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Bristol Palin v. Ashley Biden

Just how fair is the media?  Bristol Palin continues to be a huge story even though her mother lost the Vice Presidential election.  About 2 days ago, I first heard about Ashley Biden (who works for an agency for children) who has repeatedly been arrested (once for drug possession, once for interfering with law enforcement) -- and who now has been caught on tape snorting cocaine.  She is 27 years old -- not some baby.  Ms. Biden has chosen to work "for children" -- while using drugs -- and while her dad called for the "war on drugs" that we are in (and that we have lost at the price of many basic freedoms). 
Keep in mind, if you want to have a "war on drugs" -- which will claim drugs support terrorism -- what do you think will happen to your 2nd Amendment rights?   Why not make gun manufacturers responsible for gun crime instead of those who PERPETRATE crime?  That is the same thing we do with drugs ("if you use drugs, you support terrorism").  I don't believe that those who drank in the 1920s supported the mob -- nor do I believe that those who use drugs support terrorism.  Government policy is what supports the mob or the "terrrorists."
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how to achieve universal health care coverage

Achieving universal health care coverage is simple.  All Americans should be eligible for medicaid -- not just the poor.  We live in a country where responsible people can be ruined by an unanticipated medical situation (if they are in between coverage), while someone who has been in prison and on welfare receives coverage.  Medicaid is not a glamorous program -- most (not all) private insurance programs are better.  We should not provide a benefit to people who are irresponsible while ignore those who paid taxes and obeyed the law.
 
Secondly, we should open up VA coverage to more people (children of eligible parties, etc).  Those newly eligible people should have to pay some amount (like $100 per month) that is not small, but not out of reach of almost all Americans.  Like medicaid, VA health is not the "greatest" ever -- but it is far better than nothing.
 
The consequences of such a program is that bad insurance companies (who no longer could compete) would go out of business.  Unfortunately, this is precisely why such a program would likely never be passed (both parties get lobbied by these groups).
 
Ironically, the price of healthcare would go down since a private health plan would have to offer something clearly better than medicaid in order to compete.
 
Germany currently has such a system (in a way).  All have access to free care, but most aspire to have a private plan (about half do).  Health care costs per person are about half in Germany of America.
 
Unlike most products, health care is so heavily regulated (I cannot just perform surgery or sell and make medicine) and has forces at play having nothing to do with the market (if I had a broken leg, being in severe pain I would pay every dollar in my savings for treatment even though that might be "overpriced").
 
Those who think this is "socialistic" -- I have this question:  Don't you get that we heavily regulate this industry already -- and provide healthcare in one form or another to more than half of all Americans?  I might like it if we had fewer drug laws and restrictions for medical care -- but "conservatives" are not advocating that position (if anything, they want tougher "drug" laws).  While "conservatives" have pushed tough drug laws, they think it was just fine that Vioxx was given out like candy for pain issues (despite its properties of giving strokes and heart attacks).  On the other hand, somebody who obtained a drug for moderate pain like hydrocodone without proper authorization will generally go to jail (unless you are like Rush Limbaugh who obtained much stronger meds like Oxycodone and Oxycontin).
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Audacity and revisionism

 

Obama’s association with bigots made little difference in the election. Because of ignorance of history and blatant bigotry, statements of people like Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama are excused – and are even given the sanction of partial truth.

Slavery and separate but equal were not “good” things – but what do they have to do with “white” people? While those who owned slaves “looked white” and those who were slaves in the U.S. “looked black” slavery really only existed in a pocket of ethic groups. That is, almost all black American slaves came from a Region in Western-Central Africa – and almost all slaveholders were from the British Isles/Spain/France/Portugal. It neither involved most “white” ethnic groups, nor most “black” ethnic groups. To suggest otherwise is to assert cultural ignorance.

The ignorant and bigots, likewise, would observe that someone who “looked” a certain way would have had to attend a separate school, or stayed in separate inferior accommodations and would be denied due process if they could be transported back to America of 50 or 100 years ago – but would forget that the Duke Campus and black on white crime places people who “look white” in a clear position of being subjected to “worse” treatment. Scholarship and employment opportunities are what they are – they mandate different standards for different “looking” people.

Post-slavery, the “victims” and “perpetrators” were largely the same as the parties between 1700 and 1860. Immigration patterns are what they are (Southern/Eastern Europeans primarily went to the North, not the South).

On a stark level, what “history” of bigotry and racism do Estonians have in “oppressing” Sudanese? The answer is a resounding “no such history.”

Whatever America ever did to black Americans, was it really worse than being complicit in the unnecessary destruction of Dresden at the end of WWII? 

The answer from Obama and Wright is that “you” white people did (fill in the black). However, history and facts tell us that Obama’s ancestors were slaveholders in America – you would be hard pressed to find a Sami, Sorb, Estonian or Bulgarian who owned black slaves in the U.S. Moreover, a large number of Obama’s ancestors were English – a ethnicity that dominated Ireland for 800 years – and much of the rest of the world for over 200 years.

