a “debate” on that one single issue. I used to debate formally while in school and then, after that, my local pub was oft times the forum for lively exchanges. There were many differences between the arenas but they did, and I hope still do, have one thing in common. There has to be a proponent and an opponent for because without both there is no debate.

But that precisely is that which you will see tonight. There will be no opponent voice. It’s not that they refused their invitation; they never received an invitation in the first place. And, it gets worse because offers to buy commercial time to present an alternate view have been denied.

It becomes clearer and clearer that the Left is unwilling to allow any dissent from their talking points. And I’ll go further; a confirmed liberal and an ardent Obama disciple saw nothing awry about a format like this. In fact, the person applauded it. It seems that the First Amendment is only valid and worthy of support if it cheers for their side.

So, watch it this evening and let me know. For those readers outside the US; try the ABC website!

In order to sign off and in, order to prepare the way for a later post, let me say this. According to Rasmussen yesterday, 32% of voters “strongly approved of Obama policy”. 34% disapproved.

Now it’s time to take a nap but again sans bimbos.

Hellzapoppin!

Earlier this week I sent off my check in order to settle my obligation to the IRS for this quarter at least. Coincidentally, but very appropriately, this week also marks the start of the monsoon season in Arizona and as my unwilling fingers said goodbye to the envelope, I mused on the possibility that whatever I’d just paid, it seemed unlikely that it would be enough come next April. In other words, and this is where the monsoon connection comes in, this is almost certain to be the calm just before the storm.

Little did I know at the time that the clouds of fiscal ruin were just beyond the horizon and would be with us, in all their ominous fury, within the week.

This blog, like many other analyses have long-predicted the financial disaster that would result from the “Kennedy Healthcare Plan”. It may turn out to be a sad but entirely fitting legacy that the name of the senior Senator from Massachusetts should be linked with this “horse’s ass” of legislative gobbledygook. On the other hand, he might prefer that as a legacy rather than the alternative which would almost certainly be the death in highly dubious circumstances of one Mary Jo Kopechne.

The proposed legislation is so bad that Obama is even beginning to distance himself from it and his aides are already protesting that, “It’s not the President’s bill”. Well, let’s face it, technically that’s a true statement but it’s yet another example of a lawyer parsing his words because the way it works is that Congress comes up with all and every piece of legislation and the President signs it into law. But that verbal tap dance does not alter the fact that Obama campaigned on it and, as far back as 2003, said that he wanted a single-payer system. Patently this is not it and it may well be that this is a way to edge towards that goal because the liberal Left know that the majority of American voters want no part of it.

If a camel is a horse designed by a committee then this legislation is a whole herd of ‘em. Or is it a gaggle or a flock or better yet, a hump?

To start with, initially the Congressional Budget Office said this entire thing was going to cost $600 billion. Surprisingly, Charlie Rangel upped the tab to more than $1 trillion. So upset was the majority in the House and Senate with the whole thing that they opted to ignore the CBO and use “White House estimates” instead. That alone should be enough to have you running screaming for the aisles but we haven’t even scratched the surface yet so let’s step gingerly into these muddy and roiling waters and see what horror awaits as yet dormant in the silt.

Even with the $1 trillion number that will still leave 37 million people uninsured. Huh? Here’s why. The plan figures to move those between 150% and 500% of the federal poverty level to “assisted coverage”. That means that for those with an annual income between $33,000 and $150,000 they will receive a federal subsidy. How much will depend on family size. But what about those making less than $33,000? As it stands right now, they will be shunted into Medicaid which is hardly what was promised.

And how will all this be paid for? The quick answer is taxes and penalties. Let’s say you get healthcare insurance via your employer. That has a monetary value of; say $7500, which until now was untaxed but not any more.

It goes without saying that your employer would love to shed that burden on their bottom line and will certainly do everything possible to “cajole” you to go over to the “public option”. Do you think for a moment that you’ll get another $7500 in your paycheck? Get real. I know it, you know it and the Feds know it. Ergo, you’ll be forced into the government scheme which is what they wanted all along and making an utter mockery of Obama’s protestation that, “If you’re happy with your current insurance you can keep it.”

Then the other revenue source will be penalties on those who do not obtain coverage.

If the devil is, as they say, in the details then widespread Satanism rules in Washington D.C.

Your Fly is Open!

