The Confused and Misguided Youth

Dr. Thomas Sowell, Economics professor, economist, writer, and sage, encapsulated brilliantly what ails our youth. “The problem isn't that Johnny can't read. The problem isn't even that Johnny can't think. The problem is that Johnny doesn't know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling.” And the culprits are the American public education, an ever growing lack of religious education, and the indifferent parenting that does not question what children learn or do not learn in school.

Young people in any generation tend to be naïve, idealistic, and gullible; it is easy to sell them anything because they confuse feelings with rational thought. They are told so often and so early in life that they are special that they form a distorted view of themselves.

Undeserved praise is layered at every opportunity, even when Johnny walks across the stage without tripping. We can’t possibly hurt his self-esteem. Competition is evil, it is bourgeois, everybody knows we are “equal,” nobody is special in any way; we are all born with the same IQ, same abilities, mental capacity, intelligence, talent, no genetic irregularities whatsoever. Why even try to learn, compete, be the best that you can be and achieve excellence? Those are capitalist values.

Can we all be Mozarts, Beethovens, Olympic-caliber athletes, Hemingways, Shakespeares, Einsteins? Apparently so, if you listen to liberals, we are all equally special, talented, and brilliant. Test scores tell a different story though, particularly the latest test results from New York public schools, among the first to implement the new and feel-good- about- wrong- answers Common Core nationalized education standards. Worse yet, GED, and college entrance exams, SAT and ACT, will be revised in line with Common Core standards. http://breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/08/09/Test-Scores-Plummet-After-New-York-Adopts-Common-Core-Standards

Terrible public school teachers with personal agendas fail the young minds and society by using their influence and power to inculcate socialism and revisionist history onto the unchartered and unmapped brains of their students. Such teachers diminish and denigrate our common Christian roots while glorifying Islam.  In time, reality strikes young people in aha moments and wakes them up, shocks them, and perhaps transforms some into productive Americans.

The MSM markets socialism “seductively,” cleverly and constantly. President Obama was highly successful in selling socialism to Americans under the guise of “Hope and Change” and the promise of “free stuff,” rent, cars, kitchens (Who can resist Santa Claus?), college degrees, a better future, a better life, things that Americans already had more than anybody else on the planet. It was an empty promise; while the free stuff came in the form of welfare, he made life much tougher and more expensive for hard-working, tax-paying Americans. He sold socialism as “fairness, social justice, and equality for all.” It was young people who believed this hallow promise and helped him get elected. And now, many are unemployed, blaming everyone else but the obvious, wondering what happened to the guaranteed utopia.

My own former students would arrive late to class, with flushed faces, filled with excitement, barely containing their happiness for having campaigned the entire day for the wonderful black man who will be president, “he is just so cool and fascinating and has a nice family.”  Once elected, they were sure, America would rid itself of racism.” Did it?

Congressman Jim Clyburn (D-SC) is quoted as saying, ““The entire English language was created by slave owners as a means of oppression. You can’t just say that one word is a racist code word or another. The whole language, every single word, letter and apostrophe in it is racist. It’s a fact. If you speak English, you’re a racist.”  It is sad that young people look up to this kind of authority.

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/congressional-black-caucus-discovers-entire-english-language-is-a-racist-code-word/

If young people had known true history and had learned from it, they would have understood that all socialist paradises around the globe were dismal economic failures and tyrannies that suppressed the human spirit, robbed people of their freedoms, and sent many to early graves for their anti-government beliefs. Under socialism/communism people were equal - equally miserable, equally poor, equally hungry, equally cold, equally mistreated, equally deprived, and equally imprisoned or killed for their thoughts.

Now that the economy is in such dire straits and college graduates unemployment is sky high, is it still Bush’s fault? Young people are living with their parents or moving back in with their parents, default on college loans, postpone marriage, having children, buying a home, buying a car, or living a comfortable American middle class life under capitalism.

Young college graduates have voted for their own demise with the ardor and dedication that only a young person can muster. Nobody is holding Presidents and Congress accountable for the “mess they’ve created.”

The unemployment, the constant manufactured crises, the wasted bailouts, the manipulation of BLS statistics in order to make the President look good and give Americans a false sense of economic security and reality, the ballooning welfare, food stamps, the massive spending, amnesty  for millions of illegal aliens who are taking low paying jobs from Americans, have not convinced the lost generation that their collective future looks bleak and they must change their blind allegiance to politicians’ esoterical rhetoric.

