One Citizen Speaking...

What can you believe in?

January 2o, 2009  was a monumental day which should be officially memorialized …

When one considers the last minute deals and the character of the incoming Administration, it appears that the public trust and faith in our government has died.

We have entered the realm of political celebrity, where good intentions and a well-crafted speech serve as a measure of accomplishment – even though little or nothing may have been accomplished.

Where the special interests reign supreme and those who contributed mightily to the campaign are now expecting their rewards.

Where the media is afraid to jeopardize its corporate interests by telling truth to power and is complicit in sycophantically covering up the stone cold truth.

Where the word “crisis” is used to suspend the normal rules and conventions of the government, to allow egregious acts of self-interest and public deception to take place on the national stage; often without a fight or words of dissent.

While observing the pageantry and solemnity surrounding the inauguration, I became even more convinced that Barack Obama was, up until now, an empty slate upon which the voters projected their own wants, needs and desires.

Truly a symbol of hope and change … if one looked only at the rhetoric and ignored the actions of the politicians and their political parties.

It is almost inconceivable that slightly more than half of those who took the time and trouble to vote ignored the environment of corruption and special dealing which surrounded Barack Obama. And, most importantly, ignored the fact that Obama was, at best, a dupe or an opportunist when he associated with those who were corrupt, harbored anti-American sentiments or were judged to be unrepentant domestic terrorists.

That a good portion of Barack Obama’s personal history has remained hidden from public scrutiny and shrouded in mystery. And the portion of what has been revealed surrounded with contradiction and controversy.

That his party, the democrats, by means fair and foul, have managed to corrupt the election process by their suspicious voter registration drives and election practices which, in some cases, count more votes than citizens voting.

That his staunchest supporters rely on the precepts of moral equivalency to justify their actions; to claim that President Bush and his Administration led the way in corrupt, special interest dealings. All under the guise of inoculating themselves from future blame by claiming the roots of any corruption and/or crisis should be attributable to the Bush regime.

So I ask again, “what can you believe in?”

And there is but one answer: YOURSELF!

It is time to take defensive measures …

It is time to take defensive measures and insulate yourself from the physical, emotional and spiritual consequences of a government which has proven to be increasingly out of control.

A government where Orwellian definitions indicating black is white, up is down and good is evil abound. Where lawyers parse sentences to find favorable meaning where there is none. Where profligate spending on special interest projects which never work or are canceled before the acid test of everyday usage abound.

Where people are encouraged to sacrifice for the common good, even though that good benefits only the special interests.

It is time to take matters into your own hands. To manage your own health and physical well being, to isolate yourself from those who are crazy-makers and demanding that you blindly follow their latest schemes, to educate yourself when education is being dumbed down and perverted by social activists, to protect your own employment future when CEOs simply shed employees to improve their bonuses and to manage your finances in an age when the government wants you to spend yourself further into debt claiming it is your patriotic duty to help spend our way to a strong economy.

We can no longer trust those institutions which have failed America. Education which is more about union control and supporting minorities than it is about providing a sound basis for adult maturity. Finance, where those who you trusted to prudently manage your finances, gambled on speculative derivatives to earn outrageous bonuses in the tens, and sometimes, hundreds of millions of dollars.

And unfortunately, this same toxic environment extends to local and state governments. Where personal self-interest pervades party politics and those who do not wish America well are busy enabling our enemies, both foreign and domestic, to take over our cities, states and federal government without a single shot being fired. Using the tools of political correctness, multiculturalism and diversity to further divide and conquer our legal citizens.

There is much that is right with America and there is every chance that this recession will turn the corner soon. But we need to take action now. To position ourselves to benefit from bad times as well as good times. To become strong enough to lend support to our families and our communities.

Beginning YOUR journey …

Today, the day after the inauguration, should be a solemn day. A day in which you begin your journey into the future. Putting aside all of the past angst and confusion over politics and moving forward with your own programs that benefit you. In essence, your inauguration into the world of YOU!

To this end, I am going to dedicate a portion of my time to building a web site that will be dedicated to self-protection and the encouragement of personal achievement.

Join me in becoming personally proactive …

If you should wish to join me on the journey, you can sign up for my free report on job loss related panic at www.aminext.com or by clicking on the site logo below.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you once again for reading my OneCitizenSpeaking blog and encourage you to sign-up for the future benefits yet to come.

I, for one, do not wish Obama to succeed!

Today, I am afraid for the future of America …

The reason Barack Obama was elected by a relatively small margin …

The reason the Republicans lost the election is because they lost their conservative soul to the Rockefeller-wing of the party which believed that more government, more spending, less regulation and frat-boy cronyism were sufficient to guide our great nation. Pandering to those in the middle to join our party while catering to an ethnic/racial minority by promising what they could not deliver. In essence, turning into liberal democrats.

Simply stated: they lost their moral compass and failed to engage the democrats, as well as the American people, in a substantive conversation about the direction of the country. Primarily because both parties were heading the same way; down the primrose path to liberalism. 

We need to rebuild the Republican party using the precepts of Reagan-style conservatism.

Stating our principles and inviting all who agree to join us in the recovery of our great nation. And, there is nothing mysterious about these principles:

(1)  The first job of government is to uphold the Constitution and to protect us from our enemies, both foreign and domestic.

(2)  The second job of government is to regulate the relations between the individual states and to perform those duties which should be performed at a national level by virtue of being incapable of being performed by the individual states.

(3)  The third job of government is to perform jobs one and two with a minimally-sized government entity and at the lowest possible cost.

Where it went wrong …

Over time, the political parties became stronger and stronger and the support they received from the special interests began to interfere with the governance of the United States. Simultaneously, the public grew more and more apathetic as they were brainwashed by a complicit media into thinking that life was just grand. At some point in time, this apathetic public wanted assurances and guarantees that life would continue on as before – and entitlements were born.

Now we have two political parties which are competing in doling out entitlements to capture the vote and taxpayer dollars to the special interests in order to raise the funding to re-gain or remain in political office. Both parties have ignored the corruption, waste, fraud and mismanagement of the government in order to get their share of the political pie.

Government has grown so corrupt as to now offer illegal aliens the chance at amnesty, becoming legal citizens and being able to capitalize on the benefits which were once reserved for citizens – all in return for their future vote. Both parties have ignored that the influx of illegal aliens amounts to a hostile takeover of the United States.

These politicians watch our healthcare, educational, judicial, retirement, social and cultural infrastructure crumble as they count party votes which may or may not materialize in the next twenty years. In some states it has gotten so bad, that the illegal aliens are being offered the benefits of citizenship without even becoming citizens.

And so we find that the democrat party, cobbled together from special interests and fringe elements; and with financing which may come from those who do not wish the United States well, has managed to secure the Presidency and a majority of Congress. Soon to be a majority on the Supreme Court as well.

So how can I possibly bestow my blessings on this corrupt cabal of politicians – held in check only by public opinion, and then, just barely? One need only consider Barack Obama’s background, filled with dubious characters of questionable repute to see that he is less likely to represent change than he is the continuation of democrat party “machine” politics.

And I am afraid of the results!

Moving forward: consider California to be the “coal mine canary.”

In many cases, California serves as the model for the rest of the states. Whether fads or legitimate innovations, trends often start onthe left coast.

California’s Congressional leadership consists primarily of the same type of liberal democrats found elsewhere; primarily in the federal government. Democrats which have spent California into a budgetary deficit ranging from $12 billion to $44 billion depending on whose numbers you believe and the nature of their hidden agenda. California’s Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger is a self-absorbed, narcissistic, actor playing the role of a governor. In spite of his public accolades by the fans and fawning media, he has proven he has very little intellectual horsepower and is, for all intents and purposes, a liberal democrat seeking his next office.

Why haave California’s politicians turned the once golden state into a disaster? And how likely is this disaster likely to malignantly spread to other states?

Let’s see what’s wrong with California:

A steadily enlarging government, filled with waste, fraud, corruption and malfeasance. With control being shared by the legislature, governor and the bureaucrats as they pander to the special interests, primary of whom  are the public service unions. No matter how much money is available from state revenues, the legislature manages to spend significantly more. Papering over the difference with borrowing and accounting schemes. California leads the state in spending on government employees. Consider their outrageous salaries and pensions which are unavailable in the private sector. Guaranteed employment is almost a given regardless of the employee's level of performance or even the need for such a functionary. This is unlikely to get better, even if tax revenue is raised – the legislature will continue to spend money they don’t have; on projects which have little or no lasting value. Instead of money being spent to repair or replace our crumbling infrastructure, money is being spent on social engineering efforts and projects which benefit the private interests.

A failed educational system which demands a fixed portion of all incoming funds   has proven that money does not necessarily improve education. One need only to look at California’s largest school system, the Los Angeles Unified School District, where the political players are more interested in soothing the ego of a billionaire by building a $230 million modern art high school monstrosity to serve as part of his overall development project than they are in graduating actual students. Performance, no matter how measured, is abysmal and the LAUSD has just paid their Superintendent $500,000 to walk away from his contract -- because the board failed to set achievable goals and thus were dissatisfied with his lack of performance. In the real world, you fire the non-performer for cause, not reward them with more than a half million dollar bonus.

A declining number of major corporations, wealthy individuals and others who support the bulk of the tax burden. These people are leaving California for Nevada and other states with lower taxes, reduced living expenses and a business-friendly environment.

An unelected sub-government consisting of those who act as Mexican nationals; as they confer the benefits of citizenship on non-citizens to the detriment of the state’s law-abiding citizens and legal residents. These politicians are engaging in social engineering to upgrade the lifestyle of illegal aliens who arrive in droves. Thus California consciously continues to import more  poverty and illiteracy – and demands that their legal and law-abiding residents pay for their good works. Consider that a member of the military or an out-of-state non-resident must pay the non-resident school tuition; and  yet, we spend approximately $200 million to provide free college educations for illegal aliens.