Earlier today a Boeing 777 left Brussels on its way to Newark. At “wheels up” in Belgium both seats 1A and 1B were occupied with living, breathing pilots. Somewhere between there and here a vacancy appeared. I’ve flown many hours in both of those front seats. Sometimes I was PIC (Pilot in Command) and sometimes the other guy or gal was. It will be interesting to learn just how long it took for the First Officer to realize that he or she was now PIC whether they wanted to be or not.

I felt a bit like that about the administration of President Bush (the 43rd) especially since the last election. Until yesterday, just about the only one to stand up to the bully in the playground was a guy with more hardware and electrical circuits in his heart than a Star Wars droid. Then though, last night in Pennsylvania, President W came out swinging. Predictably, he did it with class as he declared that he would not directly compromise his successor with direct comment or criticism. He should have in my book, but then I have little class as declared by a reader who seems to scour my posts searching for the prurient. Well, she does hail from New England so perhaps that explains it.

On a rainy night in Erie, President Bush reaffirmed that “Government does not create wealth. Government creates an atmosphere, an environment which makes it easier for people to create wealth”.

Let me ask my liberal readers a question. I know you’re out there because I get your pursed lips responses. Anyway here is the question. What government agency, program or whatever makes a profit? OK, before the liberal screams become too strident about profit is bad an/or Government should never make a profit from the sweat of the downtrodden, let me rephrase it.

What government agency, program or whatever breaks even and before you answer, the IRS does not qualify.

OK, let’s cite a few examples as you wrack your brain. The Post Office? Get real. Fedex can make a living doing it though. Amtrak? Is a huge money black hole.

We know that by, Obama’s own admission, Medicare and Medicaid, are not sustainable. We also know that he says the overall budget deficit is not sustainable. He said it three weeks ago in New Mexico and this week in Washington, D.C. Never mind the fact that more than 93% of that debt is his.

Then we have Joe Biden shrugging his shoulders and confessing that when they came into office and proposed this massive spending, they must have “guessed wrong”.

Guessed?

But, let's just surmise that the govenment's record remains intact. So GM is going to turn a profit? Or how about the chances for socialized health care? And you can choose the color of the lipstick for that latter pig. Or, go for the entire pallette.

But the media seems to be consumed by Obama’s fly-killing prowess. For me, if he’d then brought it back to life, that would have been worth the price of admission. And it would have been no surprise to his more devoted adherents who, while they don't need another sign, a little top-up of messiah juice couldn't hurt. Perhaps he knows that and is saving it for later.

Knit One, Purl Two!

Help! I’m in a time warp. Even though I live in Arizona and it’s June; nevertheless it’s time to get a sweater. You know, one just like Jimmy Carter wore back in the seventies.

With every day that goes by and with every speech the teleprompter displays we’ve gone back thirty years. Appeasement is the order of the day.

Well that strategy didn’t work for Neville Chamberlain back in the 1930’s. If it had I might have had a sibling right now but almost certainly I would be also minus one foreskin. Given my druthers, I’d welcome the miniscule weight loss and embrace the little sister I craved.

And, the program of appeasement didn’t work any better for the peanut farmer from Georgia.

And it’s not going to do any better now!

Obama was quick to take credit for what he thought was going to be an endorsement of his Cairo speech when he was convinced that “Change” was coming via Iran’s election. But now, when it has not turned out that way, there is nothing from Obama to protest the outcome nor the brutal treatment of the Iranians who won’t roll over. Now, all we hear is his praise for the “robust nature of the debate”, as people are shot in the streets.

Then Panetta declared that Vice President Cheney would welcome another terrorist (I’ll use the word even if Clinton, Napolitano et al will not) attack in the homeland. I am not a litigious person but if I was Cheney I’d sue his ass. In the meantime, the White House says nothing.

In less than 6 months we have seen more czars from Obama than Imperial Russia saw in the same number of centuries. One of the reasons that Obama likes the idea of czars is that it avoids scrutiny by us. Remember us? We the people who are supposed to run this place. See, if he nominates a designated cabinet post, that nominee has to be questioned and approved or not by Congress.

This way, Obama gets to rule not govern!

It takes a lot of pieces to complete a complex jigsaw puzzle. A lot more than the strands of wool it takes to knit a sweater. Eventually though, the picture becomes clear.

It’s an apologist declaring that, “It’s all for my good.”

I'm OK, just don't drown me quite yet ........