Lacking a solid economic education, young people are easily sold on the President’s assertion that giving amnesty to 11million illegal aliens would actually boost GDP by trillions of dollars when in reality, illegals, who are already living now in our economy, are and will be a tremendous drag on the economy, receiving more welfare benefits, Social Security, Obamacare subsidies, earned income tax credits, housing allowance, WIC, EBT, and SNAP cards than they pay in taxes.

Young people believe the President’s claim that amnesty will boost housing, a fallacy that was evident during the mortgage crisis of 2008 when a percentage of bank repossessed homes belonged to illegals who did not qualify for loans but received them anyway thanks to the Community Reinvestment Act.

Young people cheered when NASA’s space shuttle mission was scrapped. The President said that it would be cheaper to buy astronaut seats on Russian space crafts, one trip at a time. The initial quoted price was just tripled. Why wouldn’t it? The Russians have a monopoly now; they can charge anything they want.

Young people have been indoctrinated in schools to glorify other cultures, multiculturalism, and other religions to the detriment of their own “inferior” culture and religion. Yet it is our culture and Christian religion that have created Mozart, classical music, surgery, medicine, technology, space exploration, car industry, oil extraction, and pretty much anything else that brought humanity into the 21^st century.  

It is surprising that Sharia Law and Gulen schools are making their way so fast across the United States while the vocal feminists and liberals are so silent. More and more young women and men are buying into the false rhetoric of the “religion of peace,” willingly adopting a 7^th century lifestyle and laws that contradict our Constitution and judicial system. Women become instantly half of a person in a court of law and lose their Constitutional rights and freedoms when marrying into such a political and religious theocracy. What will happen to feminism and to the depraved Hollywood lifestyle of” anything goes that feels good” of our western culture once Americans become second class citizen in the dhimmitude of Islam?

The media indoctrinate the young that they should worry that Muslims might be harmed by the backlash following a terrorist attack that kills Americans in the name of Allah. Who can argue with such twisted logic?

Young Californians have become so dumbed down and calloused by our education system that are willingly signing street petitions to kill babies two months after they are born and to kill seniors in order to save money on Obamacare. Their faces do not show an ounce of hesitation or rational thought. It is shocking to witness the absence of humanity and care.

Young people are the easiest swayed in the direction of environmentalism and global warming although science and historical facts suggest strongly that environmentalist predictions of the past were wrong and that climate change alarmists have falsified data in recent years to match their newest claims.

Young people changed into Wall Street Occupiers on a dime without having a solid foundation why they were there and who actually creates wealth and jobs in this country, and without any notion that they were harming the hard-working middle class.

The Occupy Wall Street crowd demanded the investigation of oil companies for obscene profits (incidentally the profit margin is low) yet nobody questioned companies like GE or GM or college endowments worth billions.

Young people turn into destructive flash mobs in malls and convenience stores because they have nothing better to do, are unemployed, have an evil and destructive streak, or are trying to make a misguided statement, prompted by clever Alinskyite street manipulators and community organizers who want to disrupt the economy and overwhelm the system.

Brainwashed youth raise their voices in support of the “poor” who pay no taxes and yet have the gall to claim that the rich, who pay 86% of the taxes, do not pay their “fair share.”

Young people are told at nauseam by the alphabet soup channels that Americans who believe in balancing the budget and following our country’s Constitution are “extremists;” following the legal immigration laws of the land is “racist and bigoted;” questioning the government is outright treasonous.

Do young people question the out-of-control spending that is destroying their future? Do they object to paying the lion’s share of Obamacare costs while Congress gets 75% subsidies for their premiums, illegal aliens get fully subsidized under the undeserved amnesty plan, and Muslims get free healthcare because it is against their religion to pay monthly premiums? The answer is no. They are too preoccupied with the manufactured “war on women,” and their ability to get free contraceptives and abortions. Will they get quality health care once the unaffordable Affordable Care Act is fully implemented? No, but that is thinking too far ahead for most young people.

America’s youth finds no problem with making 4.5 million people who want to become American citizens wait in their countries for 10-19 years, pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege, yet does not bat an eye at the idea of letting anyone who crosses our border illegally become American citizens overnight via Congressional amnesty. Poor illegals/undocumented Americans who broke the border laws, they live in the shadows, we cannot allow that to happen, we are compassionate Americans after all.