Some people do not like “black people” (though some bigots will distinguish “black Americans” from “other” blacks). Some people think all East Asians are good at math – and some think the Japanese are the “natives” of Japan (they are from China, the natives are the Ainu ethnic group). Ignorance, over-generalizations and stupidity is rampant. The worse form of bigotry is violence (hands down). Sticks and stones break bones, no name does that. Yet, political correctness on campus means that certain violence is “acceptable” because of “racism” – but even questioning affirmative action is not permitted.

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God and Bush II

 

It was noteworthy that Bush II told the American Public, when he was asked whether he consulted with his father concerning his foreign policy decisions related to going to war with Iraq, he indicated that he consulted a higher father. Evidently, God gave Bush II guidance on his decision to go to war in Iraq.

In a way, Bush II had to say this since his father’s book “A World Transformed” co-written by Brent Scowcroft explained in detail why invading Iraq made no sense. That book was published in 1999. The pitfalls of invading Iraq were not secret or unanticipated. Prior to the war they were well documented.  Scowcroft, to his credit, was one of the few Republicans to openly question Bush II's poor policy choices.

Richard Clark’s book is even a more damning indictment since he lays out the case that Bush II’s poor policies made us more susceptible to 9/11. Most Republicans can even justify the outing of Valerie Plame as a CIA agent since her husband was a “traitor.” Forget what dangers that posed to Americans. Similarly, Abu Ghareb was a harmless fraternity style prank. No accountability whatsoever.

I wonder how many Republicans really believe that God wanted the U.S. to invade Iraq.   If God wanted this, then there is a good case that God is a Muslim (or Allah) since the group that paid the heaviest price in Iraq was the Christian community.

Oops – I forgot that “everyone knows” that “they” are all radical Muslims. So, “they” got what “they” deserved. If you question that, you obviously “hate America” and are “negative.”  

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Republican Suicide by Bush

 

Years ago, the Republicans were (to me) the party of logic, reasoning and facts. While many liberal Democrats made excuses for Soviet Communism (and would say things like the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. are “equally bad”) and would deny the atrocities of Stalin (remember the New York times in the 1930s?).   Also, the Republicans were correct (to me) concerning the excessive power unions had in 1980. 

Things are very different now.

Immediately after 9/11, when it was clear to me (and most people) that Al Qaeda and Bin Laden were to blame, I believed that we needed to use all of our power to kill/capture Bin Laden and wipe out Al Qaeda. I thought it might be a challenge, but I believed America was more challenged during WWII and during the Cold War – and we made it through those eras.

The world and the United States both understood that Afghanistan was proving shelter to Bin Laden and had training camps for Al Qaeda in its country. I was glad when the United States moved against the Taliban and went to Afghanistan.

Soon after, I started to get concerned. I heard Axis of Evil, in early 2002, Bush said Bin Laden did not really matter. Bin Laden did not matter? No other person had planned and executed the killing of more Americans – and had damaged critical places in this country. Pearl Harbor was no New York City or the Pentagon. Republicans joined in the chorus – he did not matter.

Al Qaeda succeed in terrorist attacks in Great Britain (an ally), Spain (an ally) and in Bali Indonesia (targeting mostly Australians – another ally). Yet Bin Laden did not matter. We needed to get Sadaam Hussein and to conquer Iraq.

I have heard many different reasons for this – some people believe that Bush and neocons wanted Bin Laden free to justify intruding on freedoms. Michael Moore suggested that the Bush family had some connection to Bin Laden. Others believe that 9/11 was a hoax. I never subscribed to those beliefs (though, ironically it might have been better if one of these were true).

I believe that Cheney/Rummy and the neocons really did not think it was WMD or that Iraq was a danger to the United States (there was very little evidence of either – and if these were real justifications for war we certainly would have invaded North Korea – a place that actually developed nuclear weapons and was developing rockets – also our troops were already in South Korea and Japan). I think that the neocons really thought that the war would be easy.

It is funny that GHWB had written a book only a few years earlier describing in detail the reasons invading all of Iraq in 1991 would have been a mistake. GWB believed 9/11 changed everything – but 9/11 did not change what Iraq was. It still was an artificial country that was secular in nature – run by a ruthless strongman.

When an economic advisor in his administration broke from the Bush “line” that Iraq’s oil would pay for the war – and he concluded it could cost $100,000,000,000 (a huge understatement) he was fired. AGAIN HE WAS FIRED!   Republicans did not care.

The first Iraq war, for a variety of reasons, did not bankrupt the U.S. – it did not cost all that much and many countries helped offset our costs.

Most Republicans to this day attack people who question the wisdom of Bush landing on an aircraft carrier announcing “mission accomplished” on May 1, 2003 are traitors or “hate our troops.” With that thinking, the Republican Party will never achieve power again.

