Two items in the news have me asking this question: Do we Americans understand the great gift we've been given?
The other day MY president, George W. Bush announced that he would spend hundreds of billions of tax dollars to rebuild a city that was decayed, corrupt, and existing only because of government largesse. New Orleans is one of the poster children for everything that's wrong with our country: entitlement mentality, poverty conditioned by and nurtured by welfare, corrupt race-based politics, diversity based decision-making and poor political choices. The best thing for New Orleans to do in the wake of Katrina, many have argued, is to cease to exist. Rather than move the population to a place better suited for empowerment and growth, such as Houston, the federal government is going to rebuild it on federal funds, nourishing the very wrong-headed ideas that ruined it in the first place. The local Democratic politicians have made the city a place where meaningful and worthwhile employment is a thing of rarity. Now Bush and the Republican congress want to make things even worse, removing any "I told you so" epithets they would have been rightly been able to hurl. Already calls have been made to begin WPA-like programs, in an effort to create make-work positions funded by federal largesse! This will be lauded by both sides of the aisle in a short while, mark my words!
Meanwhile on the other side of the Atlantic, Germany just held an election where a socialist incumbent was narrowly bested by a "conservative" who, as one of her platform issues, proposed a flat tax! Germany, as most of Europe, is in the throws of a disease called socialism. Their productivity is being sapped by an entitlement mentality the likes of which we in America can't even begin to imagine. That's why a guy like Kerry was so intent on modeling his government platform on a European basis. Taxes are eating their society away, and entitlement sucking laggards are the base of the population, destroying the once great productivity of the country. In an effort to move the country to the right and change the course of this juggernaut, Angela Merkel and the Christian Democratic Alliance, hitched their campaign to the gimmick of a flat tax. Unfortunately, she did not hold tight enough to the idea to make people believe that she was truly behind the concept. When Schroeder claimed that a flat tax would impoverish the country, leaving women and children starving in the streets, instead of standing up and telling the truth, she waffled. This little bit of indecision on her part, caused the people to blink, and the strength of a true concensus was lost.
I guess it's enough to see that people are starting to see the light in old Europe. At least these ideas are being spoken about aloud, rather than whispered behind closed doors. Now if only we would realize that it is we who have it right, and not them, maybe there will be hope for us all.
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
10,000 Dead, explained
I've been wondering where all the dead bodies were, when we were told the victims would number near 10,000. Well, when this guy and his buddies are done drinking up all that bootie, there'll be 10,000 "dead soldiers" in the streets of Nawluns!
Monday, September 12, 2005
Katrina Response-Just Throw Money
After the shameful passing of one of the largest pork projects this country has ever seen, in the Transportation Bill last month, I thought nothing could surprise me in this country's elected leaders' desires to throw money around. I was wrong. The government response to the Katrina disaster has given them the urge to, once again, throw our money around like drunken sailors.
Never mind the fact that Alaska's Rep. Don Young, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, has bragged that the bill is "stuffed like a turkey" with goodies for his state, and that it includes $721 million for Alaska, including a $2.2 million "bridgeto nowhere" connecting the town of Kethikan (Pop. 8900) to an airport on Gravina Island (pop. 50) but another bridge in Anchorage has a $200 million price tag and is considered such a marginal project that even the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce opposes it. All this while we suffer from a slowing economy, have cut taxes and are fighting a war in Iraq and across the middle east.
Now, however the government, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to help the poor of NOLA and the other affected areas with an infusion of $62 billion (with a "b") to start and promises of another $100 to 200 billion or so later on. With no idea, yet what the real damages are or what the money is needed for, these prize pork rearers are already sending this money down the black hole of corruption and malfeasance. Just to show that they care. With your money.
We now know that the media frenzy and the finger-pointing local and state officals in New Orleans and Lousiana have aided in blowing this very real tragedy as far out of proportion as possible. Suggestions last week by Mayor Nagin that the deaths would probably number nearly 10, 000 have been tempered by the actual count today of less than 200! Meanwhile, rather than wait to accurately assess the REAL damage, our elected officials have pledged more money than many national GDPs to assuage the guilt that MIGHT be foisted upon them by political pundits and race-hustlers in the coming weeks and months (and to assure them that they deserve to be re-elected!).
The costs of government need to be cut. This means cutting programs and employees and salaries and aid to everyone, until we get our financial house in order. I know one thing. I wouldn't want to give a blank check-and that is what is being given to the local governments of this region-to a group that has proven that they can't even balance a checkbook.
As one political pundit has written(John Fund On the Trail, OpinionJournal.com, 9/12/2005) "what has happened to the Republican wing of the Republican Party"?
