Opine Needles

Opine Needles, the website, is Born!

2011-12-17T07:47:00.001-06:00

Opine Needles, the website, is born!

Today’s blog is a deviation from the norm. Today we are talking about Opine Needles. It is with a certain amount of relief that we announce the launch of our new website. http://www.opineneedles.com .

Opine Needles will continue to blog away into the wee hours of many an evening. But the website is designed to be more; indeed, we would like it to become the venue of choice for those interested in learning more about:

American Exceptionalism
Classic Liberalism
Republicans, Conservatives, and Libertarians
The Constitution
The radical and progressive left
Election choices
Church and State

The list goes on. Our motto is THINK RIGHT. ACT RIGHT. VOTE RIGHT.

We want to provide information to those who seek knowledge to make informed voting decisions.

So the website will have our regular written blogs, and also video blogs (vlogs), articles of historic importance (in a section we call “Living History”, because to know the past is to be better prepared for today and tomorrow) written by guest authors, recommended reading, links to relevant and topical current writings, and general reflections on matters current and of interest here in the United States.

We invite you to watch the current video entitled “Why Opine Needles”. It will give you a sense of why we think our work is important. Opine Needles is not an accident. It is the natural evolution of many years of thought and action. Opine Needles transcends the 2012 election. So while all eyes are on 2012 (as they should be) the fundamentals of a society based on free will and determinism live on, as will Opine Needles.

We hope you enjoy the new website, and that you’ll be a frequent visitor.

More to Follow-

THINK RIGHT. ACT RIGHT. VOTE RIGHT.

Democrats---Defenders of Deception

2011-11-29T09:19:00.001-06:00

It’s not only President Obama. The entire democrat party has a systemic cancer. It’s bad. It’s like a malignant tumor, and the result, left unchecked, is fatal. This metaphorical Big C is the Big L. You see, the democrats cannot survive without the support of all the special interests which rely on the largesse of OTHERS.

It’s a sad state of affairs. The entire democrat party has evolved to a point whereby it predicates its ability to win elections on currying favor with the perceived downtrodden. The italics are not accidental. While we clearly do have more homeless and unemployed Americans than we should ever find acceptable, there are also millions of Americans who are NOT down on their luck, yet it inures to the democrats’ best interests to convince them they are! How twisted is that?

The examples are everywhere, but let’s dwell for a moment on our public unions and the various states approaching bankruptcy because of runaway collective bargaining and pension benefits on steroids. Governors Walker, Daniels, and Kasich (among others) have stood up and told the ugly truth. In Kasich’s case, big union and democrat party money churned up a mean spirited vote and his necessary reforms in Ohio were dumped.

But the victory celebration is actually more like a death march for the citizens of Ohio. Why? Because Ohio (and dozens more states) simply can’t afford to pay lifetime health benefits to public servants (and their families) who retire at the age of 40. Nor can they afford to look the other way as these publics servants pad their last year of work with overtime so their pensions are artificially inflated. Yet the unions and the democrats bury their heads in the budgetary sand and invoke class warfare. If there is a shortage of money, make the rich people pay! Hail Caesar!

The RIGHT thing to do is tell the people the truth. Union members are going to have to start contributing to their health care and pension costs. Everyone in the private sector does. Seriously, why are these benefits being treated as sacrosanct? It’s time for a reality injection, but the democrats are too caught up in the self-righteousness of their big lies.

This same obfuscatory approach to leadership is also the main reason why the so-called Super Committee failed to achieve a consensus on how to find another $1,200,000,000,000 in budget spending cuts. President Obama himself has acknowledged that our biggest deficit cost issues are driven by Medicare and Medicaid. (We’ll ignore the irony of Obama-care being his signature piece of legislation; a bill so bad that it is set to place our health care costs on a launch pad and blow them into orbit.) But even with the recognition of our runaway health care costs, the democrats on the Super Committee refused to put any Obama-care related ideas on the table for discussion. They wouldn’t even discuss revisions to Medicare and Medicaid.

The Republicans, on the other hand, offered concrete and substantive expense reductions, and also revenue enhancements by way of tax code simplifications. That’s right; contrary to what you no doubt have heard from the mainstream media, the Republicans offered $250,000,000,000 in new revenues. This Super Committee process was a moment in time when something really good could have been accomplished. Alas, the democrats were never serious.

You see, the President and his minions do not want a solution. Their total focus is on his re-election, and his woeful record leaves him no choice but to campaign as a divider. He will not work with the Republicans on any of their ideas, because his plan is to castigate them as the party of the rich, and the party that always says “no.” In effect, the President is going to run as an outsider. He will try to convince his faithful and the independent voter that he will get it all done in the next four years if they will work with him to eradicate those pesky obstructionist Republicans.

We are sickened by the lack of progress in Washington. We’re not any better than Greece or Spain. Our national debt now equals our GDP, and the President wants to borrow MORE money! It’s time to tell the people the truth. His policies are driving us not just to the brink but over the cliff of fiscal sanity. When do the people put two and two together and realize that the President’s stimulus plan has been a colossal failure?

No president in our lifetime has accomplished less than Mr. Perspicacious. We hate to say this, but he even makes Jimmy Carter look good by comparison. Ouch, we never thought we would be able to say that about Mr. Carter.

The lies must stop.

Yes, it is clear our two parties have reached a philosophical impasse. The voters will speak about that in November, 2012. Hopefully, those who Think, Act, and Vote right will send a loud and clear message that the truth matters.

Think Right, Act Right, Vote Right.

Europe, Whither Thou Goest, We Shall Follow

2011-11-06T06:16:00.000-06:00

Greeks in the Streets

Opine Needles was in Italy, France, and Spain over the past week. If only every American could see first hand what decades of government largesse have wrought.

We hope the irony of watching President Obama address the G20 leaders gathered in Cannes was not lost on the astute and attentive American viewer.

There they were, the great and the mighty, dealing with an utterly bankrupt Greece, and a nearly bankrupt handful of other EU members. In a case of classic government of, by, for and from Brussels, the EU demanded that democracy could play no role in the affairs of Greece. Decisions would be made centrally. The Greek people have been wholly disenfranchised.

In the midst of this chaos, our President (Mr. Perspicacious, for our newer readers) managed to give a speech so disingenuous that even Mayor Emmanuel's head may have spun three times around before checking itself. (Exorcist fans, take delight.)

Folks, this is where the ends don't meet. Greece has bankrupted itself by promising the good life to all its people. The good life could start early. If one was born in Greece, one was entitled. It became the government's duty to guarantee a certain style of life and health care. Work, for many, became optional.

The entire cash economy became a study in "under the table" commerce. Tax revenues in Greece are now inconsequential.

The long and short of it is that Greece is the poster child for leftist social engineering gone wrong.

So then, enter the President, who talks about the difficulties in Europe, and how the United States has its own issues. But if the Congress would pass his Jobs Bill, all will be back on track in the US. Huh?

Even David Leonhardt of the New York Times, in the November 6, 2011 Sunday edition has acknowledged, "The Gridlock Where Debts Meet Politics--
Economies in the United States and Europe have been growing too slowly, for too long, to pay for the coming bulge of retirees."

So after trillions in deficit spending without an iota of growth, the President wants permission to spend more. Sound familiar?

The President has not yet been held to account for the disaster that is his stimulus plan. He and his minions:

--threw billions in federal largesse at unions and pro-leftist groups,

--INCREASED the size of the public sector, thus incurring an even higher annual taxpayer burden to cover public sector costs,

--demonized the private sector, and

Lo and behold, no growth and no new jobs.

In the past three weeks, the President's core re-election strategy has emerged. He wants to take his class warfare game up a notch. He wants to deflect anger away from him and his failed Keynesian economic policies, and redirect it at that thing called "Wall Street". You see, Wall Street is no longer a street steeped in American History. It now represents anything and everything associated with wealth creation, and anything and everything at which people can steer their angers and frustrations. Wall Street (the amorphous blob described above)is now just the enemy, and if Obama has his way, the anger will be redirected from him to "it".

Most of you will recall the 1994 mid-term elections. President Bill Clinton was handed the Presidency by Ross Perot, who collected 19% of the popular vote (running as an independent) and siphoned millions of votes away from George H.W. Bush.

In his first two years, Clinton charged down the familiar leftist warpaths, a hootin' and hollerin' all the way. Then came Gingrich and his Contract with America.

The President, to his credit, veered sharply to the right and steered a prudent middle path for the duration of his pre-Monica Presidency. (For all intents and purposed, Clinton was a lame duck once Monica-gate erupted...in a manner of speaking.)

So what is happening now? With the arrival of the likes of Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor, it is safe to say the Republicans are having their Gingrich moment. But where is the President? Is he reading the tea leaves? The answer to that rhetorical question is a resounding "NO"!

President Obama has dug his heels in, and playing the class warfare card now more than ever. His are DIVISIVE politics.

If a dog chews your leather shoes, and you punish it by giving it a bone, what is the dog going to do? The longer Obama, Pelosi, Biden, and the cast of Hollywood nitwits continue to encourage these rag-tag anarchists to demonstrate, they will demonstrate! More daunting though, is that the protesters, with the explicit backing of this Administration, will get louder and uglier, and there ultimately will be violence.

Once again, look east to Europe. There are violent mass demonstrations in myriad countries. The people have been sold a pack of lies, and now the lies are unraveling, and they find themselves without the promise of economic security.

If we continue down this path in the US, we will find ourselves in exactly the same unenviable position as do many of the EU's member states. How can the American electorate countenance the arrogance and implicit deceipt of the President's constant refrains re his purported views on social justice and the "fair share"?

Think right. Act right. Vote Right.

The Right to Bear Arms

2011-10-26T20:05:00.001-05:00

Opine Needles counts among its friends many very smart and accomplished people. But a high IQ and success in life does not necessarily guarantee rational thought. Indeed, we have repeatedly seen the sad by-product of atmospheric IQ's at work just by watching decades of misguided democrat public policy.

One of the show-stoppers for us revolves around the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution.

Question--How many well-informed people get this one wrong?

Answer--A lot.

Our premise is this:

--Our founding fathers were almost unanimous in their ardent, strident, and vocal support for the citizens' right to bear arms.

--They were equally united in their rationale. Over the course of time, an unarmed citizenry has never remained free. The only way to maintain an adequate check and balance with a sovereign power is to maintain the people's right for self defense.