Perhaps it’s all my dentist’s fault because, early this morning, while I lay there in his chair with a mouth full of cotton wads, latex gloves and implements of which the Inquisition would be envious, I began to think. After all what else is there to do? Conversation is out because of the aforementioned oral impediments and masturbation would be less than polite and so I had a think.

Going on a little while longer with the dental theme; what starts out as an occasional twinge grows over time. Now I’m not to the point yet of stuffing aspirin into the suppurating cavity but the twinge has become an ongoing nagging ache.

It all started way back before last November when I detected a propensity for talk but no action. In fact, Obama’s preferred methodology is to make a speech and to expect that would take care of it all. Some specifics if I may:-

“Bankruptcy for GM is not an option. It’s simply unacceptable”. Then he appoints a 31-year old law student to oversee the process as the filing becomes inevitable. For an encore, he appointed a new CEO who, by his own admission, knows nothing about cars. Team that idiocy with this from a Treasury spokesman, “We have a reasonable chance of getting some of our money back”. Yeah, I really want to invest in that company.

Next there was this. Last week Obama said that he had no problem if, and note the “Get out of jail” card, FBI and other agencies were reading Miranda rights to suspects in Iraq and Afghanistan. Contrast that with his appearance on “60 Minutes” on March 22 when he asserted that they didn’t deserve that protocol.

Again, while on the campaign trail, Obama stated that a nuclear Iran was unacceptable. Last week, the same man said it was OK. But he still wants to talk. About what? I believe that Obama really thought his Cairo speech would be a cure-all. And his believers were convinced of it.

So, the only comment, so far, from the White House is that they welcome the robust debate while they ignore completely the violence and death in the streets of Teheran. And their comment about a North Korea nuclear threat is ……,
Well, the word silence is the only one that springs to my mind.

Take this list and add your own to it, but the inescapable fact remains that Obama’s word is a farce. For most of the time, he’d prefer not to do anything and, when forced to do something, he’ll say one thing in one place and one thing somewhere else.

He seems eager to speak up against this country while he’s abroad. He is silent when it comes to speaking for it at home.

Teddy Roosevelt was infamous for his mantra; “Speak softly but carry a big stick.”

What does Obama carry?

Apart from a teleprompter? Not Much!

Green should now mean Stop! or Else!

Cogito ergo sum!

We, that’s the collective we apart from me, voted for “change” last November. Those candles still burn in the hopes of the “righteous”, not as brightly as once they did. One or two are now sputtering a bit and one more died this weekend leaving a messy circle of wax on the table and a stench in the air of things to come.

According to the Obama-dominated media, the election in Iran was a done deal because President Bush was now gone. Obama had spoken from Cairo and Axelrod had proclaimed from Washington that his boss’ had “reset the tempo between America and the Arab World” and that Obama welcomed the new dialog that was taking place in Iran and that he looked forward to a new beginning.

What a load of narcissistic crap?

Now ignore the fact that Iran isn’t Arab and even if the teleprompter didn’t know that, Obama should’ve. But let’s not dwell on petty screw-ups and let’s not worry any more about the preliminary bouts.

There was an election held in Iran about two days ago. The breathless US media wallowed in their access to the people in that country. “It was a new day, a new time, a chance for “Change”!

Better yet, a “Green Change”!

So, we saw countless TV crews from here and from Europe touring the streets in search of it. Of course they found it. Bad reporters always do. Good reporters find bad news and sometimes they’re die for it professionally or sometimes literally.

“Obama”, they cried. “Change”, their placards said. One guy with green hair and an, obviously new tattoo yelled in fractured English, “Yes we can”.

But the mullahs had already ordained, “No you can’t”. And they could have added, but didn’t; and you never will as long as we are here.

What a shock this has been to the Obama and his supporters? It was all supposed to be different. I remember a “Star Trek” episode where a people could change their reality simply by wishing it so. I even have an ex-wife who still believes in it.

I know that some of my readers view my beliefs as pure cynicism. Maybe they are, but cut me a little slack and allow a little considered realism. I contend that the only true green that was obvious around this election was that a lot people driven by emotion wanted to believe in it.

Health, Wealth and Humbug!

Wouldn’t it be great if food and housing and cars and the gas to make ‘em run were all free? Of course there were some people, perhaps many, before and after the last election who believed that was the program in store. Maybe they still do but it’s just that Obama is so busy and hasn’t got round to that part yet.