Accountability should mean something. Just like the welfare mom who continues to have children out of wedlock – people making big mistakes should not be rewarded by the government.   When Republicans criticized teen welfare moms – they were called “racists” or hateful. Unfortunately, the Republicans who called those who criticized the Iraq war “traitors” or people who “hate our troops” did the exact same thing (but even worse). Rather than examine the issue, people were called traitors and un-American.

It became clear towards the end of 2003 that we were screwing up the war, and the cost of the war would be much higher than the estimates. Again, nobody was allowed to question the war. Even few in the media would do this. It was very troubling to me.

Iraq will never be worth the $2,000,000,000,000 cost. Simply, the spending cannot be justified. People also forget that war is very messy – thousands of innocent Iraqis have died in this war because of the acts of Americans. That was true in all of our wars – but in the case of Iraq it was especially messy since it was really a civil war as much as anything (and a civil war that GHWB said would likely happen if we invaded Iraq).

No President (to date) has encouraged the outright destruction of a longstanding Christian community in a country.   The Iraqi Christians went from being treated fairly in the Iraq pre-invasion, to being hunted down, killed, forced to pray in private, forced to flee, having clergy kidnapped and killed, churches burned, etc.

You might think that the reckless actions of our government were brought about by an administration which truly hated Christianity. People blame the killing of Christians on radicals – but if this were true why did this not occur until 2003? Why weren’t Christians being persecuted in Iraq before that time? How did they survive all sorts of Muslim empires over the years?

People forget that not all of “those Arabs” are Muslims (though there is no doubt most hard-core Republicans view those terms interchangeably). The fact is that “Christians” who do not care about the Iraqi Christians (and celebrate the new “democracy” that has fostered there murder and has imposed sharia law) are not really Christians.

These Christians were brought to the faith before all of Northern Europe and most of Eastern Europe. Some of these communities have been Christian for 1500 or more years.   Well now many of them are gone forever.

As I have heard many Republicans say over the years “who cares.” Certainly, Bush/Cheney/Rummy do not care.

Many Republicans viewed the inability to accept mistakes as strength of Bush. Again, why would that be strength? It certainly aided those who would shout down those who questioned our policies.

Today, most Republicans still do not care that Bin Laden is free. He does not matter. Some even forget telling me that we had already finished the job in 2002 when we decided to invade Iraq. Another technique is to simply call those who focus on accountability “negative.” Forget focusing on points, name-calling is way easier.

Thanks to Iraq, America is not equipped to deal with our economic challenges. When interest and future costs is considered, Iraq’s costs will perhaps exceed $5,000,000,000,000. If we did not have that extra debt, we could much more easily afford to spend and cut taxes to help our economy.

I am very sad that the Republicans have destroyed us – but I admit this is the case. While my party registration has remained Republican, and I voted for the Republican Presidential candidate in 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2008 – I do not think I was part of the problem. However, I am dismayed that Republicans have not demanded accountability.

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retirement crisis

Bad public policies (mostly advanced by Republicans) are creating a ticking timebomb in the United States.  We are headed in a direction of massive numbers of elderly poor people.
 
First, understand that defined benefit programs are the only kind of retirement plans that provide "security."  Market based defined contribution plans (like 401k plans) foster instability and destitution.  The "winners" who are lucky enought to retire at the right time and be in the right fund (at the right time) do not balance out the losers.  The "losers" create collateral human casualties that are ignored when measuring out a comparison between a defined benefit and a defined contribution retirement system.  For example, even if a defined benefit and a defined contribution plan pay the same average of $3000 per month consider this comparison: which is better 10 people averaging $3000 per month, or 5 averaging $5000 per month combined with 5 with $1000 per month?  The difference between living on $3000 per month and $5000 really is not much -- the difference between $1000 per month and $3000 per month is huge.   You will be destitute living in many places on $1000 per month -- and whether you earn $3000 per month or $5000 per month you will be middle class in most of America.
 
The collateral costs of many poor people is they (and those who are impacted by them) support (and need) large social welfare programs and higher taxes.  Many people who are in their 60s, 70s or 80s simply cannot work (or are not employable).  While "conservatives"  can rail against "class warfare" and "class envy" they are ignorant of the fact that the Republican Party helped usher in a major pre-cursor to Social Security -- pensions for people who served in the Union Army.
 
The Grand Army of the Republic lobbied and won this program.  My great-great Grandfather in his 60s was able to receive the equivalent of about $1000 per month in recognition of his service.
 
Many former Confederate states passed similar programs for veterans in the late 19th Century.
 
Social Security will almost certainly be less of a benefit for future retirees since (1) people are living longer and longer and (2) fewer and fewer workers (for a variety of reasons) are going to be paying for Social Security.  Over the past 40 years, Social Security taxes have increased a great deal -- but realistically they cannot increase a whole lot more.
 