Our founders were steeped in enlightened thought. They knew full well the shortcomings of men. They knew that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

A FREE people who have the RIGHT to bear arms will remain FREE.Those who favor "some form of gun control" are misguided. The common refrain from the smarties is "look, there weren't AK-47s and Saturday night specials when the 2nd Amendment was written. Surely you can agree that these weapons should be taken off the streets!"

Our response, teeming with incredulity, is "We beg to differ!"

It is completely irrelevant that our founders had no idea what gun shapes, sizes or killing powers would evolve over the centuries. The principles underlying our inherent and uniquely American right to bear arms are TIMELESS. Technology has nothing to do with the relevance of our 2nd Amendment right for perpetuity.

We also cannot let the opportunity pass to remind the high IQ's that guns do not kill people. People kill people. If every law abiding citizen had to register all guns in possession, or (God forbid) relinquish some or all of them (never forget-any gun control measure is just the thin edge of the wedge), does anyone actually think such draconian measures would affect the bad guys?

Philosophy matters. Principles matter. Our right to bear arms must never be relinquished.

We can't talk about American exceptionalism out of one side of our mouths, and drool some blather about gun control out of the other.

Thoughts.....

2011-10-23T17:51:00.002-05:00

Europe is a lesson-

It has been a frenetic past couple weeks. Opine Needles was in the UK for some of that time. We wish all Keynesian economic liberals would make a pilgrimage to that side of the pond. They could then see for themselves what damage has been wrought by decades of left wing largesse. Some of the lefties continue to believe that it is the federal government’s responsibility (please find that role in the Constitution) to support those who are less fortunate; even those who CHOOSE not to pursue a livelihood. The widespread failure of multiple European nation-states bears witness to the folly of such ill-advised social engineering.

Public sector folly-

An article in this week’s Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported an interesting 2010 census finding. The median household income in Washington D.C. now exceeds the median income for Silicon Valley. Think about that for a second. It must make the liberals so happy! Your taxpayer dollars are helping insulate Washington D.C. from the problems confronting the rest of the country. Government spending has created a nice little bubble in our nation’s capital. The public sector is winning over the private sector. If you think there is anything good about this development, think again. Our problems will only be solved by way of the private sector. If we think we can grow our way out of unemployment by using taxpayer dollars (and deficit spending) to create government jobs, we might as well pack up now and move the Brussels.

The very same WSJ (October 20, 2011) reported some interesting news about government spending in the last three years. In 2008, the “federal executive branch had 1.875 million civilian full-time equivalent employees.” In spite of all the current democrat hue and cry about how many federal jobs have been eliminated, the fact is that “two years later, that number had risen by 253,000 jobs….a 13.5% increase.” The private sector lost 2,500,000 jobs in the same period of time. The democrats continue to whine about the need to create more public sector jobs. They just don’t get it.

Gaddafi is gone, and the administration remains clueless-

Moving (once) again to the Middle East, Gaddafi has finally met his predictably ignominious demise. Say what you want about the Arabs and North Africans, when it comes to dispensing their view of justice, they do not seem to let the notion of due process slow them down. Opine Needles stands by its original position; the Administration is completely rudderless when it comes to the development and implementation of a coherent foreign policy vis-à-vis the Middle East.

The current gloating in D.C. is incomprehensible. We have no idea what Libya will look like a year from now. Our best and brightest Obama minds can only cross their fingers and hope. (Please note we say “hope”, and not “pray”, as most members of the current administration are very likely to be Godless.) For those who have ever fished offshore, picture this; the Obama administration is like a school of bait fish frothing on the surface. On the face of it, they seem to be having the time of their lives. In reality, they know the big fish is underneath and coming up for dinner. Our Middle Eastern policy is run by bait fish.

Wall Street Protesters-

Do we even need to go there?

Pelosi, Biden, Alec Baldwin, Pete Seeger.....

'Nuff said.

Republican candidates being small-

Back home on the domestic political front, the Republicans aren’t exactly covering themselves in primary campaign glory. The sniping may make for great media theater, but it is not doing anything to help our party solidify its message and make the 2012 choice abundantly clear to the undecided voter. We’re in that ugly “small” phase; when candidates jump into the fray and race to see who can commit to the least, while simultaneously pandering to the most. Opine Needles cannot wait for this vetting part of the quadrennial process to end.

More to follow-

The Press Conference We Yearn to See

2011-10-05T11:10:00.000-05:00

Governor Christie has come and gone. He was never actually here, but what the heck.

Opine Needles believes in the 11^th Commandment; thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican during the primaries! Many readers have asked us for our views regarding the “right” candidate to represent the Republican party in the 2012 election. We will continue to invoke the 11^th commandment until we have a nominee.

Invoking the 11^th Commandment does not mean we do not have views about the type of person we MUST nominate in order to win the general election. Rest assured we have very strong views. We disagree with numerous pundits on the far right who espouse the notion that we MUST nominate someone who represents ALL views normally associated with that faction. As we have noted myriad times, the Republicans MUST nominate a candidate who gains traction with that swath of independent voters in the proverbial middle. Our candidate must

--appreciate and embrace capitalism, (growth and strength via the private sector—can you believe we even have to say something like that?!)

--be strong of will and (when necessary to protect our vital interests) arm, vis-à-vis our foreign relations,

--overturn Obamacare,

--simplify, reduce, and flatten taxes, (thus creating a level platform from which people will truly pay their “fair share”),

--make massive cuts to Federal spending.

We dream of the candidate who will say this in a press conference:

Q---What would you do to Obamacare if you are elected President and the Republicans control the House and Senate?

A---I would work with Congress the repeal the entire piece of legislation. Gone like the wind.

Q---Wouldn’t that hurt millions of uninsured Americans?

A---No, it would not. The premise behind Obamacare was flawed, and the President played on the raw emotions of the people by predicating his rationale for this disastrous act on trumped up statistics and fundamental fear mongering.

Q---Well, what would you do?

A---I would work with Congress to take down barriers presently in place that prevent insurance companies from engaging in free competition across state lines. I would work to achieve comprehensive Federal tort reform. The largest inefficiency in our system is driven by the greed and avarice of plaintiff attorneys, who prey daily upon the most vulnerable of our citizens. And I would work WITH the American Medical Association to develop and implement a comprehensive plan to drive medical costs down, by completely changing the way we actually deliver health solutions. The medical and insurance industries are NOT our enemies.

Q---Why would you suggest doctors are the enemy?

A---For the last three years, we have lived with a President who has demonized anyone and everyone. If you disagree with the President’s redistributionist views, you are not only wrong, but you are evil and greedy. The President’s rhetoric has people taking to the streets. He has been the most divisive leader in our lifetime. And even as I speak today, he is ramping up his rhetoric and delivering nothing but divisiveness to the American people. Doctors, insurance companies, businessmen, bankers, (yes bankers!), oil and gas companies…the list goes on…these are not inanimate objects. We are talking about real people and real jobs. More importantly, we are talking about real Americans. It’s time to stop denigrating them. They need to know that their leaders support them.

Q---Well, what about the unions?

A---What about them? I support every American citizen’s right to work. I support every American business’s right to fire someone who doesn’t work well. When unions work constructively to provide a better lifestyle for their members, I have no objection. But when unions, and, I might add, the United States Government, work together to bankrupt states, or try to force private sector companies to make bad business decisions and avoid working in “right to work” states, then Unions and the Government officials have overstepped their boundaries and are working in ways contrary to the interests of the United States. Let’s not forget that the business of America has been and should always be about business. The minute we kill off our business work ethic (on both Main and Wall Streets) we effectively eradicate a large component of that which is quintessential American exceptionalism.

Yesterday, when asked to comment about Bank of America’s decision to start charging customers a $5 per month debit card fee, the President said banks “don’t have some inherent right just to, you know, get a certain amount of profit.” Seriously folks, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! The point here is that it EVERYONE has the inherent right to aspire to profit. The right to succeed is intrinsically American. There are no guarantees. But the opportunity must always be there. And, there is NOTHING wrong with profit!

Q---Do you support abortion rights?

A---Yes, I can see the connection to jobs and the economy. Why on earth are you asking me that question? We have a country on the brink of oblivion, and you are wasting your time, my time and the country’s time playing “gotcha” politics on an emotive red herring issue such as abortion? Get real. The American people want someone to stand up and talk to them in plain English about how they are going to fix our massive problems, and get America back to work.

Q---How will you do that?

A---My administration will make it very clear that our job is NOT to inject the government into everyone’s life in the hopes that the public sector has the solutions. Our job will be to provide the CONDITIONS for growth, and that growth will be generated by the private sector. We provide the opportunity, NOT the outcome. This country needs a flatter, fairer tax code. This country needs less regulation on its business and trade. In short, the Obama administration believes the Government must drive the process. I will get government OUT OF THE WAY!

Q---Are you saying you have the solution to our unemployment problem?

A---Yep.

Q---You make it sound so simple.

A---It is…Now let me break another little rule and tell an unpleasant truth. While my plan takes effect, we might actually see unemployment spike up.

Q---What, why on earth would we support that kind of plan?

A---Because when I am finished downsizing our agencies in Washington D.C. there are going to be a lot of people looking for work. But the private sector will be re-energized and over time, those people will be absorbed back in the system. And you know what? The biggest driver of our economic recovery will not be driven by our new policies. The biggest driver will be the

America

people. Why? Because they will BELIEVE again! Their CONFIDENCE will be restored, and people and businesses will start investing in growth. When that happens, there is no stopping the American dream.

Q---Do you take issue with the Obama administration’s Middle Eastern policy?

A---I most likely would if the President and his people actually had one.

Q---What would you do differently?

A---We don’t have all day, but let me be very clear about one thing. The President threw Israel under the bus. It is wrongheaded and incredibly naïve. My administration will continue to work for a Palestinian state, but one which must fully accept Israel as its legitimate neighbor.

Q---Do you go to church every weekend?

A---None of your business. Read the Constitution.

Q---Do you think people will respond to your abrasive style?

A---After what they have been put through in the past three years, they need someone to look ‘em in the eyes and tell them the truth. They need someone who can draw a roadmap to recovery that makes perfect sense to them. I have that roadmap.

Q---Why you?

A---Why not?