And let us not forget the special interests who spend pennies on the dollar to win lucrative government contracts which are somewhat unlikely to be audited or even produce tangible results. Purposely using low bids to win the contracts and "change orders" to insure a heafty profit. These are the people who have corrupted our government with their campaign donations and/or promises to deliver large voting blocks.

Outrageous!

Add to that the draconian rules and regulations that are imposed on California businesses and which insures that they are less able to compete in the nation as well as the world.

The numbers:  Since Governor Schwarzenegger was elected to curtail legislative spending and to bring government under control in 2003, legislative spending has increased by a an outrageous 40%. A real dollar expansion of $41 billion, to a total of $144.8 billion annually. And our tax base is eroding as people move out of state. Fourteen percent of wealthy Californians (earning more than $100,000) pay 83% of the income taxes

All-in-all, the Governor and the legislature have all but destroyed the California dream.

In addition to the special interests, we have the limousine liberals in both Hollywood and the Bay Area who support these confiscatory policies as they have more money than they can ever spend, tax shelters from the best advisors and who remain totally unaffected by the positions they advocate. These are the people who supported Barack Obama and fervently hope that the federal government will bail out California. The “do as I say, don’t do as I do” crowd.

And this is the democrat model …

So explain to me why I should wish Obama and his merry band of re-tread Clintonistas well. Let them fail and cause the people, the majority of the people, to demand real reform. Reform of the political parties, reform of the government – and above all reform of a large segment of our population that thinks it has a right to government handouts to exist in the real world.

If Obama fails to hold on tight to the far-left liberal tiger he rode to power, he will surely be consumed and make way for a conservative Republican political base. Not the effete North Eastern Harvard/Princeton/Yale liberals and snobs who play at government, but real working people who know that it takes more than saying “My name is Caroline Kennedy” to obtain a Senate seat.

A debt of gratitude …

No matter what you think of our current President, he has managed to keep up safe from terrorism and has taken the fight to the enemy. Although despised by those organizations which have been infiltrated by our enemies and those who naturally hate America, he has done his job to the best of his ability.

So pardon me …

while I wish Obama a one-term Presidency which will encounter a Republican reformation in the Congress in 2010.

And for those of you who claim that President Obama will move farther to the center from his leftist position, may I remind you that President Bush moved the center so far left with his spending policies that Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry almost look like moderate liberals instead of far-left loons. So any attempt for an obvious reconcilliation effort with the right is likely to be simply a strategic ploy to make President Obama appear to be something he his most definitely not: a Joe Liberman-style moderate democrat. For those who follow politics, this is the Dick Morris "triangulation" gambit where one side simply co-opts the issues of the other in order to deny the other side traction.

We should also beware of faux-Republicans like California's Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Senators John McCain and his new best friend, Senator Lindsey Graham who are all too willing to rush into the democratic camp and serve as Judas goats.

There is no doubt that America will survive due to the resiliency and resourcefulness of the American people. Hopefully, the politicians and other evil-doers who put us in this precarious position will be prosecuted and lose their ill-gotten gains. Or at the very least, shamed into silence.

-- steve

P.S. At this point in time, we are not experiencing the worst economic times since the great depression, we are experiencing the worst economic times since democrat Jimmy Carter's Administration.

An American Tragedy ...

A friend of mine who is less than enthusiastic about the Golden Globes and the Oscars asked me to name the worst movie of the year; constrained, of course, by those I have actually seen.

Without a moment’s hesitation I named David Zucker’s “An American Carol” as the worst piece of crap that I had experienced in 2008 – and possibly of all time.

Not only was the script garbage, but the acting was wooden and as lethargic as Michael Malone, the Kevin Farley portrayal of “documentary” filmmaker Michael Moore.

This is the type of film that is conceived by over-tired slap-happy amateurs working at three o’clock in the morning. (My friend Pat might be the only one to really appreciate this part of the review.) Nothing is funny. Nothing works. And even the production values leave much to be desired. And yet, the filmmakers continue to forge their way through the production.

How talented individuals, with the exception of Paris Hilton who plays herself, could sign-on to such a project is beyond me. I wonder what they thought when they saw the picture on the big screen? The best performance was by Robert Davi who portrayed a serious radical jihadist with some semblance of reality and great comedic timing.  Unfortunately, against his portrayal, the others looked like faded tintype pictures held up against a Kodak moment.

Following the money …

According to boxofficemojo.com, the project (I hesitate to use the word film, movie or motion picture) has a reported budget of $20 million and a lifetime box office gross of $7,013,191. Even the magic of Hollywood accounting couldn’t make this a breakeven winner – unless, using the magic of syndication, everyone got paid upfront.

The cover blurb claims: “It’s radical … It’s Brave… And it’s funny.

The premise of jihadists trying to blow up a Madison Square Gardens country music concert for the troops  -- and being saved by Michael Malone is beyond the pale. Even with the framing of Dickens’ like Christmas Carol characters, it misses the mark by a continent. Perhaps it might be funny in Afghanistan, but maybe not.

Believe me, there is nothing radical, brave or funny contained in this movie. Even the security device glued into the DVD's packaging is more interesting than watching this painful example of 1980’s style filmmaking. Possibly director David Zucker’s attempt to recreate Airplane using a string of lame jokes told in a desiccated manner. I tried to find another word to describe the film, but desiccated is the best description.   Definition: Desiccate -- to make dry, dull, or lifeless. See, a perfect description!

Warning … 

The only reason I am posting this entry is to warn my fellow Americans; be they conservative, liberal or simply apathetic, that this movie is a total waste of time, effort and money. This is the type of movie that could convince copyright pirates to give up counterfeiting DVDs.

-- steve

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: State of the State Speech Demonstrates INCOMPETENCE!

Schwarzenegger's 11 minute speech said nothing ... and was a demostration of his incompetence as California's governor.

According to Arnold’s Official Website …

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER
38TH Governor of California

“The world knows Arnold Schwarzenegger as a famous bodybuilder and a Hollywood action hero, but he is also a successful businessman, generous philanthropist and California's 38th Governor.”

Unfortunately, many Californian’s now know Governor Schwarzenegger as a narcissistic, ego-driven "movie star” who seeks adoration over results.  He is no politician – he merely plays one!

Notable accomplishments?

“Governor Schwarzenegger's most notable accomplishments in his first five years in office include the nation-leading Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 - a bipartisan agreement to combat global warming by reducing California's greenhouse gas emissions - and overhauling the state's workers' compensation system - cutting costs by more than 35 percent. In addition, Governor Schwarzenegger is the first governor in decades to make major investments in improving California's aging infrastructure through his Strategic Growth Plan, helping to reduce congestion and clean the air. He established the Hydrogen Highway and Million Solar Roofs Plan, continuing his leadership in creating a greener environment.”

There is no proof that any program that Arnold Schwarzenegger recommends will change the global climate one iota. In fact, there is absolutely no way to measure any weather-related deviation as any miniscule change would be lost in the noise of the weather’s normal variability.

Fails to notice the fat, bloated government and his fat cat special interests …

“As Governor, he has been California's most effective marketing tool, traveling across the country and around the world promoting California-grown products, cutting-edge technologies and the state's diverse travel destinations. In addition, using his background as an internationally recognized athlete, Governor Schwarzenegger has made restoring health and fitness a top priority. He signed legislation making the state's school nutrition standards the most progressive in the nation and continues to promote healthy habits by taking harmful trans fats out of California restaurants and ensuring nutritional information is available to diners.”

Fiscal reform?

Additionally, since he took office, Governor Schwarzenegger has worked to reform California's fiscal policies, create a better business environment, reduce burdens on employment, boost exports and stimulate job growth. Through the end of 2007, California's Gross State Product had grown by 29 percent since the governor took office in 2003.

The governor is a stone cold, bold-faced liar! Under his watch, spending has increased over 40% in real dollars. His promises of eliminating waste, fraud and corruption in the California Government is a sham public relations effort – as he appointed his cronies and politically important people to the high-paying boards he vowed to eliminate.

The governor’s entire public policy can be defined as “LOOK AT ME, I AM GREAT, IT IS SO BECAUSE I SAY IT IS SO!”

2009 State of the State Speech …

In approximately eleven minutes, three or less if you take out the acknowledgements of other politicians and the routine crap, there was nothing of substance contained within the speech.

"Let me tell you, I have big plans for this state. They include action on the economy, on water, environment, education, and health care reform, government efficiency and reform, job creation, and the list goes on and on," Schwarzenegger said. "But our first order of business is to solve the budget crisis."

What the hell has Schwarzenegger done in the past five years? He stands before the people and claims we are in a major fiscal crisis and then goes on to say he wants to spend even more.

This man is delusional and will do or say almost anything to get approval …

His proposal that legislators should lose their salaries and per diem if the budget is not submitted on time – like a few measly dollars would mean something to people who raise and spend multi-million dollar amounts on their campaigns.

“We should make a commitment that legislators -- and the governor too -- lose per diem expenses and our paychecks, for every day the budget goes past the constitutional deadline of June 15.”

“You have to admit it is a brilliant idea.
I mean, if you call a taxi and the taxi doesn't come, you don't pay the driver. If the people's work is not getting done, the people's representatives should not get paid either.
That is common sense in the real world.”

Additional stupidities …

• “So, I am encouraged that meaningful negotiations are underway. And, as difficult as the budget will be, good things can come out of it.”
• “Because, in spite of the budget crisis, when we have worked together in the past, we have passed measures that moved this state -- and even the nation -- forward.”
• “There is no course left open to us but this: to work together, to sacrifice together, to think of the common good -- not our individual good.
  No one wants to take money from our gang-fighting programs or from Medi-Cal or from education.”
• “No one wants to pay more in taxes or fees.
  But each of us has to give up something because our country is in an economic crisis and our state simply doesn't have the money.”

Sacrifice to ratify and continue the legislature’s continued profligate spending? Where are the substantive budget cuts? Where are the real dollar cuts rather than the phony claim that a reduction in a budgetary increase is a tax cut?

