Looking for a diamond in a manure pile

So, we've "officially" kicked off the 2012 Presidential Election Cycle. We've seen what the Iowan people have had to say about it and I'm not too surprised at the outcome, but I feel that the press is putting WAY too much emphasis on it. Perhaps because there is too little to talk about. Well, there was too little to talk about since our Beloved Present-dent has made some really goofy decisions on some appointments and his cuts to the military the past couple of days. Not to mention the new mortgage bailout fiasco he unleashed today. The man truly scares me.

As a conservative I tend to (mostly) align myself with the republican party.  I tend to label myself  as socially neutral, small government and fiscally conservative. There are no candidates in this race that I feel truly comfortable supporting.  Romney and Perry are both flip-floppy and therefore morally challenged. Gingrich also falls into this camp as his record indicates he's willing to compromise and support items that are, basically, untenable.  Santorum is a bit of a bright spot at the moment and his platform  is most in line with my personal beliefs, but his history in the Senate is wacky and doesn't support his current positions. Paul is too libertarian for my taste and I'm a small government guy. That says something. Huntsman is a dark horse who may surprise some people, but is too much of a dark horse to garner too much attention and Bachmann should have dropped out a long time ago.

Our country is in trouble as we all know. Our debt has now exceeded our GDP and we've lost our AAA+ rating. We owe everything to the Chinese and as our government keeps moving forward with quantitative easing (printing actual cash) and the dollar keeps falling we are facing an issue like none other that we've ever faced.

People keep talking about "supporting the 99%" and making things easier, then why are they (or we, since we voted these dopes into office) allowing prices to keep rising by the allowing the devaluation of the dollar?   We have to get this turned around and turned around soon. We have to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US and keep the unions out of the workplace.

Aside: As long as a company treats people fairly, then a union is null and void. I work for a wonderful, small company in chemical manufacturing and a union has NO chance of ever getting a foot in the door. The mines in our neck of the woods are non-union and the miners here all make better wages, benefits and safe workplaces that their compatriots in the union mines do not enjoy. Unions have tried to come into the local mines but failed miserably. Why? They could NOT guarantee a better wage, conditions or benefits.

We have a long, long road back from the brink, but we have to turn around and take that first step. The socialist-leaning democrats are not willing to take those steps. I don't know that any of the people currently vying for the republican nomination have the intestinal fortitude to get us turned, nor do most in the House or Senate have the will to do this. But it must be done.

WWJD?

I'm usurping a famous acronym, WWJD, for my own nefariousness purposes.

I think I understand what is going on with the Occupy Wall Street movement. They want life to be more fair. They think that the unfairness of life and our current economic woes are the direct result of banks policy and the greedy, evil corporations on Wall Street. Hence the gatherings across the country to protest the profits of these evil companies and banks.

The vast majority of these protesters, however, cannot elucidate what it is that they want exactly; what it is they are trying to do, they simply want things to be fair. So, basically, the way that I'm reading their goals is they want the wealth to be redistributed evenly amongst the masses. They want to have a part of the earnings of others labors, they want something for nothing. I've heard other pundits define this as an attempt start a "Tea Party" like movement across the left. But where the Tea Party had a clear cut, well defined goal the Occupy crowd has no clue. PROTEST! It worked in Egypt, right?

A lot of our current economic woes can be traced directly to Carter Era Policy that was put in place to try and make things "more fair". I've actually heard the argument that "...if I couldn't afford it, the bank shouldn't have given me the loan..." Really? Really? No, you should be able to look at a loan and determine if you could pay it back or not. Was there predatory lending? Absolutely. Lending Acts passed by our government from 1968 to the present day kinda allowed this to happen. Shoot, the gov't even got into the predatory lending business themselves. But in the end it still comes back to the borrowers. Who applied for the loan? Who should have read the loan papers? Who signed the paperwork? The Borrower. And the Lenders (usually more than just "banks" per se) used gov't policy to justify what was happening.

So, now it's come back to bite us in the butt and the 99% are in the streets demanding their fair share.

So, let me as them this question: WWJD? Jesus? No, Jobs. What Would Jobs Do?