More to follow-

The Social Contract

2011-10-03T21:28:00.002-05:00

John Locke-1632-1704

On September 23^rd, 2011, Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman wrote an OpEd in the New York Times (NYT) entitled “The Social Contract”. An economist by trade, he is obviously a very smart man. He calls himself friend to several other recent Nobel Prize winners, among them, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, and Barack Obama.

Perhaps most importantly, he is a man of vision. He sees through things most of us don’t. For

instance, the day after our commemoration of the 10^th anniversary of 9/11, he wrote,

“What happened after 9/11 — and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful… Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror.”

This is the problem with conservatives, libertarians, and Republicans. (We consider ourselves a hybrid of the three.) We just don’t get it. We look back on that horrific day and the weeks and months that followed as a time when real leaders provided real leadership. No one scripted George W. Bush’s remarks that day in NYC, while he stood on top of the smoldering pit of steel and human remains. He just did what came naturally. There was no teleprompter, nor was there a political agenda. Clearly, if we were as discerning and intelligent as the far left, we would have realized we were being duped by people like Giuliani and Bush. Shame on us.

We’d like to talk today about Mr. Krugman’s Social Contract. (We could start by simply asking why the NYT would even consider asking him to ever write for them again after suggesting that Messrs. Giuliani and Bush used 9/11 to “cash in”, but that would be a rhetorical question. So we move on, but not in a dot org kind of way.

For those of you who favored the liberal arts during your developmental years, the words “Social Contract” should ring a bell. During the enlightenment, several enlightened thinkers, (Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau among them) focused some of their energies on man in his “natural state” and how the socio-political regime should best be structured to deal with that natural state. We are nervous about diving into this topic because, as acknowledged above, the far left is much smarter than any of us, and this is their intellectual backyard. Just ask them; they’ll tell you.

All that notwithstanding, Mr. Krugman’s main point in his latest liberal rant is that Mr. Obama’s position regarding the rich paying their “fair share” is indeed fair, and it is the Republicans who are engaging in divisive class warfare. (If we were having a conversation right now, we would say that again, just in case it didn’t sink in.) That’s right, the lefties are taking the tack that the people who are already paying all the taxes are being disingenuous because they are objecting to paying a greater amount than the amount which presently is not sufficient to fund the left’s social redistributionist programs. There’s a mouthful.

Mr. Krugman points to the emerging senatorial campaign of one Elizabeth Warren, a democrat seeking to unseat Scott Brown in Taxachussetts. She was a Harvard Law School professor, who more recently has been an Obama appointee wreaking havoc and regulation on the private sector. It is she who has invoked the “social contract” in her campaign rhetoric. Says she, "Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea? God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along."

On paper, and on a pandering, populist campaign stump, those words would resonate with virtually everyone. The problems occur when one begins to dissect their meaning. Opine Needles also believes in leaving a “hunk of that” for “the next kid who comes along”. But in the Opine Needles world, the way that is done is left up to the wage earner. It is not the government’s right to take our hard won earnings and decide how to spend it. And this, folks, gets to the very heart of the difference between Republicans and democrats. Underlying the entire debate over taxes and government spending is a fundamental disagreement over what is meant by our implicit “social contract”.

The irony regarding the democrats’ reference to the social contract is as follows. Hobbes more of less believed that the way to harness and control man’s natural state was by way of an absolute monarchy. Rousseau, on the other hand, wrote of a “general will” (of the people) as a fundamental cornerstone of the social contract. The democrats love this one. They interpret Rousseau as opening the door (however unwittingly) for redistributionist polices.

Alas, here is the complete disconnect. None of the founding fathers relied upon Rousseau when they framed the Declaration of Independence, Federalist Papers, or US Constitution. The writings most often referenced by our founding fathers were those of John Locke. And lo and behold, the reason for this is predicated largely on Locke’s belief in individual property rights and the appropriate use of labor to sustain those property rights in a capitalist system.

We know some of this tome borders on the mundane, but it is important. We don’t know about you, but we’re plumb tuckered out by the lefties constantly lording their superior intellects over all of us bible-clingin’, gun-totin’ morons on the right. In the case of the Paul Krugman’s and Elizabeth Warren’s “Social Contract” platitudes, someone needs to call their bluffs.

We close with three points:

--Opine Needles does not suggest that there is no role for the Federal Government. Of course there are several very important roles. But our country’s future will be directed by who wins the battle over what is meant by the “Social Contract”. The democrats want to pursue an agenda that involves a total redistribution of wealth from the haves to the have-nots. You have to decide whether you think that is right for America.

--The “fair share” argument will not go away. The democrats will continue to try to pound that one into the subconscious mindset of all independent voters. While the Krugmans of the world continue to bang on about how unfair life is for today’s middle class, what they don’t mention is that Obama and his lefties do not propose to take from the rich and give to the middle class! The middle class is left out of the redistributionist plans, and will obviously be more squeezed than ever, because those who have historically had the money to give them jobs will no longer be in a position to give them jobs! This stuff is so simple it boggles the mind that the democrats can twist it like a pretzel and feed such rubbish to the electorate.

--One of the Republican candidates needs to debunk this whole Warren Buffett-Barack Obama “fair share” tax issue. Someone needs to look at the camera and say “This is a sham. Warren Buffett pays 15% capital gains on profits he has made on companies that have already paid a 35% corporate tax. That means that there is actually only $.55 cents left on the dollar that was made. $.45 of that initial $1 has already gone to Uncle Sam! We are already the MOST overtaxed business sector in the western world. We need to simplify and flatten our tax code in order to restore competitiveness to the American workforce. If we want more jobs, we need to create an environment where the employer and the employee are more CONFIDENT. We do NOT create confidence by way of over-taxation!”

There are a number of recurring themes in the Opine Needles library. One of them is that government’s job is to help create conditions that lead to equality of opportunity. It is not the government’s role to mandate equality of outcome, and to use the fruits of its citizens’ labor to do so.

We’ll let you go now. We have trod where few Republicans dare to go; yikes, we’re not whackin’ ‘em with our guns and bibles! What will they say?

More to follow-

We Hesitate To Say "We Told You So", But, "We Told You So".

2011-09-17T17:04:00.000-05:00

We remember the main stream media's euphoria over the uprisings quickly dubbed the "Arab Spring". Opine Needles was concerned and we spoke up and out last February. As events unfold in Egypt, our concerns appear to have been well founded. Click here for our video blog on the subject.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFf7WJXQyGk

More to follow-

We Have Seen This Movie Before!

2011-09-11T15:20:00.000-05:00

The Emporer/Dictator Julius Caesar

Before launching into a solemn comparison of the decline of great past civilizations to the precarious state in which we now find ourselves here in the United States, it behooves us to remember all those who have sacrificed to preserve our liberties. It was ten years ago that radical Islamists wrought their havoc in NYC, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania. This author was at the WTC on that horrible day. Today's roll call was a solemn reminder of the wide path of destruction caused by the terrorists. It was also a blessed reminder of why the United States remains the most noble experiment in the annals of mankind. For among those nearly 3,000 people who perished, there were literally thousands of immigrants from dozens of countries; first, second, or third generation Americans, all here to pursue their dreams, in the land of the free, and the home of the brave. No amount of terrorist murder will destroy that dream. Only we, as a people, are capable of losing the plot, and forgetting how we have come to be the greatest nation in history. And so we segue into today's blog.

A study of civilizations on the rise reveals a combination of intellectual (public and private sector) and military prowess working in tandem to create a superior life for the impacted population. A review of the decline of those civilizations exposes societies mostly bereft of intellectual or military leadership, a public sector political class that has become a parasite (living off the industry of the people it is meant to serve) and, perhaps most horrific of all, a people who don’t know or appreciate the difference.

It is more than just a little depressing to note that in the recorded history of mankind, no great civilization has ever managed to maintain its greatness. To pile on to that heap of depression, it is also actually not very difficult to track the macro reasons for the decline of all superior examples of man at his finest. Let’s just look at two formerly outstanding societies; the Romans and British. For centuries in their respective times these nation-states ruled the world as they knew it. They ultimately were reduced to mere shadows of their former selves because of:

--arrogance,

--greed (stretching their boundaries to points beyond which they could exert effective control, and milking once productive peoples and lands until both were dry),

--laziness,

--loss of a sense of destiny, and

--the emergence of an expectation of outcomes, earned or not.

The biggest reasons for loss of greatness did not lie outside the natural borders. The cancer grew within. The more affluent the countries became, the more the politicians began to take (aka tax) from the producers in society, and distribute these ill gotten gains to the non-productive classes. This was their way to pacify the people and curry favor. You see, populism has been around a long time. It didn’t just start with Barack Obama.

The Roman Empire (long since having eclipsed the Roman Republic, by way of several insidious civil wars, and continual erosion of a government of checks and balances that had once existed) actually implemented a system called “panem et circenses”. In Wikipedia you may find this explanation. "Bread and Circuses" (or bread and games) …is a metaphor for a superficial means of appeasement. In the case of politics, the phrase is used to describe the creation of public approval, not through exemplary or excellent public service or public policy, but through the mere satisfaction of the immediate, shallow requirements of a populace. The phrase also implies the erosion or ignorance of civic duty amongst the concerns of the common man.

In modern usage, the phrase has become an adjective to describe a populace that no longer values civic virtues and the public life.”

Does that ring any bells for you? Let us pose a latter day analogy for your consideration. Our welfare state is the bread, and the Kardashians are the games. We have lost our way. Our people no longer know what a work ethic is, and the majority of Americans think their wellbeing is society’s responsibility. The democrat party represents the “panem et circenses” governing philosophy at its best; or actually, its worst.

Here is some irony to ponder. At close to the height of Britain's greatness, British historian Edward Gibbon published Volume I of his tome “The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire.” The timing of his study was not wholly coincidental. More and more of the intellectual class in the UK were concerned that the Empire was exposed to social and financial stresses it could not withstand. Perhaps more interesting to you should be the date the epic narrative was released: it was 1776.

From that time forward, of course, the British enjoyed nearly another 150 years of relative greatness. It all came crashing down in WWI. Britain has fundamentally been bankrupt since that time, nearly 100 years ago. Don’t get us wrong. We respect the Brits. We like their resolve and stiff upper lip when the chips are down. Here is the fundamental take-away; whilst the centuries of over-stretched empire set them up for the economic destitution that was brought on by WWI and hammered home by WWII, the fundamental reason they have never been able to dig meaningfully out of the hole is because of the social welfare state they instigated and have perpetuated for over a century.

