GM and the Imperial Federal Government

Looks like GM is headed for the toilet, as bondholders decided yesterday that they would not accept an offer to convert over $27 billion (yes, billion, with a b) into a 10% ownership stake in the company. They needed 90% approval from the bondholders, and the story in USA Today said that they got 'considerably less' in approval. Can't say I am surprised. You know its a bad sign for the company when people holding debt are too leery to convert any of it into an equity position. If I was them, I probably wouldn't either. And that is mostly because our lovely federal government is involved, taking a stake in the company on behalf of all of us as taxpayers. So we are going to bail out GM instead of letting them fail. Guess what people? We need cars. We always will. If GM goes away, someone else will step in and produce them more efficiently as demand dictates. Instead, we will continue to prop up a failing company with taxpayer money and continue to support a federal government policy to keep idiots in business. In my humble opinion, its all about the union, but that is another story that would take all day.

On a separate note, I am absolutely enthralled with the NBA conference finals right now. I hate the NBA and most of what it represents, but the defense and hard-nosed play comes out in the postseason, and the conference finals have been great, aside from one thing... the officiating. If I hear anyone say that the refs don't have an agenda, I will immediately label you an idiot. Certifiable. I'm sitting here watching the Cavs-Magic in game 5 and I have had to just laugh about 15 times at the calls. LeBron-Kobe in the finals is the mandate, and the refs are doing everything they can (especially in the East) to make sure it happens.

Good Riddance

Famous Republican in name only (RINO) Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania announced today that he would be switching parties, joining his buddies on the Donkey side of the aisle moving forward. He has been a Republican Senator for 29 years. He can say what he wants to, but the main reason he is making the switch in my humble opinion is that he knows that he would lose in the Republican primary to his newest conservative challenger. So instead of standing up and being strong in his stance, he chooses to wuss out and go where winning is easier in his opinion. Pretty gutless move but I expect no more from him. He has long been a stain on the conservative ideals that the Repub's claim to hold dear, so I am glad to see him go. He is one of the three idiot Repubs who voted in favor of Obama/Reid/Pelosi's stimulus plan earlier this year, ensuring that the monstrosity passed in the Senate.

So, in the words of somebody famous... "Don't let the door hit ya where the Good Lord split ya."
Adios.

Reality check for me

Getting away from politics for a few minutes to show some pics of the tornado damage that hit our area last night. The damage occurred less than a 1/4 mile from our house. Pretty amazing considering there was no damage to our neighborhood. My take is that our hood is protected by the mountain that we sit up against. We sit on the northeast side of Sweat Mountain, and the tornado touched down just on the north side of us, as the storm was moving to from the southwest to the northeast pretty rapidly. Luckily, no one was hurt, but according the AJC 12 homes were destroyed and about a hundred damaged....

Tax Day and Tea Party

Well now that is four days past Tax Day, I hope everyone can get back to normal and forget about the little tea parties that took place through many cities and towns across the USA. You know, they were just a bunch of racists and idiots that don't want to pay their 'fair share' of taxes to help support all the unfortunate citizens of this country who just can't seem to get out and get it done for themselves. We should just forget that so many of us lined the streets to demonstrate against the ever increasing power surge of the federal government and the accompanying debt that it is creating.... No, I am not on drugs people. Just having a little sarcastic moment.

Looks like the Tea Parties drew between 520,000 and 580,000 US citizens out to the streets to protest the ways our government is attempting to take over our daily lives. I was in Savannah, GA on Wednesday, and witnessed hundreds of people shouting through the streets and carrying the signs of freedom and liberty. The best part for me was that most of the demonstrators looked like college students and other young people. A little ironic considering how our brainwashing centers (universities) typically get their students involved in liberal movements. It was great to see the excitement and enthusiasm that the crowd brought out. The key to this being a success will be the continued emphasis that we as citizens put on this issue to our local, state, and federal officials, because the main stream media is not going to give this another second of coverage.

Most of the media wants to label the movement as anti-Obama, or racist, or redneck, or whatever other negative label they can make up. At its core, the movement is about getting our government spending under control and doing it now. No more, no less. The federal government is growing every day, and concurrently so is our debt. So thanks to everybody who participated and will continue to fight for our rights of liberty and freedom.

