The Bravo Blog

October ended in an odd parody of Halloween where the old ugly witch from San Francisco has brewed up a ghastly caldron of socialism and the American people are running down the middle of the road as a ghost car chased them poised to run them down with income tax rates over 50% for business and promises of healthcare anyone with a brain and not zapped with lightning by a mad scientist of the dying main stream media can say will be massively expensive, not cost neutral.  The month marked the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China on this side of the Pacific.  An event that was marked by parades, plays, and a celebration full of unity and patriotism that is lacking in my home country now.  Iran is continuing to thumb its nose at the world, while in a few countries away we have an emboldened terrorist army killing at levels not seen in 4 years while the world’s most technically advanced military is in neutral while its commander in chief is debating the most politically safe move on dealing with something he doesn’t want to deal with.  With this as a backdrop lets get on with it.

Domestic Items – Our first item comes to us from the pages of yesteryear, trains.  Here is China trains are a good alternative to air travel as they are more reliable, cheap, and the nation’s rail network is fairly robust with standard and high-speed options.  The Chinese government runs the trains here and they run them well.  China of course is a communist country that is still running a hybrid socialism/capitalism system under total government regulation and control rules the day.  Why am I bringing this up?  Obama and many Democrat governors are clamoring for the installation of high-speed rail as a green alternative and a jobs creator.  How does this all tie together?  Amrtak, the US government run passenger railroad in America, this month announced having its second highest ridership in history last year, good news right, wrong!  The actual numbers were 27.2 million passengers from Sept 08 to Sept 09 but this year saw a 1 million passenger drop in ridership over last year.  This is a 5.1% increase over 2 years ago.  Of course that sounds good but what about the cost, as its a government funded entity?  Over the same period Amtrak lost $32 per passenger over the year, that is a loss of $870.4 Million dollars!  This figure is an average estimated from the Pew Economic Policy Group who was independently funded to run the estimate after Amtrak released a $8 per passenger average loss ($217.6 Million dollar loss) to validate the results.  Why the difference?  Pew added in depreciation on hardware where Amtrak didn’t (things like new cars, wheels, breaks, engines, etc.).  Some lines are actually profitable, like the high-speed line Acela Express which made $41 profit per passenger but is only 1 of 3 lines Amtrak operates that at a profit.  Thank means that 41 of 44 lines operate at a loss! What other entity can operate at a 6.8% profit margin, or 93.1% loss margin?  Take for instance the the Sunset Limited line, running from New Orleans to Los Angeles, that losses $462 per passenger.  Why is this line, and others that are such a loss generator, not shut down?  Are Obama and Democrat governors that believe in rail adopting a “Field of Dreams” approach to rail service?  If they build it he (the rider) will come.  Well, from the numbers that approach still is not working.  Don’t get me wrong, I love rail travel.  Traveling by train is less stressful, offers great photo opportunities, sight seeing, and time to relax while traveling then by air.  Cost wise, well that is up to the market.  If trains can compete with airlines and cars then the market will support them, if not, then let the natural process take place.  We are spending nearly a Billion dollars to prop up a transportation option that is only making a profit 6.8% of the time and has only seen increased ridership with high gas prices, this will not do.  If we are serious about cost savings, cutting government fat out of the budget we should look here for starters as I can not think of a another program with such a high failure rate, 93.1%.  The market will dictate where rail is a good transportation alternative, where it isn’t we should not fund it with dollars that can go elsewhere that impacts the nation better.  If the nation needs a government subsidy train let it be a national line that links the East to West, North to South and has stops in each state or every other state for high speed.  Just 4 line and 8 trains, not 44 lines.  Of all the highlighted budgets and figures we have seen in the news lately and the focus on healthcare we should not take our eye off the ball as it is all related, it is all tax payer dollars, its all our money, so it needs to be spent to benefit us all, not the 6,000 people a month who like to go from New Orleans to Los Angeles.

Fall is Homecoming at high school across America.  This is a special time, a time to celebrate school spirit with a football game, a beauty/popularity contest, a dance, and a week to highlight pride in the school.  It also allows kids to get over the initial shock of getting back to the school routine.  For the most part these annual events go off without a hitch or with few if any major problems.  Unfortunately we have seen this time of celebration turned into a horror show by a group of sub-human slime and the gutless and morally bankrupt youth in Richmond California, a crime ridden suburb of San Francisco.  A 15 year old girl went to the school dance, left and went with a guy to drink alcohol in a school campus courtyard.  After she had become drunk as many as 10 people raped, beat, and robbed the 15 year old girl.  Police are saying as many as 24 people watched, cheered, and took pictures/videos of the attacks.  This attack went on for 2 hours.  The girl’s father called numerous times to the girl’s cell phone which was never answered during the attack.  Only when a female student overheard a couple of males talking about the attack were the police notified.  We now have 5 people, 2 men and 3 boys, arrested for the attack, ranging in ages 15 to 21.  These are the facts reported numerous times over the month since the attack occurred.  This case is tragic and the circumstances remind me of the famous case of Kitty Genovese.  For those younger then 50 and not criminology or sociology majors Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death in Queens New York and none of her neighbors did anything to assist or report the stabbing.  The news report came under criticism for being inaccurate however the situation remained the same.  In psychology the situation became known as bystander effect or Genovese syndrome.  The case has been cited by everything from sociology journals to Hollywood movies, Boondock Saints.  In the opening scenes of Boondock Saints a priest is giving an impassioned sermon where he states “I am reminded of this holy day of the sad story of Kitty Genovese.  This poor soul cried out time and time again for help but no person answered her calls.  Though many saw, not one so much as called.  Her assailant wiped the bloody knife off on her lifeless little body.  They watched as he simply walked away.  Nobody wanted to get involved.  Nobody wanted to take a stand...  We must fear evil men and deal with them accordingly but what we must truly guard against, what we must fear most, is the indifference of good men.”  This is a good point and correct analogy here.  This 15 year old girl was raped on school grounds for 2 hours, beaten, half naked, and large groups watching, cheering, and egging on the ones raping her and nobody did a thing until a person heard second hand of it.  If just one person had went up to the door to talk to the school’s vice principal, security guards, or off duty cops there the extent of the assault would have been less.  The telling part of this news story is the indifference of the ones in the crowds watching it.  Now we can’t arrest people for watching a crime, but we can for those of knowledge of a crime and failing to report it, for those who watch police shows will recognize the term of accessory after the fact.  The law states, an accessory is a person who assists in the commission of a crime, but who does not actually participate in the commission of the crime as a joint principal. The distinction between an accessory and a principal is a question of fact and degree: The principal is the one whose acts or omissions, accompanied by the relevant mens rea, are the most immediate cause of the actus reus (guilty act). If two or more people are directly responsible for the actus reus, they can be charged as joint principals. The test to distinguish a joint principal from an accessory is whether the defendant independently contributed to causing the actus reus rather than merely giving generalized and/or limited help and encouragement.  For those bystanders they have better be glad I am not the DA because anyone that was there would be charged.  Why?  The amount of disconnect shown in this community is a sign general lack for any morality, decency, and respect for human life and welfare.  I understand the majority of people in the community do not condone this act but letting the morale atmosphere of the community to where bystanders act as cheerleaders to gang rape and beating of a child on a school campus.  Once kids get this far gone it highlights the highest degree of morale depravity of a community that points to one direction and one direction only.  These kids have no real fear.  No fear of consequences, no fear of the police, no fear of the family of this girl, her friends, etc.  No fear of the law.  No fear of jail or criminal punishment.  No fear of God or judgment after death.  I have talked about how things in American have fallen apart morally since the 1950’s in education, family, patriotism, honesty, and work ethic.  The effect of 40 years of socialists reforms and ideology that have destroyed the image of the nuclear family, righteous education, religion in public, truth in sentencing judiciously, and shifting from a self reliance mentality to an entitlement and lack of personal responsibility towards anyone’s actions.  The signs keep on coming, will se continue to sit by ideally or finally act?

Financial Items – As America barrels towards socialism faster then Obama can print money we are seeing some of the global impact of decoupling the US economy form the rest of the world.  I am of course referring to the 14 month low against the Euro that the US dollar hit this month.  The Dollar Index, used by Intercontinental Exchange Inc who track the dollar against the 6 major trading partners of the US, on course for a 7% annual drop in value.  Obama and his financial team have lauded the decline of the dollar as making US manufactured goods cheaper and more competitive and attractive to exporters.  The problem with this approach is that Europeans are seeing this as currency manipulation (something the US always charges China does) and have closed ranks to retaliate if it continues.  The second problem is that a weaker US dollar makes investment in our bonds by sovereign wealth funds and countries less attractive and drives them toward IMF bonds or other countries/currencies.  With oil at over $70/barrel now we are seeing some wanting to price oil with the Euro or stronger and more stable currencies.  This spells trouble as it shows a lack of confidence in our currency policies and those driving the economy.  As some of this is academic the majority of the discussion has far reaching consequences for more then just America.  This begs the question , what is Obama’s main objective, his endgame, his grand plan?  He seems too tied to the dead and dying labor unions who refuse to let the fact go that mainstream manufacturing in America is dead.  Look at our nation’s largest manufacturing sector, automobiles, and you will see how dead it is.  America can’t compete with China, India, or Eastern Europe on the labor front when unions insist American workers get $30/hour base starting salaries.  Even if you crash the dollar on purpose you will not be able to compete unless the US economy crashes as well and we reset everything back to 0.  Unions have killed the middle class they said they were fighting for by increasing production costs making our goods too expensive domestically and far too expensive internationally, which led to China’s rise in manufacturing.  A strong dollar allowed Americans to become addicted to low cost clothes, electronics, and everything manufactured.  This was evident in the death of Wal-Mart’s Buy American program that showcased American made products over cheap foreign alternatives.  We as a nation voted with out wallets and by now we are hooked, no matter of socialism or inflation will reverse this.  Unless we can stabilize the dollar and attract investors like China we will be in massive trouble.  Obama is spending the most in human history and is setting up the largest debts in human history all on the assumption others will continue funding these debts as they did before.  He fails to realize that the IMF bonds have created a clear alternative and China signaled this with a small $50 billion dollar purchase last month while Brazil purchased $10 billion dollars this month.  That is $60 billion dollars worth of investments we as a nation have lost, and a stipend Obama can’t spend.  As Obama explodes spending exceeding all US governments before him combined and rivaling all spending for all countries in the world combined, our ability to sustain such spending without confidence in future investments is poising us for a total collapse, unless this is his goal.  While all this spending and talk of more spending down the road continue who is watching the printing press Obama cranked up to ludicrous speed?  All of this printing has consequences in inflation, stagnation of the economy, or worse stagflation, the two combined.  Flooding the world with more paper money without getting people or countries to purchase our bonds, falling bond ratings, or sparking a trade war with Europe over their take on things will only make things worse.  We are headed down this path now.  Europe could start placing tariffs on our goods, reversing all of Obama’s hard work, or China could just replace all its bonds with IMF ones upon maturity, taking Japan with them.  If we continue to stand by and focus only on spending and not the impact of this spending on our currency we could find an angry world poised to retaliate, and no amount of flowery speeches or oratory gestures of idealism will save us from that backlash.