As with the rest of Europe, Greece, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal (you get the point) liberal pseudo-socialist politicians have designed and implemented their various versions of “panem et circenses” plans. What exactly have they created? A look at the markets tells one that the EU is near financial ruin. And so we find ourselves standing before the entrance to the great hallway of destitution.

The President’s pandering, populist, highly political speech before Congress last week leaves us concluding one or more of four things. He is:

--clueless,

--philosophically misguided,

--too stubborn for words, or

--fundamentally committed to socializing our great country, and irreparably destroying our once great economy.

You choose.

For a quick review of President Bush's reading (today, at the WTC Memorial site) of Abraham Lincoln's letter to a mother who lost five of her sons during the Civil War, you may click on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJAb4xfivNg

More to Follow-

The Insidious Danger Lurking Beneath the Surface

2011-09-05T16:34:00.005-05:00

That which we can actually see is bad enough. Worse is what most of us don’t even know. We can see the water pooling on our lawn, but knowing there are water restrictions in effect, we can only guess that there is a leak in the pipes somewhere underground. How big and bad the leak is would only be conjecture. So it is with the Obama Administration. We can see that:

--his economic plan is nothing short of a colossal failure in applied Keynesian economics,

--he is increasingly out of touch with mainstream Americans,

--his populist, class targeted and divisive politics are gaining no traction, and

--his only response to his failures is to blame others.

What most of us don’t see and can’t possible know is the damage he is doing beneath our national lawn. He has:

--already placed two liberal judges on the bench of the United States Supreme Court, nineteen judges to the US Court of Appeals, and 74 judges to US district courts. (Fifty five further nominations are currently awaiting Senate action. There are over one hundred vacancies coming up in the Federal court system before the President's term is over.)

--turned the theoretically neutral NLRB into a partisan, anti-capitalist, pro-union rule making body. See our previous blog addressing the Boeing situation.

--appointed such liberal hacks to the Justice Department as Eric Halperin and Thomas Perez. Can you believe that in the wake of devastation caused by the mortgage banking crisis, we actually have an activist Justice Department covertly engaged in strong-arming our banks to make minority loans at below market rates? Mr. Perez testified before Congress in 2010, saying “The foreclosure crisis has touched virtually every community in this country, but it disproportionately touches communities of color, in particular African-Americans and Latinos…Cross burnings are the most overt from of discrimination and bigotry. Lending discrimination is some of the most subtle. It’s what I call discrimination with a smile.” (See the 31 August WSJ OP-Ed page for more detail.)

This administration is taking the fair lending principle to an entirely different level. It used to be about making sure financial institutions were not charging HIGHER rates on riskier loans. Now the Obamites are basically saying the victims of the mortgage crisis are those who should not have received loans in the first place, and those who have defaulted on those loans. And banks which trade forward and seek to give loans only to those who have the ability to pay back those loans are discriminating against those who cannot pay back their debt. So the banks need to provide loans to potential deadbeats at BELOW market rates! Haven’t we seen this movie before? This is institutional racism. It has no place in our country, but it is alive and well in Obama’s Justice Department, and sowing seeds of more destruction in our financial institutions.

--You may have noted that the Justice Department added insult to injury and sued most of the major banks last Friday. It claims the banks owe Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac close to $200,000,000,000 due to misrepresentation of the risks involved in the loans that were sold to these institutions. Folks, the fox is in the henhouse.

Remember, it’s not just the outrage on the front page. If you dig deeper, there is an all-out assault on free enterprise and American exceptionalism at every turn. The leftists say all is well, and only extremists can find fault with the fine job the President is doing. What say you?

More to follow-

Hannity is Wrong!

2011-08-18T18:39:00.004-05:00

Sean Hannity has been very vocal about the President’s family vacation to Martha’s Vineyard. He doesn’t think the President should hobnob with the rich and famous when the United States is mired in a seemingly endless recession. We think Hannity is wrong. We hope the fog rolls in and stays put! We hope the President has to stay there for months. The farther away he is from Washington D.C., the better. We figure he can’t possibly do as much damage from Martha’s Vineyard as he does on a daily basis everywhere else he turns up.

The recent polls have not been kind to our very own Mr. Perspicacious. It seems the American people are not buying into his blame game. The President has spent the past three years blaming anyone and everyone (yes, mostly W, but more recently the Tea Party has taken a front seat for his ridiculous attempts to deflect responsibility from his failed policies) for our woes. He has never once accepted an iota of responsibility for what is now indisputably, incontrovertibly, totally HIS recession. And to add more fuel to the fire of incredulity, he continues to talk about the need to incur MORE deficit spending! Yes, the $1,400,000,000,000 fiscal year deficit is not enough. We need to borrow more money to climb out of our recession. Really folks, you can’t make this stuff up.

What’s equally galling is the real time lessons we are learning from Europe’s failed experiments in state-funded social “equalization”. European nation states (and then the European Union after its formation) redefined the meaning of the word profligate over the past several decades. They annually spent money they did not have. They threw money at what they perceived to be social injustices. They were out to ensure that the have-nots got their share. And exactly what have they wrought? Flash mobs are now the order of the day. Young idiots running rampant through city streets, pummeling whomever has the misfortune of being in their paths, and taking whatever they believe they deserve from any unfortunately located store.

These hooligans are the direct product of the progressive left’s social engineering strategy. They have created the monster, and now they act aghast and agog when their experiment turns out to be Frankenstein.

Friends, take a good look at what is transpiring in Europe. Sure as you are reading this blog, it’s headed our way. Our leftists have been working for seventy years to catch America up to Europe’s leading progressive policies. For years our liberal left has bemoaned how cruel the US is; if only we could be as compassionate as our friends in Europe.

For those who think 2012 is just another election, think again. We’re at the tipping point. Our fiscal cup runneth over. Our social redistribution cup runneth over. Our anti-capitalist cup runneth over. If we don’t put lids on these cups, we can only hope you all are firm supporters of the Second Amendment. You’ll need every resource at your disposal to defend life, liberty, and property. Because some day, someone will try to do something to you, or take something from you; and that someone will be a monster of the nanny state. That someone will believe you owe them that which they want to take from you. And that someone will not care if they have to hurt you to take that which they want, because that someone will not respect the dignity of life.
You may think we are being extreme. We respect your opinion. You are wrong if you think we are being extreme, but we do acknowledge your right to disagree.

Pray for a heavy fog settling in on Martha’s Vineyard. Work hard for 2012. Keep the House, win the Senate, and find a President who understands how to run a business. Then run this country like a business.

More to follow-

The President is AWOL

2011-08-10T13:00:00.004-05:00

The President focuses on the challenges at hand.

The worlds' equity markets continue to gyrate in swings and roundabouts. Here's something to put in your pondering pipe and smoke. Fear always transcends greed. And what we are witnessing in the equity markets, folks, is living proof of that statement.

Grandmother's stash of cash in the safe deposit box is beginning to look like a shrewd investment strategy. While she doesn't get any return on her investment hoard, she now knows that the Fed will maintain relative value on her paper until 2013. Then, all else being equal, inflation is likely to soar, and she might find herself using her savings as kindling. But the Fed has bought her some time. For the rest of us, however, the light at the end of the tunnel gets no brighter. (Has anyone considered the long term impact on absolute housing prices? We could easily see housing prices plummet over the next several years, as disposable income dries up, and fear scares people away from buying. It's all about confidence, and there is none of that at the moment.)

In the face of all this good news, the one question every American should be asking is "where on earth is the President?" In times of need, Americans have always sought solace and direction from their leader. (It's a human condition, not unique to our nation.) In this, our most trying time of need in generations, our Mr. Perspicacious is AWOL. That's right, no one gave him a leave of absence. We expect him to lead, but he has simply abdicated.

What we have here is a fellow who has grown up in the comfort of academic and community organizing cacoons. Wall Street and "big business" were simply targets of scorn in his world. Blue collar middle class America was an idea, but not something he actually had to understand or embrace. Union leadership, on the other hand, well, that was a ticket to power. No matter that union leadership and union rank and file have been disconnected for decades. The rank and file is comprised of that same middle class that the President only vaguely understands.

In spite of overwhelming evidence that his stimulus spending has been an outright failure, and the nation's deficit and debt issues continue to push us to the cliff-edge of financial ruin, the President refuses to ameliorate or soften his anti-capitalist, anti-success, anti-wealth creation rants. Mr. Obama is still talking about MORE deficit spending and the need to tax successful Americans so they "pay their fair share."

Seriously, can't we get him to sit down for some psychological work? There must be an obsessive compulsive disorder in there somewhere. He's like one of the people on the reality show "Hoarders", except what he's clinging to are failed populist ideas that are destroying our economy. A hoarder in the Tennessee hills can cling on to 30 washing machines doubling as chicken roosts in her bedroom without doing much damage to the United States. The President's refusal to abandon his devastating views is far more troubling.

The world needs the US to restore a sense of order and sanity to it's fiscal affairs. Thus far, there is no sign that this administration and democrat leadership in the Senate are taking this crisis seriously.

--As long as they continue to dance around the topic of entitlement spending reform, we are way up the creek with no paddle to get home.

--As long as they demagogue their way through interviews and press conferences, (by actually trying to blame the current crisis on the tea party--are you kidding), they have lost all credibility.

--As long as they actually refer to entitlements as sacrosanct expectations, we are toast.

How many "entitlements" do your children and grandchildren have? Since when did the word "entitlement" become a good thing? Apparently, it's as American as apple pie to our democrat leadership.

Everything's broken. The democrats aren't going to fix anything. The President is AWOL. Stay focused, and vote 'em all out in 2012.

More to follow-

Dancing on the Cliff of Destitution

2011-08-03T11:16:00.001-05:00

Well, round one is over. We don’t consider it a win for anyone. But the debt ceiling debacle of 2011 was certainly a loss for the President. He demonstrated completely rudderless, hopeless, and useless guidance. The President failed to demonstrate the one characteristic necessary for a successful president. He seemed to be oblivious to the fact that a president needs to lead.

