To Whatever Liberals, Progressives, & Obama Supporters It May Apply, I Want a Divorce

 

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al: 

We have stuck together since the late 1950’s, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has run its course. Our two ideological sides of  America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right so let’s just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and each go our own way.

 

In anticipation of such an action, here is a model separation agreement: 

 

Our two groups can equitably divide up this country by landmass each taking a portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes. 

 

We don’t like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. Since you hate guns and war, we’ll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military. You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O’Donnell (You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them).

 

We’ll keep the capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street…. You can have your beloved  homeboys, hippies and illegal aliens. We’ll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO’s and rednecks. We’ll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and  Hollywood .  

 

You can make nice with  Iran and  Palestine and we’ll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us. You can have the peaceniks and war protesters.

 

When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we’ll help provide them security.

 

We’ll keep our Judeo-Christian values.. You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism and Shirley McClain. You can also have the U.N.. but we will no longer be paying the bill. 

 

We’ll keep the SUVs, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every  Volkswagen you can find.  

 

We’ll keep The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the National Anthem. I’m sure you’ll be happy to substitute Imagine, I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing, Kum Ba Ya or We Are the World.  

 

We’ll practice trickle down economics and you can give trickle up poverty your best shot. Since it often so offends you, we’ll keep our history, our name and our flag.

 

Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other like-minded liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly parting, I’ll bet you  which one of us will need the others help in 15 years.   

 

 Sincerely,  

 John J. WallLaw Student and an American  

 

P.S. Also, please take Barbara Streisand & Jane Fonda with you.

 

Here a Trillion, There a Trillion

 

 

A budget of 3.6 TRILLION dollars was passed yesterday on Capitol Hill. 

We pledged to contribute to another TRILLION dollars to the IMF at the G-20 summit. 

We are throwing hundreds of billions of dollars each week, it seems, to BAIL-OUT (not recovery and re-investment) yet another company that is deemed “too big to fail”.  In the process, we are now also seeing the government step into the fray in the attempt to legislate the salaries of private citizens.

Our calculators do not even go up to a trillion.

We are throwing around money like it’s a bizarre monopoly game and it’s not real to any of us.  It’s so far out of the realm of imagining for any average/normal American, that it’s like dealing in fantasy.  I’m not sure that even the politicians doling out our grandchildren’s future have any true concept of the true amount involved.  It’s mind boggling to even consider.

…and yet, we “spend” (at least on paper) more and more each day to “solve” our problems.  Nevermind the problems that we are creating in the process.  The current theory is that we’ll deal with those potential problems when we have to. 

It seems that Scarlett O’Hara’s reasoning has taken over Washington and the Congress and administration, along with many Americans, are now thinking…

“Oh, I can’t think about this now! I’ll go crazy if I do! I’ll think about it tomorrow. But I must think about it. I must think about it. What is there to do? What is there that matters?  After all, tomorrow is another day!”

 

 

To put the concept of exactly how much a TRILLION dollars is into perspective, here are 15 Trivia facts about what that amount of “play” money could do…

 

A trillion dollars, in one-dollar bills, lined up end to end, can circle the earth about 3800 times.

A trillion dollars, single-stacked in one-dollar bills, would stand about 679,000 miles high; almost three times farther than the moon.

A trillion dollars worth of pennies, stacked in a single stack, would reach about 79,000,000 miles high; over three-quarters of the distance to the sun.

A trillion dollars, laid out flat with one-dollar bills, would cover an area of nearly 4000 square miles; nearly enough to cover the state of Delaware, not once, but twice; and it could cover Washington D.C. with about 2 1/2 inches of one-dollar bills.

A trillion dollars, strung end to end across the United States and stacked in a single-line stack, would build a wall 115 feet high across the country.

A trillion dollars, even in 100 dollar bills, stacked in a single stack, would reach over 6700 miles high.

A trillion dollars, in 100 dollar bills, lined up end to end, would circle the globe about 39 times.

To spend a trillion dollars in one year, you would have to spend $2,739,726,027.39 each and every day.

To spend a trillion dollars in ten years, you would have to spend $273,972,602.73 each and every day.

To spend a trillion dollars in an average lifetime (72 years), you would have to spend $38,051,750.38 each and every day.