I would figure on people in their 40s to receive about 2/3s of what the equivalent of current retirees will receive.  The math would indicate that would be sustainable almost indefinitely.  However, the difference between people in their 40s and those in their 60s is that a much smaller segment of retirees have defined benefit pension programs.  Many countries have cancelled these programs and even many unions are giving up this benefit (most new U.S. autoworkers do not have a pension). 
 
People fail to appreciate that the policies that have been advanced over the past 20 years are a radical departure from what America's retirees faced between 1950 and 2000.  401k programs are inherently desinged for wealthy Americans (they benefit much more than middle class Americans since the taxes they are deferring and much higher).
 
While historically people might be able to say over 100 years the stock market might grow at about 8 or 10 percent -- there have been periods of 20 years at a time where stocks went nowhere.  Over the past 10 years, and index fund would earn you less than a CD based on current values. 
 
This policy is very similar to the irresponsible policy of allowing large numbers of very poor illegal aliens to America in order to drive down construction, restaurant and agricultural wages.  Once again, the collateral costs (what society pays for education, health care, incarceration and housing code violations) are ignored by Republicans since they make the claim that (as GWB said) that there are some jobs Americans will not do.  What is actually true is that Americans will not do certain jobs for $4 per hour -- but an illegal alien who lives at the employment site will do this work.
 
Our middle class was largely built during an era where we cut off most immigration (from 1930 to 1960) -- it will likewise be destroyed with open borders and unfettered "free trade."  Of course, it will benefit rich people and those who want to employ a full time maid, driver, gardener and nanny.
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Federalists, Whigs and Republicans

 

Class hatred, Federalists, Whigs and Republicans

On a recent Rush Limbaugh broadcast, Rush stated a point I have heard for the last 30 years: union members simply “get too much” when they retire.

Defined benefit pensions have literally existed for thousands of years. Humanity has always understood that as we get older, some of us are unable to continue to work, while others might be interested in pursuing family or hobby interests. Auto workers, like many other workers, have traditionally had defined benefits pensions. Like many police officers, and other public sector workers, after putting in 25 years pension benefits can rival what people earned while working full time.

I have heard countless “conservatives” including Rush state that it is unfair that someone should be able to retire at age 55. Why is that? What is wrong with that concept?

Some rich people retire at age 40 with a lot more money than auto workers or police officers. Why do “conservatives” single out auto workers and public sector workers for their earnings?

“Conservatives” could have an arguable point if benefits were going up for retired union workers – but they are not. In the past 30 years, union and public sector employees have been getting worse and worse benefits.

Why do conservatives target middle class retirees for criticism?

At the same time, these conservatives defend an SEC that does not regulate at all (it would interfere with markets) and they celebrate no-bid contracts to politically connected groups (like Blackwater) and justify the non-regulation of hedge funds involving people like Walter Noel and Bernard Madoff.

To “conservatives,” Noel and Madoff are creative people using skills – but an auto worker is a serf that should be replaced by Chinese slave labor.

Much of the Republican ideology (which is every bit as strong an ideology as strident Marxism) touts the Noel and Madoff type of people of this world. The typical response to those who question the value of these people is “class envy” and “jealousy.” 

I have the experience of being around both working class people and Noel/Madoff people – nobody should be jealous of the idle rich with vapid values. Such people refuse to do any physical labor (how many fast food workers in Greenwich are from Greenwich – few) and ridicule those who have performed physical labor.

Madoff/Noel types offer nothing to society – they distort markets and hurt many middle class people who have pension funds tied up with their phony investment scams.

These people have helped seriously damage the Republican party (yes I know Madoff is a Democrat, and Noel is a Republican). 

Read the detailed memos repeatedly sent to the SEC concerning Madoff/Noel. Nothing was done despite detailed reasoning that the funds were clearly a fraud.

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is it really the high cost of American workers?

 Many Republicans (and so-called conservatives) point out that the reason that U.S. auto companies are going under is due to: (1) unions and (2) the high pay of the American worker.
 
The labor packages for American workers (the new hirees) have radically changed over the past 5 years.  Today, new workers are not eligible for a defined benefit pension, and they only earn about $30,000 per year (in some states that amounts to less than double minimum wage.
 
Most Republicans are totally ignorant as to what "other companies" are doing and paying their workers.
 
In the past few years, the U.S. dollar has fallen against the Euro and the Pound Sterling.  At the beginning of the Euro, the dollar was worth more than the Euro.  The Euro has nearly doubled in value against the dollar during the past 6 years or so.
 
Thus, in absolute dollars wages are higher in European countries than they are in the U.S.  Based upon this fact, European auto manufactuers must be in much worse condition than American companies, right?  Nope.
 
Peugeot Citroen (of France) is not losing money.  In fact, in 2007 Peugeot earned in net profit over $1,000,000,000.
 
Renault S.A. (of France) is also not losing money.  In fact, their earnings in 2007 were in excess of $3,000,000,000.  Renault also effectively controls the Japanese auto company Nissan (Renault owns 44% of Nissan).
 