Never once in the long spring and summer of debt-ceiling debate did the President offer a plan of his own. He whined and whinged. He grandstanded and guffawed. He carped and criticized. He demagogued and dabbled. He zigged, zinged and zagged.

As recently as late last week, he made it clear that any agreement had to include tax (aka “revenue”) increases. As it became clear that the agreement would not address any new sources of revenue, he quickly came about and took a new tack on the issue. He began to talk about the future and address increased (taxes) revenues as the only way to ultimately solve our deficit issues.

The democrats simply refuse to accept the fact that the only way to prove to the world (and the rating agencies) that we can solve our economic woes is to drastically reduce our spending. We cannot tax our way into growth. It has never worked, and it never will.

We waste billions and billions of dollars on the Departments of Energy and Education. We waste multiples of those dollars in inefficiently structured entitlement programs. And when (and if) Obama-care kicks in, we’ll be wasting that much more.

Until we can get the majority of the electorate to accept the facts that:

--no one in America should take entitlements for granted,

--entitlements need to be restructured and injected with common sense,

--tort reform must be embraced on a federal level,

--our government agencies have become bloated bureaucracies that achieve absolutely nothing to benefit our economy (other than to keep real estate prices rising in the D.C. area),

we will continue to dance on the edge of the cliff of destitution.

The polls tell the President that the majority of Americans want the “rich” to pay more taxes. These polls are meaningless. Given the choice between a punch in the nose or an ice cream cone, most people choose the ice cream cone. The President is exercising the most cynical form or politics known to man. William Jennings Bryan would be proud. Populism is alive and well at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Our producers already pay over 90% of our taxes. We reckon when the President says they are not paying their “fair share”, he means that they need to pay ALL the taxes.

We have 14 months to convince the electorate of the importance of a clean sweep in the voting booth. The reprieve bought by this week’s debt ceiling compromise will be brief. The bigger deficit problems still remain and the battle over how to balance our budget for the long run is still being waged. There is no time for complacency. We are still dancing on the cliff of destitution.

No New Taxes!

2011-07-20T10:02:00.001-05:00

“I have said it already, I am convinced that the way to build a new and better world is not capitalism. Capitalism leads us straight to hell.” Hugo Chavez

"...right now everybody’s so pinched that business is bad for everybody and I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody." President Barack Hussein Obama

The “Gang of Six” is back. That’s too bad. We can only pray that Republican leadership in the Senate does not crater. There is no doubt that the debt ceiling issue needs to be resolved. We need the rating agencies and sovereign states to have their full confidence in the strength and longevity of the US dollar restored.

Democrats like to point back to George H. W. Bush’s “no new tax” pledge as a data point for how the current debt ceiling crisis should be handled. For the record, that famous reversal that led to:

--yes, new taxes, but what you don’t hear is that for every dollar in new taxes, President Bush extracted four dollars in spending cuts,

--back stabbing of a good man (President Bush) by democrats and members of his own party,

--loss of a re-election campaign, and

--lastly, (and yes, ironically) outstanding economic growth that was handed to the incoming President.

Guess what the outrageous budget deficit was that President Bush sought to tame? Are you ready? It was $200,000,000,000. We think that must just about pay for the First Lady’s overseas travel budget these days. The point is that comparisons to 1990 are moot. President Obama has increased our deficit by more than the total deficits left behind by all Presidents who came before him! We now are saddled with a $1,400,000,000,000 annual deficit, and a $14,000,000,000,000 national debt.

The country MUST stop spending so much discretionary (and non-existent) money. And the electorate MUST accept that there is no more free lunch.

Opine Needles will be very disappointed if the Republicans in the Senate crater and agree to a package which allows for an increase in our debt ceiling while also containing provisions for new taxes. The United States cannot tax its way out of debt! The United States needs to stop spending money it does not have, and it needs to GROW its way out of the remaining deficit. All legislation should be aimed at encouraging investment in our economy. And the way to encourage investment in our economy is to give comfort to those with the capital that their efforts will be rewarded. As we have said before, where there is risk, there must be reward.

The Obama administration has repeatedly made it clear that those who have achieved success in the United States must be punished. Risk takers have a duty to give up their reward so that those who have not taken risk may be rewarded. Opine Needles has been very consistent on this point as well. If you agree with the President with regard to his redistributionist philosophy, you really need to consider leaving us for another country. We do not suggest this with any heightened sense of vitriol. We are trying to help! We suggest Cuba, Venezuela, or any number of failed western European socialist nation-state experiments. You will feel much more at home there.

Meanwhile, back at home, the clock is ticking. We are at a turning point. We have a chance to turn that clock back on this horrendous march toward economic destitution. Opine Needles prays for firm Republican resolve. It’s not about politics. It’s about the very viability of the finest experiment in freedom ever conducted on our planet. Keep your fingers crossed.

More to follow-

Girl Power and American Exceptionalism versus Referees and Obama

2011-07-14T00:55:00.015-05:00

President Gerald R Ford
"A Government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have."

The Obama team could learn a thing or two from the United States women's World Cup squad. On July 10th, during a humid night in Germany, the US side won against Brazil in spectacular fashion. The US team played 3/4 of the 2nd half and the entire overtime period one lady down. Losing 2-1 and close to the last minute of play, (after 90 gruesome minutes of regulation soccer, and 28 1/2 minutes of overtime) the ladies scored a goal for the ages to tie the game and take it into a penalty kick shoot-out. Our goalie (Hope Solo--only in America folks) made a great save, our penalty shooters were 5 for 5, and the rest is history. Had the game ended in a loss, the postgame talk would have been focused on back to back egregious calls against the US side that led to Brazil's first goal, and a missed offside call that ended up on the front end of the opposition's second score.

But we aren't focusing on the "woulda, coulda, shoulda's" of this match. We aren't dwelling on the what- might-have-been stories because these ladies overcame all odds and won this game. They made every red blooded (and maybe even a few blue blooded ones too) American want to stand up and yell "USA, USA, USA!"

The girls didn't quit. (Don't write us and lecture us about calling them "girls". That's what they are. Girls, women, ladies, call 'em what you wish. They were spectacular.). They demonstrated true grit.

Every once in a while, justice actually prevails, and when it happens to be accompanied by an indomitable American spirit, it's all good!

So the stage is set in this summer of contrasts. We have a field full of young women who have spent the last 15 years of their lives playing club, high school, college, and (some) professional soccer. They have come together to play for their country. They represent the best the United States has to offer. When they go on the field of play, they are ready to risk everything to win. And if they bring home the World Cup, no one can take it away from them.

Contrast that to the disaster that is our White House and Senate majority leadership in Washington. These people are doing everything in their power to kill off the spirit that creates young people such as those women on the US World Cup team. These democrats yearn to create a society that kills entrepreneurs. In their vision of utopia, there will be no rewards for risks taken. There will only be penalties for success. For those who watched the game, you will appreciate that the referee was just an athletic replica of Presdient Obama. She appeared hell bent on finding a way to cure the American squad of its desire to excel. But at the end of the day, the ladies prevailed.
And in 2012, so too must we!

The current debt ceiling/deficit debate in Washington threatens to take politics to a new low. (We know, you are thinking that is not possible.) The democrat's public posture is a fraud.
The President and his pitchmen continue to insult the American people with their bankrupt math and pandering populist politics.

Addressing this transparently fraudulent approach to solving our economic woes, Marco Rubio (US Senator from Florida) gave the necessary practical address on the Senate floor on July 7. Among other things, he opined:

"Let’s stop talking about new taxes and start talking about new taxpayers, which means jobs. This debt is the No. 1 issue on everyone’s minds and rightfully so. It is a major issue, but everywhere else, in the real world, the No. 1 issue on people’s minds is jobs. And I tell you, every other problem facing America — a mortgage crisis, a home foreclosure crisis, this debt problem — all of these issues get easier to deal with if people are gainfully employed across America. And the impact that unemployment is having across this country is devastating.

We don’t need new taxes, we need new taxpayers, people who are gainfully employed, making money, paying into the tax system and then we need a government that has the discipline to take that additional revenue and use it to pay down the debt and never grow it again.

So you look at all these taxes that are being proposed and here’s what I say: I say we should analyze every single one of them through the lens of job creation, issue No. 1 in America. I want to know which one of these taxes they’re proposing will create jobs. I want to know how many jobs will be created by the planes tax. I want to know how many jobs will be created by the oil company tax that I’ve heard so much about. How many jobs are created by going after the millionaires and billionaires that the president talks about? I want to know! How many jobs do they create?

I have never met a job creator who told me that they were waiting for the next tax increase before they started growing their business. I’ve never met a single job creator who has ever said to me 'I can’t wait ’til government raises taxes again so I can go out and create a job.!' I’m curious to know if they say that in New Hampshire because they don’t say that in Florida. So my view on all that is, I want to know how many of these tax increases the President proposes will create jobs, because if they’re not creating jobs and they’re not creating new taxpayers, they’re not solving the problem."

And from the July 11, 2011 Wall Street Journal-

"Keep in mind that Mr. Obama has already signed the largest tax increase since 1993. While everyone focuses on the Bush tax rates that expire after 2012, other tax increases are already set to hit the economy thanks to the 2010 Affordable Care Act. As a refresher, here's a non-exhaustive list of ObamaCare's tax increases:

• Starting in 2013, the bill adds an additional 0.9% to the 2.9% Medicare tax for singles who earn more than $200,000 and couples making more than $250,000.

• For first time, the bill also applies Medicare's 2.9% payroll tax rate to investment income, including dividends, interest income and capital gains. Added to the 0.9% payroll surcharge, that means a 3.8-percentage point tax hike on "the rich." Oh, and these new taxes aren't indexed for inflation, so many middle-class families will soon be considered rich and pay the surcharge as their incomes rise past $250,000 due to tax-bracket creep. Remember how the Alternative Minimum Tax was supposed to apply only to a handful of millionaires?

Taxpayer cost over 10 years: $210 billion.

• Also starting in 2013 is a 2.3% excise tax on medical device manufacturers and importers. That's estimated to raise $20 billion.

• Already underway this year is the new annual fee on "branded" drug makers and importers, which will raise $27 billion.

• Another $15.2 billion will come from raising the floor on allowable medical deductions to 10% of adjusted gross income from 7.5%.