The weight of a trillion dollars, in one-dollar bills, is about 1,093,750 tons; about as much as 15 Queen Elizabeth II cruise ships (Gross Tonnage). 

A trillion dollars in one-dollar bills would take about 32,000 years to count, assuming a counting rate of a dollar per second, and counting for 24 hours each day, seven days a week.  No food, no sleep, no breaks.

A trillion dollars in one-dollar bills, placed on the center line of America’s nearly 4 million miles of roadways in a single-line stack, would create a stack over 1 1/2 inches thick, or 38 layers.

A trillion dollars could purchase over 3 million of the most expensive Rolls Royce autos.

A trillion dollars could purchase over 2.5 million of the most expensive Lamborghini sports cars.

 

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Money, Money, Money  by Abba

 

I work all night, I work all day, to pay the bills I have to pay
Ain’t it sad
And still there never seems to be a single penny left for me
That’s too bad
In my dreams I have a plan
If I got me a wealthy man
I wouldn’t have to work at all, I’d fool around and have a ball…

Money, money, money
Must be funny
In the rich man’s world
Money, money, money
Always sunny
In the rich man’s world
Aha-ahaaa
All the things I could do
If I had a little money
It’s a rich man’s world

A man like that is hard to find but I can’t get him off my mind
Ain’t it sad
And if he happens to be free I bet he wouldn’t fancy me
That’s too bad
So I must leave, I’ll have to go
To Las Vegas or Monaco
And win a fortune in a game, my life will never be the same…

Money, money, money
Must be funny
In the rich man’s world
Money, money, money
Always sunny
In the rich man’s world
Aha-ahaaa
All the things I could do
If I had a little money
It’s a rich man’s world

Let Me Be Clear…As Mud

 

“Let me be clear, the government has no interest in running GM or the car industry. The government has no intention of running GM.”

Translation:  Well, other than firing the CEO, telling them what to cars to make, mandating a merger with an overseas company, having government backed warranties and withholding any more funds if you don’t do everything we tell you to do, the way we tell you to do it…we won’t be running the car industry.  Of course none of that would fall into the category of full oversight of the company, does it?

As a country, we have been edging down a slippery slope for weeks now.  The pace is picking up and we are now starting a full blown slide down said slope and straight to hell in a handbasket.  The question many of us are starting to have is, where will it all end?  Will it end at all or is this just beginning of a fundamental change in our country and of the constitution set up to define it.  We are approaching or already in very dangerous territory and not even pretending to tread lightly anymore.

The firing (okay, technically if we use the administration’s current wordplay game of semantics, the “strong suggestion that he should step aside”) of GM CEO Rick Wagoner today signals a shot across the bow to American companies, both private and public.  If you accept or are forced into taking government funds, your job security is now dependant on the whim of those in Washington.  We are putting CEO’s and boards of companies, private and public alike, on notice.  If the powers that be don’t agree with the way you run your business, with the products you produce or in your plans to restructure the company, all bets are off.  You can now be taken over by the federal government.

There is a lot of blame/credit to go around on every side.  This is not a partisan issue.   In the car industry and large financial firms especially, the rousing battle cry of a company being “too big to fail” is what caused a lot of the chaos we have gone through and have yet to experience.  That premise has proven to be a fallacy in thinking.  In the case of GM and AIG in particular, after sinking billions upon billions of dollars into the death stars of these corporations, the only option for GM still may be to declare bankruptcy and restructure as they should have months ago.  AIGwas the poster child for public outcry last week as Congress on both sides of the aisle, whipped up outrage and mob mentality as a means of diversion over bonuses that were paid.  The only problem was, many of those so outraged in the Administration, Congress and the Treasury Department, knew of the bonuses to come ahead of time and tacitly signed off on them weeks before they were given out.   When the constituency was paying attention and started an outcry, then the backpedaling and un-constitutional passage of a tax bill by the House occurred.  Bus tours were arranged by an offshoot of ACORN to intimidate executives scared for their families to give back money that everyone in power knew they were going to receive.

Over the past 2 to 3 decades, we have all experienced and enjoyed the times of excess run amok in our society.  Many of us learned to live above our means rather than to stay within our attainable financial boundaries.  We became spoiled and used to having all we needed or being able to attain it through credit lines that freely flowed.  We had a false sense of security and thought our lives would never change.