Most everybody in the world has heard by now that we lost another Great American yesterday. Mr Steve Jobs, the man who brought about the personal computer revolution, lost his battle to cancer. I offer my condolences to his family who are no doubt hurting and missing him today.

But, how would Mr. Jobs respond to this situation? The man was kicked out of the company that HE started! Did you hear him cry that it was unfair and pitch a fit in the street? Nope, he got involved in another project and helped get Pixar Animation off the ground. Then, when the idiots ran Apple into the ground he went back and TURNED IT INTO THE BIGGEST COMPANY IN THE WORLD! You never heard him cry and whine about life being unfair. He simply got over himself and refocused and carried on with life.

And if you truly don't like how a company or bank operates then don't use them! And let the companies that do business with them know that you won't be doing business with them either as long as the affiliation lasts. Be prepared to stick to your guns and do without "stuff" in your life as a result. You don't like KFC because they are mean to chickens?? Fine, boycott all Pepsi products. Do research and find out who all supplies stuff to KFC and stop buying their products. Get your friends and family involved, they get their friends and family involved and pretty soon KFC will either be out of business as they can't sell stuff or get supplied or you will get live, free range chickens in your order that you can do with as you please.

So, to my friends who are occupying Wall Street and protesting capitalism, either truly divest yourself of everything that the free-market system supplies in your life, move to a truly communist country (are there any?), or ask yourself how you can get a piece of the American Dream. What Would Jobs Do?

Rest in peace, Mr. Jobs. You will be ever remembered with the likes of Edison and Ford.

And so it goes...

Yup. The crying, whiny, mad, angry, disillusioned masses on all sides are waxing verbose on the ups and downs of this election.

It was expected and if it is a suprise to you then I recommend that you crawl back to whatever rock you were under and hide your head, because life is going to get even stranger.

We are at a cross-roads in this country. A massive, multi-option intersection that is commonly referred to in my industry as a "malfunction junction". We need to choose the right one before the next truck comes lumbering down the path and flattens us.

As I write this, the dollar is in a free fall, the Fed just pumped another $600,000,000,000 dollars into the "economy" in a Keynesian attempt to animate a dead thing in a manner that would make Shelley proud and we're on the verge of an economic implosion the likes of which the world has never seen.

This has got to stop. We need to get our stuff under control and pick the path that will take us out of the muck and back to the top.

"A democracy fails the moment the people realize they can write themselves gifts from the treasury."

~Aristotle~

And friends, that is exactly what we've been doing. Our Government has been borrowing money that it is going to have trouble paying back. It has become so commonplace and put so many people out of touch with reality that they believed they could also borrow money beyond their means and be ok. We called it the "housing bubble". The mess that was started by our government, perpetuated by a bunch of greedy thieves and taken up whole-heartedly by the masses. Most people's credit is a mess and their finances are on the edge of total chaos. Most American's believe that they should have the best of everything. Biggest house, nicest car, full tank, stylish clothes and our system allows people to live that dream without honestly showing the reality of it.

We cannot maintain this.

So, what is the plan to fix it? Tax the rich. By golly, why not? They HAVE the money to pay off our debt and solve the country's problems. Right? Wrong. If you were to liquidate Mr. Soros' fortune today and give it to the government, it wouldn't even put a dent in what the Fed spent yesterday.

You've heard that the top percent of earners already pay the lions share of taxes anyway. Most don't buy that as you also hear, "They have accountants figuring out how to keep them from paying their taxes." And that is true to some extent. But, there is a larger majority that don't pay taxes at all! Are you one of them? Did you get back more than you paid in? Then you are part of the problem.

We've grown our government by demanding that they provide us with this, that and the other. We've allowed our government to grow by failing to watch what they are doing and holding them accountable. We have allowed ourselves the luxury of writing gifts to ourselves from our own treasury.

We need to do the following; right away:

• Balanced budget amendment. This needs to restrict the spending to no more than the government takes in for the previous fiscal year.

• Clarity in Legislation amendment Where all laws put forth for consideration are a single item issue. No tacking laws and funding onto the back of a seemingly innocuous bill. And all bills be written in such a manner that they are clear, concise and eliminate loopholes. I'm thinking that limiting bills to ten pages would do the trick.