What is he trying to do …

It appears that he wants to take the current budget deficit and roll it into the next budget and then fund both together … all with the purpose of papering over the problem, kicking the can down the road – so he can run for the Senate in 2010 with some form of accomplishment. No mention of the other real problem facing the state: illegal aliens and their union and church supporters.

Bottom line: Schwarzenegger has been an abject failure as a governor and would make an even worse Senator.

What can YOU do?

Remember what Schwarzenegger failed to do in two terms of as California’s governor.

Remember the broken promises to curtail spending and reduce the costs of government.

And remember that the man is a RINO (Republican In Name Only) and turned his back on those who bought his loyalty with their votes and money. He is a liar, cheat and thief – when you consider he took money under false pretenses when he ran as a conservative Republican and then morphed into a liberal sycophantic democrat.

END SCHWARZENEGGER’S  POLITICAL CAREER AND ELECT A GOVERNOR WHO ACTUALLY CAN FUNCTION WITHOUT PUBLIC RELATIONS COUNSEL AND HOLLYWOOD STYLE SMOKE AND MIRRORS.

-- steve

A reminder from OneCitizenSpeaking.com: a large improvement can result from a small change…

The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. -- Marcus Aurelius

Reference Links:

2009 California State of the State Speech Text|Los Angeles Times

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger - About Arnold, Biography

Schwarzenegger: I can be bought!

I am rich and powerful ...

For a man who said he was t0o rich and independent to be bought or be required to cater to the special interests, it's ironic that Governor Schwarzenegger has exceeded the fundraising prowess of his predecessor Gray Davis and caved in to liberal democrats and their special interest  spending whenever possible.

According to the Sacramento Bee ...

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he has a price."

"If he is going to give up the no-new-taxes stance on which he staked his 2006 re-election campaign, he says, Democrats must agree to shove aside environmental rules for 11 highway projects and let private investors and builders play a larger role in state construction."

The triple whammy ...

Like a RINO (Republican In Name Only), Schwarzenegger is abandoning his so-called "conservative" principles and talking about raising taxes in a time of universally acknowledged recession.

Like a committed environmentalist and the  spearhead of California's efforts to fight global warming, Schwarzenegger seems all to ready to abandon environmental rules -- especially as they may apply to concrete production.

And as one who is too rich to pander to the special interests, he is openly advocating to let private investors play a larger role in state construction.

But what do you expect from a man who declares himself to be no longer the candidate the people elected, but a post-partisan politician who is above party politics. A convenient cover for a political turncoat who is willing to turn his back on the party who elected him and do deals with the profligate spenders he was elected to rein in.

It's a role to be played and it's only an writer's words ...

"Schwarzenegger has long believed that higher taxes damage the economy; he said in 2006 it would be the 'worst thing' to do."

Notice how he is looking ahead to 2010 -- to clear his record before facing a Senate run?

"Now, facing a $40 billion budget deficit over the next 18 months, he says he is willing to bend if the state can offset the impact of raising taxes by making regulations friendlier to businesses."

Switch hitter?

Only months ago, the budget deficit was said to be somewhere between $12 BILLION and $24 BILLION -- with $14 BILLION mentioned as a likely number.

So how did we suddenly get to $40 BILLION or his Schwarzenegger trying to clear the whole deficit before his Senate run? Or his he trying to pull a Pete Ueberroth? Ueberroth, as you may well remember was the head of the Los Angeles Olympic effort and overstated all costs in order to have a major surplus at the end of his watch.

Switching subjects: it is no longer about taxes or spending, it's about jobs and infrastructure...

Parroting the Obama line, Schwarzenegger has apparently turned into a liberal democrat.

" 'Really, the whole idea was that we help the people as much as possible in these very terrible times,' Schwarzenegger said last month as he rejected a Democratic plan to reduce the deficit by $18 billion because he said it didn't do enough to promote job growth."

" 'This proposal that they have sent down … does really only one thing, and this is punish the people of California,' he said."

Truth be told, Schwarzenegger is complicit in "punishing the people" as he signed off on every budget since he was elected. There is no "they!" It Schwarzenegger and the legislature who have spent the last five years spending California into an abyss -- and with little or nothing to show for all of that massive spending except nice new freeway sound walls which are graffiti magnets.

It's not his lifestyle that he is gambling with ...

"Schwarzenegger's action was risky; continued stalemate means the state will run out of cash in February, unable to pay tax refunds or state vendors."

He can move out of state to another one of his homes at a moment's notice. Not that he was even in the state when the new budget proposal was revealed during the New Year break. He was enjoying life in Sun Valley, Idaho -- at one of his other homes.

Diversionary tactic: look over there ...

"Democrats say the Republican governor is holding up the budget over a stimulus package they consider largely irrelevant to closing the state's massive deficit."

" 'Economic stimulus is extremely important, and we need to get Californians back to work,' Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, said Wednesday. 'However, economic stimulus proposals will not address the (cash) situation that the state controller has indicated we will be facing in February. So it is our belief the governor should sign the proposal we put forward to address the immediate cash crisis.'"

More smoke and mirrors: seeking a position of plausible deniability?

Is the governor's goal to set the stage, so to speak, so that he can claim he fought hard against the democrat's dastardly budgetary plans?

"Despite issuing a separate budget proposal last week, the governor continues to negotiate with Democrats over their $18 billion package with the possibility he could sign it before February."

I can be bought; and I don't mind selling out my own party in the process ...

"The governor said last month that if Democrats give him what he wants, he'd sign the package even though it skirts the state's two-thirds vote requirement for taxes, making opposition by lawmakers of his own party irrelevant in a way they say is illegal."

What environmental impact?

Schwarzenegger is primarily asking to waive environmental restrictions so that $1.2 billion in road projects can begin as soon as this year, which he estimates would establish 21,600 jobs, including those created in other sectors by worker spending.

Can you say "special interests?"

"The governor is also asking to change construction guidelines to make it easier for private firms to build state projects, which he suggests would allow California to take advantage of even more federal and private capital."

Hollywood Lesson One: Looking Good ...

"Schwarzenegger's demands, if met, would allow the governor to say he scored some wins for business interests, even as he capitulated on taxes. It's a strategy likely to reappear during summer budget talks, when the governor is expected to ask Democrats to loosen rules over meal and rest breaks in exchange for further tax increases."

Looking tough by threatening the union or would the meal and rest breaks only apply to non-classified workers?

It doesn't matter if the results are mostly symbolic and can be exploited in the media for maximum advantage ...

"In the meantime, the governor's list of $1.2 billion in road projects likely won't have a game-changing effect in a $1.7 trillion statewide economy, though the administration believes it would help the recovery."

"The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office said the proposal has some merit in a down economy, such as taking advantage of lower prices for materials and highly competitive bids as more firms are desperate for work. But it faces numerous challenges, principally the need for federal waivers."

"The analyst also noted that the plan would only accelerate construction by a few months, since several projects are already on track to begin in early 2010, not creating as immediate an impact as advertised. And the analyst report noted that stimulus would be confined to those areas where highway projects are located."

Special interests?

"But with the state desperate for new jobs, the governor likely believes there is no greater political opportunity than now to press the Democratic-controlled Legislature to make concessions that enable more long-term private involvement in state construction."

"Democrats oppose the governor's plan because they want the 11 specified road projects to undergo environmental review, whereas Schwarzenegger wants to eliminate that hurdle. Democrats also want more oversight over a procedure that incorporates the design and construction sequences into one, a change that Schwarzenegger wants because it is more favorable to private builders."

Only "acting" like a Republican?

"The governor's proposals would require Democrats to give up protections that environmentalists and state employee labor unions hold dear. Steinberg said there is room for agreement but that the governor shouldn't expect to get everything he wants."

The political way?

Do or say anything to pursue your own agenda has always been the way of politics, regardless of political party -- no matter whether or not you style yourself as a  post partisan politician.

"In 2006, Schwarzenegger focused heavily on two messages – his opposition to taxes and his environmental credentials. Faced with far different economic circumstances in 2009, Schwarzenegger's message has shifted to creating jobs.

"While he once promoted his ability to balance environmental concerns with economic ones, he says the economic ones win out for now."

" 'What we want to do is strip away some of the rules and regulations that are holding us back now to do infrastructure in the first place," Schwarzenegger said last month. 'So we need jobs right now. For me the people are the most important thing, then we can worry about all the other regulations.'"

Bottom line ...

Schwarzenegger has abandoned the conservative principles of the Republican party and has joined the ranks of those politicians who will do or say anything to pursue their own personal agenda: in this case moving  Schwarzenegger beyond Hollywood into a well-respected statesman.

-- steve

Reference Links:

Analysis: Schwarzenegger shifts budget focus from opposing taxes to creating jobs - Sacramento Politics - California Politics | Sacramento Bee

Arnold Schwarzenegger: failing upward to the Senate or, heaven forbid, the Presidency

Schwarzenegger is still posing for the crowd … do little other than flexing his mouth as he assumes a pose as the Governor of California – using Hollywood smoke and mirrors to hide the fact that he has done very little of note for the citizens of California and that playing tough guy with your own party is often a losing proposition.

According to the Los Angeles Times … 

“Governor reveals tricks of the trade on '60 Minutes'”

Unfortunately the tricks that were played on the public by the governor and the legislature have led California from the Golden State to potential ruin.

The people elected Arnold Schwarzenegger to eliminate the waste, fraud and corruption in California government. To help hold the legislature’s profligate spending in check before the State was forced into bankruptcy.

They did not expect that Schwarzenegger would all but ignore his own party and spend more time courting liberal democrats, thus earning him the sobriquet: “RINO” (Republican In Name Only). That he would quickly learn to surpass his predecessor, Gray Davis, who was widely acknowledged as a master 24/7 fund-raiser. That he would learn how to manipulate private foundations to finance his travel and expenses – while initially hiding their contributors.  That he would learn the tricks of papering over budgetary deficits using borrowed money from Wall Street and intra-account borrowing.  And worst of all, using Hollywood smoke and mirrors to pretend he is a post-partisan politician: working for the people.