Young people keep repeating that we are unfair and discriminate against black Americans yet we have Affirmative Action, a black President, a black Attorney General, hundreds of thousands of black people in prominent positions of power, and almost 18% of the federal workforce is black when the black population represents 12% of the U.S. population. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/post/federal-workforce-reflects-broader-changes/2012/06/25/gJQANEbe2V_blog.html

May I remind the lost generation that life is never fair, nothing is equal, and nothing is free, there is an opportunity cost for everything, somebody else is paying for your free lunch?  Next time you feel the need to march for a liberal cause that you joined for no apparent reason or logic other than that it is “cool” or popular with your age group, put what you are doing in proper perspective, you might burn a bridge behind you which you may have to cross sometime in the future.

Politics and the Scam of Green

“Americans are so enamored of equality, they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville

It is not hard to find supporters of the scam of green in Virginia, but particularly in northern Virginia. The highways are constantly packed with Priuses, Smart Cars, Fiats, and other tin cans covered in bumper stickers of tree huggers, Agenda 21 supporters, pro-choice baby killers, coexist peaceniks, vegetarians, save Tibet, save Darfur advocates, bike to work, solar power, wind power supporters, and other assorted smug environmentalists with their progressive utopian ideals and causes that the rest of us must adopt lest we kill the earth, the polar bears, and the seals. As Paul Watson, the co-founder of Greenpeace, said, “It doesn’t matter what is true, it only matters what people believe is true.”

It is no surprise then that climate change/global warming campaigning has been injected into Virginia’s race for governor. The offending climate destroyer is the Republican candidate Ken Cuccinelli, a successful and respected Attorney General, father of seven, and conservative American, running against the liberal Terry McAuliffe, the darling of the pro-choice, multiculturalism Washington liberals.

Californian Tom Steyer, dubbed by Politico the “environmentalist billionaire,” who successfully protested the Keystone XL pipeline and helped Democrat Ed Markey win in Massachusetts, is pumping serious money in Virginia to support Democrat Terry McAuliffe’s campaign against Republican Ken Cuccinelli.  Steyer calls Cuccinelli, “an environmentalist’s nightmare” and will attempt to teach the country a lesson about the might and influence of climate change/global warming politics when money is no object and voters are easily duped. NextGen Climate Action, Steyer’s group, launched ads in Virginia in an effort to mobilize, appeal to, and influence climate-obsessed voters. http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/tom-steyer-terry-mcauliffe-virginia-governor-race-95174.html

Cuccinelli supports Virginia’s coal industry which provides energy and much needed jobs at a time when the national economy is shrinking, the statistical manipulated gross domestic product is an anemic 1.7 percent, and the unemployment rate is 14.3 percent, not the reported 7.4 percent, a deceptive calculation that excludes millions of discouraged workers who have dropped out of the labor force.

Because Cuccinelli’s office investigated former University of Virginia’s climate scientist, Michael Mann, in a potential climate data manipulation, McAuliffe accused Cuccinelli of a “witch hunt.” The Virginia Supreme Court ruled that Cuccinelli did not have the authority to investigate Mann and his scholarly work.

Scientists on the opposite side of the climate alarmism have discredited Dr. Mann’s “hockey stick graph,” frequently used by global warming alarmists to prove that man caused global warming in the last 100 years. http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/03/the-hockey-stick-broken-again.php

With so many jobs in Virginia dependent on fossil fuels, it is understandable why Cuccinelli would attack McAuliffe, who founded, headed, and promoted the Green Tech Automotive, an electric car manufacturer that “has not produced the jobs, nor the cars promised.”

Green Tech Automotive was under the Securities and Exchange Commission investigation over its use of a DHS program that “grants permanent residency to foreign investors who invest $500,000 or more in economically struggling areas for ventures that create American jobs.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/documents-reveal-greentech-automotive-mcauliffe-former-e-car-company-under-sec-investigation/2013/08/02/03d58d10-fbc7-11e2-89f7-8599e3f77a67_story.html

The factory on Old U.S. 61 in Tunica, MS was slated to manufacture GreenTech Automotive’s “revolutionary MyCar, a two-seat all-electric vehicle that produces zero emissions and provides a range of up to 115 miles. MyCar is expected to evolve into other vehicle models, including a micro pick-up and delivery vehicle, beginning 2013.” http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapid=105912061

If the Steyer’s climate change/global warming political ads are successful and influential with the voters and McAuliffe is elected governor, we will be many steps closer to the full implementation of U.N. Agenda 21 in Virginia.