Corporations in America and around the world were no different.  As long as the profits were flowing in, everyone prospered and took full advantage of the times.  The fat cats lived high on the hog and every angle was worked to it’s full advantage even by the most casual investor.  We were told that the Stock Market was golden and the only way to go in saving for retirement was through our 401 K’s.

Then things ground to a halt.  The market started the plummet to half it’s former glory.  Credit dried up.  Everyone panicked.  The world markets also started to show the cracks that had been hidden for years.  Jobs were slashed at an alarming rate even in industries that had been considered untouchable in the past.  Spending, by necessity, also had to be curtailed as we all learned our lives as we had been living them, had changed.

As in any situation, as we are finding out, if you put a harsh light on a problem, it’s many imperfections and flaws start to show.  Many of the companies that for years appeared to be bastions of stability, have been revealed to have been concealing many fissures and fatal flaws that were allowed to get worse over many years.  Any  house of cards, when it gets high enough, will tumble to the ground if the underlying structure is not sound.  Tumble we did and we are still in free fall.

So with today’s actions, not only was free enterprise and capitalism put on notice in America, we as citizens were too.  If we are smart, we will sit up and take notice and continue to pay attention to each little bit of control being given over to the government.  The bits and pieces of what are seemingly small things right now, will start to add up.  Left unchecked, we will surely look back in a few years and wonder where our country and freedoms went.

 

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”  Lord Acton, 1887

Nailing Jello To A Tree

 

Anyone listening to Timothy Geithner testify this morning to the Senate Financial Services Committee has to have the image of nailing jello to a tree come to mind.  Okay, maybe you have to be Southern or a bit strange to have that particular thought, but you get the idea.  It’s a perfect description of what is occurring in the dog and pony show of the day playing out on Capitol Hill today.

To their credit, some legislators are starting to get it or appear to be getting at least an inkling of what “it” is.  Maybe it’s just their self-preservation gene kicking into high gear, but perhaps a few of them are also starting to see the light of day.  Hope springs eternal, but surely SOME of them will realize we are all up the creek without so much as a paddle, much less a rudder to steer us and we’re heading for the falls.

It’s more and more clear however, that the administration has no direction nor concept of what the American people are thinking.  The news today that Mr. Geithner was going to seek broad new powers to regulate non-bank financial companies should be chilling to us all. 

Geithner joined Bernanke in calling for greater governmental authority over complicated and troubled financial companies…power they likened to the authority wielded over banks by the FDIC. That includes the power to seize control of institutions, take over their bad loans and other illiquid assets and sell good ones to competitors as they see fit.  All designed of course, to save us from ourselves.

Here’s an idea.  Just STOP!  Freeze!  Don’t pass go or collect another gazillion dollars.

Give ANY of the few dozen ideas and trillions of imaginary dollars yet to be printed but already thrown into the economy time to percolate and see if they have any effect at all.  To constantly dodge and weave by shifting direction and message without letting anything work through the system, is a process doomed to fail.  To THEN make the next move before anything already done can produce results, is simply ludicrous.

It makes no sense at all to keep confusing, avoiding or adding to the initial problem.  We’re trying to fix the credit crunch, the housing industry meltdown, national health care, energy consumption, unemployment, and anything else in the kitchen sink all at the same time.  Next we’ll be worried about price gouging on the price of tea in China or in fixing the relationships of psychotic Hollywood starlets.

Work on the most immediate problem first.  Pay it more than lip service.  Don’t just throw money we don’t have at the wall to see what sticks.  Think a plan through all the way for once, from start to finish..with actual details and step by step contingency plans. 

I was a computer science major and geek before it was cool to be a computer geek, years before the age of personal computers.  We had to learn how to make a flowchart before we began to program.  We were taught to think in a linear manner from point A to point B to point C and allow for variables along the way.  The end result however, was a fixed point and destination.  There was order..it made sense.

Let’s get back to basics.  The old ways are sometimes best.  I tell my students all the time that I have no problem if they use a calculator or a computer for work or research.  The one catch I give them is this…you can only use the tools that make it faster and easier to get the work done, IF you already know HOW to do it without using them.  You have to know and learn the process before you start to take shortcuts. 

We’ve made things too easy or too quick for too long.  We’ve lost our basic skills and let the machine overtake us rather than paying attention and keeping watch.  It’s time to backtrack.  It’s time to re-learn to do things the right way.