Remember the 3 little monkey statues, you know the ones, the monkeys holding their hands over their eyes, ears, and mouth.  The 3 Stooges did something similar, it all signifies hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.  Well, cover the kid’s eyes and ears because it seems the Obama administration has started to speak evil.  What!  This new ear of politics, getting rid of Washington insiders, transparency, accountability, and honesty change we were promised has evaporated quicker then the weekly listing of atrocities against misguided freedom fighters held at Gitmo or the daily body counts of US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan plastered on every media outlet in the nation this time last year.  It seems all those important and lauded jobs Obama himself personally created or saved were exaggerated 600%!  Balderdash you say, no seriously that was a bold faced lie by the administration.  Eager to get any good news or any kind of a political victory on any front the administration did the good old ‘fuzzy math’ on the jobs reports to state they created or saved 30,000 jobs with the porkulous spending package sold as some magic bean to right the evil capitalistic ways of Wall Streets greed and depravity.  Well, it didn’t, all it really did was inflate the already ballooning debt and create long range and long term government spending and expansion many will not see until 2012 or later.  It seems a minimum of 5,000 jobs were overstated in reports released this October.  The White House acknowledged the math errors and promised to correct them in future reports, just like he promised us ample time to review legislation, no hiring of insider lobbyists, an era of looking forward and new politics.  Examples of the overstated jobs include the AP reported: A company working with the Federal Communications Commission reported that stimulus money paid for 4,231 jobs, when about 1,000 were produced. A Georgia community college reported creating 280 jobs with recovery money, but none was created from stimulus spending. A Florida child care center said its stimulus money saved 129 jobs but used the money on raises for existing employees. A Wisconsin construction firm required to re-fill in its multimillion dollar construction project jobs reports falsely with directions from Midwest Regional director, 0 jobs created or saved but over 100 reported. A Texas contractor retained 22 employees for stimulus contracts but job count quadrupled to 88 by regional directors. Palm Beach water department hired 57 meter readers, customer service representatives and others to handle 2 water projects, but their job count was doubled to 114. A Colorado business' claim that its stimulus contract created more than 4,200 jobs actually hired 4,231 temporary workers for its stimulus project and most of them worked only 5 weeks or less and the rest no more than 5 months.  This equates to 1 in 6 reported jobs saved/created are bogus!  Robert Gibbs tried to explain the errors but made little sense.  The AP found errors of overstatement by 10 times in more then one occurrence.  As the White House tries to dismiss the errors the unemployment and lack of family sustaining jobs in America continue to reveal a reality opposite to the ‘hope and change’ promised and that of an out of control over spending, socialists, and lack of leadership government seen in D.C.  The shifting tides of world power and ebbing on America, as I have blogged before.  Europe is trying to muscle their way into being the next financial and economic center of the world.  The company I work for fled its listing in the Caribbean and went to the UK for tax purposes.  Europe is throwing open the doors to take corporate headquarters fleeing Obama’s anti-business, anti-capitalism, anti-free market, socialist and high tax policies and promises.  Obama’s health care is placing a burden of 43% federal taxes on small and medium businesses to pay for his public option healthcare and its associated government expansion and regulations, with state taxes that could exceed 50% total tax, like in Wisconsin the tax burden will be 53%!  What business is going to stay in such an environment?  Take this and add in the facts that the Obama led and inspired bureaucrats have lied and overstated the figures of his much lauded jobs package and you get lying, misleading, and ignoring of what happened for months by the very ones who state their reason for being is to inform us.  Stimulus jobs were so overstated that some companies were required to fill in the surveys again and again until they had numbers needed to support the government’s assumptions.  Take this into account that many of the jobs were budget negative, government jobs, and you get a classic political answer to a simple question.  Expanding the government is not creating a job, its creating a tax burden, increased debt, more dependency on red tape impeding efficiency and roadblock in government.

International Items – One of my earlier TV and cultural memories was my nation’s bicentennial celebration.  1976 was a magic year full of pomp and celebration especially on July 4th, our nation’s birthday.  All of the parades, concerts, and events on TV and in local communities were not what I had seen of the PRC’s 60th anniversary celebration.  As I was watching the events unfold on TV, this year we stayed at home instead of travel due to pregnancy and the family all being here, an odd question struck me.  In the west when we have public parades the patriotic themes are focused on historical events and themes.  In communists countries the national parades are 100% military.  Its a public display of power and review of the military, hardware, and divisions I have never seen in a democratic country.  This got me asking myself why.  Why do countries controlled by the government always parade their military might in public?  For the average peasant or commoner in these countries, or any country for that matter, can’t tell the difference between a tank, an armored personal carrier, an amphibious assault vehicle, or armored artillery vehicle.  They can’t tell the difference between marching infantry, cyber warfare troops, special forces, or marines.  In most countries they all wear the same uniform or the differences are so slight few can tell.  To the vast majority everything looks the same, people, equipment, uniforms.  In America we have military parades, but they are few and no where near the scope of the ones here, Russia, North Korea, Iran, etc.  Here the military is seen as a protector and the people like to see them in their full dress and see all the hardware they have, it makes them feel more safe.  In America we hold a qusi-respect for the military that is akin to how families treat an adopted step child.  If we have a huge military parade for all 4 branches, maybe the Coast Guard, and associated hardware it would draw ire and protests from thousands, here they draw awe and admiration.  Of course it is a police state here and a supposed democracy there.  As much money as we spend on our military we should see more of them and take pride in them, not pay them token support and hamper their missions with endless debate on the most humane ways to win the hearts and minds of those in the line of fire.  In China a resurgence of patriotism swept the nation since the Sichuan earthquake in May 2008, followed by the Olympics and now this 60 year celebration.  China as unified on its theme of achievements, determination, and unity.  In America we have become so fractured is seems there is little if anything left to hold unity with.  Conservatives and liberals have such opposing views and beliefs now there is no common thread.  The ideal of American and the American dream are not even the same among people who are ideologically minded anymore.  Religions are fractured within themselves, and stuck in the middle are those who have thought they know what it all meant but now feel lost.  We have become a nation divided amongst ourselves.  The great Republican president Lincoln once stated a house divided against itself can not stand, well that is where we are now.  The views of government here in China by the Chinese is something we can not import, nor can we import their brand of patriotism or self acceptance.  This was a hard thing to ponder as I watched China display its military might, its ethnic unity, its unique cultural talents all to celebrate its 60th anniversary of its current governments founding.  Sure, there is dissent here, there are opposing views and sometimes the police state reacts with an iron fist and heavy handedly, yet the trust and belief in the government is way ahead of ours and their hopes for the future are grounded and tangible.  For all of China’s problems and struggles ahead all the people are still fiercely Chinese and proud of that fact.  Nothing in their past detracts for all they have achieved recently.  How did a country that could rally around similar themes become so fractured and so hostile towards itself if is no longer able to agree on anything, from what a family, marriage, holiday, or what is acceptable for kids to take to school or learn is, heck we can’t even agree on what a holiday is or isn’t anymore.  The Chinese accept their government for what it is, and they accept their culture for what it is, they are not hung up on separating themselves into special little pockets of counter culture that expresses their innermost fantasies and warped views of reality.  We seriously need to look at how our greatest strength got turned into our biggest weakness, our melting pot ideal.

How is that Iran policy going?  Velvet glove approach seems to be working.  Unclenching the fist and offering an open hand really turned Iran around.  For those not aware of how international politics plays out its kind of like racing.  When a new driver comes onto the circuit everyone wants to test him out to see how he can handle himself and how he races.  Iran tested Obama in June with the elections and its fallout.  Obama weighed and measured the acts, reactions, and options before he spoke out against it, in a benign manner.  This emboldened Tehran and signaled that it was in the driver’s seat, so to speak.  Over the months there was political posturing, gestures, and signals that things were progressing.  Sanctions were blocked as they were before and Obama and his team began to feel comfortable with some work results between Russia and China, then Iran threw a fast breaking curveball.  The announcement of secret uranium processing plants was not Earth shattering, Israel know of them and speculation is we did too.  The announcement however was significant as it showed Tehran was feeling confident they could push people around, and they did.  Obama and his team saw support for sanctions after the announcement fade.  Iran allowed in IAEA inspectors in and promised full access to all sites, sound familiar (thing Saddam Hessian).  Obama had his camp felt pretty good about themselves as they came up with the perfect solution, having Russia, a stout alley of Iran, receive 90% of its uranium and process is and ship it back to their testing reactors.  Well, Tehran smiled and said, no.  Their nuclear products were theirs, a strategic national asset and would not be released to anyone or under any terms other then their own.  Check Mr. President, your move.  Iran has just run Obama in to the high way in turn two and is watching him spin out in the rear view mirror.  We have seen this movie before, in Iraq and in North Korea.  The outcome is different in each one as each was unique, you can’t really compare them, however if you don’t think North Korean and Iran are playing off each other’s successes and seeing how the US reacts to the other you would be dead wrong.  Iran is in a high stakes game.  The last time this got started down this road Israel blew up their reactor, to no real consequences.  Now they are doing it again and on a much grander scale.  We have allowed ourselves to be placed in this situation by Bush’s inability to contain Iran after it was pretty much left out in the cold under Clinton.  Bush tried but didn’t get the support from Russia or try to get enough from China to put enough pressure on the Iranians, else these facilities would not have been built in the first place.  Ok, I have started to play Obama’s favorite game, when anything goes wrong or gets tough just blame Bush, its all his fault anyway.  Aside from the childish and petty behaviors of a toddler the facts remain Iran is serious and the longer we sit on the sidelines and mull things over the closer they get to figuring out how to make a bomb and refine the materials they have on hand to mass produce it.  This is a hard case, Obama has all the ‘best’ people and resources around him to assist, but he HAS to do something, anything to signal to Iran that he was serious when he pledged a nuclear free world in Europe this spring.  The clock is ticking and the longer we wait the more we look like passengers on this ride.