Pay For Performance Bill... yeah right

Take a few minutes and watch this clip of Neil Cavuto from Fox News interviewing the chief sponsor of the Pay for Performance piece of junk. Its amazing how futile arguing with a liberal is. By the way, for those of you in Florida, this man represents a district in your state....

Perusing the news this morning, I came across this little morsel of goodness that we call the Federal Government at its finest. More specifically, our wonderful Congressmen (and Congresswomen, in the name of political correctness) have decided that the American people have empowered them with the right to set limits on compensation for companies receiving taxpayer funding. At first glance, many folks might believe this to be a good thing. But I beg you please to think again. Does anyone that has any desire for personal success want Congress to set pay limits for what we can do? Its fundamentally wrong and goes against all notions of pay for performance (which ironically, is the name of the bill. I guess its Opposite Day), as artificial ceilings on comp do not aid in growth. Who in their right mind would take a job at one of these companies? Quick hint: someone who already works in the most inefficient bureaucracy around.... if you don't know the answer, you haven't been reading this blog. These companies will fail or need even more government intervention to survive because they won't have the best people in place to make it work. And the best people should be compensated the best. Not only that, but the bill sets no standard for excessive pay, as that will be left up to the Treasury Secretary. Are you freaking serious?!! Tim Geithner will be setting pay levels? The man who cheated on his own taxes, who now heads the IRS, who would be open to a world currency that would supplant the dollar and thereby weaken the United States, who formerly headed the FED Reserve New York last year and helped lead the way of this bailout process, etc, etc, etc, this man to set pay for private sector employees? I'm embarassed for any congressperson (I am so politically correct) that think we our dumb enough to think this is good for our country.

G20

Well Happy April Fool's Day to all of you readers out there, or both of you, whatever. I throw this out there to say that what follows is true, not a joke or prank for this fine worldwide holiday. As crazy as it seems, it is real. I don't claim that these people make any sense whatsoever, or that they are being truthful with themselves, but the stories are true nonetheless.

The G-20 Summit is set to meet in London tomorrow to discuss the world's financial crisis and figure out a way for our corrupt and inept governments to solve the problem that they in large part created. Should be interesting to hear how these "leaders" plan to get us back on the track to prosperity.... wait, that is an incorrect statement. Let's rephrase and say... these "leaders" plan to get us on track to complete dependence on government and forget freedom and prosperity. Now that is more like it. With all of these leaders in one place, they make an easy target for protesters from around the globe. According to an AP report, the protest group is filled with "over 4,000 anarchists, anti-capitalists, environmentalists, and others." Read it here (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090401/ap_on_re_eu/g20_protests), or just take my word for it. I can't help but laugh to think that anarchists and anti-capitalists are protesting side by side, because they are polar opposites and probably don't even know it. It seems that all of these activists want to blame the financial services markets and the "greed" of capitalists for the problems we face. What they don't realize is that their governments are the issue, yet they want their governments to control prosperity, so its "fair". Bogus. If these clowns could think through a logical argument instead of throwing tomatoes at banks then they would realize that their prosperity and livelihood is at stake, just not in the way they think. But then again, these are emotionally-driven reactors that wouldn't know how to take real initiative if their life depended on it, which, ironically, it does.

So I'll wait with baited breath to see what these protesters do next, or not. I also look forward to hearing what comes out of the actual meetings tomorrow, or not. Pardon my cynicism today, it must be the fact that I wish this was all just a cruel April Fool's Day joke, but we really are heading straight to the toilet. We have mass hysteria about bankers making profits, we want greater government intervention to make things fair for those who are too lazy, weak, or unmotivated to get ahead in life, and we have world leaders getting together to plot just how to create more dependence on the power centralized in our capitals. Its disgusting yet true, and those of us who actually take initiative to reach our own prosperity are the ones who will be footing the bill for this nonsense. Profit is bad, fairness is good. Individualism and self-reliance have been replaced with collectivism and entitlements. We must no longer think for and of ourselves, because that inflicts damage on others that won't suck it up and go make it on their own. In the name of fairness, let's all concede our liberties and freedom to that monster that is taking more of it each and every day.

Speaking of taking, Tax Day is rapidly approaching. I for one can't wait to give Tim Geithner (who didn't pay his taxes, FYI) and his IRS crew my hard earned dough. But that story will wait for another day.