It’s time to stop trying to push through agendas.

This is a matter of survival, not time for Romper Room game time.

Quit trying to nail jello to a tree and take a stand without being slimy or trying to wiggle out of a definitive answer.

Take a stand.  Then even if you’re wrong, you don’t end up looking like a weenie.

All Along The Watchtower

 

Each and every morning I wake to the news that yet another attempt to strip away the “rights” we take for granted as Americans is slowly being planned by the current administration.  With each fresh news cycle, more plans are unveiled that prove just how little regard the man we elected to be our President has for our way of life and for our country.  He is proving to have no loyalty but to himself and his agendas.   Agendas that are put forth as being for our own good and designed to “save” us from ourselves.  We’re told that we can’t possibly understand all the intricacies of whatever crisis of the day is being flailed at by those in charge.

For a liberal administration that preaches it’s abhorrence to torture, it seems that doesn’t apply to the American citizens.  Of course we’re not under a police state or in danger of being taken away in the middle of the night (yet) and it’s inconceivable that we ever would be.  The only problem with that theory is, there are so many basic tenants of our everyday life under assault that I never in my wildest dreams would have considered now happening, that I’m not sure anything is inconceivable anymore.

What is happening  is a death of our liberties by a thousand tiny cuts, which in my mind, amounts to the same thing as torture to all that makes our country what it was founded to be.  We count on our right to free speech without retribution.  We depend on our right to free enterprise and in return the equal right of success or failure.  We expect to be treated as adults and be able to make our own choices as to our health care and how or if we want to make a difference and contribute to those less fortunate.  We insist on the right to choose our own religion and worship how we see fit or not worship at all if we don’t find a reason to believe in a higher being.

All of these things are the threads that our founding fathers wove together to make our country into a wonderful, at times messy, mosaic of patterns and rhythms unlike any other country in the world.  They are part of what makes us resilient and sometimes called arrogant by the rest of the world, and yet, people from all over the world fight to live here and earn their chance at a better life.  As a country, we can be very selfish at times, but when push comes to shove, we always rise to the occasion and give of our resources and many times our manpower to aid those around the world in need.

We are far from a perfect country.  Anyone that proclaims in their personal life or in regard to our nation, that change never needs to occur, is a fool.  Change is necessary to growth.  Change isn’t always comfortable, but as long as it’s positive, it works out for the best over time.

Change just for the sake of change however, can be destructive.  Change when it contains the agenda of a few being imposed by force on the many, is dangerous.  Change when it alters the basic foundations of what our country was founded on, will erode some of the basic principles of life we count on. 

The things we need to fiercely protect with every fiber of our being are the less tangible ones, the things that we cannot always reach out and touch.  Those can start to slip away slowly..quietly..without much notice or fanfare, until we wake up one day and find we no longer have the comfort of feeling secure or safe in our own homes in our own country.  If we do not stand up and be counted against the assault on the rights afforded to us by the Constitution, our children will grow up in a much more oppressive and scary country…one we won’t recognize.

Yes, we’re all hurting due to the economy.  It’s frightening to not know what is around the corner.  We need to remember that things like income are fleeting and tend to ebb and flow with time and circumstance.  This is a time to get back to some of the basic principles of family that have been lost over the past few decades in favor of excess.  This is a time of opportunity to rediscover what should have been truly important to us all along and learn to get along or make do without all the static that has been clogging up our lives in the recent past. 

A lot of us that are in our 40’s and 50’s need to remember our own simpler childhoods and teach our children and grandchildren the pleasures we enjoyed growing up that didn’t require money or electronics to occupy our time.  We need to learn how to interact with each other on a personal level again, without throwing money at a problem.  Here’s an idea, throw your time and attention at things instead.  Start to pay attention to the world and people around you.

We are resilient people, but in these times, we also have to be resolute in our determination to rebuild our country in it’s own image.  We have to fight, be vigilant and not give away our liberties in favor of letting the government overtake every part of our lives, privacy and freedoms.  We are writing our country’s history and we better not screw it up.

Instead of using the catch phrase of a company being “too big to fail”, we need to remember first and foremost that our COUNTRY and it’s ideals are too IMPORTANT to fail.

Is The Shine Starting to Wear Off The Obama Apple?

