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April 30, 2009
IQ Tests and Obama Math
So, Arlen Specter is a Democrat, because the Republican party has turned 'far right'. I guess that's why middle of the road McCain was our candidate, hmm?
Specter is being such a fool, it's a pleasure to have him out of the party. Really. He repeats the little excuse spoon-fed to him by the Dems, and they pledge he'll run for his Senate seat on the Dem ticket. All the Dems want are his votes and the victory of having a 'filibuster proof' majority. When they're done with him, he'll either have a challenger in the primaries or he'll get socked by Toomey, and he'll be put out to pasture, damage done and all it did was cost the Dems a few empty promises and hollow words. And Specter fell for it! Goes to show you have craven he is, how drunk with power and control he is.
What's even more amusing is he purportedly made a deal with Reid to keep his seniority on committees and the rest of the Dem caucus balked at it, so he lost that seniority. Real smart, Arlen! Next time maybe you should make sure everything is 'signed' and the ink is dry before you announce anything.
Of course the other big item for me is Obama Math, or Government Motors, take your pick. It seems that for a measly $10 billion, the UAW can get a 39% share of GM, while the government is supposed to get 51% for $9 billion. The bondholders, who helped float GM over the past few years and kept GM running, invested $27 billion. You can already see that the math isn't favouring the bondholders; they are supposed to get only 10%. This is called 'inversely proportional' and the country is truly in trouble when the people who take the risk and put it 'on the line' as it were are penalised, and the government gets right of first refusal of the lion's share just because.
Everyone who voted for Obama still has their panties in a bunch over him because they don't think any of this will happen to THEM. It's the mean rich people who are finally getting their due, it's the bad companies that will have to bow to the people now; no one ever thinks they are one of THEM. They forget that there is always someone poorer than they are, and that by the government making a precedent seizing some control of not only the banking industry but the car industry, the door is now open to other intervention.
You could argue (not too convincingly, but you could make a feeble case), that the banks are the government's business. Since banks are a huge factor in the economy, and since our economic health impacts everything from our national security to our ability to pay back our foreign debts, the government has a right to stick its nose in. I think precedent shows (CRA, the Fed, subsidies, etc), that the government sticking its nose into business too much causes problems, but lets table that for a second. You could make a tenuous case that the government should be an interested party vis a vis banks.
GM is a different matter. GM is a publicly traded company, and a DOW 30 component, along with companies like Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Dupont, 3M and Merck. The manufacture of cars is NOT vital to our national security or solvency, however, but because GM employs a large number of people (primarily in the Great Lakes area), the government has used that as an excuse to become an interested party and meddle.
The biggest problems that face GM are the cost of labour and the non-beneficial trade agreements that the government has negotiated in foreign markets. GM was the global leader in car sales for 77 years, from 1931 to 2007, but has recently fallen behind Toyota. The cost of labour - pension, benefits, pay scale - are all egregiously disproportionately high when compared to companies like Toyota, which have been able to open plants in the United States and pay their workers fair (not over inflated) wages, and who have been able to re-tool and modernise without risking the wrath of the UAW. By way of comparison, the average Detroit auto worker gets comped at $73/hr in pay and benefits, (totaling about $132,000/yr), while someone employed at a Toyota plant in the US in a similar position is paid $43/hr (about $78,000/yr), making it close to HALF of what GM pays. (GM employs about 123,000 people in North America).
There is absolutely no reason why the company that sold the most cars in the world for 77 years should be in such dire financial straits, unless its cost of doing business was hyper-inflated. Such is the case with GM, as you can see by the figures above. The restrictions in some foreign markets (like Japan), are definitely a stumbling block, but by far the biggest problem that GM has had is its labour costs. The Democrats, clearly in the UAW pocket, have somehow decided that they are not part of the problem. This is in spite of the news last year of the notorious contract the UAW had negotiated with GM that forced them to create 'job banks' where workers who would otherwise have been made redundant because of modernisation sat in a room and were paid about half their salary for doing crossword puzzles. A company forced to these measures is doomed, its just a matter of time, and since there doesn't appear to be much in the way of concessions from the UAW, we're looking at GM being the next Amtrak; constantly running in a deficit, but propped up by the government.