Science Items – NASA finally got their Aries I rocket off the launch pad.  The rocket was being tested as a delivery vehicle for the space agency’s next generation delivery vehicles and to get Americans back to the moon, possible to build a base for deeper solar system explorations.  The recent news of water found on the moon make this sound all that much more promising, well until the White House shot it all down.  The rocket test was quite dramatic.  Weather delays, wayward ships, and technical issues all cam into play.  The rocket itself, the tallest rocket ever, finally lifted off and make a successful test flight.  There was an issue with the parachutes not slowing down the booster stage before impact into the ocean so we don’t know the extent of the damage there yet but all else was good.  The issues are not longer feasibility, but the will to continue with this program.  The Aries I is cheaper then Saturn V in comparison, mainly because it is using existing technology from the space shuttle boosters where Saturn V was built from scratch.  The next rocket proves NASA is able to still built viable rockets and get the stages to work teh way they want them to.  Now the program is under the knife.  Why?  Well there is not real socialists need for space travel.  Rockets are environmentally bad.  Or NASA is too inefficient of a government agency to warrant much more then launching robots after the shuttle fleet is retired in the next few years.  Getting back to the moon is a lofty goal, but one that makes little financial sense.  Space exploration is more a statement about national pride and unity toward a more loft goal.  American has lost that and now it is China and Russia’s game, with India, Japan, and South Korea close behind.  Obama has essentially given the kiss of death to the future of NASA as they are too expensive, too innovative, too pollution productive, and will consume the entire nations annual allotment of carbon credits in just one launch, this will not due.  There is no really new science to be gained by our return to the moon.  The event may just even detract from the attention spend on our first half breed, non slave ancestor African-American president and that just won’t do.

Few conservatives have seized on the fiasco know as H1N1 flu shots this season.  We were told, promised, and reassured by every level of the Executive branch that we would have enough doses by mid September to give to all those in need, this was stated publicly numerous times as high up as the President in March at the end of last flu season.  Well guess what, it didn’t happen.  We have shortages, regulation problems, distribution uncertainties, supply mismanagement, and even deaths resulting from the fiasco yet this is not being reported on.  This is actually the equivalent of Hurricane Katrina in scope of Federal mismanagement, understaffing, underfunding, and underestimating the scope and complexity of the problems needing to be overcome to achieve success.  There are seniors, kids, and sick people forced to stand in the cold and rain for more then 10 hours waiting on a shot that does not exist!  Seniors being turned away by nurses who state they look healthy and don’t have enough shots for white people.  All the while pregnant women are not positive if they can get the shot or should.  Hospitals and clinics are getting daily calls but have no clue when or how much they will receive.  Take a good hard look at this folks, this is Obamacare in its full glory.  All his czars and policy chiefs have their names and works all over this.  This is what Pelosi and Reid’s big-box, one size fits all, public option socialists healthcare system will be like.  Rationing, red tape, inefficiencies, and people dying because nobody can get the system to work.  All of this and at a cost so large the weight of the world will seem like a small feather pillow in comparison. Of course this is Bush’s fault, Obama has already said this, its his and the left’s only way of dealing with adversity and hardship.  I wonder how much longer the press will be buying that shtick?  The current crisis of vaccinations and their lack of control of any portion of the process is what we all have to look forward to in Obamacare.  Every level of the administration promised we would have enough vaccine by September as early as last March, well here we are in November and what do we have?   Nobody knows what is going on.  Clinics and hospitals are getting calls for information yet they have not been told anything.  I worked in big government before, in the military.  Ask anyone who has worked for the federal government how efficient and responsive it is.  There are rules, regulations, forms, and procedures you HAVE to follow and can not be deviated from.  In Wisconsin a clinic had federal workers make people file into a room until exactly 80 people were there, then they were given forms and 10 pens to fill them out with.  Nobody could leave until everyone was finished.  Then they went to the next room as a group to have the paperwork reviewed, again waiting until everyone was cleared.  Then it was a shot.  See this is the efficiency, creativity, and innovation your choices for socialism have created.  This is just for a simple shot!  We are seeing these scenes play out all over the nation.  One size does not fit all, flexibility and circumstances matter, and healthcare is something you can not box up and replicate across the nation in a big box fashion.  Meanwhile the media is all focused on the flu itself and not the countries first glimpse at the efficiency and workability of Obamacare.  Sure they are now calling it Pelosicare but who cares, its ALL SOCIALISM!  Madam Speaker has finally confessed her bill is $1.2 trillion and is 1,990+ pages and includes all the controversial items of H.R.3200, like death panels, federally funded abortion, universal coverage, mandates, tax increases, penalties including jail time, etc AND created 111 NEW federal agencies!  All this and she made it public Friday night so the 72 hour rule for review expired at the beginning of the week, allowing them to take a vote pronto.  Welcome to communism folks and thanks to you for not getting out and demanding your elected representatives listened to you the voters and not the Party and special interests who funded their campaigns.  This measure will pass thanks to spineless blue-dog Democrats and yellow-bellied RINOs like Olympia Snow.  When the real program starts to hit full force the waiting in line for a flu shot will be a God sent, try filling out 20 forms and seeing 50 people just to have your kids appendix taken out because it hasn’t burst yet.

Sports Items – Andre Agassi admitted to taking crystal meth and then lying about it to ATP officials in his new book.  Why is this getting so much sports coverage?  Its not like he admitted to taking PEDs or anything that would give him an edge on the court.  The press is all over the place on this, interviewing present and past players, talking to ATP officials, asking questions.  Ask yourself why.  Seriously, Agassi did something stupid in the 1990’s, got away with it and staged one of male tennis’s great comeback stories.  Is it any wonder he would do drugs?  Remember Agassi’s old image, the one he had when he had hair.  He was a rebel, an image maker, a rule breaker!  His motto was image is everything, well he fell into the trap of that and did some meth a few dozen time.  Its not like he played at Wimbledon or the US Open stoned.  His accomplishments on the court are exceptional, his play hard.  His honesty is now shot as is his creditability but who really idolized him off the court, well after the Brook Shields break up anyway?  He did some recreation drug use off the court.  The big deal is the organization he worked for had a strict drug policy in place and he violated it then lied to cover it up.  They bought it and let him pass.  The only reason this is being made into a big deal is he is still relatively remembered and the main stream media is losing so much subscribers, viewers, readers, etc. that they have to get some back anyway possible.  This is being made into a big deal as a way to make old main stream media seem relevant again.  Tell all books always spark a little controversy, remember Wilk Chamberlains conquest stories?  Agassi was living up to his bad boy image for the time he was in it.  The media is unable to reach people on real news items now as the trust in the media is almost as low as its trust in Congress, which is really really really low.  We have a World Series going on, basketball and hockey starting, football half way through (how about Farve and those Vikings win), yet it is a big story to cover the book of a retired tennis player on an incident we already knew about and some believed he lied anyway, all we got was confirmation.  If the ATP takes any actions then there will be news.  This story is of little interest other then why it was made into such a big deal, it's the human drama behind the sports. 

One of my favorite radio shows was going on and on about the Rush Limbaugh and NFL Saint Louis Rams things when he made a really good point.  If it had been Kane West (remember his embarrassing escapades at the MTV awards among others – racially motivated) who was trying to buy the Rams?  What about other hate filled liberals who called for Bush’s assassination or wished death upon GOP officials and spokesmen where to buy a major sports team?  As it turns out Kanye West owns the Fatburger fast food chain in the Chicago area, 2 stores open and 2 more slated for next year, where is the outrage and Congresswomen calling for a boycott and to yank his food service license?  How about Joy Behar, where was the outrage against her children’s book?  She has had open letters of reprimand from the Anti-Defamation League for her attacks against Rumsfeld, and the Catholic League of Civil Rights for her stating all priests are drunks?  Speaking of the View, What about Rosie O’Donnell, where was the outrage and public furor over her now defunct magazine or her also defunct TV show?  Why were her sponsors not boycotted like Glenn Beck’s were (bad choice as his TV show draws more viewers in its time slot then CNN, MSNBC, and HLN combined!) and his radio show continues to draw millions of listeners a week.  Do you see a pattern here?  Limbaugh was not allowed to continue being a financial backer for a group interested in buying the Rams because of a comment he never made and because he is a conservative.  So what does this have to do with sprots?  Well, you caught me.  Its more political then sprots related but it is telling none the less.  The NFL is a private organization, not publically traded.  They decide who can and can't own a team.  This decision however should be left up to them and them alone.  If people have a problem with what is going on then they take it up with the league.  The curious thing is who leaked this and why?  Limbaugh is a huge NFL fan.  He has tried to get on MNF before and wanted to join in this investment group for the same reason others do, to make money and own something you like.  The reactions were overboard especially when you take into consideration he NEVER said any of the things the people protesting his involvement in the investment group were saying!  It was pure B.S. and nobody covered that in the press or public, other then him.  Sure there is a price to be paid for free speech and Rush is a big boy who can take care of himself but when there is such a blatent railroad job with pure hypocracy going on I have to call it for what it is.  Sure he is controversial but nowhere near as offensive as Behar or O’Donnell, both called for the death of GOP people and continue to publicly assail anyone who thinks conservative to this day with vulgar and hate filled speech?  They really said those things, it is well documented, Rush's words were made up, he never said them and everybody knows that as much as he is hated and the media continues to hound him, if he had said anything racist 10 years ago it would have come out before now!  I wonder if conservatives can fall under the new Hate Crimes legislation Obama just signed?  It was up to Goodell to say yea or nea on the purchase, not the media or the Congress.  Why is it that this was made into a national outrage and Behar can continue to get away with her hate speech, oh yea... nobody is watching her stupid show or network!   