“Schwarzenegger says that without his acting experience, his job in Sacramento would have been much more difficult. He also says he'd be interested in becoming president if it were possible.”

Reporting from Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hasn't said whether he would pursue another job in politics after his final term ends in two years. But there's at least one position he might be interested in, if he were eligible for it: president.
"Yeah, absolutely," Schwarzenegger said in an interview airing tonight on "60 Minutes" on CBS, when asked by correspondent Scott Pelley if he would like to be president. ‘I think that I am always a person that looks for the next big goal. And I love challenges. I always set goals that are so high, that are almost impossible to achieve.’"

Is this a diversionary ploy to allow him to continue his fundraising activities with an eye to becoming a Senator in 2010?

“At the moment, becoming president would be impossible. Schwarzenegger, who was born in Austria and became a U.S. citizen in 1983, is not a ‘natural born citizen’ of the United States, as required by the Constitution.”

“Talk of amending the Constitution was a hot topic in California and Washington during Schwarzenegger's first couple of years in office, when some of his backers waged an "Amend for Arnold" campaign and members of Congress proposed changing the rule. Schwarzenegger has said he would welcome such a move but has mostly joked about running when asked about it publicly.”

Many a truth is spoken in jest. Personally, I think that the possibility of a foreign born President, especially one with a Eurocentric background, might expose America to great danger.

Matt David, his spokesman, noted that on "60 Minutes," the governor was responding to a theoretical question.

In the interview, the governor also lifted the veil on some of his tricks of the trade, both in his cinematic and political careers. With Pelley lifting weights as they spoke, Schwarzenegger said that when he played a muscle man in the movies, he just pretended to lift 300 pounds.
"I mean, when you do it for the cameras you only do 50, so you take it easy," he said. "You don't kill yourself."
He described a scene in the movie "Stay Hungry" with actress Sally Field in which he had to lift 225 pounds over and over.
"I learned very quickly: Put on wooden plates," Schwarzenegger said.
His governing style apparently involves some acting as well.

"People think show business was in Hollywood, but I think [ Ronald] Reagan was absolutely right," Schwarzenegger said, referring to the former California governor and president. "If he wouldn't have the training in acting, this would have been a very difficult job."

It angers me that Schwarzenegger even mentions Ronald Reagan. Yes, Reagan was an actor that became the California Governor and then went on to the presidency. But where Reagan had a core fundamental values and honed his political philosophy of conservatism, Schwarzenegger seems to be a pragmatic opportunist. Using what ever tools are at his disposal for his own self-interests.

A review of Schwarzenegger’s past performance as governor reveals numerous opportunities to appoint qualified Republicans to positions of power – and yet, it appears that he would appoint democrats to the positions to achieve some unknown political benefit to himself.

Global Warming …

And now it appears that Schwarzenegger has adopted the religion of global warming as his new vehicle to propel him upward on the political food chain.  Knowing full well that no results might be measurable until long after he has played the celestial stage. Which may be indicative of his current philosophy of trying to kick the budgetary can once more beyond 2010.

60 minutes interview …

Watch CBS Videos Online

One interesting item is how Schwarzenegger sets almost impossible goals and then having achieved them, moves on to the next goal. It seems to me that, having achieved the position of Governor of the State of California, he would make a success out of the position before even thinking about moving on.

Another interesting fact that nobody mentioned is that the $40 billion dollar deficit that is mentioned is the projected deficit in the next 18 months – long after Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the current budget into law. Either he signed a bogus budget or something is going radically wrong on his watch. Or perhaps a little bit of both. For more on Schwarzenegger and the California budget, see my previous blog entry.

“Schwarzenegger and the Legislature: Tiptoeing thru the tulips while California plunges into a deeper recession ...”

The Schwarzenegger solution …

“Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is asking state employees to take time off work- without pay - as he looks to solve the state's budget crisis.”

“The governor issued an executive order Friday. It calls for a state hiring freeze, asks state agencies to cut payrolls by 10 percent, and orders state employees to take two days off a month without pay.” <Source>

Like every other organization caught up in the current economic crisis, Schwarzenegger should be eliminating thousands of state employees who serve little or no real purpose other than to satisfy the bureaucratic need to shuffle paper. Consider everyone who does not fulfill a critical public safety position and then start cutting. Start with the political appointees in high paying positions. Eliminate the media spokesmen and public relations counsel first.

Of course, being somewhat a left-leaning liberal democrat in Republican clothing, Schwarzenegger is afraid to anger the unions in cutting back infrastructure jobs -- as he has threatened the citizens while he stands by the 405 freeway which is under construction -- as he will require their support in his 2010 bid for the Senate. Imagine that: the tough guy turns out to be a girly man when it comes to making the hard decisions and acting like a man.

What can YOU do?

Keep Schwarzenegger out of the Senate. We do not need another phony politician to pose as “a man of the people” and do nothing except fundraise and court the media.

Demand that Schwarzenegger clean up the mess he has made in the State by curtailing waste, fraud and corruption as well as rein in legislative spending using his veto pen.

Demand that Schwarzenegger give up the Republican designation and stop taking money under false pretenses unless he attempts to re-build the party he has so often turned his back on. 

Realize that if someone should prove that Barack Obama was not a natural citizen, then Schwarzenegger might have an actual chance at the presidency via a “backdoor” electoral process. Heaven forbid.

Elect a conservative Republican to serve as our next governor – one that does not come out of the San Francisco/Silicon Valley sphere of influence.

-- steve

A reminder from OneCitizenSpeaking.com: a large improvement can result from a small change…

The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. -- Marcus Aurelius

Reference Links:

Governor reveals tricks of the trade on '60 Minutes' - Los Angeles Times

The Times Modifies its story on Schwarzenegger

Schwarzenegger and the Legislature: Tiptoeing thru the tulips while California plunges into a deeper recession ...

What Governor?

First, where is the leadership that the Governor promised years ago in his first term: I am so rich, I can’t be bought. I will cut legislative spending. I will balance the budget. I will sign a budget on schedule. I am for the people of California.

Turns out that Arnold Schwarzenegger is more of a narcissistic movie star than an able administrator. A liberal democrat posing as a Republican. A man who is wealthy and intends to stay that way by creating special entitites to fund his jet-set lifestyle while acting out the part of “a man of the people.” Well it is crunch time and the Governor has run out of answers, out of cute little tricks to paper over the budget.

What Legislature …

When confronted with their profligate spending, these democrat liberals simply claimed that it wasn’t a spending problem, but a revenue problem and we all needed to pay more.

This group of liberal aging hippies who are more interested in demonstrating their humanitarianism by attracting more illegal aliens to a state whose crumbling healthcare, educational, judicial, retirement, social and cultural infrastructure is almost beyond repair. A group of GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered) activists who want to insert sexual politics in a state in sore need of leadership, prudence, discretion and budgetary. Leftists who want to cede a major portion of the state’s budget and rulemaking power to the unions who support them.

A corrupt group which continues to campaign 24/7 and more beholden to the special interests that funnel votes and campaign contributions to their special charities and various campaign funds than the people of the State of California.

And in some cases, a thoroughly rotten group who has the audacity to pontificate on social and economic issues while they are under current investigation for political corruption.

Did I miss something?

I was under the impression that our budgetary shortfall was somewhere in the range of 12 – 24 billion dollars depending on who was adding up the numbers.

Now I am being told that the budget deficit will balloon to $42 billion dollars in the next eighteen months.

Is someone lying? Or is this some form of “shock and awe” pronouncement to raise our already sky-high taxes while covering their tracks while they continue to spend-spend-spend?

More accounting games?

We are talking about a budget. Where one would think that a reduction in spending actually meant that you spend less money than you spent previously.

However, I am now learning that in California, a reduction in spending is often a reduction in the amount of money that you are proposing to spend in the upcoming fiscal period. That is: if you spent $1 billion actual dollars last year and budgeted the next year at $2 billion dollars; our woefully inept leaders slash 1/2 billion from the proposed two billion budget and call that a “spending cut.” When the truth is that they plan to spend $1-1/2 billion dollars – a spending increase of 50% over the actual dollars previously spent.

You can hardly trust anyone in California government to provide the real truth …

Only scant months ago, you could trust the non-partisan Legislative Analyst to provide some estimate of the real numbers. Unfortunately, our legislators have borrowed money from this fund and that fund and have replaced the actual money with the state version of a promissory note. A note which is totally worthless unless funded by additional money from the taxpayer.  In addition to this bait-and-switch scam, we also find that billions of dollars are squirreled away in special interest funds such as the $2 billion in a pre-school treasure chest funded by the tobacco industry. A fund that the teacher’s unions are desperately trying to tap to extend their influence and membership by operating pre-schools to serve as daycare centers for the children of illegal aliens who are accepted with open arms into union-controlled positions.

We have voted to provide a set portion of the state’s income for education – an ever growing sinkhole of leftist learning theories and mediocre performance. The only thing that seems to be rising is the ratio of administrators to teachers.

In a time when we are being told that teachers must pay for school supplies out of their own pockets, we see state supervised school systems like the Los Angeles Unified School System waste $100 million or more on a failed payroll system, $500,000 to buy out an ethnic school superintendent who was unable to perform his job in a manner suitable for the school board, a $1 billion dollar high school project – for a single high school. Or a $230 million dollar modern art high school to stroke the ego of a billionaire who seems to have a lock on the school board politics.

We see union employees lollygagging on the job, only to perform the real work after hours at double and triple time.

Nobody, including Governor Schwarzenegger is watching out for the average Californian – Californians who are migrating out of the state in increasing numbers. An action that is not lost on the socialists in Mexico who are steadily gaining influence in the state and want people to move out  of their “land.”

Taxation without representation …

We are heading for a recreation of the Boston Tea Party. A taxpayer revolt over the imperialistic actions of the petty dictators that we somehow were persuaded to elect. Whether by a complicit media, who has abandoned any semblance of journalistic ethics and has moved to crass commercialism, or the cult of celebrity – charlatans and incompetent people are now running our government.