Virginia is a case study in the Green Growth, Smart Growth, Sustainability, ICLEI driven insane “revolution” that is supposed to replace our dirty coal-generated energy with “clean” wind and solar energy.

More recently, Deborah Ramirez started a petition on MoveOn.org to be delivered to the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, to Corey Stewart, Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chairman, and to several other officials, demanding to “Pause the sale of new homes and allow the current road construction projects, projected transportation improvements and decisions by the Prince William County Planning Board Committee over the last decade, to play out, and then reassess. Focus on quality of life and not on property taxes.”

Apparently MoveOn.org followers are concerned about the “northern Virginia’s I-95 and Route 1 Corridor’s present increase in development in the Dumfries and Woodbridge area.”

While it appears that these people are concerned about traffic and quality of life, the stark reality is that they want to put a stop to “suburban sprawl,” one of the many goals of Agenda 21 global warming alarmism and governance.

The windmills around the country are busy humming when the wind blows, chopping birds, creating a depressing landscape and a health-disturbing hum in the life of the surrounding neighborhoods. Solar panels require a lot of land to display and need conventional energy at night as a backup.

None of the touted “clean” sources of energy are really clean; they still depend on fossil-fuels. We are far from perfecting renewable energy at an affordable price that would supply enough energy for the largest economy on the planet to survive and make a profit.

It is politically expedient and extremely profitable for the ruling elites to bring global warming/climate change alarmism and regulations into every facet of our lives while most citizens are not paying attention.

Americans are stealthily “nudged” into predetermined behavior modifications, rule by rule, law by law, executive order by executive order, vote by vote, prepping them for a high-rise, mixed use building lifestyle downtown, stacked like sardines, with low energy use, lots of walking, and fewer and fewer choices and freedoms, all in the name of saving the planet.

There is suddenly an urgency about too many pedestrians killed by cars and thus “safe walking” must be mandated and regulated by the Department of Transportation, while our benevolent government will spend millions to increase communities “walkability,” another goal of U.N. Agenda 21.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/everyone-pedestrian-govt-spending-2m-increase-communities-walkability#sthash.ZxG7x9uz.dpuf

 

 

 

 

 

Rep. Frank Wolf Is Passionate About Benghazi

Rep. Frank Wolf (10^th district of VA) gave a 30 minute speech last night to a packed crowd of Tea Party patriots in Fair Lakes, Va. He addressed primarily the issues of Benghazi, with references to Republicans stance on defunding Obamacare, taking questions afterwards.

Serving his 17^th term in Congress, Congressman Wolf is the most senior of the 11 members of the House of Representatives from Virginia. He sits on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, is chairman of the Commerce-Justice-Science subcommittee, and serves on the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Foreign Operations subcommittees. He is co-chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, a bi-partisan organization.

Rep. Wolf explained that the Republican Party should state their goals clearly, not just the stance on repealing Obamacare. However, shutting down government would be a big mistake because it would jeopardize keeping the House of Representatives and losing seats in the Senate.

Challenged that the government was shut down in 1995, Rep. Wolf noted that in 1995 certain things such as defense had already been funded before the shutdown took effect but this time, nothing has been funded, and a shutdown would bring the blame squarely on the Republican shoulders. He suggested that a better route would be to draw up a Republican bill and pass it “the way we want it.” There are good signs, “some Democrats are beginning to vote with us, we must change the Senate.”

The debt and deficit are very serious problems that must be addressed. “Our country is in deep, deep trouble. America has entered the state of decline in manufacturing and a lot of other issues.” As chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee, Rep. Wolf funds the Justice Department, the FBI, Commerce, the Weather Service, NASA, and the National Science Foundation. His committee made $17 billion in cuts.

Along with other subcommittee cuts, discretionary money has been slashed. However, he believes that entitlements must be reformed, namely raising the Social Security retirement age per Simpson-Bowles Plan (cut spending, raise taxes). A person 18 years old would have to work two additional years before retirement, 40 years olds would work six extra months, 50 year olds would work one additional month and 51 years old and older would not be affected. Rep. Wolf warned that if entitlements are not reformed, discretionary spending will be squeezed further.

Describing his experience with Watergate during the Nixon administration, Rep. Wolf recapped the Benghazi failures of leadership, response, and responsibility that resulted in the death of four Americans and the many hidden casualties.