Wrong!!

So now, a few months later, the latest potential freebie is healthcare. Before we get into the specifics, there are 2 or 3 things to acknowledge upfront. Let me start by saying that clearly there are some people who don’t have health insurance. Some of those can’t afford it for all kinds of reasons. Others, mainly the young, are convinced that they will never get sick and so they’d prefer to buy another Xbox 360 instead of paying an insurance premium.

Here’s a bet, but understand that it is purely a rhetorical bet and not a literal one, because I went to Las Vegas a few weeks ago and never dropped one quarter into a machine. Of course, they got my money a different way but I digress …

Oh, the bet!

I’m prepared to wager that you would be shocked, stunned and amazed at the number of voters in this country who heard the phrase “comprehensive healthcare” and somehow equated that with “free healthcare”. Now only an utter fool wouldn’t want that but most are also well acquainted with the adage that, if it’s too good to be true, it almost certainly is.

The liberal left is pining for a “single-payer” system. Obama campaigned on that promise and its doubtful if anything less will shut ‘em up. Well, another speech by the teleprompter and read by Obama would work for a while. So far it seems to.

Well people, do I have news for you? For a start, contrary to popular opinion in the student bars of Tempe or Berkeley, “free healthcare” is not free. For example, in the UK which is oft cited as “the shining city on a hill”, the tab is almost 24% of an employee’s income. And that’s on top of income tax etc …..

Of course the AMA doesn’t want single payer or anything like it but I’m sure that statement will be hailed as a “Gotcha”. Not really because, believe me, you don’t want a poor doctor. Don’t know about you, but as a surgeon approaches my prostate with a scalpel in his or her hand, I don’t want to see a yawn induced by their early morning paper route.

In a post to this Blog dated June 4 of this year I went into some detail about the methodology which is used by the British National Health Service to select the prescription drugs which can be dispensed. But this “rationing” doesn’t stop there and a similar rationale is applied to surgical procedures, organ and tissue transplants etc.

So is this what you voted for and is this what you want to see in the US?

In about 3 month’s time I plan to attend a class reunion in England. At least 2 of my classmates are surgeons working in the National Health Service. I have no reason to think that their clinical skills are any less than an equivalent professional at the Mayo Clinic. The difference though is simply a question of availability of and prompt access to that clinical expertise. I’ve seen stark evidence of this within my own family when my youngest grandson would have had to wait for months to see a specialist. Fortunately my daughter is as stubborn as I am and paid good money to “go private”.

So, I ask again, is this what you want?

Contrary to opinion in some parts of the world, no person who needs medical attention in the US can be denied. The thousands of Emergency Rooms around the country are legally obligated to provide care to anyone who shows up. You may have to wait in line for some time, even hours. In the UK though, unless you want to pay “to go private” you can wait in line for months or even years.

Of course there is a solution that a friend suggested and which I would really like to see and that is to require members of Congress to relinquish their existing and very exclusive scheme and instead use the same system they foist on the rest of us.

Fat Chance!

Monday, Bloody Monday!

I don’t listen to exit polls and there are good reasons why.

More often than not they’re wrong but I do listen when the readers of this Blog respond to a direct question. Now, honestly, I don’t know the political leanings of all the readers.

Some I know for certain I think, because I know the people concerned. Some I can guess at, but there are a lot of readers I don’t know, which is one of the reasons I asked the question of a few days ago in the first place.

Essentially the question was, “When does (pick your favorite crisis) become Obama’s problem? Sorry, the voting closed earlier this morning so your chad will just have to hang.

10% of the respondents still blame President George W. Bush for everything. One, poor demented soul, from G-d knows where, thought that Gerald Ford was to blame. Another, a more honest person at least, although equally demented, mailed that I would know when “Obama Rule” prevailed because there wouldn’t be any bad news. I'm pretty sure I'll know that person should I ever meet him or her as they emerge from the refrigerator box camped under the Red Rock Freeway.

The bottom line, though, was that 85% of those who responded said Obama owns it; whatever it is. And that view even came from two people who regard President Bush as Evil Personified.