And now we are being told that we are not being taxed – we are merely paying fees. Even when the dumbest among us knows that a tax is charged to the general public and a fee is something someone pays to defray the cost of a service which they receive.

From the Associated Press …

“California lawmakers have approved an $18 billion Democratic plan to address the state deficit.”

“They passed several pieces of legislation with a simple majority Thursday, avoiding the two-thirds requirement typically needed to approve tax increases.”

“Republicans voted for some of the bills that made sweeping cuts to California programs. In all, the legislation trims more than $7 billion from schools, health programs and prisons.”

But you need to ask yourself – are these sweeping cuts actual reductions in relationship to money that was previously spent or merely sham reductions of proposed budgetary spending. If our state government was serious, we could come up with a budget in less than 30 minutes. We simply say that the spending for the next fiscal period is the same as the actual dollars spent last year minus 20%. All of the public safety functions would be funded first – less a 10% reduction; education would be next with a full 20% reduction and all of the other services would have to fight it out to obtain the rest of the money – eliminating commissions, boards, bureaus which no longer serve a public purpose.

And, above all forcing the government employees to suffer in direct proportion as those suffering in private industry by reducing the number of part-time and full-time employees in government in the same proportion as the job loss in private industry. No more tenured teachers. No more lifetime jobs. No nepotism. And no more overtime when it appears that employees are drifting through their days pushing paper from one department to another.

“Democrats and Republicans have been at odds since the beginning of November over how to solve the state's ballooning deficit. It is expected to hit $42 billion in the next 18 months.”

I ask again, how the hell did a budget deficit balloon from $12-24 billion months ago to $42 billion when the legislature is telling us they are cutting spending? Someone is lying – perhaps they are all lying.

The liberal democrat answer …

“The Democratic proposal would address $18 billion of the state's shortfall over the next 18 months through a scheme that would cut some taxes, raise others, impose a new fee on gasoline and slash more than $7 billion in spending on health, education and prisons.”

If they say that the deficit will hit $42 billion dollars in the next 18 months and then say their democrat proposal will address $18 billion over the next 18 months – what is it that they are doing wrong. Ask me and I will tell you that they are planning to spend more than ever.

Is their proposal constitutional and legal?

“Taxpayer groups threatened to sue if taxes pass without a two-thirds majority, but Democrats claim their proposals are constructed in such a way that only a simple majority is required.”

“Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Temecula, said Democrats were disregarding the will of the people, noting that the two-thirds requirement to raise taxes is in the state Constitution.”

What the hell is this “constructed in such a way?” Financial legerdemain worthy of Penn and Teller? More hocus pocus based on legal interpretations? Or a criminal conspiracy of legislators who know that the legislation is legal and that the collected funds must be returned to the taxpayers sometime in the indeterminate future? It’s happened before – but the state got to use the funds for years before they grudgingly returned the money – not the real cash – but by using a reduction in certain taxes and fees.

Deepening the depression …

Out socialistic friends who are more interested in the extending citizenship to illegal aliens – in essence importing more poverty and illiteracy into California and those fretting over gay rights seem to be oblivious of the fact that raising taxes at this critical juncture in California’s history my deepen the recession into a long-lasting depression. At least they will have achieved one of their primary goals: wealth redistribution – everybody will be equally poor except for the ruling elites like Schwarzenegger and his legislative democrat friends.

"’Make no mistake, it is indeed an increase in taxes right at a time when people are trying to keep their jobs, hoping to be able to hang on to their mortgage and their homes, hoping and fighting to pay bills, to make ends meet,’ Hollingsworth said.”

Enter Schwarzenegger the RINO …

“’Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hasn't taken a position on the Democrats' proposal. Much of his criticism of legislators' inability to approve a budget plan has been leveled at members of his own party.’”

Schwarzenegger was so out of touch with his own party, that as a joke they wore name tags to one of their negotiation sessions.

The most egregious example of a far-left liberal democrat …

"’Merry Christmas Californians, indeed, because we're going to save the economy of this state. We're going to jump-start the economy,’ said Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco.”

The deal they propose …

“The Democratic proposal would generate another $9.3 billion in general fund revenue by replacing gasoline taxes with a variety of fees.”

“The plan would raise the taxes Californians pay on gas by about 13 cents, replacing an 18-cent-a-gallon excise tax and a fluctuating sales tax with a 39-cent-per-gallon fee; raise the state sales tax by 3/4 of a cent; boost personal income taxes by 2.5 percent; tax oil produced in California; and collect taxes from independent contractors upfront.”

As for the gas tax, it is still a tax and not a fee. Perhaps if we label Mark Leno a heterosexual, he would no longer be gay. A cruel example, but one deserved by this asshat politician.

The 2.5% increase on state sales taxes is being billed as a surcharge. A tax on a tax? Or a fee for paying your taxes? Don’t ask, don’t tell seems to be the operative democrat legislative credo.

As for collecting taxes from independent contractors upfront, this is aimed squarely at the small businessman or entrepreneur who is being asked to bankroll big government. Since these taxes must be paid in the future (or the excess refunded), it amounts to a no-interest loan to the California legislature to continue their wayward ways.

“Republican lawmakers warned the plan would hit Californians hard during an already difficult recession. They have called for deeper cuts to education and social services instead of raising taxes.”

"’We're talking about substantially raising taxes on the people of this state,’ said Senate Minority Leader Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto. "’This proposal before us today will raise the gas tax, it will raise the car tax, will raise the personal income tax, and it will raise the sales tax to the tune of about $1,000 a year for an average family making about $50,000.’"

What the hell are they telling us?

“The shortfall for the fiscal year that ends in June is nearly $14 billion, about 10 percent of the state's $144.5 billion budget. But that hole is expected to grow in the next fiscal year unless lawmakers cut spending, raise revenue or do a combination of the two.”

We are back to a deficit of $14 billion dollars – somewhat the same number floated months ago. You know, the number between $12-$24 billion. So how do they manage to project a budget deficit of $42 million without spending another $28 billion that they obviously do not have.

Someone is playing games. Someone is not telling the truth. And someone is planning to continue to rob the State of California taxpayer. And there appears to be nobody willing to stop them.

Scare tactics …

“In a sign that the impasse was taking a toll, a state panel on Wednesday voted to stop lending money for an estimated 2,000 infrastructure projects statewide through June, an unprecedented move that the board said was necessary because California can no longer afford the work.”

Once again, the legislators and public officials are threatening to let criminals out of jail to cut costs – never considering for a moment that their priority task is to protect the public safety and that everything else – including education – is secondary. If any official increases the risk to Californians, let them be tried for dereliction of duty and tossed out on the behinds – if not criminally prosecuted for aiding and abetting criminal activity.

Whoops, Wall Street has dried up …

“California has not been able to borrow money for months and faces a cash shortage in February.”

Imagine, the state can’t simply borrow money to paper over the deficit and continue to kick the can down the road. They need to step up to the plate and take responsibility for the mess they and their predecessors have caused. And those asshat legislators who just named fellow politicians to $132,178 positions on the Integrated Waste Management Board, cut their salaries to $65,o00 and extend the same cuts to all of the other unimportant positions.

And, oh by the way, stuff the global warming initiative which promises to add billions in energy costs to California residents – all based on feel good dodgy science where results will not even be measurable in the next 200 years.

What can YOU do?

Call your elected officials and demand budgetary reform.

If the bums will not reduce the amount of actual dollars spent by 20-25%, do not re-elect them and where appropriate recall them or charge them with a crime.

Send Arnold Schwarzenegger back to Hollywood to star in The Terminator XIX: The Revolt of the Geriatric Legislators

Consider the formation of a citizens watchdog group: let’s call it Citizens Audit Program. Our motto: Put a CAP on spending in California.

Demand transparency in government operations. Perhaps putting the actual expenditures of each governmental entity – with full check detail – in a searchable database on the Internet. The Sacramento Bee built an interactive database of state worker’s salaries – now it is time for the state to do it with payments to individuals and corporations.

Be well. Be safe. And this too shall pass.

-- steve

Quote of the day:  “There are no wise few. Every aristocracy that has ever existed has behaved, in all essential points, exactly like a small mob.” -- G. K. Chesterton

A reminder from OneCitizenSpeaking.com: a large improvement can result from a small change…

The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. -- Marcus Aurelius

Reference Links:

GCI.net - News

GLOBAL WARMING: OMNIBUS REASON FOR SCREWING THE AMERICAN CITIZEN?

EPA: Government Agency Abuses Authority for Meaningless Global Warming Gesture?

I cannot believe that the EPA would abuse their rule-making powers to impose a global climate tax on animals without a Congressional mandate. I wonder if they have ever heard of taxation without representation?

According to the Associated Press …

“Proposed fee on smelly cows, hogs angers farmers”

“For farmers, this stinks: Belching and gaseous cows and hogs could start costing them money if a federal proposal to charge fees for air-polluting animals becomes law.”

“Farmers so far are turning their noses up at the notion, which is one of several put forward by the Environmental Protection Agency after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that greenhouse gases emitted by belching and flatulence amounts to air pollution.”

" ‘This is one of the most ridiculous things the federal government has tried to do,’ said Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks, an outspoken opponent of the proposal.”

Welcome to the animal version of carbon caps … can emissions credits be far behind?

“It would require farms or ranches with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs to pay an annual fee of about $175 for each dairy cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle and $20 for each hog.”

“The executive vice president of the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, Ken Hamilton, estimated the fee would cost owners of a modest-sized cattle ranch $30,000 to $40,000 a year. He said he has talked to a number of livestock owners about the proposals, and ‘all have said if the fees were carried out, it would bankrupt them.’"

This is an unauthorized indirect tax on the population as all costs will eventually be passed on to the public. This is the same type of indirect taxation that is being imposed by those who use the utility companies to collect local, state and federal taxes promulgated by agencies – rather than the lawmakers themselves; who would then become accountable to the public.

Which nation is likely to be the Saudi Arabia of meat production? Mexico? Argentina?

“Sparks said Wednesday he's worried the fee could be extended to chickens and other farm animals and cause more meat to be imported.”