Since many Republicans emotionally hate the French (remember "freedom fries") so this might not be a good example.  So, let's take a look at Volkswagen.  High wages once again -- higher than American workers (those in Germany) -- Volkswagen had a net earnings in 2007 in excess of $2,000,000,000.
 
Daimler AG (makers of Mercedes) is also had a profit in 2007.  BMW's profit in 2007 was more than $4,000,000,000.
 
Even FIAT had an net income in 2007.
 
Here is what has crushed the companies (in large part).  Our health care costs coupled with the concept that business rather than government should assume the costs of health care.
 
The facts are what they are -- and there is no reason that our companies cannot profit once again.  Due to simple ignorance, our auto companies might go down the tubes.
 
Critical thinking is missing from many conservative media outlets (unfortunately -- too many of them would prefer to have faith in something rather than looking up facts and using analytical skills).
 
So, how is this the "fault" of the unions?  The wages are what they are -- and they are less in raw terms than in European countries.
 
 
 
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the party is over

 

It really began with the focus on Iraq after 9/11. Those who understood Iraq knew that although it was not a “great” country in the context of the Middle East, it was not too bad.

Although Sadaam Hussein was certainly violent towards many elements in the country, his political party and philosophy was fairly moderate. Thus, women had rights as did religious minorities (Christians --- Sadaam’s right hand man Tariq Aziz was a Christian). No orchestrated violence was going against Christians. The law and the political system was secular, not religious.

Radical Muslims were great enemies of Sadaam Hussein. Both radical Shiites and Sunnis were great enemies of Hussein. He treated both very harshly. Sadaam allowed alcohol and allowed women to engage in work that they wanted.

Prior to 9/11 I questioned the Iraq war. My Republican credentials were strong – but I immediately heard amazingly stupid things from people I knew for 30 years. 

I was told things like:

We finished the job in Afghanistan, so we now can turn our attention elsewhere.

We will be greeted as liberators, the Middle East will have a great ally of America as a result.

The war will not cost anything, Iraq’s oil will pay for it.

The $100,000,000,000 pre-war estimate was way too high (turns out, way too low).

You are a traitor for questioning the President.

As a result of Iraq, the Republican party has forfeited multiple positions that it could bank on. Republicans were no longer the party of fiscal responsibility (the war costs were way, way too high). The Republican party was no longer the party with military expertise (No war, Vietnam or otherwise, was planned worse than this one). The Republican party was impotent to bring Al Qaeda and Bin Laden to justice (it made Jimmy Carter look like Patten or Grant in comparison). The Republican party is no longer “Pro-Christian” (no similar destruction of a large Christian community has occurred in the same numbers – but the Republicans simply could not care less).

So, this is what we are left with. Virtually all Republicans have a long record of not questioning the President at all. They no longer believe in accountability – while they could blame welfare queens for not having a work ethic – when the Bush administration continually made ridiculous inexcusable mistakes every excuse in the world was made for them.

The Republicans did virtually nothing about real issues such as political correctness (Bush pretty much waved a white flag to this one) and immigration issues (Bush apparently believes that because he never had a hard job that there are many jobs that no American will do, so we need to import cheap labor). The Republicans were stupid enough to believe that they could somehow recruit large numbers of “Hispanics” (mostly Mexicans) to vote for them. 10 years ago, it was obvious that, at best, maybe you could reliably get about 35% of the Hispanic vote – while that is not as low as the black vote (10%) it is still a lot less than 50%. 

The Republicans were too stupid to understand that Democrats could better appeal to Hispanics because of (1) better social welfare issues, (2) more reliability on quotas/affirmative action, (3) the fact that most immigrants, being poor, would support the party that is more poised to support “the poor.”

Demographically, how in the world did the Republicans think that the immigration policies would help them? If I could go somewhere to get preferential treatment it would be pretty tempting to seek such a place and vote for a party that more strongly supported such a program.

How in the world will Republicans have more than 40% of the vote in 10 years? 

Conservatives literally would be better off to quit the Republican Party and go into the Democratic party and try to support conservative Democrats in primaries since it appears that they will be unable to secure a majority.

Obama had less experience than any recent Presidential candidate and more baggage (to me, more than anything it was the Wright issue – which showed that Obama had crazy bigotry and chutzpah [knowing his family held slaves, and were not slaves, but believing that anyone with white skin is guilty of some historical sin]).

While I sincerely hope that Obama becomes a great president – undoubtedly should that happen it will be the death knell of the party.

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Why Jindal

I cannot figure out why Bobby Jindal is being touted as the next best Republican candidate for President.  It appears this is a racial pandering decision of the Republican party.  If that is what they want to stand for, why not just vote for Democrats instead.
 
Jindal is only 37 years old -- and has been a governor for under a year.  People who talk about him being a great governor are being ridiculously presumptive -- he may be great, good, fair, bad or terrible.  His track record has not been established yet.
 