Political Items – With the world falling down around the White House, Afghanistan War review, Iran nuclear weapons program, jobs reports being false, Dem governors losing in the polls, etc., what is the White House doing?  Starting a war of words with Fox News.  In the military we call this a pissing contest.  It is a war or words and one which that nobody can win.  It all started with Obama’s polls getting hammered again and again and Fox News sniping on Robert Gibbs, Obama’s Press Secretary.  Gibbs essentially put Fox News in time out by not allowing them to cover the Press Pool interviews in their respected rotation.  This action resulted in a rare moment of press solidarity with Fox, they all protested and Gibbs had to yield.  During all this guess what happened, come on guess?  Fox News ratings, that were already killing the competition, rose another 9 points.  So where is all the ratings Fox News is netting off of this spat with the White House?  Ask CNN, dead last for cable news programs, followed closely by MSNBC.  Most of Fox News programs are viewed more then the competiting time slots of all other news channels COMBINED!  Even Fox News re-runs of shows are beating CNN’s first run of Anderson Cooper 360 and other first CNN and MSNBC first run shows, re-runs getting better ratings!  Silliness aside there is a real problem with the White House’s policy to ban a news agency because of its political opinion programs.  CNN and MSNBC also have politically biased opinion shows, yet they were never blocked, boycotted, degraded by name in public by every level of the Executive Branch.  In DC the favoritism is show in press leaks, exclusive interviews, advanced screening of memos, etc.  It is borderline unconstitutional to outright block a press outlet you see as critical or opposed to your ideology.  When you fear criticism, fear opposition, fear dialogue, fear debate on the issues, fear positions you are taking you are doing something wrong, immoral, unethical, and/or illegal, period.  If you are doing the right thing, and you know it, and others do not agree with you or your actions it is your responsibility to communicate your intent more clearly.  If you are instituting change that is needed and have to change the establishment you have to communicate the inefficiencies of the status quo and explain all the benefits and trials of the change and how this will better all concerned.  You can not do this by blocking a news outlet for the sole reasons you do not agree with their take on your actions and policies.  The funny thing about the truth and the right path is that it is obvious.  There are a whole bucket of examples of White House disapproval of the press for over a century, yet how many have boycotted a press outlet?  No open, democratic, and free government is so afraid of the press that they begin to control the press by dictating who can and what news is able to be covered and released for public review.  This is dangerous, reminiscent of Russia, China, Cuba, North Korea, pre-war Iraq, Iran, Myanmar, and others who have long and infamous cases of press manipulation and oppression of the news and views seen as critical or against the will of the government.  Control of the press is one of the first subtle steps toward totalitarian governance which is never good for the citizens of the country so unfortunate to have this happen.  Facts are facts, Obama blocked Fox News, the real issue here is why, to what end, if Fox now who in the future, what signals are they sending to editors of news outlets, what is the end game they are trying to achieve?  I have my opinions on this, but Robert Gibbs won’t return my emails or calls.

Finally, from the Washington Post: The White House has told Congress it will reject calls for many of President Obama's policy czars to testify before Congress - a decision senators said goes against the president's promises of transparency and openness and treads on Congress' constitutional mandate to investigate the administration's actions… White House counsel Greg Craig told her in a meeting Wednesday that they will not make available any of the czars who work in the White House and don't have to go through Senate confirmation... At issue are the 18 positions Mr. Obama has created since he took office. Of those, 10 are in the executive office and not subject to Freedom of Information Act requests or requests for testimony.  This is from the promise of the most open and transparent administration ever!  This all came up when Chairman for the Government Affairs Committee, Joe Lieberman, Ind., requested the White House produce all ‘czars’ involved in the climate control negotiations with GM and Chrysler as well as others for the bail-out/assistance given to them.  So what is going on here?  Well, if it walks like a duck and sounds like a duck it is most likely a duck.  Despite all the public discussions, debates on Obama’s experiment with socialism, Pelosi and Reid’s demands for public options, publicly funded abortions, etc. then why is he continuing to add fuel to the socialism talk fire?  The big difference here is his pledges, promises, and declarations on transparency, honesty, accountability, trust, and pride in our government.  We are seeing none of it in these actions.  Preventing people who are essentially making policy decisions, changes, etc. to be held accountable is a dangerous thing.  The Congress is held accountable to the voters and will hear from those who’s district they represent or they chair a committee that is making federal policy.  The President is held accountable by popular opinion polls and strength given to or taken from his party during off year elections.  What Obama and his Chief of Staff have done is circumvent all established channels and instituted a mechanism that is making high level decisions without any recourse for the people to voice their approval or dissatisfaction of.  We are seeing trust in government plummet to lower levels then when Bush was President.  Sure Obama himself is still popular, but his policies and direction is not.  We are seeing a shadow government rise up and control all levels of the country to such a degree that is frightening.  We have the government telling private business how much money it can pay its employees.  We have a government dictating how, where, and when vital medicine is made and distributed to counter a potential health crisis.  We are seeing the government cut the countries ability to produce goods by controlling the levels of carbon to combat an unproven theory.  All of this without the normal channels of debate and selection of the best points through legislative shaping of a bill, as it was done for 233 years prior.  It was not enough to have a majority party government hell bent to change the course of the nation from freedom to socialism and government control of everything.  If this is where the majority of Americans want to go they can step back and allow to happen.  But this government was too impatient so they created a shadow government that is doing more then just change.  You see this is what our forefathers were warning us about.  Our constitution was written for one purpose and one purpose only, to limit the government and ensure citizens have defined rights the government can not infringe upon.  The Constitution is not to give power to or road map for the government but a limitation on what the government can and can not do.  When the President publically states the Constitution has blind side and hole in it there is a problem.  His powers and abilities are limited for a good reason, just as Congress powers are clearly outlined and limited as well.  The real issue here is just how Constitutional all this is.  There is talk of the public option in the current health-care bill being unconstitutional, the Democrats reply was, who cares, we will MAKE it constitutional after it passes.  This is beyond arrogant, this is beyond dangerous, this is beyond treason.  We are seeing 2 branches of the government set the nation on a collision course with debt and spending exceeding GDP.  The end game is coming into focus, it is becoming clear the Democrats want to bankrupt the nation, bring it to its knees, weaken it to the point everyone is dependent upon it for life and then alter the government to become master of the people, not servant of the people it is today.  Fellow Americans, the republic is under grave danger, the country is being destroyed from within.  When a shadow government is put into place, one that is independent to do as it pleases without any checks or balances as outlined by the constitution, and it begins to operate contrary to the will of the people AND is it hidden/protected by one branch then we have the largest threat to the republic since secession and I not kidding or exaggerating one bit.  We are at the precipice, how we fall will be determined soon, time to shift our weight now else we will fall straight into Hell.

Another year has come and gone, another season changed, yet this marks a different flavor.  While not my first Halloween in China, and not my daughter’s first Halloween, it was her first in Shanghai and her first honest to goodness Trick-or-treating.  At the last minute I was able to find out about an expat community that was holding a house to house route.  These were actual houses too, not town houses or condos, which was nice to see, real lawns, driveways, and decorations in trees, shrubs, etc.

My daughter wanted to go as a witch, the costume company made a mistake and shipped a cape with a hood, that had horns… so it was a modified witch costume.  It was a long drive to get to the gated community, then an oddity to find a place to park the car but the results were more then worth any hassle.  My daughter still wasn’t sure on the saying of ‘trick or treat’ but she tried and with all the other kids doing it she had plenty of observation to get her going.  The community was great, participating houses were decorated and people on the porches, non participating houses had notes on the doors and were dark.  With a little pumpkin bucket, her best friend leading the way they went off and got their candy.  My daughter was curious about the decorations, jack-o-lanterns, people in costumes, etc. but took it all in stride.  Her friend, a Chinese boy, was ecstatic at going to a place where they handed out candy for free without a long line.  The two of them were calling it candy Christmas, 3 year old logic.

After making the rounds the parents of Sophia’s friend took us out to a restaurant where many of the trick-or-treaters were going for dinner, before the candy eating rush.  As a first year outing it was a success.  A clear moon filled night, mild temperatures where a light jacket was adequate, and while only about 15 houses were participating the candy yield was enough to last a few days.  Here in China there is no need to x-ray candy as only the expats participate, all are professionals and live in a very specific location.  The community was well lighted and the roads had large pots in them so cars could not go very far or very fast.  There were plenty of parents out and the teens were very considerate to the kids and enjoying getting candy instead of participating in tricking others. 

Seeing my daughter is not yet 3 there is time to teach her the meaning behind why kids say trick or treat, jack-o-lanterns, costumes, candy, etc.  For now it is all just fun and different, something kids her are love.  Getting to dress up for a night, do out to a new place, and have people give you candy is magical for a kid.  Its odd that the trust, good nature, and spirit of the holiday have transported to China better then it has fared in America, where Halloween is celebrated the most. 

As this was her first Halloween in Shanghai, her first trick-or-treating, and first year in dressing up I think my daughter has a wonderful time and will look back at is as fondly as my first few times at doing the same in Detroit.  Here it is 2 days later and the temperature has dropped about 15 degrees and fall feels more like winter.  We may not have had time to carve the pumpkin we got, or decorate the home more then just put a few stickers on the door but it is starting to feel more like the holiday season, which is what the best part of Halloween is, the signal of fall and getting ready for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Chinese New Year.

There is an odd thing going no in Governors races across the country.  Presidents have been asked to lend support and raise money for governors in races for years, there are plenty of precedents going back for years.  Popular presidents are always used by parties to help push the party lines into state politics as they are going on at the national level.  This makes it easier to do things like gain majority support for implementing federal regulations or laws when a majority of states aligned with the White House agree to accept Federal suggestions.  The issue here is not the White House raising funds or even making endorsements, there is nothing new or news worthy there.  The issue is the degree to which and the tactics being used to manipulate gubernatorial races nation wide.

First off you have to understand some of the background.  For those who forgot or never learned in civics class there is such a thing as State’s Rights.  The United States is a Federal Government that makes a national framework of laws, states have their own constitution, frameworks, etc. that can choose to follow or not follow these federal laws, like speed limits, drinking age, etc.  The Federal government used tax dollars as leverage to help a state make a decision.  States are basically independent to make, pass, and ignore laws as long as they do not violate the state or US constitution and amendments.