" ‘We'll let other countries put food on our tables like they are putting gas in our cars. Other countries don't have the health standards we have,’ Sparks said.”

Another bogus feel good measure …

There is no way to measure the effectiveness of this proposal and it amounts to little more than a “feel good” measure for angst-ridden liberals and a source of additional income to the cash-strapped government.

“EPA spokesman Nick Butterfield said the fee was proposed for farms with livestock operations that emit more than 100 tons of carbon emissions in a year and fall under federal Clean Air Act provisions.”

It’s not a TAX: it’s a FEE!

“The fee would cover the cost of a permit for the livestock operations. While farmers say it would drive them out of business, an organization supporting the proposal hopes it forces the farms and ranches to switch to healthier crops.”

Since when did man need a permit to raise livestock – other than those permits required to insure the safety of the commercial food supply?

Enter the far-left liberal vegetarians …

" ‘It makes perfect sense if you are looking for ways to cut down on meat consumption and recoup environmental losses,’ said Bruce Friedrich, a spokesman in Washington for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.”

" ‘We certainly support making factory farms pay their fair share,’ he said.”

Wonderful comment by the “perfect people for a perfect planet” crowd that is led by radical socialists, communists and others who are subverting the environmental cause for their own political agenda.

“Butterfield said the EPA is reviewing the public comments and didn't have a timetable for the next steps.”

How can any government agency be involved in this idiocy while acting in the people’s name? Time to take back our government by curtailing the activities of agencies which are not producing tangible results and are spinning their wheels proposing non-productive measures which do little or nothing to solve America’s current problems.

Global warming’s inconvenient scientific truth: weather is variable …

According to the U.K. Guardian …

“2008 will be coolest year of the decade”

“Global average for 2008 should come in close to 14.3C, but cooler temperature is not evidence that global warming is slowing, say climate scientists.”

“This year is set to be the coolest since 2000, according to a preliminary estimate of global average temperature that is due to be released next week by the Met Office. The global average for 2008 should come in close to 14.3C, which is 0.14C below the average temperature for 2001-07.”

Which really doesn’t prove anything other than the climate is cyclical and that we do not know the actual periodicity and amplitude of the cycles – or even where we are positioned in respect to the cycle itself.

What is really important …

However, what is important is to note is the very small numbers (.14C =  0.252F) which are well within the systemic measurement error rate of our current thermometers.

“In March, a team of climate scientists at Kiel University predicted that natural variation would mask the 0.3C (0.54F) warming predicted by the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change over the next decade. They said that global temperatures would remain constant until 2015 but would then begin to accelerate.” <Source>

Natural variation is the key to understanding the global weather change phenomenon. Rather than spend inordinate amounts of money and cede political control to people who don’t have a clue to anything other than their self-interested manipulation of the system, might it not be more prudent to spend the money developing more efficient structures to protect us from nature’s vagaries. To build desalination plants to help with potential water shortages in the future. To improve our food growing methods to deal with potential food shortages.

Wait a minute: these water and food shortages exist now – so why are we playing around with carbon cap and trade systems when we should be funding nuclear energy, pollution reduction, improving water and food sources? Why are people starving around the world while we diddle with nature – something that man’s puny power cannot control on a global scale.

Perhaps the Emperor has no clothes and what we are looking at is a massive diversion of resources to benefit those already in power and who have already bought and paid for their own politicians on the installment plan. And perhaps, Representative Randy Cunningham will turn out to be the most ethical politician of the decade: he has a price list which was available to all and did not change in relation to who you might be.

The perfect cause for politicians, charlatans, scam artists and profiteers …

Imagine a cause which generates considerable media attention at little or no cost, can serve as the basis for raising taxes, enlarging the scope and size of government, curtailing personal freedoms and expectations, allowing surcharges to be added for using the word “green,” and most of all, is based on a speculative computer-generated theory that can never be proven one way or another in your lifetime – or possibly in many hundreds of years. What an opportunity for exploitation of the world’s population by those who seize the initiative.

Politicians: acting in their own ego-centric self-interest …

It is amazing how quickly malevolent members of the far-left, many held over from the cold-war, have commandeered the environmental movement as a vehicle for the promotion of their socialistic agenda. These are our former enemies who have found that they can use our own gullibility and environmental laws against us to promote their own purposes of weakening both our military and our economy so as to reduce our world influence. And it is no surprise that they continue to rail against the use of modern nuclear energy to achieve the very goals they are trying to promote.

Exploitation of global warming for political purposes -- the Schwarzenegger effect: because I say so …

And then there are the political opportunists like California Governor Schwarzenegger, an ego-centric movie star who dreams of greater glory, recognition and adulation on the world state … and sees the environment as his prime mover towards his goal.

Truth be told, Schwarzenegger is a famous political failure: the triumph of artificially generated style over substance. He was elected by the people of California to curb the legislature’s profligate spending, cut down on the waste, fraud, corruption and burgeoning size of the state’s government, and repair or replace much of the state’s crumbling infrastructure. And over his two terms, he has sat idly by while the spending continued. Preferring instead to prove that he was a more prolific fundraiser than the man the people voted out of office, Gray Davis, for proposing the very programs that are  now being considered by Schwarzenegger. Our debt and deficit has been artificially manipulated during his watch and the state has devolved into a financial crisis. For a “post partisan” politician, it was amazing that he couldn’t even get his own Republican party to sign off on a budget that was not only constitutionally late, but was so filled by manipulation and misrepresentation as to be invalid when signed.

So why should be be surprised when Schwarzenegger gloms onto the global warming scheme as another path to promote his own personal agenda? As the management guru Tom Peters defined, “failing upward.”

California liberals, once again leading the way into sham legislation and controls …

According to the Sacramento Bee …

“A team of top California environmental officials are heading off to Poland this weekend.”

“Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has increasingly fashioned himself as a worldwide environmental figure, is dispatching the team to the United Nations conference on climate change.”

“Schwarzenegger hosted his own, pre-UN climate change conference last month (where President-elect Barack Obama made a surprise video-appearance.)”

There are those who believed that Schwarzenegger was angling for a prominent environmental position in the Obama Administration even though he is nominally a Republican. I say nominally, because a closer observation of Schwarzenegger’s activities over the past years has proven that he is a RINO (Republican In Name Only) who acts more like a liberal democrat than as a conservative Republican.

All with the lame explanation (or excuse) that  he is a “post partisan” politician who is acting in the best interests of the people. I am sure that Schwarzenegger is dreaming of the title of “Climate Czar” where he can continue to promote his own self-interests as well as continuing the public acclaim of his celebrity.

See-and-be-seen junket or fact-finding mission?

Continuing from the Sacramento Bee …

“In any case, Linda Adams, secretary for environmental protection, Mike Chrisman, secretary for resources, Margret Kim, international climate advisor, Tony Brunello, deputy secretary for resources and Anthony Eggert, senior advisor, are off to the week-long UN summit.”

More bad news?

“Who's not on that list? Mary Nichols, the chair of California's Air Resources Board and a rumored top contender to be Obama's administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.”

Which should surprise no one as she is a well-credentialed member of the liberal democratic left. (Heaven forbid that Schwarzenegger should have appointed a similarly qualified Republican to the position.)

“Mary D. Nichols was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as Chairman of the California Air Resources Board in July 2007. She returns to the Air Board 30 years after serving as the Chairman under Governor Jerry Brown from 1978 to 1983.”

“Nichols has devoted her entire career in public and private, not-for-profit service to advocating for the environment and public health. In addition to her work at the Air Board, she has held a number of positions, including: assistant administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Air and Radiation program under the Clinton Administration, Secretary for California's Resources Agency from 1999 to 2003, and Director of the University of California, Los Angeles Institute of the Environment.”

“As one of California's first environmental lawyers, she initiated precedent-setting test cases under the Federal Clean Air Act and California air quality laws while practicing as a staff attorney for the Center for Law in the Public Interest. Nichols holds a Juris Doctorate degree from Yale Law School and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University.” <Source>

“Inconsistent and incomplete:” like most politically- inspired plans that purport to deal with global climate change…

According to the Sacramento Bee …

“ …Assemblyman Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, is demanding that Nichols push back approval of California's roadmap to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions.”

“That roadmap, known in Capitol parlance as the ‘AB 32 scoping plan,’ was criticized by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office as ‘inconsistent and incomplete’ in a report requested by Niello and Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines.

“AB 32 requires California to limit greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, a roughly 20 percent reduction when the was passed in 2006. The scoping plan is the guideline to achieve the goal.”

“Niello, who voted against AB 32 in 2006, cited the LAO report in a letter to Nichols on Thursday asking her to reschedule next week's air board meeting, where members are expected to adopt the plan.”

The letter …

Specifically, the LAO letter suggests ‘the plan's evaluation of the costs and savings of some recommended measures is inconsistent and incomplete’ and that the plan ‘fails to
layout an investment pathway ... to attain the AB 32 GHG emission reduction goals.’”

“Unfortunately, the LAO was not able to complete some elements of their analysis as they were not provided with some written responses from CARB even though, ‘it had been provided ample time to do so.’"

“The peer review critique of the Scoping Plan goes even further in suggesting that the cost
of the AB 32 Scoping Plan would be significant, and that CARB drastically underestimated these costs. Additionally, peer review comments suggest that there is some underlying manipulation of data in the Scoping Plan by stating that, ‘The economic
analysis selectively includes or excludes various existing non-AB 32 policies in its
baseline precisely in ways that lead systematically to under-estimating the costs of the Scoping Plan.’"

Bottom line …

“AB 32 granted the ARB broad, unprecedented regulatory authority with minimal legislative oversight.”

Seems like the Paulson plan for the bailout of the financial industry. We’re not sure of the amount or the details of the program, but we need unprecedented authority with little or no regulatory oversight to accomplish our mission.

Unfortunately, these people have no clue on how man can begin to affect global weather patterns other than the promotion of policies which lead to higher taxes, larger government, reduced personal freedoms and windfall profits for the Wall Street Wizards who game the emissions credit trading scheme.