Taking a stand for your beliefs does not make it a racial issue.  Race has nothing at all to do with this decision..lack of performance by the potential honoree does. 

I applaud the courage and decision of the Georgia Legislature to stand up for principle rather than kissing butt for political correctness.  “If you don’t stand up for something, you’ll fall for anything” is a policy more of us will have to adopt and put into practice in the coming years if our country has any chance to get back on the path of leadership, respect and prosperity.

So far, Mr. Obama has not demonstrated either an unimpeachable reputation for integrity, nor shown a propensity for vision or passion for anything other than his own agenda, come hell or high water.  He has not earned the hollow honor that was being sought to be passed blindly through for appearance sake. 

The first 2 full months of his administration (and the prior 2 months where he was in the “office of the President-Elect *rolling my eyes) have been an unmitigated mess of confusion and dysfunction.  A chaotic mix of finger pointing, miscues and excuses.  There has been a litany of back door legislation that they hoped would fly under the radar rather than attracting media or public attention.  Back door politics and not a sign of hope or change.  Heck, he even told us today not to expect too much from our government.  It’s not like they are supposed to lead the country or anything.

Bravo!

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Ga. House Republicans Block Obama Honor

Posted: 4:21 pm EDT March 19, 2009

ATLANTA — The Georgia House voted against approving a resolution that would have honored President Barack Obama and praised him for being a politician with an “unimpeachable reputation for integrity, vision and passion.” 

The 70-68 vote Thursday infuriated members of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus, who designed the proposal to make him an honorary member of the group. State Rep. Keith Heard, D-Athens, said “it makes you wonder what exactly is going on in Georgia.” 

The measure was blocked by a group of House Republicans, including state Rep. Austin Scott of Tifton. Scott objected to wording in the resolution that he said suggested the entire House approved of the President’s actions.

 

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/18968902/detail.html

Get Your Money for Nothin’ and Your Chicks for free?

Today at a town hall meeting in California, President Obama told adoring crowds of kool-aid drinkers people gathered to pay homage to him,  not expect too much out of our government.  He continued to lecture a school teacher in the audience who asked a question about lost jobs that “Nothing is free”.  Oh, I must have made a mistake.  I thought I heard him say a few hundred times how education is a priority.

Huh?  EXCUSE ME??

All of this is coming from the man that ran on the platform of HOPE AND CHANGE and told the masses that he was going to save them?  The man that traveled around the country building false hope that the government WAS going to save them…that HE was going to be the solution to all our problems if we would just let him have free reign is now telling us not to expect too much?  Hey, this job is HARD! 

I swear the top of my head is going to explode before we get through the first 100 days of Mr. Obama’s term.

Let’s review a bit, shall we? (just some of the most pertinent points, I promise)

Today he said…”We are not always going to be right,” he said. “And I don’t want everybody disappointed if we make a mistake.”    “A” mistake??  Singular?  SERIOUSLY??  Has he been paying attention at all to what has happened in less than 60 days from his swearing in?

Oh wait, he’s been too busy firing up Airforce One every chance he gets because he feels “trapped” in the White House.  On Valentine’s Day weekend when he had just given yet another lecture/speech to the nation over the urgency of passing into law the massive bill that Congress didn’t even have time to read, he took FIVE days before he signed it before every TV camera available.  Date night in Chicago with the Mrs. is clearly more important than the nation’s economy.  Yeah, that conveys confidence.

Tim Geithner was the “only man” that can lead us out of the economic crisis/catastrophe the country finds itself in.  Oh, that little tax problem he had?  Ignore it…it’s of no consequence for the man that we’re going to appoint to be the head of the IRS.  Now Senators and others in power are calling for his head.  Ummmm..he’s also working alone in the Treasury Department (when the most important thing in the world is the economy) because they can’t find anyone willing to work in this environment, and the ones that are willing can’t pass the smell test. 

I won’t even MENTION the other appointees that have imploded for various vetting issues.  I’d think that might qualify as an embarrasment, but apparently not for this administration.  Call me crazy, but I consider staffing the positions and support positions in government a priority.  To me, staffing the government just might trump filling out the March Madness brackets…but that’s just me.