Since the healthcare debate stalled and is now stuck in the mud a movement for states to ‘op-out’ of public options has become known.  This goes to the State’s Rights acknowledgement on the divisiveness and lack of consensus on the issue and the bills being discussed and voted on on the national level.  The last time there was such talk about State’s Rights was the mid 1800’s and it was not a pretty sight.  Given this is it any wonder why the White House is getting so intimately involved in gubernatorial races in New York (Paterson asked not to run), Wisconsin (Lawton asked not to run) verses the normal campaigning seen in New Jersey (Re-election of Corzine) Virginia (Deeds), and Massachusetts (Re-election of Patrick).  The major difference in the first two is how the White House publically and heavy handedly meddling in state elections making party decisions for the electorate essentially bypassing political primaries and preventing the people of the state to select who their candidate for choice in representing the parties in the final contest to select governor.

Here is the problem.  The White House is trying to fix the race before it is run by manipulating the primaries by asking candidates to not run and signaling who they prefer instead of letting the citizens of the states select the candidate and then getting behind that candidate and raising money, making appearances, etc.  I do not recall seeing such an overt and heavy handed approach as I have seen in New York and Wisconsin.  First, Peterson was not endorsed and essentially given the kiss of death by the White House over fellow Democrat New York Attorney General Cuomo.  The move is said to give the party a stronger chance to Democrats as Peterson was not a stellar executive and has been marred in the news over the last year.  This sparked some political debate nationally, until health care took all the press.  Now we see the same thing going in when Obama has asked acting Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Lawton to stop her campaign so Barrett can fly through the primaries unhampered.  This will leave Cuomo and Barrett all their political monies and little dirt or scandal exposed for the respective state’s governor's races.  The issues here are the interference of state political processes by the White House and the disfranchising the state’s DNC primary process to allow the people to select the best Democrat. 

The issue is the brazenness of the White House in this and the utter silence in the media over two clear examples of election manipulation of governors races by hand picking the Democrat candidate without thoughts or input from the citizens of that state.  Normally the respective candidates slug it out and the one best able to communicate their platform, demonstrate executive experience and responsibility, and ability to lead wins the party nomination and resources for the final showdown with the Republican or Independent.  This is being supplanted by political posturing and green lighting by fixing the field before the game begins.  Voters then have had the major decisions of initial choice removed for them by an outside force that is not taking their unique needs into consideration.  The White House is forcing national politics into these two state’s elections and substituting national political alignment over electorates choice to select the leader based on local interests, needs, and desires.  This is irresponsible and dangerous as it takes the decision process out of the hands of the citizens on the most basic level of the selection process for the states lead executive.  This party manipulation is ignoring state issues, state needs, and state alignments all to gain a much larger political objective.  This is the real danger no matter what party is attempting it. 

We have seen the larges spending spree in political history, the largest expansion of American government in history, and the most interference into citizen’s lives and decision making process by the government in American history and yet it continues.  The ability to choose is dramatically changing in America and this is just another example of limited choice to the citizens by the government.  This goes beyond higher taxes, proper representation by those elected, increased spending, and expanding government.  All of these are things we have dealt with before and part of our process of negotiating and compromise to get things done we all can live with.  This is the continuation of federal government intrusion into the most basic decision making process to fix the outcome before we even begin to decide.  By fixing the races for top executive for any state the federal government is ignoring the needs of the state and its citizens for a cheap national strategic alignment for future political power plays.  There is real defeat in the air over healthcare and future battles over cap and tax, having ‘op-outs’ is politically nice because it sounds like a choice but if the governors of the states have been hand selected and backed to win are the ones making the decisions political re-payment for such favors would trump citizen concerns and force the national agenda on a state from a more politically friendly top executive state level. 

The real danger here is people, many of whom have become re-energized since April (the Tea Party movement), may feel the government is no longer representing them and give up on it.  This will lead to the inevitable fall of the American political system into pure corruption as our citizens are falling in education, activism, and engagement in the political process.  Sure we have seen a resurgence lately, however the creeping feeling I am getting is this is a last hurrah before a long winter.  We are seeing more and more decisions taken out of the hands of the individual and placed into the greedy hands of the government.  We are seeing government conducting its business more and more behind closed doors and making laws without consulting or at least listening to the majorities who elected them.  The political winds have shifted to either set up a system where it becomes too confusing or too much work to be engaged so the government can simply say we are no longer needed in the decision making process.  This is what our forefathers warned us about.  Governments are not here to solve our problems, they have never solved a problem in human history!  Governments take on a life of their own, and when unrestrained they will become large, fat, malevolent entities that act in selfish ways until it can no longer move or function, at which point calamity happens.  Trust in government, media, and the future is at historic lows in America.  The largest problem is we are accepting what others are telling us instead of opening our eyes, ears, and minds and acting on our own intelligence instead of what is spoon fed to us by those who wish to control the game.  We need to stop looking to others to solve our problems and solve them for ourselves, through our own actions, works, and efforts.  This is what created our nation and sustained it for 200 years, too bad it only took 33 years to wreck it all over the promise of easier life and decisions.

September started with a bang, news wise, and was a month that just kept on giving!  From more Acorn videos to Wall Streets return we have seen a huge variety of topics come and go, and unfortunately the biggest one, Health Care, took all the oxygen out of the others.  Well that is where blogs like this come in and help restore balance, by putting it all into some unique perspective that gives equal attention to each topic, and only one topic per topic, so to speak.  Yes, it is the middle of October and I am grossly overdue on this, but hey, I am not a professional journalists, writer, or in any media racket and I am not getting paid for anything I put up here so take it as it is.  We just finished celebrating 60 years of communists rule here in China with a huge parade full of the best military might Beijing is willing to show the world, but that is for October’s rant.  With my PC now 35% faster and twice as roomy as before I will get right into it.

Domestic Items – Pittsburg was unlucky enough to host the latest G20 summit, and at the same time as the UN general assembly, more on that in International items.  Unlucky in that it drew every angry college student obsessed with Michael Moore’s ‘capitalism sucks’ mantra and the environmental whackos who somehow love the environment but find it acceptable to burn down housing developments and SUV dealerships releasing tones of carbon into the atmosphere, way to go green geeks!  We saw similar scenes in London at the last G20 and it mirrors scenes from Seattle and others, hooded and face mask clad kids using a cause as an excuse to riot and trash a city.  I was taken aback by a video of some wise old sage college kid dressed in black and swinging on a swing set declaring for the camera, anarchy is cool.  Well to be frank, it ain’t cool and it only works if everyone follows the rules, if they don’t then you get mob justice or the wild wild west where a vicious cycle of reparations begins and never ends civilly.  Of course the fully mature 20 year old brain is so much more enlightened then the vast majority of people on the planet in the past 3 centuries.  Here is my take on all of this.  Its a bunch of misguided, angst driven, ungrateful snots who have way too much time and money on their hands to do anything constructive or useful in society.  Harsh you say, let me briefly explain.  Capitalism, the very virtue they are denouncing, is the only thing that got them and their pot head friends where they are.  The simple mercantilism ideal on which the first economy of this once great nation was set upon is the only reason they are able to go off to college, meet the industry failures who call themselves professors, and come up with idiotic theories after a few hours of pretending to be in Jamaica.  You see our modern liberal arts college system is maintained solely through capitalism.  First, people go to college to learn enough to get a degree to get a job.  This job allows them to purchase things that make their lives easier and more enjoyable.  They finally grow up and get a life and end up saving money for retirement and kids colleges and start the whole thing over, been that way since the 1800’s and its that way today.  Second, capitalism is the only vessel that gives them what they desire and love.  Would Steve Jobs have invented the iPod without the motivation of money or capitalism, don’t count on it.  Look at the innovations in capitalistic countries verses others and see what has the most innovation and prosperity.  Capitalism feeds off of competition, the person who has the best idea and can market it will win the most money.  That is why we have $10 blue jeans and $1,000 blue jeans.  Without capitalism there is little motivation to grow or innovate anything (unless the government wants something then its all repression and guns to the heads).  Michael Moore and all of Hollywood would be a very small fraction of itself without the virtues of capitalism.  You see, all that we have today, enjoy, despise, and is envied the world over is due to capitalism.  In the 1700’s it was our lumbar, shipbuilding, and agricultural output.  in the 1800’s it was our industrialization and natural resources.  In the 1900’s it was our innovation and manufacturing until our skilled labor and its unions priced itself our of competition with the developing world.  These kids would hate living in the very type of world they advocate, they are just too naive and ignorant of real socialism or anarchy.  Don’t get me wrong, its not their faults, you can’t blame ignorance solely on the individual, unless they are adopting the ignorance is bliss philosophy.  No, its our overly liberal primary education system that has failed these kids and not given theme the critical evaluation tools necessary to make a rational decision or to even function in a modern and dynamic society.  Look at our test scores and results and you will see that the places these kids are coming from are inept laboratories for social educations theories.  If you can’t understand supply and demand or import and export trade balances then how can you expect to understand capitalism at its most simple definition?  I blame the idiots withholding the information from these kids more then the kids themselves, they are young, impressionable, know nothing, puppets who are led astray by capable adults who refuse to grow up and face reality, capitalism and competition works, socialism and humanism fail.