It's a shame; GM used to make good cars, reasonably priced and as I've said elsewhere, we LOVE our Chevy truck.
Posted by hanyap at 7:14 PM | Comments (0)
April 14, 2009
Some Thoughts on Tea Parties...
My husband and I are going to attend our local tea party, and I encourage everyone to think about doing the same (you can find location information at TeaPartyDay.com or TaxDayTeaParty.com).
There’s something very special about being able to participate in an event of this magnitude. On one day, millions of Americans across the fruited plains will gather near their homes; they will represent all walks of life, all ethnic backgrounds. Some will be natural born citizens, others will be naturalised. There will be the young and old, families with children, couples and singles alike. But we will all be united, despite these disparate origins, in our frustration at the punitive taxes that we are forced to pay and the poor representation we have suffered at the hands of our elected officials.
When my husband and I join our fellow Americans on April 15th, it will be a moving event. For me, I see it nothing less than a recommitment (by me) to the original goals of our Great Republic, a sign of respect to our noble Founding Fathers, and acknowledgement that the principles that this great land was founded on are sound and true. They are as real and important today as they were in 1776, when a group of men, attending the Second Continental Congress, enshrined some of the most beautiful sentiments ever expressed by man:
When in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness – That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it…
And so one of the greatest stories of the human race began its inexorable march to resolution, driven by the supreme conviction held by the inhabitants of the American colonies that those who are governed are not mere playthings of the powerful, but the embodiment of power itself. That such a contract as exists between the government and the governed is a bond that the people enter into freely, but may choose to dissolve when their free will dictates that the mandates of the government are in precise conflict with the interests of the People, and in direct contradiction to the Rights granted us by God and Nature.
It was no small thing that our Founding Fathers did, in essence signing their names to a treasonous warrant that marked them and their families as enemies of the King. They were thoughtful men, among the most educated of their time, many of them successful in their chosen field, whether it be physician, farmer or businessman. They had a great deal to lose in the calculus of revolution and opposition to the British Empire, and a positive outcome - against the superior power and numbers of the British army - seemed inconceivable.
Their intelligence and moral feeling required them to act, to irrevocably enshrine the notions of Liberty as separate from the rule of Man, granted as it was by a power higher than that vested in one human by another. The very Nature of man demanded that he be left to pursue his destiny, and governments merely serve to ensure his unimpeded progress on that path. Our Founding Fathers realised that any government that hinders our progress through the imposition of unfair taxation, the passage of laws that contravene the Natural Rights that man possesses or by any other methods at its disposal, ceases to be a government that protects men and becomes a government that enslaves them.
So here we come, full circle. We arrive at a point in our history when the imposition of government regulations and the meddling of politicians interferes with our Right to conduct our affairs; where confiscatory taxation, passed with the purpose of controlling our destinies and stripping us of the Right to self-determination, has encroached improperly into our lives, stultifying our ability to make progress and threatening to subjugate us to the will and whim of others. I feel it necessary then to make a pledge, here, to myself, at this time; to affirm that I believe that Man is on the whole good, and he should be permitted to pursue his life as he sees fit, unfettered by unnecessary interference and legislation by the government, and that such unnatural interference includes, but is not restricted to, predatory taxation with the intent to deprive us of our just earnings.
We have been given a great gift in America, and we are on the cusp of presiding over its demise. No other country has been such a force for good as the country - OUR country - that took shape in the debates during that hot summer of 1776. No country has ever looked inwardly so often, testing its principles, struggling with seemingly irreconcilable circumstances, even going so far as to pit brother against brother in a war that threatened the very survival of the country itself.
Yet we are very nearly about to throw that noble legacy away, to trundle down the path that so many other countries have tried, towards a government not predicated on the notion that our rights are inviolate, but that they are granted at the discretion of the government and as such, may be rescinded at any time.