I also not going to go into the dog and pony show the past couple of days on Capitol Hill that has employed smoke and mirrors and finger pointing to try and deflect the people’s growing anger with the lack of attention to details with our bailout money.  That pesky unconstitutional bill the Congress passed today in regards to taxing said bonus money?  Oh well, what do we need a Constitution for anyway?  It’s not like we need protection from misuse of authority or our personal freedoms guaranteed, now do we?  (and for the record, the bonuses piss me off mightily, BUT they were approved by law and the lack of oversight.  You can’t take your ball and change the rules of the game mid-stream because you screwed the pooch)

Oh Mr. Obama, I resolve to be patient and not expect too much from my government.  I know that you’ve got more important things to do.  Why it’s not easy continuing on the campaign trail even though you’ve already been annointed..ummm..elected.  I realize old habits die hard and it’s all you really know how to do well (other than reading off a teleprompter).  So of COURSE we’ll cut you some slack.

I KNOW that appearing as the first sitting President on a late night entertainment talk show HAS to take priority.  After all, you’re in the process of dumbing down and rubbing the decorum off the office of the President of the United States.  That little bitty gaffe in protocol and bit of tackiness with Gordon Brown and his wife was obviously just an anomaly.  Oh wait, there have been several other “lapses” in that silly decorum stuff and tradition from the leader of the free world.  Tonight you even managed to insult the disabled in an attempt to be cute.  Oh, no matter, that stuff isn’t really important is it??

 I obviously don’t have the “patience and forbearance” that our President is asking of us.  I see people hurting and that pain getting deeper as Washington, Republicans and Democrats alike, are contributing to with their wild flailing and directionless agendas.  We have been told of the urgency of the problem over and over again during the past few months, yet we’re concerned with nationalizing health care or harnessing the wind to add to a massive deficit coming down the pike.

Now apparently, we have to be patient while they print more money and throw it at our problems..no matter that they are devaluating the dollar in the process and heading us into inflation as well.  In the meantime, we should lower our expectations and find a way to dig ourselves out of the hole.  Ignore those pesky unusually large deficits and that ridiculous pork ridden budget of full of liberal agendas destined to bankrupt us further. 

Are we expected to now simply learn to be a good “new” American..sit down, shut up and do as we’re told?  Just succumb to the intimidation from those that are still under the hypnotic non-thinking mode and follow their lead, lest you be mocked and shamed.  No questions or criticism allowed.  To not go along with the game plan is simply not patriotic, you know! Shame on you!  Just pay your increased taxes and be happy!!

In the meantime, sit back and enjoy the smooth stylings of our new Commander-in-Entertainer as he mixes his unique brand of cockiness with humility and gives us pithy comments on late night TV.  It’s not like he’s needed in Washington attending to business or at least pretending to run the government.   Right??

He must have discovered all that icky work stuff is no fun and one more thing above his pay grade.

Why should we be worried?

 

(Mr. Obama and I were born in the same year, so we grew up and were influenced by the same world events and music.  Perhaps this song is stuck in his head..perchance it could become his new theme song)

 

MONEY FOR NOTHING – DIRE STRAITS

I want my, I want my MTV….

Now look at them yo-yo’s
That’s the way you do it
You play the guitar on the MTV

That ain’t working
That’s the way you do it
Money for nothing
And your chicks for free

Now that ain’t working
That’s the way you do it
Lemme tell you, them guys ain’t dumb
Maybe get a blister on your little finger
Maybe get a blister on your thumb

We gotta install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We got to move these refrigerators

We got to move these color TV’s

See the little faggot
With the earring and the makeup
Yeah buddy, that’s his own hair
The little faggot got his own jet airplane
The little faggot, he’s a millionaire

Got to install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We’ve got to move these refrigerators
We got to move these color TV’s

Move-a, move-a, huh

Got to install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We’ve got to move these refrigerators
We got to move these color TV’s

Lookie here, looka
I shoulda learned
To play the guitar
I shoulda learned
To play them drums
Look at that mama
She got it sticking in the camera
Man, we could have some fun

And he’s up there
What’s that, Hawaiian noises
He’s banging on the bongos
Like a chimpanzee

Oh, that ain’t working
That’s the way you do it
Get your money for nothing
Get your chicks for free

We gotta install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We got to move these refrigerators
We got to move these color TV’s

Listen here
Now that ain’t working
That’s the way you do it
You play the guitar on your MTV

That ain’t working
That’s the way you do it
Money for nothing
And your chicks for free
Money for nothing
Chicks for free

Get your money for nothing
And your chicks for free
Money for nothing………

Look at that, look at that
I want my, I want my
I want my TV………

That ain’t working

Come One, Come All..The New Heights of Absurdity in Politics

Step right up, and don’t be shy!!  You won’t believe your eyes!  Let’s turn our side show into the main attraction!

