SCOTT WALKER & UNIONS: Fatal Flaw

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Governor Scott Walker has been caught with his pants down in dealing with public unions in Wisconsin.  His position, setting wages and benefits aside, has been that the unions have to give up their right to collective bargaining because, it is a direct conflict of interest.  Most of us agree with that.  

Then comes the news that police and firefighter unions are exempt from his plan and the fact that they were heavy contributors to his campaign.  Accusations of favoritism abound and this is his answer: 
"We saw two weeks ago, when this debate first started, teachers here in Madison walked off the job for three days. Now, that was an inconvenience for a lot of parents. I know I've got two public — kids in public school. Anytime you have a disturbance like that, it's an inconvenience. But that, contrasted to the fact that even if there was one jurisdiction across the state where firefighters or police officers weren't on the job in full force, I can't afford to have a fire or crime committed where there's a gap in service. And it ultimately just boils down to public safety." 

That's lame.  First of all, he is presuming that the firefighters and police would walk off the job.  Secondly, he is ignoring the probability that the courts, under such circumstances, would promptly order them back on the job.  

I think he's doing the right thing but, what is fair for one union is also fair for all unions.  This scenario smacks of political favoritism in return for campaign contributions, the very type of thing that he supposedly seeks to destroy.  

He needs to rethink his position and his reasoning.  


That's MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.  

ECONOMY RETURNS TO HIGH DANGER STATUS

If you remember correctly, gas was selling at about $2.00 a gallon and unemployment was running at about 5% when the last big rise in oil prices started. When the dust settled, gas had been over $4.00, unemployment was banging on the door of 10%, housing was in the toilet and Obama and Bush were running around with our checkbook trying to bail everyone out. That wasn’t all that long ago.

Today, unemployment is still well over 9%, gas is over $3.00, housing is still in the toilet, Obama is telling everyone that the economy has been fixed, and... gas prices are on the rise. In fact, gas prices started going up well before Egypt and Lybia erupted, because the same speculators were speculating again; they still are. The unrest in the Middle East adds fuel to the fire and it is indeed possible that we will see $5.00 gas prices by summer.

What this portends is a far bigger disaster than we faced two years ago. We can’t afford high gas prices. The economy is so weak, despite what Obama says, that it will not take much to send it into another tailspin. This time around, the people who drive to work are making less, if they are employed that is. With the severe budget deficits facing cities and states, more adverse economic pressure could well signal massive layoffs in the public service sector within a few months.

This country is still actually in an economic calamity with its debt. We have no room to maneuver and we have union leaders and a President who don’t care. All we get is jawboning and no action. Something has got to give, and I’m afraid it’s going to be much more hardship on all of us.

That’s MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.

THE RIGHT TO CARRY

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I know I’m going to get into trouble with some of my NRA friends but, I do believe there needs to be some limitation on permits to carry concealed weapons.

Yes, I do strongly believe in the Second Amendment and I strongly believe in the Right to Carry a concealed weapon. Carrying any gun, concealed or not, requires a certain degree of maturity and a strong sense of responsibility. After all, I agree that guns are not toys. I believe that any person who buys a gun should know how to aim it, how to load it, how to clean it, and how to keep it from injuring innocent people. To that end, I agree with requirements that first-time gun buyers should be required to take a basic gun ownership and safety course. Beyond that, there should be no restrictions on gun ownership except that felons should continue to be prohibited.

Now comes the issue of carrying a concealed weapon. Why they don’t include knives in this category, I don’t know.

There are two reasons for carrying a concealed weapon: Self defense and crime prevention. For the most part, crime prevention should be left to law enforcement, but when you are in the middle of a bank robbery and there’s no cop around and people’s lives are being threatened, what do you do? In either event, I believe that the person who carries concealed should have some basic training. For one thing, there are legal ramifications when you pull your gun out of the holster. For another, you could just shoot your big toe off if you don’t know what you are doing.

Good concealed weapons courses take you through the legalities and teach you how to effectively shoot under stressful situations. They also emphasize gun safety.

I do not believe that any state should allow concealed carry without taking and passing a required course. On the other hand, I believe that anyone of age, who is not a felon or a mental case, should have the right to carry concealed weapons after the required course is taken. The plain truth, which anti-gun types don’t want you to know, is that crime rates are down where more people carry guns.

That’s MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.

GO AHEAD, SHUT IT DOWN!

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ENOUGH with all of the posturing, whining and outright refusal to deal with the budget!  Just close the damned government down!  Who needs all of this never-ending bull anyway?  Every minute they stay open, they screw the American public just a little bit more! 

They don't want to listen to us?  Close them down!

That's MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted. 

IF YOU CAN'T TRIM THE FAT, GET OUT OF CONGRESS

The real crux of the budget cut issue is that the Federal government has pissed away our money and now WE have to suffer for it; that’s the rub. We have high unemployment and all the economic gurus in Washington can say is, “get used to it.” People have lost jobs, cars, houses and families because of what our damned government has done to us. And now, they have the unmitigated gall to ask us to pay for it all.