America, as a country and a society, faces many challenges these days.  Unfortunately we have grown so petty as a nation and our views so narrow we resemble race horses instead of mustangs.  What I mean is we have all had blinders placed over our eyes and can only see the things a very select few deem worthy and place before us on a silver platter.  I have a few cases in point on this.  First off is the tragic death of a part time Census worker in the national forest in Kentucky.  The media harped on this as the right wings fury whipped up by hate mongers on talk radio and cable news channel Fox News.  Too bad they neglected their primary directives of journalism to just sell headlines for their sinking media outlets (formerly known as news).  If the reporters would have reported, and not written popularized fiction on their take of the current social climate they would have found a much more interesting story.  It is tragic this part time primary school teacher was killed, and worse his body treated the way it was after death, but by ceasing on pop culture, flavor of the month, credo the real story was missed.  Anyone who has grown up outside of the south and then migrated there for more then a few years will understand.  The mountain areas of Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia are remote, isolated, and led by elders who have been taught, and had re-enforced, that the Federal Government is never to be trusted and is their enemy.  It is a hold over from reparations, concessions, and surrender in the late 1800’s, and yes this is the way it is, believe it of not.  From then it was prohibition, that ultimately led to the birth of auto racing, and re-enforced with actions taken by the Federal Government in other areas like Waco TX.  You see, in these areas strangers are not trusted and often not tolerated.  You go into some of these areas at your own peril, even the locals in surrounding cities know this.  This poor man was killed for being a stranger and working for the Federal Government in an area outside of what we call normal.  The people who killed him most likely think Fox News is too liberal and that Rush Limbaugh is a pansy jew too old and fat to get a real job.  Their views are shaped by hundreds of years of distrust and ignorance of the rest of the country, and they like it that way.  They hate any and all interference and would treat anyone that way if they interfered or threatened their way of life.  This was not something cooked up and hatched by a few months worth of rantings on media airwaves, it has nothing to do with Obama overall, its the power and influence of the ‘feds” the faceless ‘them’ that tell them how to mine coal, send their kids to school, how to build their houses, come in and make roads and such without asking them anything, not that they would listen in the first place.  This is the real story, not some shocking slock about anti-Obama sentiment resulting in murder.  On the other end of the spectrum we have the New Black Panthers, who this month found they are not 100% out of the woods on their election vote rigging charges just yet.  Despite Obama’s AG dismissing all charges against them on voter fraud by intimidation for their parts in threatening physical violence to anyone not voting for Obama last year (with video and audio evidence provided), the investigation just won’t go away.  Despite the media being in the bag for Obama and burying this and other election fraud cases, ACORN, it seems the law just won’t pardon them as easily as the press has.  Its one thing for the son of a seated Representative’s son to slash tires in the parking lot of the RNC on election day (Milwaukee Rep Gwen Moore), its another to stand outside of polling areas in Black Panther garb wielding a baseball bat and saying you will beat down anyone not voting for Obama as they stand in line to get into the voting building.  Again, press on this has been light, lighter on the charges being re-opened after the AG dismissal!  This is the problem.  Not only do we have a president hell bent on governing by the polls, we have a fawning media who is following suit by reporting only what is popular, and seldom doing anything historically known as reporting.  Maybe this is why subscriptions and ratings are falling to historic lows?  Maybe this is why papers are failing and only 1 cable news channel is not seeing double digit declines, Fox News is seeing just the opposite.  You see when ad revenue is falling to historic lows it is because the services the medium is providing no longer coincide with the appetite of the masses, no matter how much you refuse to acknowledge it.  You see, when you rail against capitalism, greed, and freedom of choice a funny thing happens, you lose the support of those you are trying to influence.

Financial Items – One funny item in this current health care socialization things getting shoved down our throats, Obama and his ilk keep claiming it will cost nothing and much of the savings will come out of cutting fraud, waste, and abuse.  Well riddle me this batman; if all these savings are there to be had, why or why have are we just taking action now to keep the reform bills from bursting the bag?  You see, this argument is ripe with fallacy.  If these kinds of savings, enough to provide health coverage to 40 million people (there figures, not mine) then why are we facing a crisis in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security?  Heck it seems if we just police those faceless government agencies correctly we can come up with trillions of dollars to pay for it all!  Well, this isn’t the case but it does have some merit.  Here in September we have seen news of a Milwaukee mom/day care operator who bilked the system for over $140,000/year for over 5 years despite officials knowing she was doing so, she was so brazen she even bought a $400,000 mansion, with ACORN’s help no doubt, and has paid of it all while claiming to be a working mother so poor she needed government assistance to pay for day care she herself provided as an employer to working women who needed daycare.  Not part of same money pot I hear from the peanut gallery, how about this – 27 Michigan residents were arrested for SSI fraud to the tune of just over a million dollars.  I have discussed a few times on this blog my experiences in rural Alabama where SSI fraud is ripe, and local officials will do nothing to stop it because that would be mean.  Recently in the news a Detroit radio stations promoted a government aid program for low income people and then went out and interviewed the people in the line and found out they all thought the money they were expecting to receive would be coming directly from Obama, his own personal stash.  Well, of course these people have no clue where government monies that come by the way of SSI checks, stimulus checks, etc. come from, they were never taught civics in class, they were taught how Columbus was a war criminal and how evil capitalism was and how it was the profiteers on Wall Street who were keeping them down and making money off of their misery.  There is fraud in the system, including the treatment and payments to illegal aliens now, and in the future.  There is little doubt there are savings to be had here, but only by a couple hundred million at best, not enough to pay for all this stuff we have seen lately.  Still, that few hundred million could go to aid the insolvency of SSI or Medicare but would not be able to make much of an impact.  The problems in the fraud is that no one committing it can tie it into stealing from their neighbors and others to receive that aid, and that is exactly what it is.  The amount of money required to police, check, and verify these payments to preventing fraud will not be free, they will require more staff, wages, facilities, insurance, utilities, etc. and this extra cost will come from other pots of tax payer dollars.  Our financial house is so out of order that they only way to correct it will be to scrap it and start over.  Being such a huge task, and a politically suicidal one, it is one that will never be done until it is so far gone it can’t continue anymore.  If we took all the fraud in our government, all the waste (redundancy, obsolete, unnecessary), and all the abuses (misuse of government assets) you may come up with enough to fund a small national program.  The real issue are the policies that just won’t die, like farm subsidies, urban programs, regulations etc.  These account for far more then the waste in the system.  Obama has already shown his will to do the unpopular extends only to spending more, not cutting costs or controlling them but exploding them.  The real fraud, waste, and abuse going on is the politicians who expand our government, demand more tax dollars, and set up a system where stealing from the government is easier and has less consequences then earning a living the right way, through dedication, hard work, and self sacrifice.  Sure, if it were that easy we all could and would be doing it, well, it seems that is where we are headed, entitlement mentality dead ahead and the last exit on this road we are going down now.

I saw an interesting take on the overall economics of America on Digg this month, if the United States were a person what would their credit score be?  Well, Loans and Credit.com did the calculations and came up with the answer; 620.  For those outside of America your credit score is a big deal and dictates much of your future, including where you can rent an apartment, if you can buy a car, house, etc. and even prevent you from getting some jobs at some companies.  The ranges are this; Poor – 350 to 619, Fair 620 to 659, Good 660 to 749, and excellent above 750 maxing out at 850.  So what exactly does this mean?  Collectively as a nation we are one good financial crisis away from economic ruin.  Why so dramatic?  Well it boils down to this.  Unlike people governments can print more money, but by doing so they devalue the currency making it worth less because there is more of it and less real cash backing it up (bond holders).  You see our national debt is sold off in bonds to individuals, corporations, and foreign countries.  This pool spends their own currency on our bonds in return for a future return of funds, in kind, with interest.  If this pool shrinks, or collapses we are unfunded with future debt.  If our currency becomes unstable or too inflated we lose investors and it all collapses with unfunded debt.  See where I am going here.  I seriously encourage everyone to follow the link and look at the graph, its really telling.  Here is the most scary part, quick cover the kid’s eyes!  Our two largest sources of credit are BROKE, and the next two – China and Japan, ain’t buying our worthless bonds anymore! 
It breaks down like this;
Top 6 creditors - #1 Federal Old Age and Survivors Insurance Fund @ $2.2 trillion (shrinking thanks to baby boomers), #2 China @ $739.6 billion (they just lost confidence in the US by buying $50 billion in new IMF bonds offloading risks of US failure to repay), #3 Federal Employee Retirement Funds @ $738 billion (less workers and more retirees means less available for loans), #4 Federal S&L Corp Resolution Fund @ $689 billion (ummm 1 word – bailouts), #5 Japan @ $634.8 billion, #6 Foreign Oil Exporters @ $186.3 billion.  So our sources or income are not stable, more like short term contracts and thanks to calls for a new international super-currency by China, Russia, UN and the IMF we are seeing results of the IMF bonds going and global currencies surging against the dollar. 
Grand total: $5.187 trillion, not too shabby considering our taxes and public held securities and bonds valued at $6.2 trillion for a grad total of $11.387 trillion.  Well, now the bad part.  Our current national debt is just over $11.2 trillion ($38,400 per man, woman, and child) and our last two years have seen relatively stable national debts go from $700 billion to almost $1 trillion last year and more then $1.2 trillion this year to date (and remember that debt here is beyond all income and spending!).  This is why China started offloading our bonds for the new IMF.  Sure they want America to be strong and repay the bonds on time with interest in money worth something, but they do not seem so confident and are signaling it loudly now.  Tax revenues will be short this year due to the financial meltdown.  CEO’s are getting less pay and fewer bonuses, of which their income tax was the highest brackets, no pay no tax revenue.  People still are not going out and spending money, production is still anemic and there are few bright spots on the horizon.  I would beg to differ that the spectacular credit score of 620 was for last year and come January, or better April 15, our credit score will dip to the upper 500’s.  Why so bleak, well all that stimulus money had to come from somewhere.  All that money the Fed keeps printing has to be backed by something.  All this expansion of government, regulation, new government jobs, oversight, etc. has to be paid for and it seems the well is running dry.  Of course if we could get Obama’s czars and cabinet to pay their taxes maybe we could fund this fiasco for a another month or two, heck while we are at it maybe get NYC Rep old Charlie to pay taxes on ALL his income and we can make it two months!  While Obama is hitting that reset button on Russian relations how about jabbing the old US debt reset button a few times for good measure there Dear Leader.