Recalling the fabricated video scenario, the presidential apology tours at the U.N., Ambassador Susan Rice’s 5 cable TV appearances blaming a video nobody had seen, Hillary Clinton’s assurances to victims’ parents that the videographer will be brought to justice, the absence of leadership, the stand down orders, who gave them, Rep. Wolf emphasized the need for a special committee on Benghazi. “We met the threshold to have a committee on Benghazi, we have 166 members.” Speaker Boehner had been asked to push for the appointment of a special prosecutor and for public hearings. “We have to be united; it is the only way to find out the truth.”

He continued that there are many unanswered questions in the chain of events. It is strange that with the hunt of Bin Laden we had minute by minute accounts, he said, while with Benghazi, we have a cover up of events.

-          Weapons were probably moved, bought for the Libyans, moved into Turkey, going to Syria

-          He was told that when Navy seals got a call from the Consulate, had they gone in first, they would have saved Ambassador Stevens; they were told to stand down twice, the third time they disobeyed the order

-          The airplanes that picked up the wounded were Libyan planes commandeered by our people; “Gen. Hamm testified in a closed door session on the hill that he did not send the plane in because he knew at that time that Ambassador Stevens was probably a hostage or maybe dead.”

-          “What about the annex? The annex was only one and a half mile away; they could have sent an F-16 over there to the annex. It could have scared the light out of the remaining men there. Who gave the order not to go?”

-          Two of the survivors from the annex have signed a $2 million book deal. “Maybe we’ll find out in 2014 when the book comes out.”

-          People were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements  

-          Tunisia did not give us access to people who participated in and/or were witnesses of the attack in spite of the fact that we give Tunisia millions of dollars in aid

-          Nobody from the FBI would cooperate and risk their careers to testify

-          Egypt had another person in custody who had first-hand knowledge of the attack but the Morsi government did not cooperate

A gentleman pointed out the obvious, “If you have 166 people, why do you still have Boehner as speaker of the House? These same 166 people who want to investigate Benghazi should also sign a petition to oust Boehner.”

When asked if fear kept him from action, Rep. Wolf answered, “I am not afraid to push on this, I am 74 years old, I am closer to the end of my life than I am to the beginning, I am not afraid. We’ve urged the speaker; we’ve reached the bar and have made the case for a select committee. The speaker must have heard that two Benghazi survivors were called in and polygraphed.”

Rep. Wolf expressed his outrage that while the country is in trouble and Benghazi has not been investigated, Panetta signed a $3 million book deal, as head of CIA he flew home almost every weekend to Carmel, California on taxpayer dime, Hillary Clinton makes $200,000 a speech, cable TV is doing a series on Hillary, Susan Rice is now National Security Advisor, and Jack Lew, the former Chief of Staff is now Treasury Secretary. “The unfairness of it all is outrageous.”

One gentleman expressed his concern that two-thirds of economic growth is outside of U.S. and we must bring back innovation in order to grow our economy, repatriate corporations and lower their domestic corporate taxes. He questioned the CEOs patriotism.

A retired businessman challenged Rep. Wolf loudly that corporations go to China and overseas because Congress passed laws to make it easy for their exodus. Steve Jobs went to China to get around the regulations in the U.S. He could get a brand new glass for his iPhone in three months instead of three years, the businessman concluded.

Rep. Wolf replied, “They are going there for cheap labor.” It was greed that took corporations to China in spite of the fact that they are cyber-hacked all the time.  He continued, “Steve Jobs was not worried that there are 40 Catholic bishops under house arrest in China. There are hundreds of Protestant pastors imprisoned. Buddhists monks have set themselves on fire.”

The businessman was not happy with Rep. Wolf’s explanation and responded that it is not greed, “it is called profit, it is called capitalism, that’s America. It is not a businessman’s mission to take care of politics in China.”

Rep. Wolf concluded his remarks by saying that when “China folds, we are going to find that many companies are selling equipment to China to control and spy on their people. There has to be morality. We killed an American with a drone. The President wants to close down Guantanamo although 30% of the freed detainees go back to fight.”

The enthusiastic crowd thanked Rep. Wolf for this unwavering support of persecuted Christians across the globe.  He reminded the audience that “You may very well see a priest or a rabbi in this country sentenced for their faith on hate speech. We may see same persecution of those of faith as in other countries.”

A sheet was handed to him with attendee’s signatures, urging him to defund Obamacare.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

 

Are Republicans Representing Their Constituents?

The Republican Party, in its quest to better represent its constituency, has launched a questionnaire to feel the pulse of the voters by asking specific questions in order to streamline their message. The message is always very important, the actual implementation of goals depends on the elected representatives and senators and the powerful lobby in Washington.