Now I have to start on the media and for the Obama camp, there is good news and then there is bad news. On Friday evening there was a flurry and then a flood of adulation for Obama on MSNBC. Back in 2007, on the same program Evan Thomas of “Newsweek” intoned that it was his job to “bash the President”. Then, last Friday, he said that, while Reagan was all about America, (ignoring the fact that he (Reagan) took out the Soviet Union without firing a shot), “Obama is above all that. He is above country. He is above the world. He is a sort of G-d”.

Now this deserves repetition. We’ve gone from messianic to deity in a few short months.

And little Chrissy Matthews egged him on with breathless interspersions of “Yes”, and, “You’re Right”.

No wonder Matthews gets “tingles” up his leg. It was G-d doing it.

Now for the bad news, very few people watch MSNBC!


OK, OK, I promised some comments on things economic.

Your reading assignment this week is “1984” and “Animal Farm” because we have truly entered the era of “Orwell Speak”.

Today, I heard it said that because only 350,000 jobs were lost last month, things are getting better. How about this for an analogy? The serial killer is still out there but there have been less deaths than before.

Even the Associated Press today opined that, “we cannot spend our way out of a recession”. In fact they continued, “It’s having the opposite effect”. But Biden yesterday and Obama today insisted on doubling down on a demonstrably failed policy.

And it's not just been failing here in the last few months but all over the world in recorded history.

It's old theory, failed theory wherever it's been tried.

Sorry Marx and Lenin and Engels and Trotsky and Mao and Castro and Chavez and ......

....... and Obama,



No wonder Europe is turning to the Right!

Quod Erat Demonstrandum!

Lou Pritchett is one of corporate America’s true living legends- an acclaimed author, dynamic teacher and one of the world's highest rated speakers. Successful corporate executives everywhere recognize him as the foremost leader in change management. Lou changed the way America does business by creating an audacious concept that came to be known as "partnering." Pritchett rose from soap salesman to Vice-President, Sales and Customer Development for Procter and Gamble and over the course of 36 years, made corporate history.

He penned this OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA and it was sent to me by an unabashed liberal and Obama booster.

“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 writing a similar letter in 8 years.

Lou Pritchett”

Meaner than a Junkyard Dog?

Obama is just finishing up his second “Apology Tour” and sometimes I just shake my head in disbelief at the behavior of this man and his administration. The head-shaking is because I’m really not sure if the behavior is due to malevolence or naiveté. Let me try to explain.

First of all, Obama claims that these United States should be classified as having one of the world’s largest Muslim populations. That is patently wrong. Not just mistaken, wrong! In the last census, the number of Muslim in the US was 2.3 million. Even accepting the most generous estimate of 8 million that wouldn’t place the US in the top 40-odd Muslim countries. So why lie about something that is so easily verifiable and so trivial? Surely, if you’re going to lie make it about something worthwhile. But there’s more.

While on the campaign trail he talked a lot about his family including his Grandmother and Father. Then he claimed they were Christian but earlier this week they seem to have undergone a sudden conversion because now he says they are Muslim. Also, while on the campaign he referred to his Uncle who had helped to liberate Auschwitz. When it was pointed out that to do so the Uncle would have to have been serving in the Red Army he hastily changed the story and said that his Uncle had told him about the liberation of Buchenwald.

Earlier this week two interviews of Obama family members were published in the British “Daily Telegraph” and the German “Der Spiegel” and here the plot becomes even more confusing. According to the former, the Uncle says he has never had such a conversation with Obama and then added that “he (Obama) must have said it for political reasons”. Now that’s the first believable snippet of the whole sorry saga. Then the second publication said it wasn’t the Uncle at all but a Grandfather.

Make of all that whatever you will but note again that, if you are prepared to concoct stuff as trivial as that, just imagine what you'll do about something that really counts.

Anyway, then there was the speech at the University of Cairo where Obama lambasted Israel for their continued settlement in disputed areas. As a sidebar to that, the Israelis are calling the newly constructed dwellings, “Obama Huts” although they are somewhat larger than the 8 by 9 foot shack where his brother lives in Kenya.

For decades now, Israel has traded “land for peace” or, perhaps more accurately the slogan should read “Actual Land for More War”. The bottom line for the Palestinians and for the Muslim nations that fund their terrorism is that there shall be no land for any Jew. Fortunately, Netanyahu knows that but, regrettably, Obama does not.

