I hear President-elect Obama and his transistion team are taking experiances, thoughts, and ideas from all Americans on how things are going, and more importantly now, how to deal with America's problems.  Well below is something I submitted and notes expanding my views.

I am not sure how much space is allowed for thoughts, and as I am very long winded I left the short version above. Here are the main points and topics that need to be considered.

Just a few quick thoughts as work is killing my free time worse now then ever. First off sports. My lowly Lions are on track for a perfect season. They initiated a good move by finally getting rid of Millen after Bill Ford Jr. whined in the press, now if only we could get the Ford’s to dump the team (the current Big 3 crisis may help that… more on that later). Detroit is now on track to be the seventh team with a perfect losing season! ‘42 Detroit Lions, ’43St. Louis Cardinals, ‘44 Pittsburg Steelers, ’60 Dallas Cowboys, and ’76 Tampa Bay Buccaneers are all in the history books with perfect losses, it seems Detroit is shooting for its second entry here. University of Alabama Crimson Tide has rolled through the SEC and is still undefeated with this week off and next week going up against in-state rival Auburn Tigers. This will be a classic match up and despite Alabama’s record and standing this game is NOT a lock, it will be ugly and worth watching for any football fan.  Officiating has been taking a hit lately and I must admit the length of the seasons of all sports is getting too much.  Shorten the seasons so we can adjust from one sport to the next, please.  Do we need all these pro sprots going on at the same time?  Wouldn't sports get more attention if each focused its season with just its own teams going on and not other sports to compete with?   

 

This bail-out of the auto industry is insane. As a person who grew up in Detroit in the early 1970’s I fully remember all the tactics and things the unions did back then, well now its payback time. GM has to pay 6 retires 75% and up of their adjusted pay for every current worker they employ today. GM has to pay $76/hour of productivity due to pensions and union contracts. The organizations are running business models and practices that CAN NOT sustain! Its time for a market correction. Honda, Toyota, BMW, and Mercedes all operate profitable manufacturing plants here in the US, so why can’t the American car companies? Unions! GM, Ford, and Chrysler need to file for bankruptcy, Chapter 11, and let an impartial judge re-organize the business and direct its return to profitability. Our financial situation is still not clear. The housing credit melt down is just the tip of the ice burg, business real estate, credit cards, and others are around the corner. We have 16 year high unemployment, tax dollars flooding the system that is not doing much good, bailed out firms still having money wasting practices going on, and now the domestic auto industry begging for $25 billion more when GM alone is burning through hundreds of millions each month due to pensions and overhead costs that are killing the company.  The reward for doing good business is survival, ask any small business owner.  It is better for the big 3 to lay off 30% of their workers now and cut benefits now then to go away and have everyone lose everything in 6 months, the proposed time the bail-out money will realistically last.

 

The financial crisis is beginning to look much worse then first reported with many beginning to look closely to the events in the 1930’s. One thing we all need to look at close and hard. To get through this will be painful but necessary. Government, business, and people will need to make sacrifices to survive. Those who make it through will be much better off and lessons learned will make them stronger and wiser for it. Businesses that survive will be efficient and well managed, those that aren’t will get mentioned in the history books. All the spending and promises during the presidential campaign will need to be shelved, or else the massive national debt we saw in the 1970’s will return and our economy will be hamstrung and the future of our children and grandchildren will be sealed with our debts. Fiscal conservatism needs to return and return big. Cut all spending, ALL of it. McCain may have been right that we need a hatched now instead of a scalpel. Cuts need to be made in military spending, education, healthcare, and federal social services, yes cuts. Remember I said this will be painful. We need to reward efficiency and squash excess. If the Social Security offices can run with 250 workers instead of 300, well we need to cut those jobs. Automate as much as possible, instead of handing people money for food tell them to grow their own. Sure there will be more unemployment and possibly more need for some assistance but keeping the status quo around to continue the failed ways of work we had a year ago is not change, or a way to fix Washington mentality.  We used to be a nation of farmers, just because 50% of our population is living in cities does not mean we lost our self reliance. People can grow tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, beans, corn, etc. Have the governments allow people to farm empty lots, grass lands, and municipal lands. Maximize our resources with hard work and positive efforts not handouts and entitlement mentalities and lazy stupidity. Get people fishing, farming, and looking after themselves instead of sitting on the couch and complaining and checking the mailbox every day for a new check. Remember Dependence leads to Bondage and is the last stage of a Democracy before it eats itself.

