No matter who was elected President, his 4 year term was going to be hell.  We have so many serious issues facing this country it is hard to focus.  But a real leader is capable of identifying 3-4 key philosophies that guide his policies and decision making.  It is not necessary for a leader to get caught up in the minutia of individual issues, but rather provide the philosophical framework that is needed to give his staff the ability to make recommendations and decisions.

I would have preferred McCain as President, as I think his overarching philosophies are more in tune with the average American than Obama… I say this despite Obama’s majority in the popular vote.  Most people who voted for Obama had no idea what he stood for other than a single word: “Change”.  Americans are simply unable to evaluate leaders based on true policies, experience and overarching political philosophies.  Instead slogans and bumper stickers are more important, BUT I digress.

The next 4 years are going to be hell.  Every aspect of our lives and our economy are under attack.  Our citizenry using nothing more than slogans and bumpers stickers, have year after year elected inept, spineless, leaderless, buffoons to Congress, and the Presidency.  You may disagree with this assessment of our politicians, but you cannot deny we have unprecedented issues facing this country.  And had we elected true Statesmen and true political leaders, we would not be at a watershed moment between capitalism and socialism.  Our uninformed, apathetic simpleton citizenry have succeeded in finding politicians who are good speakers, but spineless in dealing with BIG issues.  And any legislation these marginal politicians enact will impact this country for decades into the future.  These pathetic examples of leaders and so-called Statesmen claiming “change” as their guiding principle have done nothing more than “kicking the can down the road”…  They do this knowing at some point, some other spineless unprincipled politician will be passed the baton. 

NO MORE… no more can our pathetic embarrassing examples of leaders simply “kick the can downt the road”.  In these next 4 years, major decisions MUST be made.  Let’s consider these issues:

1.) Staggering national debt… $53 trillion, not $10 trillion as our leaders suggest as a way to keep the citizenry from running them out of town with pitchforks, tar and feathers.

2.) Crumbling financial infrastructure… the result of another well intentioned Democrat program enacted intially by Jimmy “the nitwit” Carter which later Clinton added more teeth… forced the banking industry to loan money to people who could not afford homes…. all in the name of making home ownership possible seemingly even to the unemployed! 

3.) Healthcare… my instinct tells me that the invasion of illegal immigrants have added staggering numbers of medical cost to the equation resulting in a healthcare system on the brink of meltdown.  The beauty of not dealing with illegal immigration is we legal natural born citizens get the luxury of paying for these illegals… all I can say is THANK YOU MEXICO!!!

4.) Illegal immigration… need I say more.  No nation can afford to allow millions of people to invade its country, consuming its services without contributing to the cost for providing these services.  No one wants to admit Illegal immigrants are a serious problem, but common sense tells you that these people are disastrous to our economic health… I hear there are 15 million illegals.  Do you truly believe there are only 15 million????

5.) Education… Education in the United States is simply a disaster.  And WE continue to want to throw more and more money into this system and it is a failure pure and simple.  Washington DC spends nearly $10,000 per student per year, and YET… ranks among the lowest performing school system in the entire country.  The students barely know where Washington DC is on a national map.  PATHETIC!!!  What the hell is going on here?  The problem as with many industries in the U.S. can be summed up in a single word: “Unions”. 

5.) Crack up of major manufacturing industries: Well this one is complicated as there are not many good solutions, but GM, Ford and Chrysler all have broken business models.   The model where Unions negotiate contracts for wages and benefits that have no connection to market forces is irrational.  Unions should be forced to accept lower wages and be forced to tie their contracts to market forces… when demand for their cars is strong, they are paid more, when demand collapses, their wages and benefits fall in lock-step.  Unions are anachronistic… it worked in the 1920’s, it doesn’t work anymore. 

Sadly, these giant icons of American manufacturing prestige i.e. GM, Ford and Chrysler, must go into bankruptcy in order to break the back of greedy Unions.  The FAA did this under Reagan and the country didn’t miss a beat… I have no reason to believe breaking the back of the auto unions will be any different.  Shag the outdated and utterly outrageous Union contracts, and watch GM, Ford and Chrysler take over the world.  These companies are fine companies but unfortunately they are burdened by absurd Union demands.  Get rid of the Unions, see the Auto industry in the United State dominate the world