Now is the Obama presence on the domestic scene any better? This week Biden decided to enter the fray. Perhaps he felt that with Obama out of the country he could sneak in some of his own wisdom. The guy reminds me of the drunken uncle at the wedding who just won’t shut up but he announced that their stimulus plan was not working as anticipated. No kidding Joe! In May more than 300,000 jobs were lost and that number does not include those who have simply given up the seemingly unequal struggle to look for work. And that comes out to over 16,000 pink slips every day since the “stimulus” went into effect. It’s also interesting to note that back in January as the “Dream Team” were coming in the unemployment rate was 8% and we were warned that without the prompt implementation of the stimulus package it could go to 9. Well the Team got their way and now the rate is 9.4! Hmmm!

And now Obama is heading up Govenment Motors or rather he put in place a 31-year old law student to do the job. Fat chance. No wonder that Hugo Chavez gleefully proclaimed that soon Obama would be to the left of him and Castro.

But we can’t leave the auto industry just yet without relating this item about a county in one of the Southern states where there used to be 7 Chrysler dealerships. Under the Obama plan 6 have or will close. Each of those had previously made donations to the Republican cause. The one that will remain had some interesting principals in its boardroom including a former Chief of Staff to Bill Clinton and a founder of “Black Entertainment Television”. And, you’ve guessed it; the company had donated to the Obama cause.

Impossible to prove either way of course but the empirical evidence is chilling which is why I include malevolence in my list of alternatives. Straight out of the Chicago Street Thug playbook. Leroy Brown would be so pleased.

When does Obama Own it?

I can't tell you how many liberal readers of this Blog have commented to me through my email inbox or via the linked radio stations claiming that all my bad news about Obama was owned by President Bush.

OK, here's your chance to vote,

Send me an email to jack-morris@qwest.net

And you tell me when Obama owns it.

Some Die and Some Lie!

Two days ago a young man was killed in Arkansas. He wasn’t rich, he wasn’t famous. He was doing his job. His name was Private James Long and he worked in a Recruitment Center in Fort Smith. Then a Muslim cut him down with a firearm. A couple of days before that an abortionist was murdered in Kansas. The immediate reaction from the White House on the former was nothing and there is still none. As a result of the latter though, FBI agents were dispatched to whichever Death Camp asked for it.

There is an amazing and a frightening double standard in play and it took center stage today in Cairo at the latest Obama grovel.

I didn’t catch all of it but I did get these snippets. Obama claimed that:

Algebra came from Islam. No, it first saw birth in Babylon, more than 1000 years before Mohamed

The next claim was the magnetic compass; last time I checked that was the Chinese.

Then there came the scientific achievements in medicine, science etc. How many Nobel awards have gone to Muslims from Islamic countries?

I loved the claim about Muslims inventing the Arch. Has Obama ever been to Rome? And, if he did, did he ever get Michelle’s head out of the shoe shops to take a look around?

Next was Music. When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, music and dancing were capital offences.

And with that last point, I have to combine his last claim that Islam was tolerant of other faiths with the gruesome addition that the Taliban synchronized a beheading of a British hostage. We can only pray that it was quick and, for Obama’s soul, that it was done by the moderate Taliban because Obama wants to talk to them.

That was the easy part.

He did refer to the Holocaust; once! But then, “On the other hand”, he strove to find a moral equivalence when he referred to the “daily humiliations” of the Palestinians”. Also, unmentioned was the fact that those humiliations were caused by and stoked by the surrounding Arab neighbors.

Perhaps, the greatest hurt I’ve heard in a long time was when an Obama supporter with a good education and one who prides herself on her sensitivity reduced the Holocaust to “a gross indignity”

She's never been to that pile of shoes. The museum sprays them with a mist of water to keep them whole. I will never forget that smell and that's when I cried.

How Much is a Year of Your Life Worth?

A few days ago I published a post which was a view of the current situation in the UK. One of the issues mentioned by the contributor was the parlous state of their socialized medical system called the National Heath Service, (NHS). Because of the impending legislation to implement a similar disaster here I thought that American readers may be interested in one aspect, namely the rationing of proven prescription drugs.

The UK has a body called the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) which reviews treatments to decide which treatments the NHS should pay for. A new drug has to fit certain criteria and if it doesn’t, whether it’s lifesaving or not, NICE won’t approve it and the NHS won’t dispense it.