• Starting in 2018, the bill imposes a whopping 40% "excise tax" on high-cost health insurance plans. Though it only applies to two years in the 2010-2019 window of ObamaCare's original budget score, this tax would still raise $32 billion—and much more in future years.

• And don't forget a new annual fee on health insurance providers starting in 2014 and estimated to raise $60 billion. This tax, like many others on this list, will be passed along to consumers in higher health-care costs.

There are numerous other new taxes in the bill, all adding up to some $438 billion in new revenue over 10 years. But even that is understated because by 2019 the annual revenue increase is nearly $90 billion, or $900 billion in the 10 years after that. Yet Mr. Obama wants to add another $1 trillion in new taxes on top of this."

The President continues to wage his meaningless class warfare for one reason. The polls tell him some 60% of the American public think wealthy Americans should pay more taxes. So he whinges incessantly about an issue that will not even put a dent in our deficit, because his pollsters tell him the people will back him. He very conveniently does NOT talk about all the tax pain he has ALREADY inflicted.

Opine Needles does not beat around the bush on this topic. The 60% of Americans who support this nebulous notion of taxing our wealthy (aka, successful, hard working, entrepreneurial, risk takers) is comprised of two factions:

1) Those who rely on the government (we the taxpayers) for sustenance, and

2) idiots and suckers!

That's right. We apologize if you are a reader and you consider yourself part of the 60%. Because if you aren't in category 1, well, go figure. You've been dropped in the biggest bowl of mumbo-jumbo gumbo ever concocted and served up to the American electorate.

So here are some props for the US Womens World Cup team. Let's give it up for them and their fighting spirit that represents the best of America.

Winners take risks. If all reward is removed from the process, the winners will go somewhere else to take their risks. May our elected representatives learn from our athletes and lead accordingly.

More to Follow-

Class Warfare!

2011-06-30T08:10:00.000-05:00

Mr. Perspicacious was up to his old tricks yesterday. In a White House news conference, he went after the “millionaires and billionaires”. Mr. Obama said “You can’t reduce the deficit to the levels that it needs to be reduced without having some revenues in the mix.”

Cynical, pandering economic politics are de rigueur in this White House. The President knows that he can take on America’s wealthy and the majority of the electorate will viscerally support him. What the President is NOT saying is this:

--taxing America’s wealthy is a red herring. It will not even dent the armor of our deficit.

--taxing America’s wealthy is akin to bombing our factories. Our wealthy are our producers. They are our job creators.

--the path to increased US Treasury revenues lies in REDUCING the corporate tax burden, and letting the Bush tax cuts remain for perpetuity.

We have addressed this issue many times in our blogs. The President aims to drive a stake in the heart of our American soul. He WANTS to rip us asunder in the upcoming election. He sees an America divided. It suits his purposes.

One other minor (!) point that impacts us all. When the President lashes out at his "millionaires and billionaires" there should make no misunderstanding what he and the democrat leadership really mean. They are talking about YOU! If you work hard and make a good living, you are in their sights. They want more of your money to fund more of their redistributionist agenda. Don't be lulled into a sense of complacency with his rhetoric.

The ultimate irony of this entire debate is that whenever taxes have been raised in the past, democrats have demonstrated repeatedly that they simply spend the increased tax haul. We need to CUT our discretionary spending. This is NOT about raising taxes and destroying productivity in an already depressed and repressed economy.

As we prepare to saddle up and ride into the 2012 election cycle, tighten your cinches. The democrats are aiming low. They will do everything in their power to portray Republicans as out of touch with mainstream America. Republicans need to yell from the rooftops, “We ARE mainstream America!”

More to Follow

Duh!!

2011-06-22T16:32:00.002-05:00

On May 15th of this year, Opine Needles blogged “It’s not Getting any Better.” Among other things in the blog, we were incredulous that Obama’s NLRB was suing Boeing over it choice to locate a new Dreamliner assembly plant in South Carolina; a solid right to work state. In essence, the Administration was blasting Boeing for trying to remain competitive in a dog eat dog global marketplace. It is this type of anti-capitalist, anti-entrepreneurial, anti-competitive, anti-free market behavior that has come to typify the Obama administration. These people are BAD for our country.

We have written in the past about why we love Texas. Following is an excerpt from the Wall Street Journal’s June 10, 2011 edition. Read it and weep. The facts speak for themselves. Big government and protectionist unions need to get out of the way and let the private sector do what it does best; create jobs. Further, if anyone can read this blog in its entirely and still delude themselves into thinking TORT REFORM isn't a necessary part of our overall fiscal return to sanity, well, we wish them well...in Greece, that is.

Wall Street Journal June 10, 2011--The Lone Star Jobs Surge
The Texas model added 37% of all net U.S. jobs since the recovery began.

Richard Fisher, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, dropped by our offices this week and relayed a remarkable fact: Some 37% of all net new American jobs since the recovery began were created in Texas. Mr. Fisher's study is a lesson in what works in economic policy—and it is worth pondering in the current 1.8% growth moment.

Using Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, Dallas Fed economists looked at state-by-state employment changes since June 2009, when the recession ended. Texas added 265,300 net jobs, out of the 722,200 nationwide, and by far outpaced every other state. New York was second with 98,200, Pennsylvania added 93,000, and it falls off from there. Nine states created fewer than 10,000 jobs, while Maine, Hawaii, Delaware and Wyoming created fewer than 1,000. Eighteen states have lost jobs since the recovery began.

The data are even more notable because they're calculated on a "sum of states" basis, which the BLS does not use because they can have sampling errors. Using straight nonfarm payroll employment, Texas accounts for 45% of net U.S. job creation. Modesty is not typically considered a Texas virtue, but the results speak for themselves.

Texas is also among the few states that are home to more jobs than when the recession began in December 2007. The others are North Dakota, Alaska and the District of Columbia. If that last one sounds like an outlier at first, remember the government boom of the Obama era, which has helped loft D.C. payrolls 18,000 jobs above the pre-crisis status quo. Even so, Texas is up 30,800.

What explains this Lone Star success? Texas is a big state, but its population of 24.7 million isn't that much bigger than the Empire State, about 19.5 million. California is a large state too—36.9 million—and yet it's down 11,400 jobs. Mr. Fisher argues that Texas is doing so well relative to other states precisely because it has rejected the economic model that now prevails in Washington, and we'll second that notion.
Mr. Fisher notes that all states labor under the same Fed monetary policy and interest rates and federal regulation, but all states have not preformed equally well. Texas stands out for its free market and business-friendly climate.

Capital—both human and investment—is highly mobile, and it migrates all the time to the places where the opportunities are larger and the burdens are lower. Texas has no state income tax. Its regulatory conditions are contained and flexible. It is fiscally responsible and government is small. Its right-to-work law doesn't impose unions on businesses or employees. It is open to global trade and competition: Houston, San Antonio and El Paso are entrepôts for commerce, especially in the wake of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Based on his conversations with CEOs and other business leaders, Mr. Fisher says one of Texas’s huge competitive advantages is its ongoing reform of the tort system, which has driven litigation costs to record lows. He also cited a rule in place since 1998 in the backwash of the S&L debacle that limits mortgage borrowing to 80% of the appraised value of a home. Like a minimum down payment, this reduces overleveraging and means Texas wasn't hurt as badly by the housing crash as other states.”

Why does the patently obvious get blurred by and lost in clouds of political obfuscation?

It's STILL Bush's Fault!

2011-06-18T11:06:00.001-05:00

On March 4, 2010, we entitled our blog, “It’s all Bush’s fault.” We then proceeded to marvel at how the Obama administration was doing its level best to blame all economic woes on W. They inherited a real mess, they said, and the only way to fix the problem was to spend trillions of dollars we didn’t have.

They then went on to call the summer of 2010 the “summer of recovery”, and outlined how the economy would be much stronger by the end of the 3rd quarter that year. Well folks, guess what? None of that happened. In fact, there remain two constants in this administration:

• It has completely failed to produce the recovery it promised to our electorate, and
• They still blame Bush!

Just this week, White House press secretary Jay Carney (who is to Obama what Art Carney was to Jackie Gleason) reminded all Americans that the administration is making great progress in building the road to economic recovery, but no one should forget the deep hole we were handed in the 4th quarter of 2008, blah, blah, blah. We don’t want to burst anyone’s White House press room bubble, but the hole is exponentially deeper now than it was then.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are in year three of Obama’s one term in office. This is HIS economy, and it is OUR big problem.

The President is spending an inordinate amount of time using the fruits of the Oval Office to curry voters’ favor. This is not without precedent, but the difficult times in which we live are unique, and it’s time to call his bluff. When will the main stream media actually chronicle how much time he is spending on the golf course and in fundraising/political events? He is an absentee leader at a time when leadership is direly needed. And please don’t tell us that all is well because Joe Biden is navigating the economic ship of state!

The ongoing evolution of the looming debt ceiling “expiration” is interesting to watch. To listen to Treasury Secretary Geithner, for the Republicans to play Russian roulette with our credit worthiness is the height of irresponsibility. The game is on. The Democrats want to repeat the Gingrich-Clinton showdown of the nineties, when the Republicans lost the game of public perception. They allowed themselves to be manipulated and came out looking like the bad guys. The more things change, the more they stay the same. We’ve been to this rodeo before. Shame on us if we let that happen again.

It is important to note that we hit our debt ceiling on May 16th. Secretary Geithner juggled the books and declared that August 2nd is really the drop dead date. In reality, this is a completely subjective date. It’s August 2nd, because this administration does not want to suspend or delay any discretionary payments. We could easily continue to pay our foreign debt, by prioritizing what checks we issue, and those which we defer. But all that notwithstanding, the Republicans ABSOLUTELY should extract some major spending reductions from the democrats as part of a debt ceiling agreement. This is negotiating 101, and to not gain concessions from this spendthrift administration is to lose a major opportunity to corral the runaway spending that threatens us all.

The fundamental question is as follows:

"Will the American people possibly continue to accept the 'blame Bush' argument, and how long can that sham possibly be perpetrated on and perpetuated with the electorate?”

As summer begins to heat things up across the country, and the 2010 “summer of recovery” rolls into the “whoops, we meant 2011 ‘summer of recovery’”, one can only wonder when the majority of our concerned citizens will connect the dots and commit themselves to sending this administration home for good.