6.) Cut Taxes on everything!  How many times must it be proven that cutting taxes increases revenues to the States and the Federal government?  The concept is not complicated… I cannot understand why so many people simply refuse to accept facts.  Cutting taxes has increased revenues every single time it is tried.  Here’s the basic tenet… if you cut taxes consumers have more money to spend.  The more money consumers have to spend, the more they consume.   The more they consume, the more jobs that are created.  The more jobs created, the more revenues paid in taxes.  People don’t hoard their money as simpleton Commie Libs want to suggest, people spend their money if they are able to meet their basic needs for living.  But today with ou heavy and brutal tax burden meeting basic needs is becoming difficult.  Forget about spending money on luxuries.  Lower taxes gives each of us more discretionary income and that money is spent consuming goods and services.   WAKE UP Congress… WAKE UP average uninformed citizen.  Raising taxes can’t possibly increase revenue… THINK ABOUT IT.  If you raise taxes, people consume less, businesses reduce jobs, and that leads to less income to our citizens… and on and on.  It’s just not that complicated

So… the next 4 years are going to be hell because nearly every issue I point out above must be dealt with.  It is no longer possible to “kick the can down the road”.  

OBAMA YOU SAID YOU WERE A CHANGE AGENT… SHOW ME!!!  I am seriously skeptical… I think you are a distortionist and when faced with tough decisions will crumble.  PROVE ME WRONG!!!!  I DARE YOU!!!

to keep our elected officials honest and to keep our government from overreaching its constitutional boundaries.  On November 4, 2008, a “free press” officially died in the United States… tyranny cannot be far behind. 

I must say… In many ways, the founding fathers of this country were brilliant men… their creation of a constitution, and later amendments providing for a “bill of rights” was genius.  Within the Bill of Rights is the first amendment which provides for freedom of speech among other significant rights given the citizenry.  While I am not a scholar, nor have I studied these documents in depth, it strikes me that the founders understood the true meaning of “freedom of speech”.  Freedom of speech provides for free expression of ideas by citizens including providing for a way of keeping our government from usurping power thereby suppressing its citizenry.  I believe the founders knew that “power corrupts” and by having a free press and an unchallenged press, provided a restraint on government confiscation of rights and priviledges of its citizens.  Many of the founders had experienced first hand the tyranny of the British Empire.  And I believe the first amendment in part was crafted in such a way as to provide a throttle on government’s insatiable desire to control people.  To me, the press and our citizens having the right to speak their minds is essential to a fully functioning democracy. 

Fast forward to 2008… assume for the moment my basic thesis is that our free press is a fundemental building block of our form of self-government… if the press does not perform its important function of shining a light on government corruption, government ineptness and issues facing the nation, the nation loses a critical and essential tool to prevent government abuse and absolute control over its citizens inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

This past election period, we saw the press in this nation lose all objectivity and ability to challenge candidates and government actions, ie bank bailout.  Today, regrettably I feel the press is unable to objectively monitor the activities of our government.  The press has lost its objectivity and worse yet has in some cases become willing accomplices in promoting a certain ideology and promoting certain politicians.  My friends, the press in the United States is no longer able to objectively inform the public nor is able to shine the light of day on corruptions, ineptness, stupidity and usurpation of our god given rights.  And I am afraid that Congress and the President will move to stymie those lone voices who speak out against our government… which our founders knew was a lynchpin in maintaining a fully functioning democracy.  My friends, the day is coming where we as a people must ignore the opinion papers posing as newspapers, and seek out answer on our own.  And we have to find a new medium to communicate to our nation the abuses and the corruption of our government.  While I think the Internet gives all of us the opportunity to voice our opinions and to create a national dialogue, my fear is that Internet has become polluted with so much inaccurate information… in addition to providing a staggering and overwhelming amount of information.. the Internet is unlikely to be successful in providing a “check and balance” on politician’s power grab and our governments desire to confiscate our god given rights. 

But for the record, the year 2008 is the year the free press died in the United States.  Now it is time for citizen action in the form of boycots of those media sources who fail to honor their duty to this nation of informing us of information necessary to keep our democracy fully functioning.

IS THERE NOTHING OBAMA CAN’T DISTORT?

Of course oil companies have made record profits these past few years, but not because of anything other than market forces.  Yet Obama would have you believe it was because mean old Republicans were responsible through crafty tax breaks.  So Goddam it Obama stop distorting the facts.  And of course oil companies have made some of the largest profits of any company in American history… THAT’S BECAUSE THEY SPEND MORE ON R&D THAN ANY COMPANY IN AMERICAN HISTORY… they still earn less on their investments than most industries in the United States, but does Obama mention this?  Of course not!!!  That would not fit into his pandering to the so-called poor and underpriviledged.