• Flat tax for everyone. Eliminate the tax refund and everybody pays their share. Flat - say five or six percent. You could even make this a sales tax rather than an income tax. This would eliminate the IRS in large part. Save a chuck of change right there. Simplifies life, too.

• Shrink Government. We have a preponderance of bureaucratic nonsense in this country that is almost totally unnecessary. Most of them are not even Constitutionally legal! I do see the need for some commonality of laws that govern, say...interstate commerce. A truck driver shouldn't have to worry about what laws change as they cross from Pennsylvania into Ohio, or the necessity of the National Weather Service. But Education? Arts? No. these do not need funding. These should be left to the private sector and/or states exclusively.

• Set a plan to pay off the debt. This may need to be an amendment as well to keep it on track! But, we need a plan to pay off our national debt in a given amount of time. It won't happen over night, either.

• Charge an additional "non-employment" tax to those who ship jobs out of the country. One that can't be passed on to the consumer. We need our jobs back. We need to be protectionist of our country and her goods. There is a finite amount of money in the world and we've always had the lions share of it because we made the lions share of the worlds goods. Henry Ford started this whole mess because he wanted a faster, cheaper way to make goods. And he found it. BUT! the cost was finding automatons to do one simple job all day long. The only way was to up the pay. Then the unions got involved from a safety stand-point and slowly evolved to a profit venture. I don't like unions, personally, but if you take them back to their original intent (safety - primarily) then bring them on. BUT, make the US a Right to Work nation.

• Last, we need to re-regulate banking, lending and credit agencies to help keep the common man within due bounds and living within his means. Not regulate investment banking per se where a man can go and propose an idea and get money to pursue it, but personal lending; housing, cars and the like. When people only spend what they can afford, then prices and expenses will fall into line. If item Y cost's $X.xx today, but people don't buy it, then the price will fall until people do, or the company goes under. Supply and demand at it's finest. It's a known fact that prices will go up when demand is high and supply is low. Gasoline, food, hotel rooms and the like. Yep. You ever read the "rack rate" on the back of the hotel door? That is there by law to prevent the hotelier from gouging you during a blizzard. But you see it all the time. Why does a room go from $70 one week to $259 the next? Demand. It's also a known fact that some prices go up during shortages (canned food) but don't come back down as the situation corrects itself. So, when Del Monte raises the price on string beans because Florida froze it's royal naynays off, but the crops come in ok, don't buy the Del Monte brand. The prices will come down.

These are going to be hard decisions to make. Things aren't going to correct themselves overnight. Many will tell me that they are all pipe dreams and maybe they are, but we are at the point where we have to make the hard choices. China owns us right now. We should be beholden to NO country. Not for anything. Money, goods, energy...anything! We have to take steps to correct what we've screwed up. We need to limit our gluttony or face the consequences. And those are too terrible to contemplate.

Transparency in Government Pipedream

We are fast approaching the mid-term elections the the standard crop of usual suspects facing a batch of fresh faced hopefuls all with a message of change, control, reigning in, and transparency of our out of control government.

You want total transparency in our government? Control? Force the people we send to Washington to be completely accountable for their EACH and EVERY action!

How?

Single item bills.

People have tried for years to gain the line-item veto and it has been declared invalid and maybe even unconstitutional. So, let's try and end run and make it illegal to attach random, non-related items to a bill. Make each bill passed be a single issue with nothing else attached. No dairy cow abduction research money attached to a military spending bill.

Force a balanced budget amendment as well.

This will bring about a era of fiscal responsibility like we've not seen for ages; if ever!

I would like to see our law process go a step further to a forced reduction in length of verbosity to define a new law. The fewer words used to write an issue, the less confusion and a massive reduction in loopholes. I can hear you asking, "Well, how would they get Healthcare passed in only ten pages?" Simple, they don't. Our government has NO business providing healthcare to it's citizens. Allow insurance to compete across all borders and the costs will come down. Let the states provide industry and medical over site to handle fraud and abuse of the system from both sides.

Yes, I know it is a pipe dream. Politicians are used to running this country using the "system" and straight up subterfuge. You want to fix this country? Fix the system.

Here be monsters...