The Republicans Want to Kill Us! (and More on Weiner)

2011-06-11T22:59:00.001-05:00

Opine Needles has previously danced around the edges of the health care debate. This blog may amount to more of the same. Suffice to say, the democrats are clearly trying to link the second bullet below to alleged Republican indifference to the needs of our senior citizens and poor. To refresh your memory, we have identified the following core campaign issues for next year’s battle:

• The economy, (aka JOBS)
• Deficit Reduction, and
• Which party does a better job convincing the electorate they can tackle these two issues and yet not threaten anyone’s life!

So, let’s first talk about a couple definitions.

Medicare is our federally funded health care safety net for all Americans over 65 years of age. If you spend your life earning a paycheck, you have contributed toward your Medicare coverage. There is a basic coverage, and a few more plan options which can be selected for nominal monthly premiums. The Congressional Budget Office has projected Medicare, under the new Obama plan, will be bankrupt by no later than 2021.

Medicaid is a hybrid (hodgepodge) state and federal program designed to provide a minimal medical safety net for the truly needy and economically destitute portion of our population.

So, let’s look at things as they stand from a perch slightly above ground level. We think this Obamacare debate is similar to watching a dog chase its tail; ‘round and ‘round we go. It is hugely complex, and each side can throw statistics at the other until the cows come home. We do not purport to understand the myriad rules, regulations, and nuances of the 1,000+ page bill. (To put this in perspective, the original bill creating Medicare was 28 pages.) In truth, we probably know enough to be dangerous. But that is none the less more than most people, and we have been around long enough to know that if something looks like a skunk, walks like a skunk, and smells like a skunk, guess what? That was a rhetorical question, so we are not going to dignify same with a response.

We think this is what you need to know.

1) To date, neither party has proposed a health care plan that will reduce our runaway entitlement spending to the degree it MUST be reduced.
2) The Republican plan (as proposed by Congressman Ryan) seeks to reform Medicare while still preserving the fundamental Medicare entitlement for all Americans over 55 years of age. There are spending caps and private sector insurers will continue to add value (by keeping the free market in the equation.)
3) Obamacare turns health care into a 100% government run entitlement. President Obama believes the Federal Government will be able to create savings and take the necessary steps toward solvency prior to health care’s own D-Day in 2021.

In the cold light of day, the difference between the Republican plan and the law with which we are now saddled is that the Republican plan (whilst no panacea) is written to stem (and turn) the profligate tide of spending. Conversely, President Obama and the democrats passed Obamacare for the sole purpose of creating a federal insurance bureaucracy that would live for perpetuity. Cost control and deficit reduction were relegated to federal oversight!

Opine Needles challenges its readers to name ONE federal agency or regulatory body that ever managed to run a successful business. Bureaucrats spend money. They do not run businesses.

Folks, the problem here is that the bureaucrats are spending money we do not have. How long does that proposition work in your households? Obamacare needs to be repealed. If nothing else, if ever in a conversation with someone who has been tricked into fearing the Republican solution to our health care crisis, do NOT let the opportunity pass to steer him or her back to reality. If one were to choose, it would be Obamacare that should scare the bejesus out of our seniors. Just point them east to Europe. When medical care is socialized, there’s hell to pay when you get old.

And now back (you may recall that we captured a White House conversation on this topic in our last blog) to Congressman Weiner. What on earth was that man thinking!? We don’t know what he’s on, but we’d like to distribute some of it to more democrat candidates. Maybe they are selling the stuff on New York street corners.

Pusher- “Hey buddy, ya want some weiners?”

Businessman- “You mean a hot dog? Where is your stand?

Pusher- “No man, not dogs, I’m talking about the other kind of weiner.”

Businessman- “Look, you need to shoot straight. I don’t know what you are saying”

Pusher- “Now yer talkin!”

Businessman- “What?”

Pusher- “C’mon brother, shootin’ straight is weiner talk. How many you want? I’m tellin’ you, they work.”

You get the picture.

Up there in New York City, they call it “chutzpah”. Here in Texas, we call it “stupidity”. So now he is asking for some time off to seek help for his issues. For the record, and just once, we would like to see a wife stand up and tell her deadbeat husband to hit the road.

Is there something in the water up there? Perhaps Elliot Spitzer told Weiner if he plays this right, he’s sure to get his own show on CNN.

More to follow-

Another White House Conversation-Middle East and Weiners

2011-06-07T10:33:00.005-05:00

Scene- Dinner in the Living Quarters Dining Room at the White House

Players- Mr. Perspicacious, the First Lady

First Lady- “Barry, what’s going on in Libya?”

Mr. Perspicacious- “NATO is making great progress against a real tyrant, dear.”

First Lady- “Ta be honest, I’m a little confused. Let me see if I can use my Princeton degree to help me frame this question. Gaddafi is really bad so we are going after him. Assad in Syria, however, is even worse, but we are ignoring the fact that he is killing thousands of his own people, and we’re not going after him. Yemen is disintegrating, and we do not give that the time of day. Even though we were allies, we threw Mubarak under the bus in Egypt, thus opening the door for the Muslim Brotherhood. And we’ve told Israel they need to give up land won with their blood when THEY were attacked back in the sixties. We turned the other cheek when Bahrain’s Sunnis went after their Shias. But then again we have a naval base there, and we had already ticked off the Saudis with the way we treated Mubarak. And what about Tunisia? Isn’t that where this whole Springtime in Arabia nonsense started? Did I miss anything?”

Mr. Perspicacious- “It’s complicated, honey.”

First Lady- “Don’t give me your sanctimonious ‘It’s complicated honey” BS. Now you just tell me ‘xactly what sense anything you are doing in the Middle East makes to anyone trying to make sense of ‘xactly what you’re doin?

Oh yea, I forgot to mention Iran. How’s that “we can work with Ahmadinejad” thing going? Have you and your cluster of Ivy League brainiacs figured out that he must get a big kick out of you? He’s laughing all the way to his bank of nuclear reactors.”

Mr. Perspicacious- “Are these rhetorical questions?”

First Lady- “Barry, are you lisnin’ to me? I want to know what on earth you and your people think they are doing in the Middle East. And what about Guantanamo? Is it open or closed? Are we using enhanced interrogation or not? Do we acknowledge the fact that we got Osama because of interrogation techniques you have publicly decried?”

Mr. Perspicacious- “Look, precious, we are giving the people a sense of what we mean by Hope and Change.”

First Lady- “With unemployment back here in the U.S. over 9%, I got a pretty good feeling most voters are going to tell you to put your Hope and Change someplace where the sun doesn’t shine.”

Mr. Perspicacious- “Honey, I appreciate your concern. But if I’ve learned anything coming up in an America that gave me a great education, and a community organizing job, and ultimately an address at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, I know that PT Barnum had it figured right; there is a sucker born every minute.

I have no doubt we will be able to convince enough voters of the insidious evil that is the Republican Party. We’ll be reelected. It’s that simple. And this Middle East thing will sort itself out. So what if it’s messy? Change is messy. Just look at my health care bill.”

First Lady- “Barry, I think you may be in over your head. It sure was easier when we could just go listen to Reverend Wright spew vitriol over everything wrong in this country.”

Mr. Perspicacious- “Heh, what do you think about my appointing Anthony Weiner as my new Secretary of Health and Human Services?”

First Lady- “Well, people will certainly stand up in attention to that choice, dear.”

Mr. Perspicacious- “I think he could point things in the right direction. We need firm leadership in HHS.”

First Lady- “Well, I hope Congress doesn’t give him the short end of the stick in his approval hearings.”

Mr. Perspicacious- “No, he’ll stand tall, at least in his working briefs.”

Lights fade…all is well in the White House

Never Forget

2011-05-26T18:31:00.001-05:00

As we head into our annual rite of passage from spring into summer, Opine Needles wonders what percentage of Americans pause for even just a few moments to give thanks to all those who have served our country? Perhaps it is overused, but as Memorial Day approaches, one cannot help but recall the expression, "freedom isn't free." Indeed, how lucky we are to enjoy the fruits of this great country, and how appreciative we must be of all those whose blood, sweat, and tears have given us the opportunity to call ourselves Americans.

Opine Needles will not opine on politics in this blog. All we ask is that you read Ronald Reagans speech, given at the 40th anniversary of D-Day. He was addressing a crowd of Army Ranger veterans who had travelled to Pointe du Hoc to remember their victory all those years ago.

June 6, 1984
Remarks to Veterans at U.S. Ranger Monument,
Pointe du Hoc, France

"We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.

We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but forty years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June 1944, 225 Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance.

The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers on the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After two days of fighting only ninety could still bear arms.

Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there.

These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.

Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender's poem. You are men who in your "lives fought for life...and left the vivid air signed with your honor."

I think I know what you may be thinking right now--thinking "we were just part of a bigger effort; everyone was brave that day." Well, everyone was. Do you remember the story of Bill Millin of the 51st Highlanders? Forty years ago today, British troops were pinned down near a bridge, waiting desperately for help. Suddenly, they heard the sound of bagpipes, and some thought they were dreaming. Well, they weren't. They looked up and saw Bill Millin with his bagpipes, leading the reinforcements and ignoring the smack of the bullets into the ground around him.

Lord Lovat was with him--Lord Lovat of Scotland, who calmly announced when he got to the bridge, "Sorry I'm a few minutes late," as if he'd been delayed by a traffic jam, when in truth he'd just come from the bloody fighting on Sword Beach, which he and his men had just taken.

There was the impossible valor of the Poles who threw themselves between the enemy and the rest of Europe as the invasion took hold, and the unsurpassed courage of the canadians who had already seen the horrors of war on this coast. They knew what awaited them there, but they would not be deterred. And once they hit Juno Beach, they never looked back.

All of these men were part of a roll call of honor with names that spoke of a pride as bright as the colors they bore: the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, Poland's 24th Lancers, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, the Screaming Eagles, the Yeomen of England's armored divisions, the forces of Free France, the Coast Guard's "Matchbox Fleet" and you, the American Rangers.

Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith, and belief; it was loyalty and love.

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge -- and pray God we have not lost it -- that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.

You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you. people of your countries were behind you.

The Americans who fought here that morning knew word of the invasion was spreading through the darkness back home. They thought--or felt in their hearts, though they couldn't know in fact, that in Georgia they were filling the churches at 4 a.m., in Kansas they were kneeling on their porches and praying, and in Philadelphia they were ringing the Liberty Bell.