That having been said, now what? As of this writing, we’re at a budget standoff in Congress with the bully wolves on one side huffing and puffing and the bully bears on the other side huffing and puffing. Then, we have the weeping former Speaker and the wimpy Senate majority leader running around the theatre yelling, “Fire! Fire! They’re trying to shut down the government!” That’s good old Nancy and Harry for you; if they can’t win an argument with facts, they resort to scare tactics. “If we don’t pass this TARP by 6:00 PM tonight, the sky will fall! 200 million people will go without health care unless we pass this legislation by midnight! Fire! Fire!”

Part of the problem is that they are on the course of picking and choosing, and that sets the country up for playing favorites and outright discrimination, like we saw when they forced the shutdown of automobile dealers in profitable locations, simply because they voted Republican or were in conservative districts. In the case of Planned Parenthood and other organizations that get government grants, the executives understand all too well that, if their income gets cut, they’re either going to have to take a pay cut or lose their jobs. Some of those positions of “charity and community service” pay rather large six-figure incomes.

Another part of the problem is that our government has established hundreds, probably thousands, of fiefdoms. “This is MY territory! Don’t screw with it!” Just try and change that thinking and you’ll have the Civil Service on your case faster than greased lightning.  So, how anxious do you think they are to lose an employee or have to cut back on some expense?

Okay, someone suggests that we make things easy and just chop every expense by some amount… say 10% across the board. The outcry is that some vital functions are underfunded as is and such a cut could force them to shut down altogether. Other functions are new and in a start-up mode where they need extra dollars to kick things off, like ObamaCare, for example. Good old ObamaCare… entitlements are at the root of some of this problem, but how can we justify cutting Social Security or Medicare and retaining this new albatross?

The biggest problem we face in this mess is the total lack of responsible leadership. Everybody is shucking and ducking, maneuvering and scheming and no one is coming to grips with the fact that this country is in deep doo doo.

Private industry has proven that it can operate effectively with fewer people on the payroll and by trimming other expenses. Revenues are down, profits are up. Why can’t government accomplish the same thing? Here they are in the process of hiring 200,000 more IRS agents to police ObamaCare. With whose money?

It may well be that the only solution is to close down the government. Close the doors. Send Nancy and Harry home and keep everybody home until we have saved $1 trillion. Then reopen and stay open and repeat the process next year unless they come up with a better solution on their own. All I know is that I’m madder than hell because Washington caused all of this and Washington is not stepping up to the plate to fix it. So, who needs them, anyway? Thank GOD the next election is only 20 months away!

That’s MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.

DUMB AS A POST?

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Obama seems to me to be obsessed with the idea that the American citizen is as dumb as a post.  Take his recent stance on our deficit and his proposed budget, for example.  He has given several speeches where he seems to agree that this country is in deep, deep financial trouble, and then he promises to fix it.  Well, anyone who has paid even the slightest attention to this baboon understands that what he says bears no relationship at all to what he does.  

He makes a big speech the other day talking about how his new budget is going to save us $1.1 trillion off the national debt over the next ten years.  Yet, we are slated to increase the national debt by $1.65 trillion in this year alone.  Already, the fuzzy math that is going to save us money is going to cost us half a trillion bucks in the very first year.  

And, evidently, he expects us not to catch this "fuzzy math."  

This is why I have quit paying attention to what the guy is saying.  Every time he comes on the tube, I either change channels or turn the contraption off on go barf.  This guy not only knows how to doublespeak, he can triple speak and trillionspeak faster than a speeding bullet!  

Sometimes, I wish he would just shut the hell up. 

That's MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted. 

ANOTHER OBAMA DEATH BLOW TO THE ECONOMY?

Yes, the economy is showing some outward signs of improvement and for this I am grateful. Nevertheless, we are a long way from being out of the woods, other economic indicators are worrisome, and now Obama wants to turn loose a rise in housing interest rates and a tightening of money for housing loans. Plus, he wants to double the unemployment insurance payroll tax on businesses and he wants to “lend” $53 billion to states to bail them out of their pension problems, all while supposedly reducing the deficit.

I have to think that, as it was in Egypt, if all it takes is 19 days of protest in the streets to get rid of a President, we should all get on a plane right now and head for Washington. He has the Audacity to do these things to us and we all have the Hope that he’ll move back to Kenya… soon.

Obama wants to close down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over a five year period. I have to say that the lack of Federal oversight on the part of a horrible Congress directly led to the housing debacle that those two organizations created. It is difficult for me to understand how Chris Dodd and Barney Frank could be browbeating them into giving out loans to people who could not afford them and then for the Congress to blame those organizations for doing it. That being said, we all have to agree that the housing market was in an unsustainable and spiraling inflationary spin out of control and it was all being fueled by Frankfarter, Doddle and Waters, et al.

