MORE SHORT SHOTS

WHY IZZIT that the media is making much more ado about the party crashers at the White House than they are about the lies and false statistics spewing forth from the Administration and associates regarding the success of the Economic Recovery Act and the basis for presuming that global warming actually exists? The last time I saw a pretty lady in a red dress pull off an appearance like this one was in the gambling business, when one walked by the craps table at the Flamingo and $10,000 in chips disappeared off the game because everyone had their eyes on her.

Some goofball Republicans have the idea that passing a law requiring Republican Senators and Congressman to act like conservatives or lose their campaign financing will solve the issue of us Americans being fed up with both political parties. Have they forgotten that we’ve been watching politicians who say and promise anything to get elected, and turn back into their rotten selves once they get elected, for decades? Why didn’t they act like conservatives when they were in charge? I don’t think the issue with Americans is so much whether or not they are conservatives as it is whether or not they are really patriotic Americans who believe in the will of the people.

Tax, tax, and tax. The only thing they haven’t proposed is adding a tax on taxes; sorry I mentioned it. Now we have some real idiots who want to have a “War Tax” to cover the cost of sending more troops to Afghanistan. Their basis is that we are suddenly spending too much money and we need to curtail spending; God forbid that Cap & Trade or the Government-run Health Care Plan should be a casualty of their grand scheme of things. From where I stand, at the rate they are spending us into oblivion, our best move right now would be to totally shut down Congress and the Administration for the next three years and turn things over to the lady in the red dress.

Well, Obama says he’s finally made up his mind and he’s going to tell us what he plans to do about Afghanistan on Tuesday. It took him three months to make up his mind on such a pressing issue, while our troops continue to be in harms way over there. Now, we have Awk-man-did-he-jig in Iran thumbing his nose at the IAEA as he has been doing for years, and we have a massive display of military power and rumbles of more secret nuclear facilities and our President who is bound and determined to make another trip to Copenhagen, where he got laughed out of town the last time he went there. This time, he’s going to try and convince other countries that the false figures he’s been relying on for his Cap & Trade / Global Warming stance are for real. Maybe he figures he can bring some international pressure to bear on Iran by pointing out that the use of nuclear weapons causes global warning?

We’re back to the pain-in-your-rear problem of minority rule. It’s Christmas season again and the atheists are out asserting their indignation that the rest of us believe in God. They’ve been successful in Washington State in keeping religious displays out of the State Capitol, although they’re a 5% minority. Personally, I’d really like to be there to see what arguments they put forth at the Pearly Gates after they die. Somehow, I don’t think that God is going to buy into it and, if I recall correctly, they won’t have a Higher Court to appeal to. On the other hand, there have been a lot of U.C. Berkeley students who have died, so maybe they’ve managed to change things “up there.” The minority rules, you know.

Along the same channel of thinking, two of the more famous nits in Washington, Barack Obama and Eric Holder, have decreed that the 9/11 Terrorists will receive their trials in New York City, where they make that great salsa that used to be advertised by a competitor. The two nits were able to prevail over the resulting American uproar, but they did get cheers from Khalidy Bop, his attorneys and the rest of the good-old-boys down at Guantanamo. Doesn’t this just make your rear-end want to pucker?

I’ve been predicting a sorry retail Christmas shopping season for some time. For one thing, you have Target and other major retailers buying into the atheistic argument that it’s offensive to say or to advertise “Merry Christmas.” For another, you have over 10.2% unemployment. Over? What do I base that statement on? Well, if you take all of the statistics and dollar figures coming out of Congress and the Administration and you discard the ones that have been admitted or proven to be incorrect, inflated, altered, there’s nothing left to trust. I believe the figure is closer to 12% and, if you add in the ones who can’t draw unemployment compensation anymore or who are under-employed or former business owners who have fallen victim to the economic times, I think the figure is currently closer to 20%. Then, factor in the credit card lines that have been cut and I see a disastrous retail season.

Since most retailers depend on the “Holiday” season to create a yearly profit, I see many national chains going under in the first few months of 2010. Which reminds me… Why does “holiday season” get by? Didn’t the word “holiday” derive from “Holy days?” Maybe if we called this retail season “Atheist Days,” Americans would throng to the malls and spend, spend, spend? What I do know is that store closures and major retailers going out of business equates to urban and suburban blight in shopping malls. Empty malls, or even half-empty malls, do not create any business at all. What they DO create is commercial bank and other lending institution foreclosures. With more toxic assets on the books, more banks are going to fail, and we’re already pushing 200 this year alone.

Adding to the gleeful news, a November 23rd front page NEW YORK TIMES report “warns U.S. debt is rising so fast that the federal government is careening toward a ‘payment shock’ in the not-too-distant future.” http://moneynews.newsmax.com/headlines/nyt_us_debt_shock/2009/11/23/289782.html?s=al&promo_code=91C9-1 The interest alone on our national debt will be over $700 billion, up from the current $202 billion. Additionally, the FDIC fund used to insure failed banks is $8.2 billion in the red and the number of banks in serious trouble has increased from 416 to 552.

Shaking the foundations of the “recovery” which Obama has claimed for himself, is the news yesterday that Dubai is now in deep camel dung. It is ominous that one of the major international centers of money cannot meet its debt burdens. Their market is crashing and that news caused the several U.S. stock exchanges to plummet. It appears more and more likely that most Americans will be getting a lump of coal in their stockings this Christmas as a gift from our Government. Notice that I am not blaming the Democrats for creating this mess; it started way back there with Bush 1 and both parties have participated in setting up the conditions for us to be in this mess.
We cannot continue to ignore the many warnings: This country is in deep, deep trouble. It is entirely possible, and growing more probable every day, that we will enter a depression next year that could surpass the “Great Depression.” This sure as hell is NOT the time to be adding fuel to the fire with more massive spending of any kind, let alone the creation of massive new entitlements.

But, this country is in deep, deep trouble in more ways than economic. We are allowing Government to intrude more and more into our lives every day. Granted, we are grumbling and making noise about all of these issues. Nevertheless, there is a major chasm between grumbling and doing something about it. Obviously, those in charge in Washington right now are gambling on our tradition of grumbling rather than getting off our couches and doing something about it. That’s why they continue to cram this mountain of garbage both down our throats and up our posteriors, and they do it openly and without shame.

Is that why the lady in the red dress got into the party, to create a diversion?

I know it’s going to take guts and courage and chutzpah but….. sooner or later, we are going to have to get off our couches and to take proactive action, or we’re going to end up like Afghanistan.

That’s MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.