International Items – I can’t resist, seriously I feel like a cat on catnip here.  Ok, how does Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize committee promoters feel about this glaring headline: LA TIMES – Renditions continue under Obama, Lebanese man first abducted and tortured, for fraud charges.  Ok, that was NOT the actual headline but it sums up the whole article quite nicely, we get the who, what, when, where, and why all right there.  Again I have to shamelessly quote my good friend Dave, ‘I don’t feel anymore peaceful’.  That’s right, Dear Leader pledged to close Gitmo by January and stop torturing people, or was it terrorists, can’t remember.  The Lebanese man Obama had abducted, flown from the Middle East to the US aboard the top secret ‘black ops airline’ and subjected to enhanced interrogations was done so for running an elaborate government contracting fraud scam.  So terrorists get milk and cookies while white collar criminals get the Khalid Shaikh Mohammed treatment.  So now I understand why ACORN is good and Wall Street CEO’s are bad, sheesh am I dense or what?  For all those anti-Bush loving liberal true believers out there who had the audacity to believe real change would be delivered, I guess this one flew under your radar.  Sure, the LA Times reported it, and it was a good read, but from there it went NO WHERE.  Chunk this one up on another story buried by the main stream media to help out this administration any way possible.  Last year this time he would be on 60 minutes, 20/20, Dateline all telling his tale of woe and how evil America was and they would be eating it up, lap dogs that they have proven themselves to be (and now their master is scolding them for his plummeting approval ratings and troubles).  Seriously, stop me if I am lying here.  If I were not speaking the truth please tell me and I will stop.  I swear.  In somewhat related international news, its all the Middle East, Africa’s supreme son, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, graced the UN with his first assembly visit and address to the international organization.  Fresh off the devastating victory over Scotland in getting the Lockerbie bomber released AND a lucrative oil contract out of the deal he just kept on rolling.  Not even getting his Bedouin tent permit revoked on a technicality slowed him down, he just set it up in the back yard of a Donald Trump estate some Libyan businessmen were leasing.  He was so confident he went over his 15 minute limit to address the UN, right after our Deal Leader Obama, and delivered a blistering 90 minute tirade that would make Hugo Chavez blush, to be fair Obama went over 15 minutes but only by 10 or so and because his teleprompter has a slight cold that morning and was a little sluggish.  Gaddafi was so wound up he burned out his translator who had a public meltdown near the end of the speech.  The significance of this I hear you say?  Well, when we HAD a strong foreign policy, you know one that dealt with terrorists and terror sponsors as such, we never had the UN graced by terrorists, just by crack pots (Chavez) and those with the political might and economic strength to warrant and command such an audience (Gaddafi’s was slotted between Obama and lunch).  I remember stating some time back that many countries in this world only respected one thing, strength, well we are seeing what they thing of us now as we invite them onto our soil to degrade us publically in front of on international audience, and then wonder what is going on because that is what our President did for 4 months after taking office, they are just following in his footsteps, again stop me if I am straying off the truth path here.

Echoing the above theme, strength garners respect and actions, we have 2 interesting tidbits, one of which most of you missed.  First the one no one missed.  Iran seems to have Obama’s number.  Since the student uprisings over allegations of voter fraud in Iran this June the Obama administration did little and said less.  Since then Iran has slowly pushed the envelope and seems to be finding no limit or resistance to its efforts.  Obama’s ‘velvet glove’ approach seems to be working out quite nicely, for our former enemies, North Korea and Iran have had noting but victories and appeasements since January.  So with little in the way other then shock and verbal condemnation in the media it was announced this month that Iran had a secret uranium enrichment plant and they made this known to the world AFTER stating the terms and conditions of which they would talk to the US and allow the IAEA in and what and what they could look and for how long.  Sure, its a sticky situation, one for which I don’t envy Obama for being in and one that has confounded presidents since Carter on Iran and Johnson on North Korea.  The two are linked by more then just similarity in nuclear ambition, and that is the rub, what we concede to one we have to the other else we are seen as playing favorites and giving into one and not the other.  It is a stark contrast that in the past 30 years Iran has only been able to tell 2 presidents what to do and how to do it, both Democrats and both going down similar paths.  Realistically the secret uranium enrichment plant in Iran was not all that secret, but its location, capability, and output were until now.  First it seemed the old velvet glove would work as Russia quickly condemned the announcement of the new plat, but then they had to scratch our backs for pulling out of the missile defense shield in Eastern Europe giving that region back to the Russians who want it known no one but them are allowed in that area.  But, that is as far as it went, Russia then quickly retracted their support for further sanctions and with a hardy wink wink nod nod they stated no additional measures needed to be placed against Iran as everything was on the up and up, so much for nuclear non-proliferation.  And the second indicator that weak foreign policy is only good for those who see us in an obstructionist view, Switzerland was just found to be more competitive then the United States for conducting business according to the World Economic Forum’s global competitiveness report.  The Swiss knocked off the Americans based on things like business climate, banking climate, and regulations and interference with factors specific to business.  While banking has taken the focus of things over the past year Swiss banks are not seen all that much better then American according to the report, Swiss banks come in at 44, American at 108, and British at 126.  The Swiss were being lauded for their innovation and dexterity in removing regulations and business hurtles.  America was being criticized for its anemic growth, but mostly for its lack of separating the government and private sectors, bail outs and subsequent regulations, and the private sectors’ apparent inability to properly self audit and regulate (missed lessons from Enron and Sarbanes-Oxley).  What is shocking to me about this is the Swiss, who have a famous liberal cradle to grave social services package, have less regulations, fewer corporate taxes, and less change for government interference in their business sector then America currently does.  While Switzerland had to bail out its larges bank, UBS, its remaining banks were not so exposed to US sub-prime mortgages and have weathered the storm with few ill effects, bottom line, they are sound, stable, and lending money with ease.  American’s current passion to bailout all and enact government control as the cost for bailing out have seemingly turned our only potential for growth in international business investment against us by poisoning the well.  Add this to our previously mentioned massive debt load and loss of confidence in our bonds and bond ratings and you see a bad moon rising, as the song goes.  The velvet glove that gave Iran, North Korea, and Libya license to dictate terms has also placed a ‘back in 30 minutes’ sign in the window for business opportunities.   I guess this is what Obama meant by ‘spread the wealth around’ let the other nations in the world have at it by taking ourselves out of the game and not earning it through fair and determined competition.  Of course this the problem with liberal policies, if you can’t control the game, why try playing it?

Science Items – Religion is one thing that does not come up much here in China, and I am a little relieved about that to, no explaining all that stuff I have to here.  The reason I bring this up is that I can have discussions with Chinese friends about the below story in the news this month without interjecting religion into the affair.  I am referring of course to the find in the country of Georgia including a few skulls dating back to 1.8 million years ago.  The proto-human bones at the Damanisi site show that humans were in eastern Eurasia 10,000 years earlier then previously thought and shot a huge gaping hole in the African single location theory.  The skulls are similar to the oldest found in Africa and are not significantly different enough to warrant a new species so they are being classifies as Homo-erectus.  Scientists are certain they are not the bones of a migratory groups wandering to Georgia from Africa so it seems we have a problem with the migration timetables science has taught us before.  All theories are not turned on their heads as either people did a migration, reverse migration, and then migration again or migration occurred much earlier, or there were different isolated groups that migrated independently from different locations.  Still the oldest bones come from Africa, but the possibility of them inhabiting the rest of the planet are now uncertain.  I remember is middle school social sciences how we were taught about 3 races of humans, Caucasians, Negros, and Mongoloids (Asians).  All three have distinctive skeletal signatures, muscular makeup, and genetic markets that go well beyond hair, eye, and skin color.  My belief is that the 3 evolved independently on said continents separated by natural barriers with the possibility of a 4th, Americans as the South American Indians are distinctly different then the North American Indians (thought to come come Asia), Australian Aborigines, or others.  This would make sense, to me, and goes far further to explain the modern differences we see today as being genetic birthrights and not environmental adaptations through evolution to different continents.  Superficial differences aside the underling muscle, bone, and genetic differences are too stark to come for a common ancestor who left a lush land of plenty to cross deserts, mountain ranges, and glaciers to populate 5 continents while other decedents stayed home and yet others settled along the way, getting tired of all the travel for no good reason when another lush land of plenty was found.  We have to take a step back and remember that science is just the new religion of the liberal mindset.  The theories and hypothesis (educated guesses) are just that, guesses but smart people but people who don’t have all the data or clues to be making definitive conclusions.  The bar is still open, so lets take all this stuff with a grain of salt, it isn’t over yet and we still have a long way to go before we are able or ready to handle the truth of it all.

A couple related items came across the science desk this month that have profound future implications.  I am speaking of the discoveries of water on Mars and the Moon.  In the days of old sailing ships water had to be carried in barrels, along with food and fruit.  Due to the limited supply of these provisions sailing and exploring were limited to costal excursions until ships and storage technology advanced enough to allow cross ocean travel.  The problem is the same for space travel.  Space and weight are a huge limitation on space flights, so much so that we sent people to the moon 5 times and they never stayed longer then a few hours!  It makes it easier if you can resupply at your destination then take everything with you.  Sure, ocean travel was extended with boilers were invented allowing people to turn sea water into potable water, but you can’t do the same thing in space, save the converting urine into water and who really wants that in the back of their mind?  The next step will be figuring out how much water there is, how best to harvest it, and how to store it and possibly expand it, solar stills that condense the air (Nitrogen, Oxygen, and Hydrogen) into water.  Some believe the best way forward is to let robots, probes, and satellites keep exploring and gathering data.  All the while we are remaining grounded, nothing ventured nothing gained.  Not until some profit motive and business case can be developed can we expect to break the tethers and go forth.  Finding water is the first ground breaking step necessary.  Remember that Columbus was out seeking a cheaper trade route to the Indian subcontinent when he ran into the resource rich New World.  Of course he over exaggerated the riches of the find, mainly to keep his pocket book and head!  Since then it was a mad rush to secure the resources, land, timber, and precious metals that had become exhausted due to the system of kingdoms of Europe.  Now there is no telling the minerals we will find on other terrestrial bodies.  Sure there will be the same ores and similar concentrations however the different atmospheres, or lack of, will result in different purities and possible new materials we can’t imagine.  This is something only human exploration will find.  Drop a Mars style rover in the Gobi, Sahara, Death Valley, or, Australian outback and you will get a report of unsustainable life outside of the atmosphere requirements we have.  Granted we have the advantage of satellite imagery however that only goes so far.  If water is able to be found, or farmed on near planets we can expand our construction mindset into a whole new realm, what if we had 3 Earths worth of steel, aluminum, titanium, nickel, and copper available to us?  Knowing what we know now about conservation and metallurgy we could leap-frog closer and closer to the edge of our own galaxy, eventually.  Just as getting from Europe across the Atlantic to the Americas it took profit motives, guts, and the right mix of crazy and luck.  We have to decide if we will take the Asian approach and close ourselves off and stay put, or the European approach and say if we survive we will be everything we every dreamed and more?  That is the big questions with water found on Mars and the Moon.  We have found the most precious resource, now we must know if there is enough and will getting it be easy enough.  Once we have that answered we can determine if a new Mayflower Compact or Virginia Colony Charter is worth the expense and peril of the journey.

