Congress the economy and related items

The title says it all. This one's about the economy, Congress and related
items. It's an outgrowth of a discussion on social media. The upshot is
that the person who started this one agrees with OBAMA AND THE DEMS ON
POLICY. As regular readers of this blog know, I don't.

Bush was brought up in this discussion and to some extent, that's fair game
as he did some things I don't agree with. Chief among these were TARP and
the auto industry, aka UAW, bailout.

Before you talk about the GOP remember that the Democrats in Congress never
bothered to pass a budget last year. How shameful is that? It's plenty
shameful as it shows that the Dems aren't doing their job as responsible
leadership demands that they pass a budget. The Dems also don't want to
enact any spending cuts. They just want to spend like drunken sailors ,
something that cannot be sustained. Obama wants to re-distribute wealth by
taking it from the rich and giving it to others. That's called socialism as
he wants everyone to be equal.

Don't even get me started when it comes to the unions. They couldn't even
get card check, aka forced membership, passed in a democratically-controlled
Congress. That tells me that this is real bad, stink out loud legislation.
Membership is down and unions are desperate. Thankfully Congress didn't
reward them on that one. People see unions as Irrelevant and only
protecting the leadership of the union, not the workers.

The UAW didn't want to change things and wanted to write all the rules when
it comes to the auto companies. The bailout kept their way of doing things
in place, something that is not good. It kept a bad business model in
place. The auto companies should have been forced to go through bankruptcy
which would have been a much more orderly process than the bailouts. Keep
in mind that this was the second bailout for Chrysler. What does that tell
you about the company? It tells me that the company isn't viable. Keep in
mind that Ford didn't take the bailout. Good for them.

Unions wonder why they're irrelevant. They're irrelevant because much of
what they were created to do has already been done. Things like the
40-hour week, minimum wage and worker safety to name a few. They demand
what could be characterized as extortion wages, lavish benefits and control
over the work rules, the latter of which should be the prevue of management.
The wages and benefits cause companies to take jobs where it's cheaper to do
business, even if that means sending those jobs overseas.

Regulations are another can of worms I won't go into right now. Suffice it
to say, there are a number of reasons the situation is not good right now.
Only time and the right leadership will bring about a change.

Thoughts on victory in war on terror

Sunday night May 1 turned out to be a great night for the U.s and the
families of about 3,000 people who were visciously murdered on 9-11. Why do
I say that? Because we finally caught and killed Osama Bin Laden.

I am proud of the SEALS who carried out this mission and thank them for what
they did. It was obvious we were never going to take the slime ball alive.

While President Obama takes the credit for this, he certainly can't take all
of the credit. I say this because president George W.Bush and his policies
laid the ground work for this wonderful victory. Some of that ground work
unfortunately is too inconvenient for President Obama and his liberal
buddies. This is particulary true of the enhanced interrogation methods
that were used on various detainees which yielded valuable information.
KSM was one who gave valuable information through use of enhanced
interrogation methods. If the slime ball were taken alive,there would be
the necessity to use some of these methods on him and this would be highly
inconvenient to president Obama and his liberal buddies.

Leave it to president Obama and others in the White House to screw up what
should be a proud moment in our history. They didn't plan for the aftermath
of the mission and thus don't have their story straight from what I have
heard in some places. There is also a raging dispute about release of the
pictures and president Obama has already answered that one by saying no to
release of any pictures. Failure to release them will only further fuel the
conspiracy theorists, something which is not a good idea. Yes, the hard
core ones in that crowd will never believe it even if the pictures were
released. However, these need to be released as we had to endure the
carnage of 9-11 and we should see justice done. The pictures would allow us
to see justice done and can be done without compromise of military
oeprations. That's why you do the release in consultation with military and
intelligence officials.

This was a great day in our history. Too bad president Obama had to screw
it up like he does almost everything he touches.

Why we don't need nuclear power

I can give 50 reasons and more why we don't need nuclear power, especially
given the looming crisis and catastrophe in Japan. We're now looking at a
likely meltdown and egregious problems with the spent fuel ponds. This is a
massively dangerous situation and will eclipse Chernobol as the worst
nuclear disaster rather soon. The Fukushima 50, as they are known, will
ultimately give their lives trying to bring this catastrophe under control.
It's not the way anyone should have to die.

There are those who say nuclear power is safe. I beg to differ with them.
When something goes wrong, it really goes terribly wrong. That's not a risk
we can tolerate nor is it an acceptable risk. Building these thigns at all
is an unacceptable risk and I don't care where they're located. The risk of
problems from either a natural or man-made disaster are too great and
Fukushima just makes that abundantly clear.