If Jindal is elected in 2012, he will be 2 years younger than the youngest elected president in American history (JFK).  Again, it is tougher to get elected at such a young age.  More troubling for me is that he appears to just be a smart young conservative -- there are some other smart young conservatives in all sorts of posts.   Why Jindal then?  If the Republicans feel they need to prove they are not racist by selecting a minority -- forget it -- they are done.  The Republicans have tried this before -- against Ed Rendell and against Obama -- both were disasters.
 
In 8 years, Jindal would still be (I think) either the 2nd or 3rd youngest elected president in history.  At that point, he will be a little bit more seasoned -- and he will be more of a known quantity. 
 
People were first suggesting that he was a great governor this Spring -- when he had been a governor for only a few months. 
 
In contrast, Palin actually had accomplished an amazing amount of things very early on as governor -- and had taken on the Republican party.  Palin had defeated two very powerful important Alaskan leaders in her run for governor -- that was very, very impressive.
 
Palin has pretty much been destroyed by the media.  Unfortunately, this is probably why she simply would not work as a candidate.
 
No matter who they pick, I doubt the Republicans will win in 2012.  By that point, we will have many, many more Hispanic (mostly Mexican) voters in states like Nevada, Colorado and Arizona.  Those states will probably be out of reach in a short period of time (just like California is now).   People forget that California once was a very competitive state for Republicans.  With massive immigration, things change.
 
Unlike what happened to the Liberal party in the U.K. (where they were replaced by the Labor party as the #2 party -- and were able to begin to win the House of Commons shortly afterwards) -- I don't see a 3rd party emerging.
 
I do seriously think conservatives (all but neo-conservatives who are responsible for the destruction of the party) would be better off if they just joined the Democratic party. 
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Q and O'Reilly

Apparently, a young black women and was teaching her child to say some negative things about Obama.  So, that is a big deal.  O'Reilly wants the FBI to be involved.
 
This young black women (at least the part I saw) may have said some crazy things (Obama the anti-Christ) but she also makes a point about Obama that is simply true.
 
She points out that Obama is not really black -- which is technically very true.  She pointed out that his mother was white -- she says that his father was "Arab or Muslim" -- that is almost sort of true.  Again, Kenya is no more like where black Americans are from than Estonia is like Portugal.  There may be some very general similarity (admittedly had Obama lived in America up until 1970 he could have experienced legal discrimination) -- but this is not his heritage.
 
It is amazing to me that so many people take for granted the idea that blacks (or whites for that matter) cannot make distinctions between different ethnicities.  Vietnam is not Japan, Estonia is not Portugal and East Africa is not West Africa.
 
While some black Americans might be able to trace their ancestry to white slaveholders -- I would suspect that most cannot -- especially to multiple slaveholders circa 1850 (that were not related -- that eventually married and became Obama's maternal ancestry).
 
Once again, Obama is over 1/3 English.  The English do not have a long history of being oppressed. 
 
Saying all of that, his election makes it pretty clear that there is no systematic oppression against blacks in America.  Otherwise, a young first term U.S. Senator would have no chance whatsoever.
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America's Auto Industry Crisis

 

The U.S. Auto Industry

Many conservatives are using the problems faced by the auto industry as an attempt to trash unions. They forget that unions have lost most of their power over the past 30 years and our manufacturing base especially is now tiny compared to what it once was.

Here is a simple explanation for why the U.S. auto industry has fallen apart.

Our health care costs have increased at a level much higher than inflation.

America counts on employers to provide health care unlike most other industrial countries which rely mostly on the government.

30 years ago, it was not unreasonable for either the unions or the companies to enter into the agreements that they did. Nobody could specifically know that health care costs would rise at a level much higher than inflation. Nobody would specifically know that our auto companies would all be in peril in 2008.

30 years ago it may have been reasonable to think it would even be possible to increase employees of American owned companies – so the per employee health care cost would not have necessarily have been so high.

Today, there are way more retirees than current U.S. owned auto workers. So, the companies have an incredible burden. 

To me, it is incredible that conservatives will say how terrible that universal health care is – and believe that employers should continue to provide health care rather than the government – but when it has consequence they blame the employees. Would conservatives rather that these workers had government health care?

It is largely the fault of the republicans that we have such high health care costs.

If these companies did not have to worry about the health care costs of the retired workers, they would be in decent shape.

Conservatives are pretty stupid to claim that American auto workers earn way more than Japanese and German auto workers – they actually do not. It is totally false to claim they do. But, the health care burdens on these companies are enormous. Our health care issues are unique to the industrial world – we do not see the same issues in Germany or Japan. So, whose fault is that? Conservatives claim it is the unions? – incredibly stupid.

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Our Future in 2028

 

I can see a horrible future for America.

First, we will manufacture almost nothing – including food. We are now beginning to import food from China.   Apparently, it does not matter that they have horrible sanitary issues and safety issues – big business certainly will profit from this.