The GOP wants to know if “Americans support efforts to reform entitlements, cut spending, and put our nation on track to a balanced federal budget without raising taxes.” Judging by the anemic economy, the weak and statistically manipulated GDP, the high unemployment rate, the huge welfare rolls, the alarming part-time labor force, the answer is yes.  

Conservatives have been faxing and calling their Congressmen, protesting around the Capitol, rallying around the country, holding town hall meetings, writing op-eds, but their wishes have fallen on deaf ears. Efforts to cut entitlements are non-existent; on the contrary, 11 plus million illegal immigrants will be added to the welfare rolls and to Social Security via blanket amnesty which Republicans cannot wait to pass if we are to judge by their constant radio and television ads in support of amnesty.

I am unsure if a balanced federal budget is possible any time soon since bill after bill is full of pork from both sides, most of which have little to do with the title of the bill. Case in point is the Farm Bill which includes more food stamps and other non-farm items. The national debt is past $17 trillion, galloping to the $19 trillion point of no return, and Republicans go along with the spending.

The GOP questionnaire asks if conservatives want Republicans in Congress to “block funding and implementation of the Obamacare legislation.” Republicans should have read the bill and blocked it before they voted. Are they really serious about defunding it and is that even possible when considering discretionary and non-discretionary spending?

Congress seems to be more preoccupied with exempting themselves from the law rather than representing the wishes of the majority of the American people who do not want Obamacare. Those include Republican voters, Democrat voters, unions, Democrats who helped write the bill and call it now a “train wreck,” municipal employees, unionized school teachers, and all Americans who want to keep their doctors and the stellar healthcare they now receive. Even the IRS chief wishes to keep his current healthcare – he understands how bad Obamacare is because he is going to be in charge of enforcing it and keeping 307 million private medical records on file.

The next question is asking if “Republicans in Congress should give up and rubber stamp the Obama agenda, passing Democrat sponsored tax hikes, spending increases and liberal expansion of government.” I am not sure if this is a serious question or is written to elicit anger or head scratching.

Government has expanded so much lately, in spite of the fact that Republicans control the House of Representatives. Republicans have pretty much rubber stamped the Obama agenda, voting in favor of everything Democrats have asked for, demanded, or forced Congress to pass. God-forbid should Republicans be labeled uncooperative or bad team players. They might not be invited to famous D.C. soirees and cocktail parties.

Reince Priebus, the RNC Chairman, wants to know if Americans “support opening more nuclear power plants, expanding offshore drilling and increasing exploration for domestic oil and gas reserves to lessen our dependence on imported fuels.” This must be a trick question – who wants to pay $4 per gallon when gasoline was $1.79 a gallon when the current administration began governing.

We have asked for more nuclear power plants for four decades but Congress has given so much power to the EPA, we have not been able to open a new one since the early 1970s and this reality is not likely to change.

President Obama put a moratorium on domestic offshore drilling and blocked the XL Keystone pipeline. Every Republican and Democrat in office has campaigned on reducing our dependence on foreign oil but has done very little to bring about that outcome. On the contrary, Saudi Prince Alwaleed warned against the shale oil threat to the kingdom’s economy. http://www.worldoil.com/Saudi_Prince_Alwaleed_warns_against_shale_oil_threat.html

 
The GOP should know that Americans are angry that the party of fiscal responsibility is abandoning conservative principles and ideals and is becoming more of a branch of the Democrat Party. There are 30 Republican governors but they are stifled by the Washington corruption and the ever-increasing federal government control through grants, grants-in-aid, and regulations.

There are many issues that Republicans have failed to address or to deliver a favorable resolution in Congress:

-         Strengthening border security

-         Reducing federal spending

-         Keeping taxes low in order to encourage job creation

-         Keeping military well trained, equipped and prepared (they have unnecessarily sequestered the pay of government employees as a political tool, reduced meals to our soldiers, reduced training time, reduced equipment)

-         Stopping implementation of Obamacare (it is an expensive “train wreck” that nobody can afford in the short- or long-term)

-         Stopping amnesty of 11 million illegal aliens at a time when 28.1 million Americans work part-time involuntarily and there are more people on food stamps than there are Americans working

-         Expanding domestic exploration for oil and gas

-         Stimulating job creation in the private sector, not part-time, but full-time jobs

-         Impeding the growth of U.S. manufacturing by continuing to support free and open trade with countries like China who do not play by the same rules we advocate

-         Investigating the Solyndra debacle, Fast and Furious, and Benghazi

Republicans have failed their constituents by allowing the massive redistribution of wealth, the massive entitlement spending, the out of control government spending, the expansion of corruption, crony capitalism, the weakening of our national security on many fronts, including the explosion of national debt which is the number one national security threat, destroying our health care and replacing it with Obamacare, failing to defend traditional marriage, religion, the pro-life stance, but most importantly, failing to address the indoctrination of our children into global citizenship, contradicting our Constitution and our American values, diluting our national identity.