We don't need to take that risk. The U.S. is now evacuating U.S. nationals
from Japan. What does that tell you about the situation? It tells me that
the situation is deteriorating and rather fast too. We need to get control
of this and fast. It's a scary situation that doesn't need to be repeated
by building more of these things anywhere in the world.

I've heard recently on Fox News that China will likely build about 60 of
these things over the next decade. To that I say no way as their safety
record in other industries is not good and give me no confidence that they
can safely handle nuclear power. Besides, there are some active seismic
zones in that country and we don't need another Fukushima in China.

We've got two plants in active seismic zones here in the U.S. I hope there
are plans in place for evacuation in the event of a disaster. I wonder
about that though. Decommissioning those plants would probably be a real
good idea. That's an option that needs to be looked at.

Yes folks, this is one issue I don't agree with the republicans on. They
advocate for nuclear power and I don't want to see it. It's not necessary
and not economical, especially given the cost of natural gas right now.
Hopefully the economics will continue to work against the building of
nuclear power plants. That would be safer for everyone.

Remember that at least 50 people will likely die as a result of the
Fukushima crisis and catastrophe. Is that a sacrifice we want to make
again? I don't and hope no one else does either.

Chernobol all over aain

They said it couldn't happen again but it has. What am I referring to? I'm
referring to Chernobol,the world's worst nuclear disaster up to this point.
Now we have another disaster looming in Japan that may rival Chernobol.
That disaster is the nuclear plant at fukoshima which is in the earthquake
zone in Japan.

I pray that those who are working on this one can get it under control and
quickly but to say I'm scared would be putting it mildly. There's the
chance for another Chernobol and they're actually using that description
from what I understand. How many days is this crisis going to last? No
one knows just as we didn't know with Chernobol. Radiaiton and lots of it
is something to be scared about.

I will comment on the larger issues later. Right now I hope and pray for a
successful end to the current crisis.

Times they are a changin'

Last November, republicans won in many states. This means more fiscal
responsibility and more sanity for state budgets. However, it is clear that
the Democrats didn't get the message from last fall's elections. Wisconsin,
Indiana and Ohio seem to be ground zero for this fight with Wisconsin being
the worst of it.

In Wisconsin, Gov.Scott Walker introduced a budget repair bill that seeks to
reign in costs by reigning in union power among other things. It asks that
public employees pay 12.6% toward their health care costs, well below the
national average of 29% for combined public/private match. It also seeks
5.8% toward their pension where they now contribute nothing. This bill also
removes collective bargaining for everything except wages and strips unions
in the public sector of the right to force payment of union dues. The
collective bargaining changes would allow managers to set the rules rather
than the unions. Right now reporting times are set in the contracts so that
if there is an event outside of those hours, time and a half must be paid
for setup whereas hours could be adjusted for this if this were not part of
the contract. That's just one example.

The disconnect that you see between the union leadership and the rank and
file is huge. The leaders are the ones who are all worried about these
changes because they know they will lose power. The leaders are the ones
who are scared of losing the compulsory dues payments because they know
union membership is down. Instead of fighting over compulsory dues payment,
union leaders ought to be working on ways to make sure they are representing
their members and remaining relevant to their members rather than protecting
their precious six-figure salaries. If leaders are doing such a good job,
why is union membership down? It's down because the rank and file workers
don't see the leaders or the unions as looking out for their interest. The
leaders are seen as looking out for their own interests and protecting
themselves.

Unions are also seen as arms of the Democratic party. Money gained from
compulsory dues is then funneled to the Democratic party and the result is
what you are seeing in Madison right now. You now have Democrats who are
hiding out in a location outside of Wisconsin in order to stall the passage
of the bill. They are acting like children rather than attending the
session an dbeing a part of the process. If they disagree with parts of the
budget repair bill,then they should be in the Capitol doing their job and
debating the bill. They should be voicing their disagreements and offering
solutions of their own. They should be answerable to their constituents
which they now are not. There are now recall efforts under way on 8 of the
14 AWOL Wisconsin Democrats. These AWOL senators now must go to Madison
directly to the Senate floor while the Senate is in session in order to pick
up their checks as a rule change allows for this requirement of anyone who
has missed two days in a row of session. The Democrats in the senate
qualify under this requirement.

In short, the Democrats and their union paymasters need to grow up, do their
jobs and be part of the process. The people spoke in the November elections
and they're saying that the out-of-controll spending is unsustainable. Get
back to work and do your job whether you are from Wisconsin or Indiana. I'm
tired of Illinois being the hub of this activity but when you have a Chicago
politician in the White House, this is what you're going to get.

