Several years ago, I started blogging mostly about myself and family, to amuse myself, and keep an online journal. As time progressed, i started to share that blog with strangers, many of whom have become friends. And has the conversations continued between us, my journals became more diverse, covering cooking, my travels, the death of my dog, my daughters wedding, etc. Then November 2008 happened...America elected Obama. Everything I had worked for, my savings, our retirement, the value of our home(which was supposed to be our backstop in the retirement plan) went from bad to worse....as you all know, and probably experienced as deeply as my family. And I remember thinking about how come January, I would give this brash man with some pretty expansive expensive ideas the benefit of doubt, and hope he could deliver, even though I doubted it. That was then.
Now, nearing August, he has led our government for 1/2 a year- so lets see where we are:
-deeper recession, more unemployed.
China is threatening to dump our currency in favor of something else;
once predominant American companies (GM and Chrysler) have gone in the dumpster, shedding thousands of good paying jobs, while simultaneously dragging the entire auto supply industry down with them.
He has overseen the most rapid expansion of national debt in our nations history, while achieving nothing of significant value in return.
His administration has continued to blame Bush for everything, including the debt, citing "Bush started it.." as a rationale.
His thug Chief of Staff routinely chastises the opposition, while his inept media spokesman makes feeble excuses for every presidential and vice presidential gaff...
He has proposed the idea, now being debated nationally, about Health care reform, when the issue really is about insuring the uninsured which could be quickly remedied in a manner similar to auto insurance for the uninsured, and assignd risk pool that would lump the uninsured together and assign them to a company for coverage, perhaps with a subsidy to lower cost, not unlike the credit idea proposed ny Senator McCain back in the election, which was WIDELY dismissed by the Obamaistas.
The Obama administration has stood by idly by while pirates seize ships at sea, while thousands protest sham elections in Iran, and has the audacity to call a police department stupid in a matter the knows nothing about.
He has snubbed national leaders that are among the few friends the US has, such as the botched visit to the US by Gordon Brown of the UK, and Netanyahu of Israel, while authorizing the transfer (today) of $200 million to the Palestinian Authority "...to help ease their government's growing budget crisis.." This while states like California and Pennsylvania struggle to balance their financial houses due to the recession.
While on this topic of state wide (California) economic collapse, let me add that I am able to be home today writing this blog because my employer is going through a tough time financially, and so in addition to reduced salary, i get to spend an extra week at home. Since this makes me technically a part time employee, now there is discussion of cutting benefits as well, not to mention they already cut off the 401k contributions...meaning I am looking for another job, to make ends meet. That after a staff meeting where the previously stated temporary nature of the se cost cutting measures was being reviewed with an eye towards making them permanent. Not welcome news.
So amidst this now national insanity, i continue to hope (pray) that calmer heads will prevail. I also have made up my mind on some things, after discussion with my spouse:
We will never buy a GM car or truck until the government has NO interest in the company- likely never again
Same for Chrysler- which means our love affair with Jeeps now is limited to past models
We will support politicians that support America, not apologizers...
We will not help any incumbent get re-elected in 2010 or thereafter unless they realize they work for the people, not the other way around; we will specifically do what we can to defeat our current Senators from California, and that awful Nancy Pelosi...and our own ninny congresswoman...
We will continue our support for the organizations that lobby for things we believe in.
My sincerest wish that in 2010 we the people retake Congress, and curb the abuses of the current White House....
I've just read that he called the cop and apologized. As for insurance, I think it is unconstitutional for people to be told they HAVE to buy something! You can, however, be told you have to pay a tax. (So the solution there is to make health coverage for the poor a government program paid for with their taxes---others can buy overpriced insurance from greedy shylock corporations if they somehow see some reason to or benefit in doing so. I personally think health insurance is an outrage! The idea that someone should suffer because that healthy person did not throw away lifetime savings through the years to make others rich! People should be just left alone and pay their way, unless there is an emergency. In those cases, money could be taken legally and constitutionally from their wages until that sum is repaid.) These people aren't talking about having each one of us Americans pay a hundred bucks or so to some system of health care, this will be a matter of several thousands of dollars from or for each individual paid to an industry that does not give one fig whether we all live or die!
