Thoughts on: Politics… The Economy… & Other Ideas

There are some on the right now crying that the end is near… the economy is going to tank… the Socialists are taking over.

Give me a break. Obama is the President elect, get over it. I didn’t vote for him (along with 56 million other people), but that doesn’t mean he isn’t my President too.  I think it’s important to give him a chance at governing. All we have heard up to this point is his promises, and what the other side has said about his past. We have yet to see him do anything.

Now it’s time to judge him on his actions. Let’s see what he does before we condemn him and his policies. I know, the left never did this for Bush 43. They hated him from day one. They always believed he stole the election in Florida, and it was down hill from there. Their hatred for Bush should not be the driving event in the way we judge Obama.

Just because there are lunitics on the left doesn’t me we should do the same with President Obama.

The election of Barak Obama actually makes me proud to be an American. I am old enough to remember a day when a black person could not buy a house in my neighborhood. I really thought that even in this day and age, Americans would not vote for a black President.

I still have reservations about his economic and energy positions, but let’s wait and see if he governs from the middle like he claims he will or listens to Pelosi and Reid and steers way left.

The proof is in his actions, I’m willing to wait and see.

Tags: 2008 Election // Add Comment »

Have you heard this? No. I’m not surprised. The main stream (liberal) media has never mentioned it. Obama said this to an editorial board in January 2008. You are seriously going to vote for this guy? The more we know about him the more scary he becomes. He guarantees we’ll pay more for energy and he promisis to force the coal industry out of business.

Listen to Obama, in his own words:

Tags: 2008 Election, Economy // Add Comment »

Let’s put this to bed right now.

Right now, the LA Times has a video where Obama (along with Bill Ayers and other PLO supporters)  toasts Rashid Khalidi. He was the former spokesperson for Yasser Arafat?

Can you imagine if they had a video of John McCain toasting someone that bombed an abortion clinic, or was a known white supremacist? Please, we would see that on every news cast day after day after day.

I really don’t expect anything else from the LA Times. They don’t even hide their left views. But where is the rest of the main stream media? Why isn’t NBC or CBS or ABC or even CNN screaming for the video?  Why are they not yelling that the people have a  ”right to know”.

Put it to bed. There is no such thing as the “main stream media”. Now it’s the “liberal media”.

Tags: 2008 Election, Odds 'n Ends // Add Comment »

The only way for John McCain to win this election is to propose an economic recovery plan that will bring us out of this economic tsunami we are currently in. We are told the current economic situation is due to a squeeze in the credit markets, but that does not “register” with most people. They see the stock market falling, they hear about unemployment increasing, gas prices (although they have come down a little lately) are still way too high, they are just getting bombarded with one bad economic story after another.

In the debate last night, McCain unveiled a “new” program to stop the slide in home prices. The problem is, nobody listening to the debate heard or understood that this was a new program and that it may fix a serious problem.

Come on John, get with the program. If you are going to announce something, announce it. Don’t just mention it in passing.

The only way McCain can win:

1. Tie the economic recovery and the oil/gas crisis together. Announce a major X billion dollar program to fix the economy and get energy independence all in one, long term plan.
2. Announce that the moratorium for off shore drilling off both the east and west coasts is permanent. He will appoint an energy “Czar” that will have the power to fast track all the drilling permits so the oil companies don’t get locked up in the courts with law suits filed by the environmental kooks.
3. Nationalize all the off shore drilling past the 10 or 20 mile limit. In other words, once you are 10 miles off shore, the states have no jurisdiction. All environment suits must be filed in one federal court. State courts will not have the right to hold up drilling permits any longer.
4. Give the states an economic incentive to drill for oil off their shores. Make it financially lucrative for them. In California, they are currently having a major budget shortfall. The Governor just came to Washington begging for a bailout. McCain should announce that California’s budget shortfall could easily be overcome with his offshore drilling plan.
5. Announce that shale oil recovery programs will start again and give companies incentives to extract the oil out of the shale. There have been some new advances in the techniques over the past few years, but because you cannot mine this in most states anymore, large scale testing has not been done. Remove all the restrictions.
6. Announce that Sarah Palen will head a new “Energy to Jobs” program. With her experience with this in Alaska, she is well qualified in this area to do so… one of the things she is actually qualified to do. All this new oil drilling will need thousands (maybe a million) new jobs. They will be needed off shore, but also on shore support jobs. Not to mention the economic stimulation in the areas where drilling will happen. Homes, restaurants, hotels… This will bring new jobs to new areas.
7. Use the T Boon Pickens concept to develop wind power over as an alternative to oil to generate electricity throughout the midwest. Put some teeth into the idea. It will take 8-10 years to develop and build, but this will also create jobs and get us off the oil fix.
8. Propose that the US becomes an oil exporter  within 10 years. Over that time we will wean our country off the dependency of oil, but other less developed countries will still have a tremendous need for oil. Once we no longer need so much oil, we can be the largest oil exporter in the world and compete one on one with the mid east exporters.
9. To get to this point we must bridge the next 10-20 years with alternative energy sources, until we develop the “green” sources like wind, geo-thermal, tide, solar, etc. To do that  he should announce:
   • Clean coal plants to generate electricity in the areas of the country that have the bulk of the coal, mostly the eastern half. We have a hundred years worth of coal underground. There is no reason to import oil to make electricity when we have all this coal.
   • Build nuclear plants throughout the country. The rest of the world uses nuclear, we are in the dark ages by refusing to use it. Outline the cost benefits along with the ecological benefits.
10. Announce that ANWAR is no longer off limits. Explain to the people just how little land is involved in ANWAR. Have Sara Palen take the credit for changing your mind on why we should drill in this area and how it will not hurt the environment.
11. Announce that you will have incentives for people to buy and convert automobiles that run on natural gas. Explain just how much natural gas we have and that it is available to drill. Explain how many other countries are using natural gas to power it’s vehicles and the conversion would not be a major event.