NICE uses a metric called “quality-adjusted life year" (QALY), which grades a person’s health-related quality of life from 0 to 1. Say a new drug for a previously untreatable condition comes on the market and is shown to improve a patient’s quality of life from 0.5 to 0.7 on the scale. Let’s also say that actuarial data suggests that a patient on the drug can expect to live an average of 15 years following the new treatment. Taking the new drug thus earns the patient 3 QALYs (15 years multiplied by the 0.2 gain in quality of life). If the treatment costs $15,000 over the period then the cost per QALY is $5000. Still with me? Isn’t it fun to see your pain and suffering and even your very life itself being reduced to “accountant speak”?

Taking its lead from Britain’s Department for Transport – which has a cost-per-life saved threshold for new-road schemes of about $2.2 million per life, or about $45,000 per life year gained – NICE will not approve a drug that costs more than this number.

And so there you have it!

In the meantime, take 2 aspirin and call your CPA in the morning!

Credit or Debit

I got a new insight yesterday into the blind obedience of Obama believers and their dependence upon cliché’s. So here is a heads-up for the 47% of voters who did not vote for this man. And it may come as a surprise, but when you look at a picture of the Obamas it had better be a long look or, you’re a racist.

Three days away from economics and my inbox is overflowing with demands to put digital pen to digital paper. So, get out your calculator and stay with me.

A few weeks ago Obama was in New Mexico and spoke at a Town Hall Meeting. That occasion was his next onslaught on the financial industry of this country. The targets this time were the credit card companies. Let’s agree on a few things.

You applied for the card.
You had to have something
You knew that you didn’t have the money to buy it outright
But, you still wanted it
So you signed the credit slip

How am I doing so far?

So, because there’s a bunch of people who live by the methodology described above and now they can’t pay the bills, “something has to be done”. And the something turns out to be a bunch of regulations which will cost every credit card holder who pays his or her bills on time. Pretty much like the many “restructured” mortgages which, under the Obama guidelines are in default again. Surprise, surprise!

Then, to add insult to injury, Obama went on and proclaimed. (See, most presidents announce or declare and the more down-to-earth just say but Obama has to proclaim.) “We cannot go on living beyond our means. It has to stop”.

He had just proposed a budget deficit of more than $10 trillion. So when you woke up this morning, if you are a head of household you’re on the hook for $547,668 which is, of course on top of your mortgage, your car et al. That deficit is four times that of last year which the Dems howled was “scandalous”. And that adjective was used by both Reed and Pelosi.

Now, Obama disciples might buy this nonsense but I know one group of people who do not.

A couple of high-ranking Democrats were in China last week. Both Pelosi and Turbo-Tax Geithner seemed to come up with an appetite for Peking Duck and a good grovel in the same week. It would have done wonders for “Global Warming” if they’d shared the same airplane. But they didn’t.

I don’t know why Pelosi was there but I know why she wasn’t. Ms. San Francisco, the champion of the down-trodden worldwide did not utter one peep about civil liberties.

Little Timmy Geithner on the other hand took his begging bowl to plead with the Chinese to keep on financing Obama’s debt. And, make no mistake, its Obama’s debt...

He, little Timmy, made a speech where he assured a bunch of students that their money was safe.

The students laughed at him. Because little Timmy had forgotten or maybe never learned that, the Chinese schools teach Arithmetic.

Remember tens and units Timmy? If you do, when your boss gets back, try some remedial math on him.

Thoughts about "The Shema"

Sh'ma Yisrael Adonai Elohaynu Adonai Echad.

"Hear O Israel the Lord your God is One" is one translation but due to the difficulty of moving literally from Old Hebrew to English there are other variantions.

This prayer is known as “The Shema” and it states in just a very few words the very essence of Judaism. It is not too dissimilar from the Muslim variant but the two implementations are galaxies apart. The Islamic imperative is to force that faith on everyone while the Jewish one is simply a statement of being.

Obviously I have a dog in this hunt and I bring the subject up today because Obama is headed to the Middle-East again for yet another grovel to his chosen ones, the Muslims. It seems his original plan has changed and so the first stop will be in Saudi Arabia. It will be interesting to see if he bows again or will he simply bend over towards a smaller person. If he doesn’t bend then we are forced to the belief that the King has grown. Or, I guess the other possibility is that Obama grew shorter. Your guess is as good as mine as to the spin from the White House.

But I digress. The one place that Obama is not visiting in that area is Israel. Perhaps he had enough last week when Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu gave him a taste of realpolitick and simply said, “No”. Already the Obama backlash has begun and the latest shipment of US helicopters to Israel has been cancelled.