Nine Stories of Failed Currency

We are headed here.  Fast. President Bush started the ball rolling with the war spending and that was then exponentially increased by the Demolition-crats and the  RHINOS trying to appear all soft and fuzzy in the face of the coming elections. Elections which the Demolitions won and with the urging of POTUS-O have spent us into new, uncharted financial territory.

Explorers of old set out with NO idea where they were going and pretty certain that the world had an edge that they were going to fall off of, but still they pressed on.  Our leaders, with our permission, have set out on a similar journey, the difference being that we KNOW where this course is going to take us and we can SEE the edge of ruin that we are going to fall off of in short order.  Fiscal conservatism is gravely wounded and floundering under the weight of the masses who expect to have it all without the pain and effort of actual work and sacrifice that comes with any good reward worth having.

If we don't change our current course then we are going to totally weaken our economy to the point that the dollar is going to be devalued like those mentioned in the link. A wheelbarrow full of cash just to buy a soda.  Most people just tut-tut that idea as preposterous, but it's coming.  America is dying.  She can be saved, but we are going to have to pull together, suck it up, pay off our debts, and get back on the manufacturing band wagon and start making (and buying) our own goods again.  This is what grows our economy.  This is what makes us strong and able to move forward: self-sufficiency.

This means shrinking the Gov't and NO deficient spending. Not the people, not our government. This means that people are not only going to have to learn to live within their means, but also to learn to live with less.  We got along fine like that for years, but have gotten soft and think that we have to have it all. And now! And that everybody should make a million dollars doing it.  That is not a sustainable philosophy, however, and to continue in this line of thinking will lead us to destruction.

We can do this in a sustained and controlled manner and manage our futures, or it will be forced on us. And given the current state of our population centers people will starve and die as a result.  Physically starve and die.  People have little idea and NO skills to survive the manner that will be required if we plunge over the edge.  Ironically, it will be the same people who voted our current power structure into place.

Really, should he HAVE to explain this to "our" leaders?

Bernanke explains things to Congress...

 

Every Friday I get my paycheck.  It has to cover my bills and basic living necessities.  Great, I can do that ok, and have enough left over to usually do some things that I'd like to do, but don't have to do.  We, the people, seem to have forgotten that not everything is a necessity. Well, perhaps "we" is too inclusive as there is a large percentage of this country that DOES understand consequences of negative asset spending.  A responsible percentage who manage their lives and finances in a manner that balances the two quite nicely.  And I'm not just talking about people who bring home a huge amount of money, here.  I am talking about normal, middle-class folk who live within their means.

It is the rest of the people who do not, or cannot, think that "the people" can live without Government intervention.  Entitlement programs that were a quick fix in the thirties have now become so commonplace in our society that people cannot live without them!  People become so used to having something in their lives that they think they cannot live without that particular item.  And because of the way that we have allowed these items to get so out of control we can't just yank them out of the budget without causing some people some serious harm.  There are a lot of people who actually count on this income to survive.

I agree whole-heartedly with Mr. Bernanke in that we need to curb our spending.  I would like us to go one step further and put an actual balanced budget amendment in place that would mandate that we can spend no more than we bring in each year.  And then let the actual Constitution dictate what that money is spent on! No more government support of the arts. No more National Education, EPA and the like.  That would all be under the control of each state.  Some things that are a national problem, like drugs, could be investigated by a single unit (think if the FBI/DEA/BATF et al were under one roof) and supported by the military.

To spend money that we don't have is to create a huge problem for ourselves that is going to bite us in the butt after a while; and that time is rapidly approaching.  I know because I, too, spent more than I can afford.  I pay a "stupid tax" each month in the form of credit card debt because I thought I was entitled to certain things.  Nope.  I have now curtailed my spending to what I bring in - I am paying down my debt - and I am living a leaner, cleaner lifestyle that really isn't all that painful.  It was at first, but I quickly found out that I didn't need everything that I'd gotten used to in my life.