The proposed cure for all of this could well be worse. We have tons of foreclosures going on and no bank is selling or financing;  unemployment and underemployment are making it impossible for anyone to buy a house anyway. Further drying up of available financing by forcing Freddie and Fannie to close up shop can only lead to three things: higher interest rates, tighter loan requirements, and the ultimate total collapse of the housing market. I’m no brain surgeon and I can figure that out. Nevertheless, that’s what Obama wants to do.

For months, business has been battered by declining revenues, the question about abolition of the Bush Tax Cuts, ObamaCare and a seemingly endless parade of other terrific Obama initiatives. With the extension of the tax cuts, businesses felt at least some sigh of relief, but now the illustrious Messiah wants to raise the payroll tax to make up for the costs of unemployment claims. Duh? What enthusiasm was starting to develop in the business world has just been doused by millions of gallons of bad and very briny water.

Like a bull in the proverbial China closet, Obama twists and turns and decides we should spend another $53 billion to help the states because…. They can’t print money like Obama can and they are all facing financial ruin unless they can find some alleviation of their predicament. They have declining tax revenues, higher social needs, high costs due to ObamaCare, dozens of new unfunded mandates, and payroll pensions with built-in escalation clauses. Their cavalier high spending over the years has mimicked Washington’s and it’s now time to pay the piper. Obama wants to let them off the hook, bail them out with more of our money so that state workers, mostly union members, can retain their pension plans while the rest of the country goes over the cliff.

And, speaking of the cliff at the edge of the abyss of debt, Obama is truly the man whose lips you need to read; forget about George H.W. Bush!

Every day that goes by reveals to a greater detail what a bad decision this country made when it elected this jackass to be its President and then stacked the deck with a bunch of liberal weenies in Congress. We Americans still have a mountain of work to do in the next two years, and we’d better roll up our sleeves and get to it. 

That's MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.  

UNEMPLOYMENT: ANOTHER OBAMA LIE

Ever since before Barack Hussein Obama took office, there has been one lie or denial after another. Everything from a denial of ever knowing or having anything to do with William Ayers, Tony Rezko, Jeremiah Wright or ACORN, to outright fabrication of figures on his ARA website; all of these things are directly attributable to our President. The budgetary lies about Health Care and the bundle of mistruths about how the system would work further underscore one plain and simple fact: Our President and his cohorts are consistently lying and misrepresenting the facts to us.

Here’s the latest: Unemployment has dropped from 9.4% to 9.0%!!! My God! Let’s party! But, wait a moment. The Department of Labor tells us we need to add 250,000 jobs per month just to keep new people entering the work force employed. Last month, we added a paltry 36,000 jobs to the economy, so 214,000 more people were unemployed; yet, the unemployment percentage went down. How can that be? And, what about the new people who are being laid off at about 40,000 per week? What about them?

Someone is not telling the whole truth.

Remember when unemployment started to rise back in 2008? What about those people? Well, some are back to work and some are not. Those who are not can no longer collect unemployment benefits, so they are off the rolls and not counted in the unemployment statistics. Why not? Depending on which economist you talk to and when you factor in all of the people who no longer qualify for unemployment benefits and those who are only working part-time, the percentage of unemployed and underemployed is estimated at being somewhere between 16% and 19%. Why don’t they report on that? Because it’s not “convenient?”

Why does the housing sector continue in the toilet while the number of foreclosures is at a historical high if unemployment is actually going down? If unemployment is getting better, why isn’t payroll tax revenue going up?

They are quick to point out that the stock market is going up. But, where did all of that TARP and stimulus money go? It went to banks and big business, right? The average working stiff never saw any benefit from it. On the other hand, average working stiffs don’t make big political contributions, either.

We have a President who steadfastly refuses to reveal his college records or to release his birth certificate. That fact alone underscores that this guy cannot be trusted. He hides, he lies, he misleads. In short, he is not fit to be President of this country.

It’s time we got all liars and cheaters and manipulators out of public office. In this respect, maybe we should all take a lesson from Egypt. See what happens when you let your government be run by scalawags?

That's MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.  

SENATE HORSE SHIT

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There is a move on in the the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate, to have hearings in the Judicial Committee to decide whether or not ObamaCare is Constitutional.  The move has not been widely publicized, thanks to the liberal controlled media.  

The game plan is to reach a consensus that ObamaCare is Constitutional and to thereby embarrass the Supreme Court into voting in favor of ObamaCare when the issue comes before them.  This move was in the works prior to the recent Federal Judge ruling in Florida that it is unconstitutional and, now that the ruling has been handed down, they are planning to go ahead with the plan.  

All I can say is, "Jesus Christ, man!  Do you have to be hit over the head with a sledge hammer before you understand why all of your friends got voted out?"

That's MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.