Here’s a taste of the real world and I’m still wrestling with some of the questions which are inherent to the very concept.

I wish I could write as well as Tom Friedman. I can’t go with the guy’s politics but he wrote a book about 20 years ago called “From Beirut to Jerusalem” and in it he put the problem as well as anyone I’ve ever read. He posited that the Zionist writers of the late-nineteenth and the early twentieth century had three goals for an independent state of Israel. They wanted a Jewish state, a democratic state and a country that spanned all of the lands of Ancient Israel.

Until fairly recently it seemed to me that any two were possible but not all three and that the one likely to go was territory. And I’m pretty sure that was the one that Obama tried to ram down Netanyahu’s throat. Well Bibi was not going to accept that, first because of experience when Israel gave up Gaza and the Arabs first trashed the whole place and wrecked the industrial sites. And, when that was all gone, they turned it into a launching site for missiles lobbed into Israel.
Is there any wonder that the Israeli people are suspicious?

Secondly, he's a politician and right now he heads a fragile compromise of disparate opinions.

Then there is Jerusalem .............

Now comes Obama and he’s huffing and puffing as he tries to strong-arm Israel. Over the last 30 years I worked with a lot of African-Americans and, I have to tell you, that there isn’t too much love lost. I’ve asked why and I’ve heard lots of answers. First of all I heard that the Jews were involved with the slave trade. Then I heard it was because the Jews owned the houses that Black people lived in. Then I heard it was because the Jews were successful and on and on ………

Whatever the reason or reasons, I know it’s there because I’ve lived and worked with it. Just listen to Jeremiah Wright. It’s odd really when you consider that a huge preponderance of the non-Blacks who were active in the Civil Rights Movement in the 60’s were Jewish.

Two other thoughts. Obama has put more pressure on Israel in the last couple of weeks than he’s exerted on Iraq, Iran and North Korea combined.

Maybe Obama was told, “No” twice recently. The first was Bibi and the second was the Secret Service about the choice of dog perhaps.

Chicago street thugs typically opt for pit bulls. Doesn’t Rahm Emanuel qualify? That said, the Obama hound is cute but I like Barney, President Bush's Scottie better. He bites journalists and I like that in a dog. I'd like to do that too!

Cars, Czars and Commissars

This was not my first choice for today’s post but something hit me so profoundly that I had to write a little something.

Months ago it was clear that General Motors was in trouble. My inclination was to let ‘em go into Chapter 11 and I suspect that millions of other Americans agreed.

Huge amounts of pressure from the UAW and the Democratic Party incited a scream of outrage from the mass-media.

“Too big to fail”, they proclaimed. “Bush doesn’t care about the job losses”, they trumpeted. And, with an election in the offing, the previous administration caved and doled out the first of that which would become a $100 Billion handout.

Then came a change of control in Washington D.C.

Now Lord Obama, the Messiah, the Most Merciful is at the helm. And now GM becomes Government Motors with Obama holding the steering wheel. Way back, he claimed that with 2 wars to run he was too busy to run GM.

Well now he’s got 3 wars and 2 financial crises but he can still find time to take 3 airplanes to New York, screw up traffic for miles and delay the performance’s start for an hour. And do all of that while, according to him, we’re in the deepest recession since the thirties.

And still Michelle looks angry. Would anybody like to suggest why that is? Maybe the Lanvin store was out of her size this week? Well, they’d better get it right soon.

Anyway so far, Obama has fired the old CEO from General Motors, he’s appointed an interim board overruling any appointees the Court may wish.

Then, today, in a rambling statement ( the teleprompter was broken perhaps) Obama declared that, because of the wars he has to manage and the allies he has to insult and the enemies he has to kiss, he has no desire nor the time to look after GM.

I’m sure that sounded pretty good for some until you look a little further. Remember, the man is a lawyer and parsing the language ranks higher than a determination to practice law. So when he said, “the US government will not be involved in the running of GM in all but the most fundamental ways”; what did that mean? To some perhaps it means very little. Fundamental to me, though, it means the roots, the foundation, the very basis, the very heart.

Would you buy a car from this man!

Check out the Chevy Spark!

And still, when I asked an Obama proponent; "What has he actually done"? The response I got was, "He's talking to people".

So is Jerry Springer!