I hope this is not the case; that I am not one of the unlucky multitude left to mourn the passing of the greatest endeavour of mankind, forced only to look wistfully on the handful of golden years of Liberty that my life was fortunate enough to enjoy, as one might look upon a loved one that has passed from the present and resides merely in memory. It is my obligation to my country, and my morality dictates, that the very least that I can do is join the throng of those exercising one of those sacred rights that men, 233 years ago, fought and died to guarantee.
My God continue to bless the United States of America
Posted by hanyap at 11:27 AM | Comments (1)
April 11, 2009
Taxes!
Ah, taxes! Everyone loves taxes...
Actually no one does. It's funny how the Democrats (and some GOP politicians), who have no trouble raising taxes or fees on other people seem to sometimes have a problem with taxes themselves. See Charlie Rangel, head of Ways & Means, for the most egregious example. But then there's also Kansas Governor Diane Silbelius, who is slated to preside over the switch to government run health care (which would require a huge tax hike), but who had to refile her own income taxes because of 'errors'. You know some of the rest of the roll call - Daschle, Geithner, Dodd and his loan that meant he paid less for his mortgage... for people who don't like parting with their own money, they sure are quick to force us to part with ours!
They're digging their own hole to a large degree, but we also need the GOP to stick to their guns, vote against bloated budgets, offer slim budgets of their own, and make it clear to the American people where the dividing line is. Offering a budget that is 3.1 trillion instead of 3.6 trillion is not setting a good precedent.
It takes a lot of arrogance to remark about raising taxes, (in the middle of a recession no less). "We've done it before. There hasn't been a catastrophe", is what NY Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said. Rush Limbaugh has put his posh pad in NY up for sale, and several days ago, on Neil Cavuto's show, Donald Trump said he knew a lot of people who were talking about packing up and leaving if the taxes went up again, and he hinted he was one of them! In a city where about 40,000 people pay about 30% of the taxes, that's dangerous. If you were a wealthy New Yorker ($200,000 and above - which isn't rich considering the cost of living), you will shortly be paying 8.97% state income tax, 12.62% for New York City income tax, 8.375% for New York City sales tax, 35% top Federal tax rate, and then property taxes and other miscellaneous fees that are going up (fishing licences, taxes on beer and wine, etc). Who would want to pay all that, if they could move out of the city (to Connecticut, or elsewhere in NY with a lower city tax at least), and save some money? No wonder Rush left! I think we'll begin to see a slow exodus once these new rates take effect. Bad for the average New Yorker who just wants to work and get ahead a bit; but it may mean Giuliani has a shot at being governor, if the rumours are true and he is planning a run.
We're nearly 100 days in, and although Obama's approval ratings are still fairly high, more and more people feel the country is going in the wrong direction. As has been discussed elsewhere, this means that people are forgiving of Obama the man, and tend to want him to do well (and they probably feel good about having a 'post-racial' President to boot), but they aren't happy that the Dems (Congress is enjoying an approval rating of about 30%, by the way), are using this as an opportunity to change the fundamental nature of our country. It is only a matter of time before Obama's approval ratings catch up with the growing sense of unease in this country. There are only so many 'Mea Culpa' tours you can make, only so many times you can be silent on important issues (the Somali pirate crisis, etc), before people start becoming disenchanted.
It doesn't hurt that Joe Biden, who resigned from a previous Presidential race amid allegations of plagiarism, and has a reputation for exaggeration, continues to open his mouth and stir people's ire. Regardless of whether or not its true that Biden chastised President Bush (as he has claimed), it is extremely poor form to air it publicly the way he has. When pressed, President Bush refused to criticise Obama, and he has largely 'retired' from the public scene. Biden's stories make Biden look good, and appear to be empty bragging, meant to increase his 'creds' among liberal idealogues; in other words, its not constructive and frankly, looks puerile.
Biden will never be a credible Presidential candidate with the masses. By the time 2012 rolls around, I think people will have had enough of both Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Its obvious they are both attention/media whores, and that quickly begins to grate, and Americans will tire of how self-serving and out of touch they are. All the nation (and world) media attention is on these two, and the rude behaviour to our allies, obsequiousness to theocrats, self-aggrandisement and denigration of America will at some point be too much for everyone but the most die-hards to bear.