 

Half the general practitioner doctors in our country want to quite! This is the result of HMO’s, malpractice insurance premiums, and clients who pass on their frustrations or attitudes on during their visits. Doctors usually do not go into medicine to become rich, a few do, but most are in it to help people or society, hence the Hippocratic Oath. Our current environment has burned them out and made it so that nearly half an industry is dissatisfied with their work and quality of work environment. Throwing money into a universal healthcare system will not cure burnout or ill will feelings towards their working conditions. Throwing money at them will not change the reasons for their dissatisfaction, only retain the greedy ones who still harbor feelings of dissatisfaction and willing to take compensation to deal with it. No, this issue is a symptom of a failing system, just like the auto industry the current system can not sustain or function in a “business as usual” environment.

 

Finally, pirates and politics. Global shippers are now facing a monster of their own design. Paying off pirates is rewarding them for illegal activities and ensures these will continue and escalate further. Somali pirates have gotten more ambitious and will continue to do so. The money is good, there is pride to taking on the world and winning, and the rewards and lifestyle are far better then the alternative. If companies continue to pay ransoms for ships and cargo, just use stop gap measures as putting armed guards on ships, or rely on navies to protect them, well the problem will get worse. Our current problem with piracy is one of their making and unfortunately the cost will be transferred to us the consumer. Shipping insurance rates are skyrocketing, longer delivery dates are now necessary for those loads to by-pass the region, and shipping companies are shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars every year to reward the taking of ships. The problem is political and economic. Political in that there is no security in the region to allow business to thrive. Economic in that there are no jobs to give these men an honest way to earn a living and provide for their families. This is why things like this happen, same reasons Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine, and others have falling into the grips of corruption, extremism, and poverty.

 

I remember stating that no matter who won the election the militant Islamic extremists would condemn them vow to crush them just as they did Bush. All my lefty friends called me crazy on this after Obama’s victory and hailed in a new era of change and unity, repairing America’s image abroad. Well, it ain’t going to happen as easy as that. Al Qadea’s number 2, Ayman Zawahiri, started condemning the Obama administration, its policies, and personally attacked his race and character all before the man takes office!!! I told you people this and you did not believe me!?! I was sent to US Navy schools to learn about terrorists and extremists and how to combat them so I know how they operate and where they come from. Their strength is their hatred for all things American. They want us, and Israel gone, forever, off the face of the planet, period. They don’t want us to go away, they want us dead, preferably in some graphically horrific way to show those who oppose them or questions them. The video already links Obama to Israel, presses him for a tasteless attack on his race, and tries to link his plans to those of Bush. Well, you can’t negotiate with these people and they believe in their cause just as much as the liberals believe in Marxism and Socialism. This new administration will have to learn the hard way there is no good way to deal with them. I hope they just continue to attack us on their lands and don’t bring the fight here to our shores again, like I believe they will in the next year. No, our enemies could care less who our leader is, the ideals and principles of America are what they hate and want to see destroyed. Closing Guantanamo Bay and leaving Iraq will not placate them one bit, as evidenced by the latest video release and words from their leaders. Bush was right when it said it was an ideological war, we just have to decide if we want to win it or take the alternative as to those extremists there is no other reality.

The one great thing about America, no matter what is going on in the nation; we get a new government every 2 years, no matter what.  The people have spoken and the pendulum has swung.  History was made, in many ways, this past Tuesday and I, as an American, am very proud of my nation, its governmental process, its people, and its ability to change so rapidly within the civil constraints many nations can not fathom.  We have acheived what was once thought impossible and proved to the world our strength, power, and ability to respond to the will of the people.