No Explanation Needed...

Capitol Hill at its finest today

Interesting day today for all of you folks that have been paying attention to this AIG 'bonus' scandal that has CEO Edward Liddy on the hotseat today in front of our fearless idealogues in Congress. Having been in the car for most of the day, I have been tuned into the interogation, and I have come away with a few thoughts and opinions that may differ greatly from that of the general public...which is par for the course my friends.

For one, it appears that Tim Geithner, our esteemed Secretary of the Treasury, knew in advance about the decision to offer and pay out these bonuses to the AIG team. In fact, Geithner was the head of the NY Federal Reserve Bank prior to being nominated and confirmed (unfortunately) to the current post. The NY Fed was the central overseer in the AIG bailout process, and according to Liddy they were intimately involved in all decision making activities. So, the same man who now renounces AIG for their bonus payouts was not only privy to this info months ago but could have actually prevented it in the first place. But what else would you expect from a guy who cheats on his taxes and now heads up the IRS? One word comes to mind, and its incompetence. But then again, that is not correct either. He is likely very competent. A better word would be arrogance, maybe elitist, definitely hypocrite, etc. So let's scratch that one-word attempt, as there are too many labels that fit this guy.

Another thing I love ('love' actually meaning despise, for those of you who don't catch my sarcasm so easily in written terms) is the arrogance of our Congressional leaders to sit up there and grandstand before the cameras and pontificate to AIG and the American public about how to run their business. Let's see, our national debt is what?... 9 trillion, give or take a few zeros. And what else... oh, right, our Congress got us into this mess as much as any company did by pushing legislation that interfered with free market principles (Community Reinvestment Act ring a bell?). Barney Frank et al sit there and ridicule Liddy while taking no responsibility for the vast impact they had in creating this mess in the first place. Frank went so far as to demand a list of names of all employees who received these bonuses to ensure that they get paid back! Is he going to pay back all of us taxpayers for the pork he has redistributed to his constituents? Not likely. And its the same concept. Taking money from the American taxpayers and giving it to someone else. Hell, if Frank can do it, why can't AIG? Nothing in the contract with the NY Fed said they couldn't pay these bonuses. I'd venture a wild guess to say that AIG has done a better job of cleaning itself up the past eight months than any pork spending project Frank has taken. Its utter hypocrisy at the grandest level, and its events like this charade that continually convince me that we need a wave of new representatives at all levels that work for the people rather than for themselves.

Weekend Rants

The DOW is up 10% this week. Good news. Its the biggest gains for this down market since last year, so that is a good sign.... for now. We'll see what happens next week. Its beyond my comprehension to understand the volatility of an entire market based upon one or two news releases. In this case, it was CitiBank and Bank of America reporting first quarter profits so far this year. Who knows what info will come out next week. I'm not holding my breath.

It looks like the majority of the American people are finally coming around to seeing our federal government for what it is becoming... a giant, entitlement system. According to a Fox News poll, 77% of Americans believe that Obama DOES IN FACT believe in bigger government, despite his strong statements that he does not. Furthermore, 56% of those polled think our government is too big and that we should be paying lower taxes for a smaller government. This brings up an interesting irony. Most Americans want smaller government, but we elected a man to the presidency and gave more power in Congress to leaders who openly seek to empower our national government to levels we have never seen in our republic. My belief is that most voters were so turned off by Bush and his policies that they wanted something different, no matter what the outcome. And now we are going to have to reap the consequences for the balance of this term. Hopefully, this majority of voters will wise up and begin electing fiscally responsible leaders into office in November of 2010 that can bring our government back down to reality.

Here is some bad news... It looks like the economic woes we are facing will have a negative impact on the number of employees wasting time and money over the next few weeks watching the NCAA basketball tournament. March Madness usually results in billions of dollars of lost productivity, according to the watch dogs who research this, but they say that workers this year will likely be too scared of losing of their jobs to play hooky for a few days to enjoy the best two weeks of sports that the US has to offer. I look at it this way, though. Unemployment is at a decade-long high, so there will be more of us glued to our flat screen HDTV's that we can't afford anymore sitting on our couches soaking up the action. Might as well enjoy it while we can. Gotta love this country.