Come one, come all to the greatest show on earth!

Much like the walking the midway at the county fair, the side show barkers in Washington are turning the government into what amounts to a three ring circus.   There are bizarre shows and distractions aplenty as you wander down the midway that call out for attention on the way to the main attraction now beginning under the Big Top.   The clowns are piling into the itty bitty car in preparation for the big show to come.

 Between all the companies that are too big to fail, stimulus packages that are too urgent to read before passing, and senate committee hearings being held solely to point fingers for the cameras with pseudo outrage that is a day late and several billion (trillion) dollars short, the goings on in our government would be almost entertaining if it wasn’t all so tragic in it’s scope and the irreversible damage that is being done to our country.  The finger pointing and flailing financial free-for-all occurring right now is unprecedented, even by modern political standards.  Anyone with half a brain knows, if you keep putting enough stress on a situation, something’s gotta give and it’s most likely not going to be pretty when it all explodes.

Yesterday I sat and watched with morbid fascination and a few choice words hurled at the television, the show being played out in the Senate committee hearings yesterday.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m furious with AIG and it’s mode of operations that put it, and by default, the American taxpayer in a vice.

What makes me even MORE incensed however, is the posturing going on by the politicians that enabled the practices to operate in the first place.  Then with lightning speed (something not seen in the Halls of Congress), passed a monster BAILOUT (NOT a recovery and reinvestment act) plan that they didn’t take the time to even READ first and allowed the very payouts of bonuses they are now squealing like stuffed pigs over.  The finger pointing and posturing would be a box office comedy winner if it wasn’t all so tragic and devastating to our futures.

The bonuses themselves are not going to sink the economy of course.  They are just a symbol of the greater problem and the flavor of the day.  They represent the flailing going on at the highest levels in this new administration in a misguided attempt to win friends and influence enemies, all under the guise of “hope and change”.  Not a darned thing has changed other than it’s now playing out in a macabre slow motion slide that is in turn, hurting Americans from coast to coast on every level. 

What makes all of this so different for the politicians?  Why are they now acting out of panic and running around like schoolgirls caught with their panties down?  It’s simple…

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE PAYING ATTENTION NOW LIKE NEVER BEFORE.

The government has always been able to count on one thing, the inattentiveness and short attention span of the public for anything that has to do with the day to day operations in Washington.  We as a people over the years have been lazy.  We’ve sat on the sidelines, only coming off the benches when something directly affects us.  Presidential elections will guilt some into becoming active in the course of our country for a little while every 4 years.  Occasionally a scandal involving sex, power or money will raise mild outrage and garner a bit of hoopla before it fades into obscurity.  The attacks on 9/11 rallied us around the flag for a while, but our memories have dulled with time of the absolutely heart wrenching pain and heartache we lived through as a nation just a few years ago.  Our national outrage has almost disappeared in favor of being fair and politically correct to even those that wish us mortal harm.

Right now however, the public is watching and is increasingly mad as hell.  Protests and tea parties are starting to pop up like the spring bulbs emerging from the ground.  One thing our new administration miscalculated gravely, is this…Americans may have a short attention span…but when they are directly being affected and feeling the pain of a situation…it’s polarizing.  It’s impossible to do business as usual in the Nation’s capital and operate like the Wizard in Oz. People are paying attention to the man behind the curtain and they don’t like what they are seeing.

 

Washington is slowly getting a clue about the angst and anger in the ground swell chorus that is building.  The voices are not silent anymore, they are instead, polarizing in their volume and intensity..and the developing verdict for the performance of those used to operating under the cloak of secrecy and platitudes isn’t good. 

The light is on and many of the roaches are scurrying for the protection of the darkness.  The only problem is, the public is starting to employ spotlights to reach into the dark crevices.

It’s time for Washington to wake up, quit pointing fingers and blame at each other like a demented 3 Stooges saga, and actually make progress without throwing money we don’t have at the problem.

Before we all wake up and find out our country is now owned by the rest of the world.