 

A quick look at the numbers; 121.45 million Americans voted for a president!  That is over 40% of the country voting!  This is a good thing.  Of my friends whom I communicate with on my blog and grossly overdue newsletter the outlook was much less, of the 250 or so I was only able to get a confirmation of 25, but I do know more voted just not sure how many.  Before I go anywhere I want to lay something down for serious contemplation and consideration.  1) I detest hypocrites.  2) I detest racists and those who manipulate race for personal or ideological gains.  3) I am humble and proud enough to eat crow when necessary, but only if I need to.

 

Obama won 349 of the Electoral College votes of the 511 total and needing only 270 to seal the win.  This margin is a 68% win and something the media is quickly picking up on and running around preaching ‘mandate for change’.  Well, the 68% Electoral College win is far more then the popular vote reflected, where Obama won by a much smaller margin of only 6%, 52% to 46% of the total popular vote.  52% is not a landslide, a sweeping victory, or a mandate for anything.  Obama crafted a perfect campaign strategy and it seems his campaign advisors took a page out of the Karl Rowve playbook and applied it masterfully, my sincerest congratulations to them for an impressive application and execution of this.  Obama’s campaign executed the 2000 and 2004 strategy of taking Electoral College votes and not the popular votes all the way to the White House, well done.  When this strategy was employed successfully against Gore and Kerry the Democrats cried foul and demanded the Electoral College was defunct and antiquated and needed to be done away with, now they used it to their advantage, hmmmm… sounds a little hypocritical to me saying one thing and then doing another.  

 

I voted against Obama for 3 major reasons, 1) I do not trust any one side of our political system having total unchecked power over our entire government, we fought many wars to ensure we have a fair and balanced government and now is not the time to scrap it, and there will never be a time to do so either.  2) Obama’s stance on foreign policy is uninformed and inexperienced; he knows Chicago politics and opinions by leftist minded advisors surrounding him.  Obama has not served in the military where you get exposed to many cultures and see countries in a way you can’t as a public servant.  He has not traveled outside the US until recently and is basing his views and opinions on his very limited exposure and mainly in areas where situations are in extreme circumstances.  3) When was the last time big government benefited the American people?  Under Jimmy Carter we had double digit inflation, unemployment, and loan interest rates, all caused by big government spending and programs.  Bill Clinton was smart enough to not institute any radical expansions of the government but his policies translated into a tech bubble that resulted into arguably one of our nation’s worst economic times in history.

 

I will stand behind my new president and support him, until he goes over the line and then I will use my first amendment rights.  I never recall hearing any liberals saying they stood behind or supported George W. Bush at any time in his presidency, other then when they were scared and afraid after the terrorists attacks of September 11^th.  I am adult and practical enough to give Obama a chance and to see where his version of change, which he never outlined or defined in his campaign, will take us as a nation.  I am fair enough and trusting enough to allow him to walk out as far on that limb as he likes, but I will scream bloody murder if he tries to go too far.  For the past 8 years not 1 liberal has ever said such words.  I will not publicly state how ashamed, insulted, or disgusted I am in the will of the people like Cher, Johnny Depp, and their Hollywood ilk who did so for 8 years never giving respect to the office, the people who voted, or the institution.  As an American they have that right, but these words, actions, and attitudes are one of the fundamentals that separate liberals from conservatives.

 

So why am I, and 46% of the country so pessimistic when 52% of the country is optimistic?  Alexander Tyler of the University of Edinborough.  In 1787 he wrote of democracies, through historical study and analysis, that there are 8 stages and on average democracies have a shelf life of 200 years to pinnacle and then a fast reversion to the stage that spawned it.  At 232 years old we need to investigate which stage we are in.  From bondage to faith, from faith to courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence to bondage.  Socialism and Marxism are dependency and only vigilance and wisdom with dedication and sacrifice can we reverse the tide of these natural progressions.  This is the meaning behind Thomas Jefferson’s famous quote ending “… the tree of liberty needs to be refreshed, from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.  It is its natural manure.”  Meaning, the government needs to remember the people are in charge of the government, not the other way around, and if it becomes tyrannical, we the people will revolt and change it by force if need be.  I am pessimistic because we have lost our prosperity edge and are either in complacency or apathy right now, socialism will only breed dependency.