It's time for civilized political debate where views are exchanged and
serious conversations are held. It's time to dispense with the child's
play and the temper tantrums. Last time I checked, these Democrats were
adults; but they sure arent' behaving like adults. I've got one message for
them, grow up and do your job.

2011 A time for Sanity

We're now in 2011 and I thought I would reflect on what I think needs to
happen this year. As the title imlies I hope it is a time for sanity rather
than insanity. The last two years have really been a time of insanity, what
with the passage of the health care legislation, the administration's
failure to charge wiki leaks with anything and more.

The way the Republicans are talking, this year will be different. Well, I
certainly hope so. Rep. Darrell Isa is going after the administration,
particularly Atty Gen. Eric Holder for failure to prosecute a number of
organizations. Two of these I would venture to say have likely ties to
Obama and the third one there is no excuse for. The President has a past
history with ACORN so that one is understandable but not justified. The one
involving the New Black Panterhs party is not justified. Voter intimidation
is voter intimidation no matter who is committing it.

As for the third one, Wiki Leaks, that one is a travesty. We have espionage
laws and Atty. Gen. Holder needs to use them to prosecute Wiki Leaks founder
Assange or resign from office. This is about what Isa is saying and I
agree. Otherwise we look like a paper tiger and will only be laughed at and
that's not what I want from this country. Also those who enable Wiki Leaks
need to be gone after under the espionage laws. Holder had a chance last
spring but failed to take action after the leak of the papers involving
Afghanistan and Iraq. It should never have gotten as far as the diplomatic
cables. While the Army has one person under investigation,there are clearly
more people involved. They also need to be investigated an dprosecuted.

As for health care reform, there is a constitutional challenge on this one
and I hope it succeeds as Obama care is bad legislation. Short of the
constitutional battle, I hope there is success in outright repeal or
defunding. I8t is my opinion that there will be a battle royale over the
budget with health care right in the thick of it. If we can at leat get
this thing defunded, that would lower the deficit. Then let's get it
repealed. It's interesting to me that many of the major provisions don't
take affect until 2014. Why is that? IMO it's because this is bad
legislation and its authors know that and don't want to take the political
hit for it. The adage that the more the people see about this legislation
the more they don't like it holds true on this one. Let's hope ewe can get
some sensible health care reform, starting with tort reform which would
limit malpractice suits and stop judge shopping in these cases. This type
of sensible reform would bring down costs as there would be less of a need
for defensive medicine.

I also hope there's sanity on the foreign policy front as well but that will
be difficult given that two rogue nations, North Korea and Iran, appear to
be working together. This is dangerous and needs to be dealt with. I'm not
even going to go into what needs to be done here as I'm not sure of that
one. Looking weak though is not an option in my opinion.

These are just a few things that I hope will happen in order to bring real
sanity in 2011. Let's see how much gets accomplished prior to the
Presidential campaign starting in the fall.

Remembering our veterans on their day

Today as I sit and type this entry, I'm reminded of the sacrifice our
veterans have made so that we have the freedom to post such material, to
live and work in the community of our choice, to practice our religion and
to criticize our government when we don't agree with a decision they have
made. Much of this would be impossible in many countries and could subject
one to harsh treatment, including death.

As someone who is blind with a mild hearing loss, I am able to work and live
on my own. Contrast that with some other countries where someone like me
would be kekpt at home and cared for the rest of her life. I have access to
technology that allows me to ac cess information. I'm able to participate
in the political process through my advocacy work. I can even go out
shopping on my own.

I'm able to do many, if not all, of these things because of the sacrifices
our veterans have made. They have defended freedom so that I and others
like me can have choices. They have answered the call to serve so that all
of us might be able to vote in free and fair elections as many of us did
last week, choosing to toss out politicians we didn't like in many places.
In many countries, they don't have free and fair elections so can't affect
change in this way. We can and that is a right we have because of the
sacrifices of our veterans.

I'm reminded of these sacrifices thanks to the Greatest Generation who are
now part of the honor flights and are just now getting the thanks from a
grateful nation which they so richly deserve. That's been a long time
coming but well and richly deserved for life would be very different today
if they had not answered the call to serve.

So if you see a veteran today, tell him or her thank you for their service
no matter which branch of the military they served in or which war they
served in. All have sacrificed much for future generations.

In closing, I just want to say thank you to any veteran who might read this.
Please know that your service to our country is greatly appreciated.