The GOP should not support the shrinking of our military might and presence, the reduction of American ships in the U.S. Navy at a time when China has launched its first aircraft carrier and is flexing its military muscles around the world.

The GOP should not pander to specific groups such as Hispanic, Asian, or Black, we are all Americans, and representation should be equal to all Americans, anything less is pandering.

A simple solution to begin fixing the economy and all the other problems that plague the country is to change the wages for life of our Congressmen, making it less attractive and lucrative to be a “public servant,” although many can argue that we are the ones serving their interests and fortunes. When one considers the average income for seniors on Social Security of $12,000 and the average salary of a soldier deployed in Afghanistan of $38,000, it appears obscene to give a House/Senate member $174,000 for life, the Speaker of the House $223,500 for life and the Majority/Minority Leader $194,400 for life, especially when some Congressmen “serve” just one term while others make a life-long career of destroying the interests of the American majority.  

 

 

 

Silvio Canto Jr., July 31, 2013, Obamunism and the Middle Class, Bogus GDP and Unemployment

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/cantotalk/2013/08/03/todays-message

Butler on Business, 7-31-13, Liberty Express Radio, Topics: New study and Nudge Program

My commentary with Alan Butler on new study from Germany on methane gas, volcanic carbon emissions, and the latest behavioral modification program coming out of the White House. I come on at the 40 minute mark.
http://host1.cyberears.com//20255.mp3

Detroit's Failure, a Product of Liberalism and Greed

“The last thing Detroit needs is a bailout. What it needs is to sweep away a city charter that protects only bureaucrats, civil-service rules that straightjacket municipal departments, and obsolete union contracts. A bailout would just keep the dysfunction in place. Time to start over.”
- Bill Nojay, Former COO of Detroit’s Department of Transportation

Detroit, the former “Paris of the West” is now oozing blight, rust, decay, garbage, and union corruption. It is now a pathetic example of its former greatness, the city of the auto industry, envied around the world, the city of a thriving middle class.

At the height of its glory, Detroit was America’s fourth largest city with almost 2 million people. After decades of population flight, there are 700,000 people left. Police response to an emergency call is 58 minutes, street lights are cut in half, and the median home price is $9,000, with some homes worth as little as $500. It seems like a bargain if the city will ever be rebuilt. Its location is certainly strategic, with access to the Great Lakes. There are interests in the heavy rail industry and there are plans for a $25 million light rail.

The statistics are sad. Thirty percent of Detroit’s 140 square miles are vacant or deserted; 33,500 homes are unoccupied and 90,000 lots are vacant. Many homes have been bulldozed. If a lone home is occupied on an otherwise abandoned street, the residents are forced to move and the house is demolished. Sixty percent of children live in poverty. Homicide rose 79% in 2011. There is no chain supermarket left in the city.

Detroit is a classic example of failed obamunism and personal responsibility; it played out the union-controlled socialism to the bitter end and it lost the destructive game - eventually all socialists run out of other people’s money as Margaret Thatcher used to say. Detroit is now a picture of litter and filth with few suburbs left that take pride in their appearance. Pontiac and Flint are not far behind in their march towards insolvency.

There are 61 counties and municipalities currently in the U.S. who have filed for bankruptcy or will follow in the footsteps of Detroit, the largest municipality to fail in a string of more to come.

The administration’s Cap and Trade policies will de-industrialize our country, bankrupting so much of the coal industry that generates electricity, devastating businesses and individuals alike in the process, and causing more cities and counties to fail.

Many executive orders signed under every presidency since Bush Sr. (1992) implemented the United Nations Agenda 21. Through green zones, stacking people in high rise, mixed-use apartments in approved corridors, the Wildlands map, Smart Growth, Sustainability, environmentalism gone amuck which claims to save the planet from a manufactured global warming, will cause abject poverty in many other places.