Sports Items – The Lions have already done the hardest part, they won a game, the first win in over a seasons and stopping the slide at 19 straight losses.  Now we must calm down else we could expect a few more wins this season, hell its already a 100% improvement over last season.  The Tigers imploded and the Pistons are looking not so hot in exhibition play, not the caliber that they were for the previous 6 seasons before last seasons let down end.  At least there are the Red Wings, oh yea, they ancient old timers who were showed up last year by youth and vigor.  Sports here is dominated by a scattering of local and foreign flavors; soccer, ping pong, tennis, volleyball, billiards and snooker, F1 and basketball.  The NFL has pledged to make inroads here and has youth leagues however there is no real exposure and I wish I knew where this stuff was so I could watch, advise, or even try my hand at coaching, at least at the position I know a little about, defensive backs.  As a lackluster sports fan its not a big deal but there is a lot of things you miss out on without sports, like what sports star is under investigation, getting tens of millions, or setting the latest social trend.  I do have a complaint about sports here.  Shanghai is trying, and trying hard, to attract top sports stars and sporting events.  This results in a premium for what they do bring here.  The tennis masters tour is here, not that I like tennis or follow it ever but at over $100 for a ticket I won't consider it with parking, traffic, and getting home so late with work the next day.  Same with golf, I did get free tickets to the HSBC Masters tour and got to watch Tiger Woods play 6 holes as well as dramatic final shootout but if I had paid it would have been more expensive then going to see the Sawgrass or GMO as well as driving for 3 hours.  In Milwaukee going to see a baseball game, basket ball game or racing was not that much of a big deal or expense.  It is not a major gripe but here in Shanghai how can they expect sports to become mainstream when the pay and make going to see them such a hustle?  Soccer is easy to see, there are over 20 stadiums in Shanghai and most are on or very close to subways or buss lines but they are used for the more established events and concerts.  If they could get prices down to $40 USD then it would be much easier to get the stands filled, its not so much the big names they need, its the pricing to fill the stadiums, do that and the big names will come.

In a follow up on the Caster Semenya case I brought up a very good question, what about those rare humans who are both genetically male and female in muscle mass and hormone levels.  Well it seems I was right on the money on that one.  The results of the tests confirm Semenya is both man and woman, a hermaphrodite.  She has no womb or ovaries and has internal testes producing 3 times the normal testosterone levels of women.   that Now begs the answers to the questions I raised on fairness.  Is it really fair to have Semenya race against women who are 100% female and have no male hormones or muscle structure?  What will the LBGT community do about this as there is a definite discrimination case here as she was stripped of her 800M gold medal by their standards of fairness against sexual discrimination.  We are seeing the first case of mutual discrimination against feminists and LBGT here as there is no clear cut winner and a whole bunch of losers in this fight.  To be serious Semenya should be stripped of the medal as the other women were at a disadvantage racing against her.  Next the IAAF, IOC, and other sports agencies need to review this case and make a way for it to be free and fair for all competitors against genetic oddities without going overboard.  Semenya is advised to have an operation to correct the condition and be eligible to compete, if she will is yet another question.  The whole mess is going to open another can of worms unrelated but as significant.  The outcome is to be expected as a female runner with 3 times the testosterone, naturally produces so undetectable by PED tests, is clearly able to out train and out perform the others.  The interesting part of this is the debate of fairness verses political correctness.  We were all shamed by the African Council for the questions, accusations, and doubts on the runners gender.  We were told she had won fair and square and it was racist sentiment behind the whole affair.  Well, it facts painted a completely different story.  While Semenya did not go out and deliberately cheat or try to undermine anything, she did and allowing her to keep the medals would have been wrong.  Its bad for her, Lord knows she has much larger problems, concerns, and issues to deal with now, however fair is fair and the competition needs to be from a level field as much as possible.  

Political Items – Obama’s inner circle has started to have more and more light shown on it since Glen Beck started the Van Jones Green Jobs Czar background checking Congress failed to do.  As Obama has still not filled all the outstanding Executive Branch positions his hiring of special advisors with direct access to him, their respective areas and bypassing all usual Congressional channels and procedures.  These people are highly paid, 6 figure minimum, radical (many have published books or lectured extensively on fringe ideals), and they are accountable to the President only and this is the scary part.  Only a few were vetted, checked and confirmed, by Congress who is more likely to approve as they are majority tied to his party as well.  Since Van Jones arrest, conviction, and prison records were made public, as well as his radical theories in 9/11 and other ‘black helicopter’ ideas he was quickly dropped as the President is more concerned with image and perception then loyalty.  This month a couple of new czars and their questionable views came into the spotlight.  1) Mark Lloyd, the FCC Diversity Czar, has had his ‘down with all things whitee’ comments come into question.  Conservatives were worried he was appointed solely to push through the Fairness Doctrine, or government censorship of free speech based on market availability.  He was passed off as a position to ensure the FCC had proper diversity of views and radio in American was not being monopolized in programming or ownership of stations, who can own what, how many, and what can they do with it.  Radio has evolved a lot since the 1980’s with live DJ’s being replaced by iPod like devices who are programmed with music and local commercials for most of the day.  Talk radio is dominated by conservatives mainly because all liberal talk radio shows fail miserably, ask Sen Al Franken about Air America (liberals talk a good game until its time to pay up, because they pay out so much to so many there is little left to do to personal entertainment).  Mark Lloyd wants all white people in leadership roles to step down and let minorities take over.  Well, nothing wrong with that if they have earned and demonstrated the ability to TAKE the jobs away, and the free marketplace agrees.  This revives the old liberal view of affirmative action.  You remember the tested and failed theory applied under the Clinton administration to diversify the work place.  Sure, it diversifies like it promises, but it kills corporations and businesses because it forces employers to look past qualifications and directly to racial, sex, and age of candidates.  Corporations have their own cultures, they have their own internal societies, if you are not aligned with with in any way or you do not reflect their goals or mission statements then they don’t want you and why would you want to work there anyway.  Jobs are about competition, may the best person win.  Forcing diversity is like allowing Semenya to keep her gold and telling the other women, tough, you have to try harder to compete ‘fairly’.  Thanks to healthcare and Afghanistan Lloyd may just skate under the radar and fade into the background to deliver on his agenda.  Next up is Cass Sunstein, the Regulation Czar or czar of everything, and his books and papers on governments rights and obligations to harvest organs from people before they expire and without their, or family consent.  He of course is arguing the greater good and using legal arguments to make his case, citing coroners already harvest corneas during autopsies for implants.  The problem is that some people and their religions prohibit the practice of organ harvesting, so where is the choice and observations of the wishes of the dead?  Sunstein was vetted but his views are now part of this thing called healthcare we are debating now.  Sunstein is in the unique position to actually create a regulation that does just that, the taking of body parts without consent or directives of the family.  These, and the other 20+ czars Obama has surrounded himself with really needs to be investigated more closely and by professional reporters in the mainstream media, if any are left.

Finally we have seen quite a bit of education items this month, most for the wrong reason, it had little to nothing to do with actual education.  A few items this month needing a little more then headline coverage are, school length and school quality.  First off Obama has floated the idea of getting rid of summer vacation.  First off we need to look at why we have the school year set up the way it is now.  School starts in the fall, that historically was after fall harvest.  There is a winter break that coincides with Christmas (the shock and horror!).  There is a spring break that coincides with Easter (SHUT UP, there is NO religion in schools!) and finally the summer break for farming families.  This has been in place since the 1800’s and has become standard practice.  Now most public school teachers are part of a union.  They are paid for all 12 months but only do 9 months or so of work.  Sure their pay is only during these months but any adult with a fiscal sense can manage the 3 months of no pay.  The floating of this idea is to raise teacher’s pay and has been out there for decades.  We are no longer an agricultural society so we many need to look more closely into this, urban kids need more care during these breaks then rural kids do.  The problem is the annual pay of teachers will be argued as not enough to cover these additional months, this means a 25% increase in teacher pay and that means higher property taxes and other tax increases to cover pay, benefits, facility and maintenance costs and operational costs.  This is where the counter argument comes into place.  Summer break is the most busy time of the year for maintenance and repairs.  Some things you can’t take care of in a weekend or a week long break.  There as an older debate on having year long school but kids would attend schools in shifts, still the facilities upkeep question comes into play.  One thing nobody is talking about in all of this are the children, you know the ones the liberals parade out each time they want to raise taxes without pushback.  Kids today are under a lot of pressure and the breaks are needed to unwind and do things like play and develop physically which works best with little stress and sleeping in late and no pressure from peers and adults.  Instead of going forward with a thinly veiled teacher’s pay increase we should see how this will impact the kids and their mental and physical development.  Next up is the teacher performance issue.  I am not talking about the annual exams kids take that which teachers are judged against, I am talking about the informal tests that show a more clear picture into the practical application of things learned in school.  How about 2.8% of Oklahoma high school students passing the immigration citizenship test!  This is shocking as I have taken the test a few times and pass with flying colors each time.  That means 97.2% of students are completely ignorant about civics and history.  If they have no ideas about this how can they function effectively in an open democracy?  The question then begs to be asked of what else don’t they know and more importantly what do they know and what are they being taught?  Our government only functions if the electorate is highly educated and informed enough on history and current events to make informed decisions on representation and hold those people accountable during their terms.  No wonder we have kids running around in Pittsburg chanting anarchy is fun and people are saying socialism is fine and capitalism is greedy and evil.  The citizenship test is a bit more then the average citizen will retain due to it is aimed at assimilation of foreigners by making them prove they know and understand the history of the nation.  Well, why can’t high school kids, who are taught this stuff each day, pass this test at inverse numbers?  We are not even going to talk about the modern history lessons neglected.  The warning signs are there and I bet most Americans would be shocked at what is in their kid’s test books.  It is time we take as close a look at our education system as we are on healthcare, unfortunately this won’t happen anytime soon.  Our country is becoming soft in the middle, the time you lose the education base of a democracy is whey it falls venerable to being manipulated or taken over by a dictatorship or totalitarian regime, look it up in history, its everywhere.