We will completely open our borders. There will be no American Identity. The Southwest will probably be about 70 percent Mexican/Hispanic in about 20 years. The programs providing preferential treatment will never go away. Intellectual white city dwellers will continue to say that the poor whites are “genetically inferior rednecks” even though many of them are capable of building a house, fixing a car and providing food on the table (an intellectual can parrot some other intellectuals views – wow!).

Hate speech will become heavily enforced. Obama Judges and legislation will come up with the “hate speech” exception. By the way, it won’t apply to Jeremiah Wright or any radical leftist.

School children will be heavily indoctrinated with political correctness. Churches will lose tax benefits if they teach “hate.”

Most guns will no longer be allowed. Bolt action hunting rifles might be permitted – but they are almost useless as a personal defense weapon.

This is just a few of the wonderful things to look forward to.

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It was a great 8 years

 

Deconstructing the Problems with GWB

My first problem is that in 7 years we were unable to kill or capture Bin Laden. The U.S.A. has no excuse for that (except for gross incompetence along with no focus on the goal). 

Prior to going to Iraq many so called conservatives argued with me that we had already finished the job in Afghanistan (in 2003!), so we should now go to Iraq. It was impossible to reason with these people. Of course I did not “like” Saddam Hussein – but there was no connection between him and 9/11. Hussein was a secularist – and provided many more rights for women than were allowed in Islamist regimes. His Vice President was a Christians. 

Aside from that, Iraq (like Yugoslavia) was an artificial country with many delicate balances that could easily fall apart. It was unclear to me how “everything changed” after 9/11 to the extent that GHWB’s book written 5 years earlier fully explaining why invading Iraq would be a mistake. 

Apparently, neocons convinced dummy GWB that we would be greeted as liberators – and a thriving democracy would develop. Nobody bothered to explain that Iraq had no history of democracy and it could end up being dominated by the only other country in the world with a majority Shiite Muslim population (Iran) which has a bigger population and would likely have a much stronger army after we invaded. The Neocons had an answer: Chalabi. Chalabi was going to be a combination George Washington and Charles DeGaul.

The war was expected to cost nothing. Oil funds would be used to reconstruct Iraq. By the way, the plan was to get rid of all Baath party officials in all government employment (sorry about that Police, Army, Roads, Water, Sewer Electricity and Garbage).

So, America invaded – and spent perhaps $1,000,000,000,000 in the process (in 2004 I was ridiculed for suggesting that it might costs more than $200,000,000,000).

Many historical functions that were performed by the military was channeled to private contractors – creating a huge conflict as to policy.

By the way, prior to the Iraq war Iraq actually had a lot of Christians – guess where most of them are now? Either: (1) dead or (2) refugees.   Guess what else? Many of their churches (some 1000 years old) have been blown up. Earlier this year a bishop was kidnapped a murdered. GWB cared very little about these issues.

After a few years of grave stupidity, the Bush administration figured out that many people joined the Baath party to simply get along with the government (I guess they did not know that Saddam also killed many people from that party). The Baath party, for a party in the Arab world, was hardly a radical party.

Even today, Iraq does not have the electrical plants, water, sewage and garbage collection that it once did.

So, was this really worth the $1,000,000,000,000. The government simply could have gotten rid of Saddam with the right behind the scenes move (a la Allende in Chile) had it wanted an ally in Iraq. Saddam had made plenty of enemies – the promise of lifted trade sanctions, special forces help, and $100,000,000,000 in aid would have convinced a handful of generals to do what we screwed up.

Today, Iraq now has more sharia law – less rights for women and it largely bans alcohol. Not exactly a success story.

Oh yeah, Bin Laden does not matter (as per GWB in 2004). If Bin Laden does not matter, why not just let every criminal out of prison?

Aside from all of the poor Iraq decisions, the administration’s decision to label people traitors and to demonize any and all who questioned the administration was another breath of fresh air.

GWB had no control whatsoever over spending – largely because of Iraq, but also because of the Medicare prescription drug bill – which is largely simply a hand out to big pharma. Why again does the VA and various Medicaid programs try to negotiate with drug companies, but these policies will not? Also, the rules and coverage issues change so much from year to year, how can someone actually make an informed choice?

Also on medical care, why is it that people who never have worked, criminals and illegal immigrants are covered for medical conditions in this country – but someone who is middle class and loses a job – so has to chose between paying a child’s college tuition or medical care – if they have a heart attack – they lose all of the money they have saved up – while the homeless criminal pays nothing for the same care?

All Americans should have entitlement to Medicaid (not just the poor, criminals or aliens). The program should not be an ideal program ever – but it should ensure that serious problems don’t get worse and people do not die unnecessarily.

The private market then can actually provide valuable medical coverage (something better than the bottom Medicaid). As it is now, many programs are actually no better than Medicaid.