There were many reasons why Detroit failed:

-          union control and collective bargaining

-          automatic union deductions funds; public unions block any meaningful reforms and help elect local officials who are sympathetic to unions and who in turn negotiate the union members’ salaries and benefits

-          public employee unions corruption (pension abuse such as “spiking” pensions with excess overtime during the last year of employment; claiming disability in the last year before retirement; contracts with much earlier retirements than the private sector)

-          nobody is terminated for incompetence if they belong to a union

-          use of union dues to support Democrat coffers with or without employee approval

-          non-stop Democrat control of the city since 1961

-          out of control corruption

-          citizens re-electing the same individuals who actually did jail time for their crimes

-          lack of personal responsibility and work ethic

-          job losses in the auto industry

-          decades of population flight

-          race riots in the late sixties and early seventies

-          environmental and health warfare

-          diminished tax base following the population exodus

-          the failure of the federal government to protect our manufacturers

-          the main stream media misinforming low information voters

-          bank deregulation and capital flight

-          closings of catholic schools in the 1970s

-          racial tensions exacerbated by Coleman Young

-          purposeful segregated areas in town by various black mayors

-          lack of collection of property taxes (50% collection rate) and enforcement of non-payers

-          distorted Christian values

-          burdensome additional utility, sales, and property taxes extracted from the poorest of the poor instituted by Mayor Cavanaugh (an additional 3 percent)

Detroit is the most race-conscious city in America. Blacks have been told for so many years that white men are the reason for their economic plight therefore they blame white people for their problems. The culture of drug dealing and drug use dominate the inner-city. Single parent households have replaced fathers with the nanny state. Government welfare enabled women to procreate and survive while making fathers obsolete.

Children are prescribed Ritalin when it is not really necessary, adults are over-prescribed anti-depressants, and their diets are poor. Is it any surprise that people are left confused and unable to make proper decisions, especially when they are lied to by the MSM?

The two-thirds majority in Congress carries the blame for voting for NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT, and bank deregulation, for enabling the manufacturing exodus to other countries in search for cheaper labor. Over-demanding union contracts shipped more jobs to right to work states, diluting the tax base even more.

NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, Mexico, and U.S., passed in January 1, 1994, and CAFTA, Central America Free Trade Agreement, an extension of NAFTA, passed through U.S. House of Representatives by one vote in the middle of the night and signed by Congress on July 27, 2005, “caused the race to the bottom in labor.”

In the Chapter 9 bankruptcy court documents, bankruptcy which was allowed to proceed, half of the city’s liabilities are in pension plans and retiree health care costs. These benefits were negotiated by unions on behalf of their constituents.

Steven Rattner of the New York Times argues that we have to bail out Detroit and tries to make the case that the “700,000 remaining residents of the Motor City are no more responsible for Detroit’s problems than were the victims of Hurricane Sandy for theirs, and eventually Congress decided to help them. America is just as much about aiding those less fortunate as it is about personal responsibility.”

I happen to disagree because Hurricane Sandy was a sudden act of nature, totally out of anybody’s control, whereas Detroit’s problems were exclusively man-made over many decades of corrupt mismanagement. Many issues could have been addressed and avoided at the voting booth and through personal responsibility.

He further argues that the “shared sacrifice by creditors, workers, and other stakeholders” in the General Motor and Chrysler auto “rescue” should be maintained in rescuing Detroit. I would argue that he is comparing apples and oranges.

First, the auto rescue was not a “shared sacrifice,” it was a forced government reimbursement of stockholders of 29 cents on the dollar to the benefit of union interests, setting aside capitalist contract law and the prior claim of bondholders.

Second, the rest of the country should not have to “sacrifice” for the irresponsible behavior of Detroit unions, union members, politicians, mayors, and the lack of responsibility of Detroit citizens at the ballot box who thought that it was a good idea to keep in power the same corrupt Democrats since 1961.

Americans were not and are not in favor of bailing out General Motors, which is now investing more taxpayer dollars into job creation, factories, ventures, research, and dealerships in China rather than the U.S., and Chrysler, which is now an Italian-controlled corporation. Likewise, the majority of hard-working Americans are not in favor of bailing out Detroit nor California.  

Further reading: 

Who Killed Detroit City and Why? By Dave Hodges, Activist Post

We Have to Step In and Save Detroit, Steven Rattner, The New York Times
The Public Union vs. the Public (Philip Howard, founder of Common Good)
http://bit.ly/13Xllat