What can YOU do?

Before any politician or political entity goes off on a flight of fantasy to curb “global” climate change, force them back to reality of dealing with an omnipresent situation which can drastically affect your health … local pollution.

Demand that your local, state and federal environmental protection agencies fulfill their stated mission: reducing environmental pollution of the the ground, water and air by imposing curbs on local gross polluters instead of allowing them to mitigate their pollution with emissions credits purchased at the public’s expense. Pollution at this level is measurable and containable.

Do not elect or re-elect politicians who spout global warming nonsense without a specific plan that provides measurable results and capitated costs. There should be no blank checks for fantasy programs which convey benefits to the special interests over the wants and needs of the public. It’s OUR government and they are acting in OUR name. Something they often forget.

Whether or not you believe the manipulated science that is being promoted by the malevolent United Nations, you owe it to yourself to research the subject of global climate change and pollution before draining your personal resources and curtailing your personal activities to provide more money and support to politicians and their latest self-serving schemes.

And consider the almost unthinkable: that what we are really measuring is the “urbanization” of the landscape

-- steve

Quote of the Day: “The trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it.” --Patrick Young

A reminder from OneCitizenSpeaking.com: a large improvement can result from a small change…

The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. -- Marcus Aurelius

Reference Links:

Proposed fee on smelly cows, hogs angers farmers|Associated Press

Climate scientists say 2008 will be coolest year of the decade| guardian.co.uk

Nichols Letter|Roger Niello

Global Warming: Ceding control to lawyers, lobbyists and evildoers?

International corruption and impotence …

One of my biggest pet peeves involving the United Nations is that they ONLY pretend to be a democratic representation of the world’s nations. Like all other political organizations, it is a hotbed of self-interest corruption, power brokering and public relations activity which mask its true impotency and promotes a dangerous reliance on an organization that lacks the guts to stand up for what is right over what is wrong.

How else can you explain their feigned ignorance of genocide? How else can you explain the cut-and-run behavior of so-called United Nations “Blue Hat” enforcement details? How else could you explain a non-governmental body that cedes the leadership of a committee on human rights to some of the worst violators of human rights in history? And how do they reconcile the wishes of those to live in a repressive 12th-century manner that openly promotes violence against non-believers?

This is the type of international panel, comprised mainly of lawyers and failed politicians that is being proposed.

Handing our enemies a loaded gun?

Against this type of international background, why would we even consider any extra-legal commission, court or panel which usurps the sovereignty of the United States in favor of a world filled with nations and leaders who do not wish us well – and are openly using our own Constitution and freedoms against us as they promote their malevolent agenda.

Lawyers do what lawyers do: first insure their survival and continuing income stream …

“Lawyers call for international court for the environment” 

“A former chairman of the Bar Council is calling for an international court for the environment to punish states that fail to protect wildlife and prevent climate change.”

First mistake …

The first assumption that man is responsible for global weather change is highly speculative and quite presumptive of the part of lawyers. Especially since the world’s scientists are not in agreement about the measurements, the causes or the remedies.

Second mistake …

There are some species which will die as a matter of the workings of nature. Shall we be forced to suspend human progress, cede control over our lives to politicians and spend inordinate amounts of money to save every last species? We have seen the great cost of allowing the snail darters of this world to halt development. Do we want to extend this power over our society to a bunch of pointy head theoreticians or, even worse, those malevolent interests that have infiltrated the environmental movement for the sole purpose of promoting their own radical political agenda on the world. An agenda which can often be described as enviro-Marxism.

“Stephen Hockman QC is proposing a body similar to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to be the supreme legal authority on issues regarding the environment.”

“The first role of the new body would be to enforce international agreements on cutting greenhouse gas emissions set to be agreed next year.”

“But the court would also fine countries or companies that fail to protect endangered species or degrade the natural environment and enforce the ‘right to a healthy environment.’”

Where does the money go, if not to the self-serving interest of the court? And by what enforcement mechanism will they fine nations like Russia, Syria, North Korea and others who traditionally do not respond well to fines and penalties imposed by extra-jurisdictional groups.

Neither new, nor innovative … just dangerous!

“The innovative idea is being presented to an audience of politicians, scientists and public figures for the first time at a symposium at the British Library.”

Usurpation of legislative rights …

Unfortunately, we have seen activist judges hand down rulings which create law which clearly usurps the rights of the legislature as the sole body that is constitutionally empowered to create such regulations. In many cases, we have seen the activists turn to the judiciary to secure what they cannot obtain at the ballot box … and even worse, thwart the will of the people who have already expressed their opinion by voting.

“Mr Hockman, a deputy High Court judge, said that the threat of climate change means it is more important than ever for the law to protect the environment.”

Enter the United Nations …

Why should we believe anything that emanates from this hotbed of corruption and hidden agendas. Especially since they have admitted fudging the Aids numbers in Africa in order to generate media attention, public support and contributions to their cause. The UN’s population projects which are at the basis of many of their assumptions has been dead wrong as population growth has been proven to be non-linear. In addition, many of their energy projections are based on the typical power profile of those in the United States, which upon even a cursory examination proves to not be the power mode of the majority of the world’s populated nations.

Likewise, the United Nations has locked into the matter of global warming to allow them to increase their influence and funding by promoting nothing more concrete than computer models which project a rise in global temperature. So lopsided is this projection, that the UN fails to consider the beneficial effects of such projected climate change – preferring the global gloom and doom scenario to raise awareness and funding.

Creating an economic crisis where one already exists …

“The UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland this month is set to begin negotiations that will lead to a new agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol in Copenhagen next year. Developed countries are expected to commit to cutting emissions drastically, while developing countries agree to halt deforestation.”

Did anyone notice that the last UN proposals had the developed nations paying tribute to the developing nations as compensation for not clear-cutting forests or taking other actions? Massive wealth distributions to corrupt governments who sequester their wealth for use by the ruling class and their friends.

Can’t promote good works without actors …

“Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, has agreed the concept of an international court will be taken into account when considering how to make these international agreements on climate change binding. The court is also backed by a number of MPs, climate change experts and public figures including the actress Judi Dench.” '

Dame Judy Dench may be a fine actress, but the farthest thing from a climate scientist. So why even cite her name?

“Mr Hockman said an international court will be needed to enforce and regulate any agreement.”

"The time is now ripe to set this up and get it going," he said. "Its remit will be overall climate change and the need for better regulation of carbon emissions but at the same time the implementation and enforcement of international environmental agreements and instruments."

Imagine the consequences …

Can you imagine some foreign power demanding that the coal-fired energy producers that feed power to Los Angeles cut back their energy production so that some global carbon credit bookkeeper can balance the atmospheric carbon content over Upper Wazooistan? Ludicrous!

“As well as providing resolution between states, the court will also be useful for multinational businesses in ensuring environmental laws are kept to in every country.”

Enter the Marxists, socialists, communists and other nutso-activists …

“The court would include a convention on the right to a healthy environment and provide a higher body for individuals or non-governmental organizations to protest against an environmental injustice.”

Climate justice?

Isn’t that what the Marxist-style activists in Chicago called their initiative when discussing racial, ethnic and class-warfare politics? All based on the theory that global weather mitigation will unduly impact the poor and disadvantaged who should receive some form of compensation for their suffering and misery. Can you say climate reparations?

“Mr Hockman said the court may be able to fine businesses or states but its main role will be in making ‘declaratory rulings’ that influence and embarrass countries into upholding the law.”

I declare that the Earth is warming. I declare that you need to reduce your lifestyle based on your energy consuming. I declare you need to pay higher taxes and a tribute to the court. I declare that this is all speculative bullshit and should be ignored in favor of cleaning up local pollution which is affecting our current health status.

What, it won’t provide a solution?

He said: "Of course regulations and sanctions alone cannot deliver a global solution to problems of climate change, but without such components the incentive for individual countries to address those problems – and to achieve solutions that are politically acceptable within their own jurisdictions – will be much reduced."

Just like the proponents of global warming initiatives cannot possible guarantee that any climate progress will be measurable for at least one hundred, and more likely, one thousand years, this is just another scheme without any provable results.

“The court would be led by retired judges, climate change experts and public figures. It would include a scientific body to consider evidence and provide access to any data on the environment.”

Public figures – you mean like Al Gore, Angelina Jolie, George Clooney? Retired judges – you mean the old codgers who have lapsed into senility? And of course, you mean those climate scientists who have already signed on to the UN-centric view of climate change?

“Most importantly, Mr Hockman said an international court on the environment would influence public opinion which in turn would force Governments to take the environment seriously. He said: ‘If there are bodies around that can give definitive legal rulings that are accepted as fair and reasonable that has its own impact on public opinion.’"

There is no such thing as a definitive legal ruling where matters of science are concerned. And isn’t that what we are basing this entire speculative scheme upon? Can a definitive ruling stop the Earth’s precessive motion, reverse the tides, change cloud patterns? No! And neither can today’s scientists. And neither will a fraud like carbon cap and trade policy!

“Friends of the Earth welcomed the idea.”

You mean the “perfect people for a perfect planet” based on Marxist philosophies which only create a ruling class and the rest of humanity? 

“A spokesman said: ‘We think any institution that is going to promote and help people enforce their right to a clean and healthy environment is a good thing.’"

If you believe this, then the best thing is a local court with jurisdiction over local polluters along with state agencies who can actually measure pollutants and assess fines. The answer to controlling pollution is, and always has been, local, not global. The only ones pushing for a global solution are those seeking extra-judicial control over sovereign nation-states for their own political power agendas.

What can YOU do?

The Brits are a curious sort. Regimented and all that. But in matters of consequence, they are followers, not leaders. Much of the Churchillian resolve has been bred away over the years as they have allowed malevolent foreigners to invade their country to the point of even considering Sharia law to be co-existent with British jurisprudence. Hardly the type of people to listen to in matters of forming extra-legal control structures. Consider that the Brits screwed up when they created the modern Middle East, why allow them to screw up the world?