Those who say our medical care would get worse are simply wrong and negative. Those who think our taxes would have to go up are also wrong (why do we already spend more on government provided health care per capita than most rich countries who provide national health insurance).   A good model might be looked upon as Germany’s health care. In Germany about 1/3 costs are private; 2/3 are government (in the U.S. it is 50% each). Nobody would purchase coverage that gives nothing more than what the “free” plan would provide. So competition, would provide something better then the basic – the same reason many people send children to private schools.

Anyway, Bush did nothing to correct this problem. Instead, he and conservatives studied it as a freemarket issue.

Heathcare is incredibly regulated. For example, it is very hard to become a doctor, or set up a medical facility. Even if someone in the medical profession (such as a nurse) invented some wonderful new procedure that person could not perform that procedure. The Drug industry is a mess – doctors prescribe drugs sometimes because they are afraid (especially because they do not want to prescribe pain meds) so instead they prescribe drugs like Vioxx (drug companies make big money – but people die).

One of the reasons countries with socialized medicine obtain results comparable to America is because doctors tend not to prescribe expensive (often unnecessary) meds – instead they give cheap opiate based pain meds (many countries sell them over the counter).

Also, there is a public effort to keep people healthy (at a good weight, not smoking or drinking to excess).

I would love it if someone could by-pass medical school and take a few exams to become a general practitioner (or family medicine doctor) – it would also be nice if people could decide what medicines that they need. Such ideas would actually be compatible with a free market. Total market regulation is not.

GWB did nothing to try to keep our manufacturing base. While some people blame unions and others blame companies, the blame is largely with the U.S. government. Our governmental policies were responsible for medical costs being more than double the rate of inflation from 1980 to 2000. Guess what happened?   That destroyed the U.S. owned auto manufacturers. The unions and companies had no way of knowing that things would go so out of whack – but they did.

Foreign companies – which do not have huge retiree numbers and also started building cars here mostly after the 1980s – have done fine in America. It is not the “lazy worker” or even evil “unions” – these costs are out of hand. Sadly they are about to destroy a critical industry.

People too easily forget that we only won WWII because we had so many auto plants that could easily be converted to tank, plane and bomb production.

Also on trade, GWB pushed for cheap food from places (especially China and Mexico). Our government for nearly 100 years has done a pretty good job with inspection our food production – it cannot do this in either China or Mexico. 

Pretty soon we are going to be unable to even feed ourselves. Check out how much food in now foreign made – 10 years ago it was unheard of.

How strict do you suppose the chemical use is in those countries? What kind of hygienic conditions exist in Chinese food plants.

Money Came First for Bush

Instead of trying to cut back political correctness or racial quotas, Bush spent all his chits on the war – so he did little to try to change these policies.

In fact, Bush pushed for more immigration. Invariably, this leads to the “quota” issue since for whatever reason “Hispanics” irrespective of racial or cultural background, benefit from preferential treatment. (I was competing for a grad school spot with someone from Costa Rica who was a millionaire, was a non-citizen, whose sister had blond hair and blue eyes, had worse grades and test scores than I did – I was not admitted to that program – he received a full scholarship). Some would say it is “bitter” to complain about such things – I submit it is wrong to cower and accept such unfair and wrong policies.

Bush was apparently too stupid to understand that if you increase the numbers of a so called group “Hispanics” – and they only vote about 30 to 40 percent for your party, you have less of a chance to win future elections.

As far as the goal of simply fair and equal treatment for everyone – that will never happen in my lifetime. Things are way too screwed up and so many government and university jobs are predicated on those policies, they never will go away.

By the way, you are a racist for questioning these policies.

George, thanks again for your wise stewardship.

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Wright, Obama ant the Conspiracy

 

Take my word for it; there never was a “white conspiracy.”

Let us examine the “white conspiracy” theories. When did this exactly occur? Certainly it was not occurring during WWII or WWI (where millions of “whites” died). Did it really exist in America? The Klan used to protest against Catholics as well as blacks and Jews – so 2/3 of the groups they opposed were also “white.”

Certainly, petty discrimination by so called “whites” against blacks occurred (like in the American South or in South Africa). However, this policy was never designed to kill or commit genocide.

Grouping “whites” together is racist. “We” whites do not have a singular history. Indeed, some of us “whites” like Barack Obama had black slaves.   Certainly, Germans had a negative history in the 20th century.

I have yet to ever hear anyone who is Jewish blame “all whites” for Nazism. Indeed, usually there is not even a universal condemnation of all Germans because some Germans dissented from such policies (Schindler, Bonhoeffer).

All children are taught this revisionist history. It does not matter what someone’s actual history is – it does not matter who held slaves. Few care about racial incidents where “whites” are victimized be it Reginald Denny or the Duke Lacrosse players. All that is needed as a defense is “black rage” – like that used by Colin Ferguson.

In my lifetime, it has definitely gotten worse. 20 years ago, it was possible to challenge people who make blanket false assertions. Today, political correctness has a stranglehold in both academia and the government. Thus, most colleges have no white male moderate to conservative professors in any liberal arts fields.

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