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, I did not vote for Obama, and I almost never vote for Democrats because they have gotten so emperious and haughty and dictatorial, but I sure am getting tired of the Republican propensity to guard industry's collective ass---and right now, every Republican in Congress may as well be selling insurance!
Oh, and every penny of that $100 million dollars to the Palestinians will end up in crooked thug politicians' pockets. (In the future, such things should be given as pay, just like to American government workers, and not into hands of slimeballs who will pocket every cent.)
May be unconstitutional, but we the people go along with this crap, and so here we are... I actually don't think there is much democracy left in a society so hell bent on controlling everything , a imperial nanny dictating to you. We are quickly moving toward being subjects, not citizens. The founders of this country knew pure democracy would be untenable, and so they instituted a republic, hoping each generation would chose fellow citizens to serve as their representative...and serve the people..
ReplyDeleteAs you know, Congress is made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate...problem I see is most representatives represent themselves, and the deep pocket special interests that elect them, and the Senate is now in appearance and deeds more akin to the Imperial Senate of the Roman Empire than the US Senate our founders envisioned. IMHO
Canice......I want to read this, buy my eyes have taken a hike to the back of my head. The print is so small I can't do this right now. I will return. Sorry
ReplyDeleteno worries...my eyes do that from time to time...
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of people are agreeing with you. We did not know what we were getting with this President. Now we are beginning to see. Even Clinton didn't do this kind of stuff, and there are a lot of people from his white house staff brought back from cold storage to run things with Obama.
It'a hard to grasp all the things they are trying to do with the health care bill, which hasn't really got much to do with health care. I remember that one of the methods of funding their spending was to tax health care benefits given by corporations to their employees. This would fund their scheme for a while, but it would also destroy the health insurance system that it sucks the funding from.
Another thing I heard recently is that there are some new agencies (something to do with minority issues, whatever that means) that are being created as part of the health care bill. To much of this hiding things in other bills is going on.
I too have no more retirement contribution from my employer. I do not blame him, as he is trying to survive. I was laid off for six weeks back in the spring but have been back to work since that time. Our company builds custom doors, and we have dropped from a staff of some 30 people a couple of years ago, to around 8 today.
What bothers me most about the President is his arrogance. America is not perfect, but surely doesn't have to apologize as much as he thinks. Can't we have a President who believes in his own country?
I think that the comments about the police trouble this week made up a gaffe that trumps anything that Bush ever said. Obama appeared as President on a late night talk show, and now makes inappropriate jokes about being shot. He is cheapening the office. From this attitude proceeds the policy problems, etc.
We can place a lot of blame for the government bumbling and bad policy on the rest of congress as well.
Thank YOU for sharing your thoughts! I have a great deal of faith that enough of the American people, maybe not all of them, but enough will see the direction we are heading is not this country's best path. Since i originally wrote tis post, I have had a chance to see Obama on TV over and over trying to explain what he meant to say, and I want to SCREAM...it is so obvious he is over his head, this is his Peter Principle Moment...he has met his level of incompetence.
ReplyDelete"As a person continues his path of promotion, he's eventually promoted right out of his field of expertise and into a position where he's utterly and helplessly incompetent. Eventually, says the Peter Principle, the higher levels of a bureaucracy become populated entirely by incompetent people."
Sounds like we're there people.
I would like to point out that our pandering president is probably not a legal citizen therefore not a legal president. He's in a hurry to get his agenda passed in case the truth comes out. He has pushed harder and faster than any president to date.
ReplyDeleteI believe we need to look at the larger picture. We have three major factions that would like to rule the world. All of them want to equalize the playing field. I'm not sure we have a prayer unless states start threatening to leave the union. We need to stand up for ourselves. The people elected a community organizer....his time in the Senate was so limited as was his voting record.
Our only hope is the polls are dropping and if we "get loud" we might survive.
I agree...we have to get really loud and hope our voices will not fall on deaf ears.
ReplyDelete