 

The Congressional results have me very worried the most.  Pelosi and Reid are the real puppet masters and they will be the ones doing the work and putting the papers on Obama’s desk to sign.  The Senate did not get to the magic 60 seats needed for a filibuster proof representation, yet, but the minority is much weaker with 57 to 43 split.  The house saw more gains and now reflects a 256 to 178 split giving Reid the power he needs to introduce more leftist and Marxist legislature.  I find it odd how the Congress with the worst approval rating of any government body in history was given more power and more free reign to run about doing more of what they were before.  Pelosi and Reid and already pledged their agenda to get as much Marxist and Socialists legislature authored in their first 30 days so by the time Obama is sworn in a nice fat stack of bills will be on his desk for signature into law.  With such a majority they will rubber stamp any and all Supreme Court Justice nominations he makes plunging the court into a liberally minded majority and setting us up for decades of legislation from the bench.  I am afraid the liberals will not be able to resist the temptations and have the morale fortitude to going completely crazy and plunging the country into a Socialists and Marxist nightmare.  The conservatives did not do this when they had the majority in 2000, they kept things moderate.  I don’t have the same confidence in the liberals in showing restraint or respect for moderation.

 

Operation Ram Rod; the passing of the Fairness Doctrine, mass redistributions of wealth, dismantling free trade, growth retarding regulations on industry and capitalist institutions, expanding defunct and deficient government programs, economic segregation from the free world economy through tariffs necessary to bring back manufacturing and labor intensive jobs to the country, Constitutional changes and definitions to limit some rights and redefine others, big brother style programs and entitlements that foster a society of dependency and reliance on government for basic survival, the erosion of our core value and belief that founded our nation, taxation without representation!  This is what I am afraid will happen.  The intent has been made known, the pieces are now in place, and Obama has never voted against his party before so there is no sense he will begin now in preventing this country from sliding into another Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Vietnam, North Korea, Syria, and others just to name a few.  Funny how countries implementing capitalism have succeed while socialists countries continue to fizzle or flounder, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Columbia, just to name a few.

 

If we fall too far left the fate or our nation will reflect that of eastern and central Europe.  Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Poland, France, Portugal, and the like are all nice places to visit, but their economies are crap.  Mired in double digit inflation and unemployment with high taxes and low productivity is it any wonder their populations are aging and birth rates have fallen to the point they have more people drawing entitlements then people supporting the system?  When you take natural competition out of the equation and hamper prosperity and growth then desire to succeed and drive to ‘get ahead’ die and society becomes lethargic and lazy.  Are the people in these socialists havens known for innovation, being industrious, hard working, shrewd business people, or anything associated with prosperity?  Nothing against them but if their countries were so great why are they not the most immigrated to country in the world and not America?  This is my greatest fear, we will end up falling into the league of nanny state countries where our status and influence are dictated by others and not our own.  We have to take away a few fundamental truths about the dangers of falling into extremism.  It is change, undefined and unexplained, that is the agent for its rise, it always is seen as the best alternative to the oppression of the time, it is accepted and defended by the masses at the time, and it is never realized how destructive it is until it is too late.  There are clear cut examples of ‘agents of change’ being elected who ended up being extreme examples of bad choices who took there power too far, I have no indications this will happen, but it goes to show how dangerous unbridled change can be.  The steps from apathy to dependency and dependency to bondage are not clear cut or advertised in neon yellow.  

 

We have a new president, I will support his common sense policies and decry his socialists and Marxist policies as my right and duty as an America.  Just as the lefties did against Bush since the Patriot Act and Iraqi War and more.  I will not however act like a lefty and call Obama a moron, idiot, complete failure or other disrespectful and idiotic words because he was elected by us all.  Why can the left call Bush an total idiot and cry foul for people calling Obama an inexperienced idiot, sounds like hypocrisy to me.  The shoe is on the other foot now, so all the attacks, derogatory comments, and spiteful actions the left did for the past 8 years they can expect now, but won’t get because most of us conservatives have a thing called morals that dictate our behavior.  The difference is we base our opinions on actions and logic, the left uses rhetoric and emotion to base theirs.  I wish Obama and his administration well and hope for the best for America’s sake, my children’s sake, and the sake of all freedom loving people in the world.  God bless the United States and help protect her from herself.