I have no idea what the above will cost, or if every idea is viable, but that doesn’t matter. It’s an election season, politicians promise the world and very seldom deliver. John McCain must sell  a plan like this to the people if he wants to be President. He cannot compete with Obama on most issues unless he gets specific.

T Boon Pickens is gaining real headway with the public with his plan and his ads every day about one aspect of his plan or another. I think McCain should do exactly the same thing. Every day outline his 10 (or 12 or15) point plan on how to fix the economy and the energy crisis  all at the same time.

Visionary… John. Do it.

Tags: 2008 Election, Economy // 7 Comments »

The President just spoke live at 8:45 am, the day after the House did not pass the $700 billion bail out (sorry rescue) bill.

Not one of his finest moments, not to mention that half the country is still in bed. The country is on the verge of a meltdown and he sound like he’s trying to get a budget bill passed. “Congress must work together in a bi-partison manner to help the financial future of the markets and the country”… not an exact quote, it’s what I took away from his message.

Congress was not the problem yesterday, the American people are not behind this bill and they let Congress know about it.

The first thing President Bush should do is fire every one of his speech writers and hire Peggy Noonan (President Regan’s speech writer). She was on Morning Joe on MSMBC before the speech and she outlined what the President needed to do.

• Reassure the American people that this is not a bailout of Wall Street, it’s a rescue of the American peoples’ financial future.
• Explain how we managed problems like this in the past and came through because of the power of the US economy.

The fact is, we have had issues like this in the past. The President needs to explain to the American people (not Congress) what has happened, what needs to be done, and what is going to happen if we do nothing.

Explain to the American People:

1. We bailed out the Saving and Loans back in the 80’s and had a debate just like the one we are having now. The bottom line was the US taxpayer made money on that deal.
2. We bailed out Mexico in the 90’s, and made money on the deal.
3. We bailed out Chrysler and they ended up paying the money back with interest before it was due. 

There are several other examples over the years of the Taxpayer bailing out institutions and coming out ahead.

The only way for this deal to go through is for the American people to back it. Congress is made up of wimps. They stick there finger in the air and see what’s blowing. Right now, the voice of the people is blowing NO! They need political cover so the President must move the people berfore Cogress will move.

If this deal is such a good thing for the country, explain it to the country. Explain the deal with “kitchen table” issues.

• Not financial markets - it’s our retirement plans.
• Not credit drying up - it’s car dealers going out of business because people cannot get car loans.
• Not bank failures - it’s not being able to cash the paycheck you got Friday.
• Not housing market crashing - it’s you owing more on your mortage than your house is worth.

President Bush, you have the opportunity to exit your administration on a real positive note if you get this deal done and the economy is stablized. Don’t blow it.

October 20 Edit.
Too late, he blew it.
KRJ

Tags: Uncategorized // Add Comment »

Up to one trillion dollars!
That’s what it’s going to cost us to get out of this economic mess??? Why is there to outrage from the tax payers, from congress, from everyone?

Someone needs to ask “WHY?”

• Why did we get to this point?
• Why was there no Congressional oversight?
• Why were the mortgage companies and lenders giving so many bad loans?
• Why don’t they really know how much real estate is at risk?
• Why did the former heads of Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac get removed with million dollar golden handshakes?
• Why are Chris Dodd and Barack Obama the two highest recipients of political donations from Fanny and Freddy?
• Why is Fanny and Freddy even giving political donations to the same people who oversee them? (In the business world, that is called bribery)
• Why are the same oversight committees in Congress planning to oversee the new plan? Haven’t they proven they are not up to the job?
• Why is the Justice Dept not looking into the whole mess?
• Why was President Bush ignored when he tried twelve times to put more controls and oversight on Fanny and Freddy?
• Why was Senator McCain ignored when he proposed a revamp of Fanny and Freddy back in 2005?

The fact is, if this was a Republican controlled congress, the Democrats would be screaming for hearings and calling for heads when it comes to the oversight of this industry. But, because they were in charge and did not heed any callings from the President and Senator McCain, the last thing they want are hearings.

We should not let them get off the hook this easy. They will be in controll of Congress for the forseeable future. We just can’t re-arrange the deck chairs on this sinking ship.

Tags: Economy // Add Comment »