Consider that, no matter what the United Nations claims: it’s all about power, money and self-interest. Theirs, not ours!

Consider that there is the real possibility that those who create global climate models are actually modeling the effects of localized urbanization, not global climate.

Consider that the matter that should be debated is not global weather control, but control over the world’s population based on dodgy science and the pipedreams of lawyers, politicians and those who add nothing to society as they buy-and-sell pollution credits.

Do not cede United States sovereignty to any foreign entity, especially one that contains a preponderance of people who do not wish the citizens of the United States well. After all, we are the country.

-- steve

Quote of the Day: “Behavior is a mirror in which every one displays his own image.” -- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

A reminder from OneCitizenSpeaking.com: a large improvement can result from a small change…

The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. -- Marcus Aurelius

Reference Links:

Lawyers call for international court for the environment|London  Telegraph

American traitor, Jane Fonda, worried about Republican dirty tricks? (Updated)

UPDATE: 09-04-2009 JANE FONDA ACCUSES FILM FESTIVAL OF CREATING PROPAGANDA ...

The New York Post's famous Page Six is reporting ...

HOLLYWOOD studios love to use the Toronto Film Festival as a launching pad for Oscar contenders, but this year there's a different buzz. In an online letter to event chiefs, an array of notables -- Jane Fonda, Naomi Klein, Danny Glover and David Byrne among them -- have protested the festival's choice to spotlight the city of Tel Aviv and 10 Israeli moviemakers, Post film editor V.A. Musetto reports. 'Intentionally or not,' the letter says, '[the festival] has become complicit in the Israeli propaganda machine.' A week earlier, a Canadian filmmaker pulled his short from the event in protest. But the festival, which opens Thursday, refused to back down, insisting it would continue to show "the best films we can find."

You must admit, the traitorous bitch Jane Fonda does know something about propaganda. And often creates it herself with her stupid braying. This overly-spoiled useful idiot, as usual, has apparently allied herself with the wrong side and seems to much rather stand up for those corrupt religious fanatics who oppress women and condone state-supported murder, rape and mutilation -- as well as terrorism -- as a normal daily occurance. For those who pretend to care, Fonda was once married to radical Marxist/activist Tom Hayden. Seems she never left the 60's and the people who actually thought she was an actress.  

Original blog entry ...  

Liberal elites continue to slime America with their hysterical braying …

I was particularly incensed when a well-known author provided a foreign paper with an incendiary interview containing newsworthy quotes.

According to the New York Observer …

“Erica Jong Tells Italians Obama Loss 'Will Spark the Second American Civil War. Blood Will Run in the Streets”

“It seems that the final days of the presidential campaign have made Erica Jong and her friends more than a little anxious.”

“A few days ago, Jong, the author and self-described feminist, gave an interview to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, the choicest bits of which were brought to my attention by the reliably sharp-eyed Christian Rocca, the U.S. correspondent of Il Foglio, who published excerpts on his Camillo blog.”

“Basically, Jong says her fear that Obama might lose the election has developed into an "obsession. A paralyzing terror. An anxious fever that keeps you awake at night." She also says that her friends Jane Fonda and Naomi Wolf are extremely worried that Obama will be sabotaged by Republican dirty tricks, and that if an Obama loss indeed comes to pass, the result will be a second American Civil War.”

Second American Civil War?

First, Erica Jong is not only playing the race card, she is fear-mongering and apparently threatening America with her interpretation of the consequences of not voting for Obama.

I wonder if she realizes that she is describing a behavior is characteristic of the radical far-left and crazies who think violence and mayhem are the appropriate reaction to every perceived slight. The wrong candidate is elected: riot, loot and burn your neighborhood. Someone publishes a cartoon: riot, loot and burn your neighborhood. A wrong judicial decision: riot, loot and burn your neighborhood.

By feeding into her tortured liberal fears, she is not only promoting a racial stereotype of a community, but she is also encouraging crazies on the other side to further prepare for what they regard is an enviable race war.

So, once again, we have a politically ignorant person making pronouncements to a foreign press which only serves to provide aid and comfort to our enemies, both foreign and domestic – reinforcing the concept that America is a bad actor on the world stage and that the democratic passing of power in an election is a rigged sham.

And speaking of our enemies …

Jane Fonda is at the top of my list as an unindicted traitor: a person who, in time of war, gave aid and comfort to our enemies. A person who mockingly sat on an anti-aircraft gun in Viet Nam while downed pilot John McCain was being tortured in a nearby prison. It is hard for me to write anything about Jane Fonda without using the words “traitorous bitch.”

The most prominent example of a clash between private citizen protest and governmental military policy in recent history occurred in July 1972, when actress Jane Fonda arrived in Hanoi, North Vietnam, and began a two-week tour of the country conducted by uniformed military hosts. Aside from visiting villages, hospitals, schools, and factories, Fonda also posed for pictures in which she was shown applauding North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gunners, was photographed peering into the sights of an NVA anti-aircraft artillery launcher, and made ten propagandistic Tokyo Rose-like radio broadcasts in which she denounced American political and military leaders as "war criminals." She also spoke with eight American POWs at a carefully arranged "press conference," POWs who had been tortured by their North Vietnamese captors to force them to meet with Fonda, deny they had been tortured, and decry the American war effort. Fonda apparently didn't notice (or care) that the POWs were delivering their lines under duress or find it unusual the she was not allowed to visit the prisoner-of-war camp (commonly known as the "Hanoi Hilton") itself. She merely went home and told the world that "[the POWs] assured me they were in good health. When I asked them if they were brainwashed, they all laughed. Without exception, they expressed shame at what they had done." She did, however, charge that North Vietnamese POWs were systematically tortured in American prison-of-war camps. <Source>

The far-left …

The choice could not be clearer in the upcoming election:

On one hand you have Barack Obama, representing the far-left liberals, whose only accomplishments seem to be having been born bright, telegenic and with an actor’s skill at becoming a scripted character. A person who has openly and knowingly associated with terrorists, both foreign and domestic, for years. A man without a record of accomplishment. A man who speaks of change but has no record of ever exerting the type of leadership it takes to bring about change in a hyper-partisan environment.

And the other hand, you have John McCain, a decorated war hero who was tortured unmercifully while far-left liberals cavorted with our sworn enemies and declared America to be the despicably bad actor on the world stage. And while you may not share all of John McCain’s political ideas (and I don’t), you know that this is a man who will defend America from her enemies while others are content to “discuss the issues” while toasting them with Champaign.

Who is Erica Jong?

A much-married feminist whose first novel, Fear of Flying, was all about women’s sexual desires. Many of her novels deal with women’s issues and she appears to be one freaky individual. She is known to be an outspoken adherent of the 9-11 conspiracy theory. All-in-all, she is your typical far-left, au courant, limousine liberal who apparently hates her country, and Republicans in particular. It is curious that a feminist would not rise to support the only woman running for office and one who apparently has succeeded in achieving the feminist dream: power and equality with men in their chosen field.

“Here's a translation of Jong's more spirited quotes to the Milan-based Corriere, as selected by Rocca.”

"The record shows that voting machines in America are rigged."

I wonder if she realizes that the democrats have a distinguished history in vote rigging and vote buying?

"My friends Ken Follett and Susan Cheever are extremely worried. Naomi Wolf calls me every day.”

“Yesterday, Jane Fonda sent me an email to tell me that she cried all night and can't cure her ailing back for all the stress that has reduces her to a bundle of nerves."

"My back is also suffering from spasms, so much so that I had to see an acupuncturist and get prescriptions for Valium." 

Compare this to the real pain that John McCain suffers each and every day while he vigorously campaigns for an America he believes in. To bring bi-partisan reform to our ailing government instead of whining about how bad the country must be or how much he really hurts.

I am tired of actors and actresses thinking that their accomplishments on the screen, where like Barack Obama, they convincingly mouth the words authored by others, entitle them to hold forth on what is ailing America and have us believe that their words should somehow be taken with more importance than an ordinary citizen.

"After having stolen the last two elections, the Republican Mafia…"

"If Obama loses it will spark the second American Civil War. Blood will run in the streets, believe me. And it's not a coincidence that President Bush recalled soldiers from Iraq for Dick Cheney to lead against American citizens in the streets."

"Bush has transformed America into a police state, from torture to the imprisonment of reporters, to the Patriot Act."

Sound familiar. Sound like another far-left liberal like Jane Fonda, John Kerry or John Murtha.

She also laments that not all of America's men of letters share her devotion to Obama.

I wonder what Hemmingway would have said were he alive?

"Tom Wolfe and John Updike are men of the right and Philip Roth is at this point a hermit who leads a monastic life in Connecticut, far from everything and everybody."

Luckily, she said there is her and Michael Chabon, who, she says, have "taken the place of Susan Sontag and Norman Mailer respectively."

They have the same political sensibilities, she said, but a better "sense of humor."

What can YOU do?

Ignore the ignorant, America-bashing politicians and the sycophantic actor/actress supporters.

Never forgive Jane Fonda and those of her ilk for their traitorous actions in a time of war.

Decide whether you want an effete, elite snob like Barack Obama who is willing to sit down with our enemies to talk about the world’s problems or a John McCain who has the courage of his convictions and will defend America against her enemies.

Imagine what Obama could say to  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he declares Israel must be wiped from the face of this Earth and only by bringing about a holocaust can the next Imam appear and purge the world of the infidels so everyone can live in an Islamic state?

Especially when he would be among the first killed for practicing his adopted Christian-faith.

Get out there and VOTE or suffer in silence when those who do not believe as you do, confiscate your property with taxes to support their promise of wealth-redistribution.

-- steve

Quote of the Day: “The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.” -- John Kenneth Galbraith

A reminder from OneCitizenSpeaking.com: a large improvement can result from a small change…

The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. -- Marcus Aurelius

Reference Links:

Erica Jong Tells Italians Obama Loss 'Will Spark the Second American Civil War. Blood Will Run in the Streets' | The New York Observer