Posted by hanyap at 8:58 AM | Comments (0)
April 3, 2009
Reagan and Anti-Reagans
Mark Levin played one of Reagan's best speeches Wednesday (March 31, 2009). In 1964, Reagan went on TV to make the case for Barry Goldwater and in his speech he touched on many topics, displaying a mastery of all of them, citing examples and statistics to back up his claims, periodically injecting some levity.
So many people in the GOP like to bandy Reagan around because they know that it's the right thing to do, but they fail to recognise why Reagan's words are so powerful, ignore his message and only use him to grant them some credibility with Republican voters.
Reagan is powerful because he spoke to you directly. He didn't hide behind vagaries, didn't mince words or clothe his speeches with meaningless phrases. To use a familiar quote, "He meant what he said and said what he meant". He talked about defending freedom, and how it is the right of every human being, and he wasn't afraid to point out Soviet oppression.
Contrast this to Obama, who obviously thinks he - and what he wants and believes - is the most important thing. More important than his word, and obviously more important than his Presidential oath.
There is no way a President of the United States should be able to fire the head of a private company (GM in this case). No way, no how; it smacks of tyranny or at the very least, a dictatorship... definitely not a representative republic. Further, it is galling that after that his administration is embarking on a course to grant the Fed even more sweeping changes that would allow Congress to limit compensation!
The President has enormous power, not only to change the fortunes of us individually, but the course of the entire country. So when the President is barely courteous to our oldest ally and fawning to the leader of an oppressive theocracy, you know something ill is in the wind.
Reagan wasn't like that. He was proud to be an American, gracious to our stalwart allies and critical of our enemies (think Libya and the USSR, among others). He understood the power of friendship and the need to maintain strong ties with similarly minded countries and to refuse to give legitimacy to rogue or oppressive regimes. I'd like to point out that for all the criticism of President Bush and his ties to 'big oil' he was hardly fawning of the Saudi royal family and pushed for ways for America to become less dependent on their oil. Clinton, and apparently Obama now, appear to see the relationship with the Saudis differently (remember, the Saudis have donated a LOT of money to Clinton's library).
Add that to ANOTHER embarrassing gaffe - giving the Queen an iPod filled with show tunes, (she's not THAT kind of Queen), pictures and Obama's speeches - and it's a wonder Obama has ANY supporters still left, except for a handful of die-hard ideologues. What makes this latest incident even more inexcusable than Brown's DVD's and barely lukewarm reception is that the Brit media in particular (and some American news outlets), were extremely critical of Obama's brush off of Brown. Brown and Labour aren't polling well in Britain, but he's still their Prime Minister, so to have him treated poorly is insulting to them. Several opinion pieces in the Guardian and elsewhere voiced that they were extremely insulted by Obama's treatment of Brown. Rather than learning from that and trying to come up with a more thoughtful gift for the Queen of England (for goodness sake), he gives her an unimaginative iPod, pre-loaded with his own narcissism. The best retort to that I've seen is from a poster at Hot Air, who suggested the Queen erase the iPod, fill it with Churchill's best WWII speeches and re-gift it to Obama. Personally, I think that's BRILLIANT, and it's what I would do. The Queen is a much better person than I am, I guess.
I don't know why people don't see Obama for the danger he is; apparently most Democrats still support him strongly. Any man who, after being elected to the most powerful job in the world, thinks it proper to go about bashing America and calling us arrogant isn't someone who can be trusted. We're supposed to 'respect' the President, but how can we, when he takes a trip abroad and sees it as an opportunity to disparage the average American? Where is the reciprocal respect? Where's the appreciation for being elected President? It's an honour to serve as Commander in Chief, yet Obama sees it as an opportunity to disparage our way of life. Why seek the office if you think the country is so terrible? A desire for control and power is the only believable reason Obama would seek the Presidency then, and anyone who has those aspirations cannot be trusted.
Posted by hanyap at 7:34 PM | Comments (0)