Now we need to do the same thing with our Government.  It needs slimming down before it collapses under its own weight.  We need to get rid of all the unnecessary spending and the Constitution will be the deciding factor, not the people. We need to also implement a single item bill for Congress that would not allow for the tacking on of pork barrel spending.  One item per bill: clean, clear and concise. A flat tax for our Federal tax system and then start paying down our national debt.  Really, it can be that simple.  It can't be implemented overnight, mind you, but it can be done. Must be done. If we don't do it and do it soon we are doomed as a people.

A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

~ A. Tyler ~

And, really, this leads us to the the fact that we are a Republic.  But, that is another argument for another time.

My but they are getting bold!

Illinois governor taken into custody - CNN.com

Our government, for the most part, is so corrupt that this isn't even all that shocking. I do believe, however, that this man was emboldened by the fact that the Dems were large and in charge and truly believed nothing would happen to him. What else would explain the level of bravado that he displayed while "selling" the seat in the Senate?

I think that you could find similar levels of corruption throughout Federal, State, and Local governments - maybe not as blatant but right up there. We know they exist in business and even in many charitable organizations. And I don't think that party affiliation has anything to do with it, the level of corruption comes down to one common factor: Simple Greed.

Greed has played a part in our lives since time immemorial, and I also believe that it is getting worse. There are levels of technology that are allowing us to expose greed and corruption that didn't exist even ten years ago, but I also believe that this has little to do with the number of cases being brought before the public.

One of the factors is that America (and the world to a large extent) has lost its sense of shame. People are no longer ashamed of their actions, they are only embarrassed and angry that they were caught. There is a prevailing sense of anger by the perpetrators are they are being unfairly charged and "scapegoated ", after all everybody is doing it and its just a little bit off the top. Nobody is truly getting hurt. Right?

Wrong, everybody pays. It undermines the trust of the American People and makes us cynical to the point that life actually begins to lose its luster and simple joy.

GM recently admitted that it had violated America's trust. And in pledging to do better they are hoping to win us back over to their side. But, my question is, why was our trust lost in the first place? They made cheaper, less reliable automobiles in order to try and make a profit. That profit was compromised by the American dream, by the greed of the employees and the mis-management of the company by her executives. And now they expect, and truly believe, that they are too important to be allowed to let die. This is wrong. They can die, and should be allowed to do so; they will be replaced by somebody making a better product with better management skills.

I recently had an email back and forth with a citizen of the web who has strong socialist beliefs. His/her belief is that a person should be paid on how physically hard a person works and that all CEO/owners check their stock and then play a game of Mine Sweeper and head to the club for the day. I fully and whole heartedly disagree with this belief. I think that a person should be rewarded on their skill sets and their willingness to improve themselves. A person who's only job is to man a shovel or is responsible for simply (and in many cases these days: automatically) torquing a set of bolts should not be compensated to the tune of $70,000 to 100,000 dollars a year (cash and benefits). These are no-skill required jobs that can be filled by ANYBODY in America. A CEO on the other hand has a higher and more specialized skill set that allows for oversight of the entire company and is then compensated at a higher level.

Now, I don't necessarily agree that they should be compensated millions of dollars regardless of how a company does, nor receive millions in compensation with the proverbial "golden parachute" when they are terminated for poor performance. But, this is not for the Government or the American People to decide! This is for the Board that the CEO reports to to control. That is a simple business decision that indicates the professional acumen of those making the decisions at the top. I, personally, would expect to be compensated for the quality of the work that I do.

Now, not all issues are directly under the control of the leaders of any business. The economy is a volatile and living thing that has its ups and downs. There are other factors that affect any business, but it is the responsibility of the managers to respond to those situations in a manner that will best allow for the health of the business. Allow that business to carry on and still make a profit. And the larger the business, the harder it is to "re-tool" and roll with the changes that are thrown at it. You don't turn an ocean liner like a sports car. But, there are tools available to industry that, again, with proper management will allow these businesses to succeed.

This is not the first recession our country has weathered, nor will it be the last. I would also venture to say that it is not the WORST we have encountered either. If you listen to the news you hear phrases like "last ten years" or "last five years". They are comparing this downturn to the early Seventies, but won't know if it is worse or not until it is over. And you can trace the causes of this downturn to one simple, root cause: greed.

Simple Greed.

Make these leaders who have taken us here pay for their own messes. Pray that they learn their lesson. America will survive. We will have to tighten our belts, but we will survive.