Goddam it Obama you are unqualified to be President, but at least STOP THE DISTORTIONS… YOU ARE PERPETUATING LIES AND DISTORTIONS which only go to help shape inaccurate opinions by the largely uninformed and apathetic citizenry of this Country.

I have no idea why people choose to spend their entire life in Illinois.  My beef with Illinois starts with the weather… the weather is crummy and there is very little to do that does not involve large quantities of alcohol.  Traffic is abominable with roads that often are so broken up you risk damage to your vehicle simply traveling over them… but to go beyond the boredom and winter depression, I think Illinois is one of the poorest managed and most corrupt States in the Union.  I see, hear and feel it everywhere… I see it in grid-lock in Springfield on almost every issue facing this State.  I see Senate leaders play games with rules to get their very own son in position to replace them i.e. Emil Jones… I see a County president who was incompacitated and unable to govern, yet he is allowed to manipulate the rules to allow his son to replace him i.e. Todd Stroger… I see corruption even when I travel the numerous tollways as our inept governor’s name is plastered across the banner above toll booths, i.e. Rod Blagojevich… and when I have the displeasure of going to the DMV I see larger than life pictures of Jesse White… both of these politicians are using taxpayer money to create name recognition only perpetuating their re-election… I feel it in the pockebook when I pay tolls for roads that have been paid for… years ago, yet still collect tolls, and I hear it every day when I listen to the news about the growing debt the State is racking up without any serious ideas how to payoff this debt in our lifetimes. 

I have lived all over this country… from Texas to Washington DC to Nebraska to even Indiana, and I have to say Illinois is the only State I can truly say I would choose never to live again.  I am excitedly planning for the day when I can leave this inhospitable, unfriendly, soon to be grossly overtaxed State called Illinois.  To me it has few truly interesting features… except for the City of Chicago.  Which I will say Chicago is indeed a world class city… it is surprising clean, and for a major city has many places to enjoy the outdoors.  Daly has done a nice job despite his speaking skills that are a notch below George W.’s.  

But Illinois is a boring, corrupt and an anti-business place to live, and so I really wonder why people live here if they had a choice.  From talking with people the primary reason is that the literally don’t know any better.  They have lived here all their lives and can’t imagine anyplace else.  But I for one, would not put Illinois on my list of places to live.  It meets not one criteria that I think the average person would list as a great State to live.  And I think if people knew better, Blowjobovich would be governing only himself. 

I have renamed the State:  Illinoying… as I find living here quite annoying.

Microsoft has been a shining star in the world of operating systems.  They have given the world the ability to do things that 30 years ago were only dreamed of… and while some complain about their dominance, I think they make a good product.

But lately, their almost daily release of patches has begun to cause serious problems with all of our machines.  And if they continue patching the patches, their operating system and the software that runs on that operating system are going to lock-up, and become one giant nightmare for those of us who prefer not to waste time fucking around with tweaking software.

Wake up Microsoft, stop all patches until they are perfected including releasing new operating systems that are not ready for “prime time”.

Over the years I have seen a continual erosion of a basic American value and that is truthfulness.  I hate to sound cynical, but it seems lying has become fashionable… no one tells the truth anymore.  It doesn’t matter how insignificant, people seem to lie or embellish.  I for one am tired of having to read between the lines all the time to establish whether people are being truthful.  It is so much easier to just be honest and tell the truth.

I suppose people in the United States have become so accustomed to politicians, law enforcement, religious leaders, judges, appointed officials and even our Presidents routinely lying to all of us, that we have become jaded.

And to see what I am talking about, you need look no further than the election of 2008 to see lying in full bloom.  Each candidate bends and morphs the truth to fit their needs and it is just awful. 

Obama continues to say things that are not only lies, but he morphs words to mean things that if true would be mutually exclusive.  For example he continues to lie to the American public saying he is going to give 95% all households a tax cut.  That my friends is a lie and is impossible.  Unless you pay taxes you can’t get a tax cut… and the statistics are that 40% of all households don’t even pay Federal income tax, but he just keeps lying.  And whats worse is that no one calls him on it… have we no honest or truth seeking reporters left in this country?

And McCain mistates what Obama supposedly says on a number of topics.  Why does he misquote and distort? 

All I can say is I feel like I am part of an ever shrinking group of American’s who honestly tries to tell the truth at all times.  I find the truth is just easier and people respect the truth even if they don’t like what you have to say. 

So why don’t we all pledge as our New Year’s resolution to tell the truth… and as a complementary resolution pledge to call “bullshit” when you hear people lie to you or others.