Typical

Listening to Herman Cain filling in for Neal Boortz this past Friday, and I wanted to share a nice little story about the conversation he had with a caller. A man called in and asked why guys like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have not come out freaking out about Obama's tax plans for those earning over $250,000 a year. He said that if these guys are not moaning and groaning about having to pay more in taxes, then why is everybody freaking out about this little thing called 'redistribution of wealth?' The great thing is, this guy asks this question without any hint of sarcasm. He really believed that there was nothing wrong with his belief?

Luckily, Mr. Cain was on top of his game as usual, and proceeded to explain to the guy the ramifications of taxing our top producers beyond the current %'s. He mentioned that over 40% of Americans earning over 250k are run small businesses. They are not actors, athletes, or entertainers. They are the men and women that create jobs for the rest of us, and produce the goods and services that we use on a daily basis. I'd like to find someone that supports this tax policy to debate the merits of our tax system and how it works. I cannot find any logic whatsoever behind the new policies. We are heading even closer towards a system that completely spits in the face of individualism and success and rewards those who accomplish nothing. And the saddest irony of the situation is that these bottom-feeders that expect our taxpayers to fork over even more of our hard-earned income cannot understand the consequences of the proposed tax policies. We have crippled those even further who need opportunity rather than a handout. Keep 'em on the government dole, and keep 'em in the voting booths.

Let's create a system that rewards achievement and presents greater opportunity for more of us to get our share of the pie by EARNING IT. Let's support policies that promote economic growth through sustainable growth. Let's build our economy in a way that those who are 'underachievers' have the chance to get in the game through hard work and education, rather than through entitlements and stealing through excessive taxation from those who have done their part. Keep this up and we aren't going to have any achievers left to take from.

Kyoto Treaty and Global Warming Hypocrites

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/03/the_heat_is_on_true_believers.html

The above link is an article written in the New York Times about the hypocrisy and two-faced lying surrounding the majority of the member nations that signed the Kyoto Accord a few years back. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the treaty was designed to curb global greenhouse emissions and make our environment cleaner, or at least that is what they will tell you. In reality ( or at least my take on reality) the treaty was designed to slow down economic growth in this little place called the United States of America. GW opposed it, and our Senate voted 95-0 against it when Clinton was still in office. When countries like China and India would be exempt from the same standards that the US would face, why would they agree to it? If you don't feel like clicking the link and reading the article, the best quote is this...

The author of the article, NY Times writer Debra Saunders, asked the UN Secretary General why China was exempt, he stated, "that America has a "historical responsibility" to cut emissions, while China and India 'have their own positions.' Like the Kyoto crowd, Ban emitted more political ideology than science."

Let's just be honest people. We all need to be responsible with our actions, and do as much to conserve as is economically feasible. But the 'Green' movement is political, not environmental. Our environmentalists are really socialist wolves wrapped in the sheep's clothing of those concerned about our natural habitat. They want to weaken American influence. If they really cared about our environment, wouldn't they want to require that the largest producer of CO2 emissions, China, have just as stringent rules as we do? And to make matters worse, a large number of participating nations aren't even close to meeting their required greenhouse gas reductions. But who am I to question this movement? I'm just a heartless American capitalist polluter.

Spending Frenzy II: Because one was not enough

So now that The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has hit the American people, the House decided that while they were at it, let's go ahead and add even more programs and pet projects into the newest version of the "omnibus" spending bill. I mean, when you have already spent nearly $800,000,000,000, (yes folks, that is alot of zeroes), then what is another $410,000,000,000? For you non-math majors, that is over 1.2 trillion dollars... for effect, 1,200,000,000,000. In fact, our federal government this year will run a deficit of over 1 trillion dollars. Could you imagine if we as consumers ran deficits that great? Actually, % wise, some of us probably are, but hey, we are learning how to spend from our elected leaders, so I guess that makes it ok.... right.