American's are a resilient People.

Socialized "National" healthcare at its finest...

 

'Hospital deceived me on the death of my beauty queen wife' | Mail Online

You'd think after our recent Democratically sponsored failed social experiment, there would be no question about the future of a nationalized health care plan.  But, people keep saying we need affordable healthcare, that everybody should have FREE healthcare.

There is no "free", people.  Everything costs and somebody has to pay.  Why should we be separated from our hard earned dollars to support people who refuse to work?  Who refuse to pull themselves up and out of their situation?

I am not totally opposed to our welfare system as I know that everybody needs a hand UP sometime.  But it should be that, a hand UP not a hand OUT!!!  Heck, I have used food stamps for a short while to help feed my kids during a spot of trouble; but as soon as I had that first paycheck from my new job I headed down to the welfare office to let them know I no longer needed their help.  But we have an entire generation of people who believe that they are OWED something.  And this generation is perpetuating the myth to their kids.

Wrong.

Look at the people who are demanding the government do something about any given situation.  This is NOT the governments job - this is not a "nanny" state.  The government should be there for initial response to serious emergencies and then make sure that we are not unfairly hammered by industry (like insurance) during the correction.  And people who refuse to obey the governments warnings to evacuate are on their own, the government owes them nothing.

I digress.

We should be running, screaming, away from ANY attempts at socialization or nationalization of any part of our economy or infrastructure.  The governments only job should be to over see that the public isn't being raped by the private companies providing the goods.

DEMO-crats responsible for the financial sector implosion...

 

Bloomberg.com: News

 

But, you won't hear this in the next forty or so days.  Not in the MSM.  Not outside of a few blogs and pieces of opinion papers.

 

Not in a million years.

 

And my liberal friends will quickly point out, "This is SIMPLY one man's opinion!"  But, it is more than an opinion; it is based in fact.

 

You buy a can of black paint, open that paint and see that it is indeed black, it doesn't take a genius to foresee that it is going to be black once you put the brush to the wall.  And determining that the boss isn't going to like it isn't a huge stretch, either.  Especially when he ordered another color and it's going to cost a small fortune to make it right again.

On our backs.

 

RealClearMarkets - Articles - Time for a Modern Gold Standard

Now here is an idea that we can all get behind.  A REAL gold standard, or even the silver standard.  Do you remember the Silver Certificates that used to passed around as currency?  Back when we competed with the Pound on an even keel?

Getting the dollar back on solid footing is, or should be, one of our number one goals.  And as the article points out:

What the world learned from the old gold standard is that you cannot use anything physical as money and maintain integrity. Any commodity that is valuable enough to start using as money will be too scarce to continue using as money.

This means that we can not go back to the actual "gold" and "Silver" certificate days and you can not grow an economy on fixed funds.

But, the article does go on to outline a workable plan on how to use gold to stabilize the US Dollar.  And that is where we need to be concentrating our efforts.  It would solve a LOT of issues that we are currently facing.

 

RealClearMarkets - Articles - Time for a Modern Gold Standard

GAHHHHHH!!! It's not that hard people!!!

Today in Investors Business Daily at Investors.com

Dems Lose all their marbles, to be sent away

Ok, I redid the head line, but geez, GET A CLUE ALREADY. Let BIG OIL do what BIG OIL does: FIND OIL. Let them drill all over the US. Let them build some refineries, away from the storm prone coasts, let them build some pipelines to get the stuff from the field to the refinery to the people. LET THEM BAIL US OUT OF THE HIGH GAS PRICE$!!! And do it today.

And let's get that dollar back up there where it belongs! Simple to say, hard to do, but it is do-able. We all just have to tighten our belts.

• Balanced budget amendment
• Line item veto or single item bills law
• Reduce (eliminate!) our trade deficits
• Usury Laws back in effect
• Start buying back our debts

Now, I am just Joe Average. But this is clear to me. We have to start digging ourselves out before we implode. We got ourselves into this mess, it is time we get ourselves out. It won't be easy, but it MUST be done.

We need to get Government out of the private sector places like the Arts (let the public support them) and all the other places that we are wasting money.

Let's start today.