Go to the following link and tell congress not to throw your money wastefully at even more pork projects in the name of "Katrina Relief". The site is that of Citizens Against Government Waste. Click on "Help Keep Pork out of Hurricane Relief" and then click on "Action Alert". Then sign the petition. It's that simple!
http://cagw.org
Never mind the fact that Alaska's Rep. Don Young, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, has bragged that the bill is "stuffed like a turkey" with goodies for his state, and that it includes $721 million for Alaska, including a $2.2 million "bridgeto nowhere" connecting the town of Kethikan (Pop. 8900) to an airport on Gravina Island (pop. 50) but another bridge in Anchorage has a $200 million price tag and is considered such a marginal project that even the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce opposes it. All this while we suffer from a slowing economy, have cut taxes and are fighting a war in Iraq and across the middle east.
Now, however the government, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to help the poor of NOLA and the other affected areas with an infusion of $62 billion (with a "b") to start and promises of another $100 to 200 billion or so later on. With no idea, yet what the real damages are or what the money is needed for, these prize pork rearers are already sending this money down the black hole of corruption and malfeasance. Just to show that they care. With your money.
We now know that the media frenzy and the finger-pointing local and state officals in New Orleans and Lousiana have aided in blowing this very real tragedy as far out of proportion as possible. Suggestions last week by Mayor Nagin that the deaths would probably number nearly 10, 000 have been tempered by the actual count today of less than 200! Meanwhile, rather than wait to accurately assess the REAL damage, our elected officials have pledged more money than many national GDPs to assuage the guilt that MIGHT be foisted upon them by political pundits and race-hustlers in the coming weeks and months (and to assure them that they deserve to be re-elected!).
The costs of government need to be cut. This means cutting programs and employees and salaries and aid to everyone, until we get our financial house in order. I know one thing. I wouldn't want to give a blank check-and that is what is being given to the local governments of this region-to a group that has proven that they can't even balance a checkbook.
As one political pundit has written(John Fund On the Trail, OpinionJournal.com, 9/12/2005) "what has happened to the Republican wing of the Republican Party"?
Go to the following link and tell congress not to throw your money wastefully at even more pork projects in the name of "Katrina Relief". The site is that of Citizens Against Government Waste. Click on "Help Keep Pork out of Hurricane Relief" and then click on "Action Alert". Then sign the petition. It's that simple!
http://cagw.org
Bush Fails again in Disaster in Los Angeles
A major power outage in Los Angeles today has many wondering if the Federal government is able to respond to a major disaster or terrorist act. The outage knocked out power to thousands and reports have surfaced that hundreds of calls have come in from citizens stranded in elevators all over the famous skyline of the high-rise metropolis. One bystander remarked, "I wonder when Bush is going to do something about this. I just hope FEMMA shows up soon. There could be serious problems here by sundown".
The city is on a Major Alert, shutting down much of the city's services and focusing police attentions on the problems at hand. Obviously traffic, normally calm and trouble-free in this largely pedestrian city, will be adversely affected.
A Los Angeles Department of Water and Power spokesman said that it is unknown how many homes and businesses are affected but the numbers are definitely into the thousands. "We think it is a transmission problem", said Grey Skywalker, Director of Operations in the LADWP, "but it is unclear whether the trigger was global warming due to Bush's failure to sign onto Kyoto, or simply the fact that all of our best electrical engineers are serving over in Iraq".
Sean Penn was filmed dragging a small boat, leaking water through the streets of Hollywood, followed by a personal photographer and a couple of bodyguards. "I am just here to help", the actor/activist said, adding: "I have had to help several people down the stairs in some of these high-rises down here. They had to use the stairs because the elevators don't work. They don't even have elevators, man"! He was spotted removing his heavy flack jacket due to the extreme heat in the air condition-less, hot California afternoon heat.
Nancy Pelosi has called for a bi-partisan, multi-million dollar investigation into who is at fault and why the relief efforts were so tardy. "They say, fool me once shame on you, well I want to say shame on me to President Bush...I mean shame on him...Oh, you know what I mean", the senator exclaimed, obviously stammered by the scope of this tragedy.
The city is on a Major Alert, shutting down much of the city's services and focusing police attentions on the problems at hand. Obviously traffic, normally calm and trouble-free in this largely pedestrian city, will be adversely affected.
A Los Angeles Department of Water and Power spokesman said that it is unknown how many homes and businesses are affected but the numbers are definitely into the thousands. "We think it is a transmission problem", said Grey Skywalker, Director of Operations in the LADWP, "but it is unclear whether the trigger was global warming due to Bush's failure to sign onto Kyoto, or simply the fact that all of our best electrical engineers are serving over in Iraq".
Sean Penn was filmed dragging a small boat, leaking water through the streets of Hollywood, followed by a personal photographer and a couple of bodyguards. "I am just here to help", the actor/activist said, adding: "I have had to help several people down the stairs in some of these high-rises down here. They had to use the stairs because the elevators don't work. They don't even have elevators, man"! He was spotted removing his heavy flack jacket due to the extreme heat in the air condition-less, hot California afternoon heat.
Nancy Pelosi has called for a bi-partisan, multi-million dollar investigation into who is at fault and why the relief efforts were so tardy. "They say, fool me once shame on you, well I want to say shame on me to President Bush...I mean shame on him...Oh, you know what I mean", the senator exclaimed, obviously stammered by the scope of this tragedy.
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