What makes me the maddest of all though is the amount of pork, earmarks, waste, BS, whatever you want to call it, that this bill contains. According to the Taxpayer for Common Sense, the bill contains over 8,500 earmarks for special projects that total almost $8,000,000,000 in spending.
http://www.taxpayer.net/resources.php?category=&type=Project&proj_id=1961&action=Headlines%20By%20TCS

And according to my favorite talking head Glenn Beck (5pm on Fox News every weekday. Watch it and learn something new), nearly 60% of the pork represents Democrat pet projects. That means that 40% of the pork belongs to none other than the conservative-minded, small government chanting REPUBLICANS!!!!!!! They make me sick. Bobby Jindal goes before the nation Tuesday to give the Repub response to Obama's address, and specifically talks about the Republicans being the party of change to a smaller, more efficient federal government, and then two days later we read about the passed budget. I am disgusted with all of them. Except for my congressman, Tom Price, who was one of the few House members to officially commit to zero pork projects. Good for him and the others who have a backbone, but I'd like to see the rest of those hypocritical goons booted out of office.

And while a little pet project here or there may seem to be reasonable, it is downright wrong at its very essence. Why should my tax dollars fund a nature preserve in southern Mississippi? (one of the Republican earmarks in this bill) If that city or town or county wants a nature preserve, then raise the money locally. Put it up for a referendum and let the local taxpayers decide if they really want the preserve that badly instead of trying to hide it in a monstrous bill that most congressmen won't even read.

I could harp on this topic for hours to come, but its Saturday. Enough for now. Have a great weekend people. Go out and run up your credit cards today. I'm sure your dear Congressman will find a way to bail you out too.

Spending Frenzy

I don't know if any of you watched Obama's address to Congress on Tuesday night, but I found myself glued to the TV for the duration of the event. Not because I was so enthralled with excitement about hearing Obama speak, but because I was in such disbelief of what I was hearing. Even though he was constantly interrupted by Pelosi et al and their wide-grinned, thunderous ovations, I think I was able to hear most of the statements that came out of his mouth (More on Pelosi and her botox-induced permasmile another time).

A couple of key points that I will go into more detail on in upcoming posts:

• Obama claimed that he did not want to increase the size of the federal government. I'm not sure how he is going to back that up when his plans call for increased oversight into health care, increased financial services oversight (not to mention the fact that our government, aka you and me, is buying ownership into the private banks), taxpayer-funded R&D on energy reform, etc etc.
  
• Obama said that credit is the lifeblood of our economy. Unfortunately, at this point he is correct, but this has to be changed. I can't wait to write about this one.
• He wants to give tax breaks to 95% of Americans, of which nearly 47% don't pay taxes now, and increase taxes on income earners above 250k, and somehow cut our federal deficit in half. So let me get this straight. He will tax the producers in our economy more heavily, redistribute that wealth to citizens who pay nothing (redistribution of wealth, anyone?), increase spending 2 fold, and somehow cut our deficit in half. I was not a math major, but the numbers don't add up.
  
• He spoke often about three critical areas of concern for our future: education, energy management, and health care overhaul. While I agree that these three areas are of utmost importance, I can't agree that his solutions will be the best solutions for any of them.

What makes matters worse is that Bobby Jindal's Republican response was.... not good. As much as I respect Louisiana's Governor, his performance was forced and came across a bit hollow. If it did not resonate with me, I can't see how others to the left of me would have bought into it.

New and Improved

I know its been a few months since I have posted anything, and I apologize to all three of you reading this for the lack of reading material I have provided. I needed a bit of a break, although I can't really tell you why. As you can see, if you are on this page, I changed up the blog address to more accurately describe what it is you will find on here. While I will still post every so often about the Braves, college hoops, and anything Stewie Griffin, the bulk of my postings moving forward will be focused on some of the fundamental and challenging issues that we as Americans need to better understand. Over the past few months, my eyes have been opened to so many critical issues that I have previously just glossed over and failed to truly understand. And with our current socio-economic ups and downs (mostly downs right now), we all need a dose of reality regarding our country's leadership plans, and what kind of impact these plans will have on our future for years to come.

If past history is any indicator of our future, we all need to "re-learn" many of the facts about our system of government and free enterprise that we have been taught and accepted as truth. America is changing, and we have an opportunity to either take part in shaping that change, or to sit back and watch as others change it for us, for better or for worse. With so much going on today, it is vital that we at least understand the true consequences of our decisions and the decisions that others are making for us.

So I am setting out to accomplish a few things. One, to have a forum to write about whatever I choose to. Gotta love the first amendment. Two, to bring up issues that I believe to be important to all of us, and show you how they are relevant. Three, make you think. And hopefully agitate you in some way as well.

Enjoy.