Something else helped the men of D-Day: their rock hard belief that Providence would have a great hand in the events that would unfold here; that God was an ally in this great cause. And so, the night before the invasion, when Colonel Wolverton asked his parachute troops to kneel with him in prayer he told them: Do not bow your heads, but look up so you can see God and ask His blessing in what we're about to do. Also that night, General matthew Ridgway on his cot, listening in the darkness for the promise God made to Joshua: "I will not fail thee nor forsake thee."

These are the things that impelled them; these are the things that shaped the unity of the Allies.

When the war was over, there were lives to be rebuilt and governments to be returned to the people. There were nations to be reborn. Above all, there was a new peace to be assured. These were huge and daunting tasks. But the Allies summoned strength from the faith, belief, loyalty, and love of those who fell here. They rebuilt a new Europe together.

There was first a great reconciliation among those who had been enemies, all of whom had suffered so greatly. The United States did its part, creating the Marshall plan to help rebuild our allies and our former enemies. The marshall plan led to the Atlantic alliance--a great alliance that serves to this day as our shield for freedom, for prosperity, and for peace.

In spite of our great efforts and successes, not all that followed the end of the war was happy or planned. Some liberated countries were lost. The great sadness of this loss echoes down to our own time in the streets of Warsaw, Prague, and East Berlin. Soviet troops that came to the center of this continent did not leave when peace came. They're still there, uninvited, unwanted, unyielding, almost forty years after the war. Because of this, allied forces still stand on this continent. Today, as forty years ago, our armies are here for only one purpose--to protect and defend democracy. The only territories we hold are memorials like this one and graveyards where our heroes rest.

We in America have learned bitter lessons from two World Wars: It is better to be here ready to protect the peace, than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost. We've learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent.

But we try always to be prepared for peace; prepared to deter aggression; prepared to negotiate the reduction of arms; and, yes, prepared to reach out again in the spirit of reconciliation. In truth, there is no reconciliation we would welcome more than a reconciliation with the Soviet Union, so, together, we can lessen the risks of war, now and forever.

It is fitting to remember here the great losses also suffered by the Russian people during World War II: twenty million perished, a terrible price that testifies to all the world the necessity of ending war. I tell you from my heart that we in the united States do not want war. We want to wipe from the face of the Earth the terrible weapons that man now has in his hands. And I tell you, we are ready to seize that beachhead. We look for some sign from the Soviet Union that they are willing to move forward, that they share our desire and love for peace, and that they will give up the ways of conquest. There must be a changing there that will allow us to turn our hope into action.

We will pray forever that some day that changing will come. But for now, particularly today, it is good and fitting to renew our commitment to each other, to our freedom, and to the alliance that protects it.

We are bound today by what bound us forty years ago, the same loyalties, traditions, and beliefs. We are bound by reality. The strength of America's allies is vital to the United States, and the American security guarantee is essential to the continued freedom of Europe's democracies. We were with you then; we are with you now. Your hopes are our hopes, and your destiny is our destiny.

Here, in this place where the West held together, let us make a vow to our dead. Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for. Let our actions say to them the words for which Matthew Ridgway listened: "I will not fail thee nor forsake thee."

Strengthened by their courage, heartened by their valor, and borne by their memory, let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died.

Thank you very much, and God bless you all."

More to Follow

No Rest for the Weary

2011-05-23T22:13:00.001-05:00

When it comes to taking our country back, it’s never safe to get back in the water. The great white shark that is the democrat party is always circling and never sleeps.

We have written previously about the insidious creeping invasion on our personal liberties and right to work. We have also addressed the fact that there is no depth to which the democrats will stoop to scare the underprivileged and older voter away from pragmatic and imperative Republican ideas. And Opine Needles has addressed the lunacy of the politically correct (PC) leftist movement; it’s their way or the highway.

Today’s Wall Street Journal reports the following: “Clarence, N.Y.—A Democratic congressional candidate has built a slight lead in a traditionally Republican district, according to a new poll on a special election Tuesday eyed by some in both parties as a referendum on the House GOP plan to overhaul Medicare.

The Republican in the race, Jane Corwin, has endorsed the overhaul and spent part of the weekend seeking to assure seniors their benefits would not change. Democrat Kathy Hochul opposes the GOP Medicare plan.”

This is a significant event. It shows that democrats are successfully using the fear factor to turn the tide of progress achieved since the 2010 election. The ugly truth half our country does not want to accept is that our government cannot sustain its benefit payments in their present form. The government is broke. As long as one party is willing to continue to curry favor and spin populist yarns to the electorate, we will continue our slide into destitution.

Opine Needles thinks Republicans need to be more strategic as they head into the 2012 election. The ground-rules have been established, so the GOP should not fall so easily into the democrat’s trap. Republican candidates across the country need to make sure their constituents understand that GOP policies will not treat them unfairly. Republicans simply cannot let the democrats paint them as uncaring, selfish, wealthy, heartless bureaucrats. Firstly, it is not true. More to the point, while the economy (jobs) will continue to be issue # 1, the voter’s perception about which party can fix the deficit (and yet maintain a heart) will rank as the # 2 concern.

Thirty years ago this week, the poet Maya Angelou gave a commencement address at Wheaton College in Massachusetts. These are direct quotes:

“I congratulate your professors, your lecturers, counselors, and teachers who in persisting to overcome their own ignorance have prepared themselves to separate you from yours.”

“Many of you are privileges. I mean in the material sense. One of your professors told me that you have grown up and lived in an insulated community.”

“I would like to remind you of the real world which exists.”

“Now how do you for the most part, a group of well-to-do white girls, make your existence count in a world which is populated, for the most part, by people who do not resemble you?”

“You have lived in the eye of a terrifying hurricane. Many of you will stay in the center and ignore the maelstrom swirling around you.”

“Today you are being ejected from your sage cocoon into a strange and new America. For the first time in 50 years, our government is publicly turning its back on the needy, the aged, the veterans of foreign wars, the young, the handicapped. We have suddenly, as it were, regressed into a dark age of uncaring, of might over right, without even the semblance, the merest, sheerest semblance of a pretense at just action.”

Maya Angelou is an accomplished poet. She no doubt would run intellectual circles around the Opine Needles’ nerve center. But that is not the point. The gathering station in this pipeline rests at the heart of our contention. The PC movement has been active for decades. At its core, is proponents believe all that is traditional is rotten. The year was 1981. In her soaring rhetoric, Maya Angelou was effectively condemning the Reagan Revolution. She told bright eyed college graduates that the world they were being handed was a bad place. She made it very clear that Reagan was undoing all the good FDR and those who followed had done.

The good news is that most Wheaton graduates that day were probably too hung over to pay attention. Those who listened (and some definitely did) probably set out to change the world. And in Maya’s context, that could mean only one thing: to fight everything for which the Reagan/Bush administration stood.

Our fight is not new. It is simply more intense and exaggerated today than it was in decades past. Back then, we could talk in hypothetical terms of the oncoming deficit Armageddon. Now, unfortunately, the crisis is very real and very real time.

We implore you to care. Find a way to do your part to make a difference. Maya was right about one thing. There is an entirely different world out there that does not resemble us. It is a revisionist, bitter world; one seeking to blame anyone anywhere for its troubles. That world has evolved since 1981. Thanks to government largesse there are now more of them than there are of you. If you don’t make your voice heard, their sheer numbers will consume you and your way of life.

There is no rest for the weary.

More to Follow

Good for Goose and Gander?

2011-05-19T11:20:00.004-05:00

Our last opine stirred the proverbial liberal hornet’s nest. Some long standing friends (we can’t say “old” friends anymore without insulting someone!) have taken umbrage over what they see as our relentless onslaught on Mr. Obama’s integrity. One long standing friend went so far as to suggest that Opine Needles is two faced, because we castigated the Dixie Chicks for their attack on President Bush but have allegedly resorted to similar tactics with regard to Mr. Obama. So, perhaps it is time to separate the wheat from the chaff.

The Dixie Chicks were certainly entitled to their own opinions. Their criticism of President Bush was predicated on the belief that:

1) He is stupid, and,

2) He lied.

Opine Needles will not lend dignity by way of offering a counter to such absurdity. Suffice to say, Opine Needles would “take the over” on whose IQ is higher; Dubya’s over any of theirs. Further, the liberals love to ignore the fact that their leadership (and the leadership of virtually every developed country in the world) thought Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The fact that WMD did not materialize became a rallying cry for the liberal left in their assault on W’s integrity. The brazen two-faced attacks on President Bush took craven, partisan politics in Washington to a new low; a feat not easily accomplished.

Opine Needles is certainly tough on President Obama, and we frequently question his sincerity and ability to separate fact from fiction. But let’s draw a distinction between our treatment of Mr. Obama and that of the left toward President Bush. We do NOT question Mr. Obama’s intelligence. Opine Needles has never called him a liar. He is a deliberate stretcher of truths. In Chicago , this is seen as an asset. The apple may stray from the tree, but we should never ignore its roots.

One of the repeated negative refrains from the left when bashing Bush focused on his “stubbornness”. Please allow Opine Needles to translate. This means that George W. Bush stuck to his guns. He did what he thought was right for the United States . He was not guided by polls. He withstood withering criticism for years, but he did not bend. And to the left, this meant he was stubborn. In other words, because he would not change course and govern the way the left wanted him to govern, he was wrongheaded and clearly ill-suited for the job! We’ve said it before and we will say it again. There is no room for debate with the left. It is their way or the highway. All is well as long as you agree with them.

Opine Needles believes this country stands at the edge of a historic precipice; to not do something dramatic to reign in runaway federal spending is to court a disaster of epic proportions.
Opine Needles knows there is plenty blame to go around. But the profligate deficit spending that has dominated Mr. Obama’s term in office is unprecedented. We are in uncharted waters, and anyone foolish enough to believe we can close our eyes and hope it will all get better is simply gaga.

So here is the point. We are scared for our children and their grandchildren. We don’t write because we agree or disagree about whether or not we should have started a war with Iraq . And we don’t write because we think Mr. Obama is dumb. (Again, because we know we have to be careful with liberals-who hear and see only what they want to hear and see-we do NOT think he is dumb!)

We believe the President is fundamentally misaligned with the working and productive classes of our country.

We believe he believes with all his heart that the United States is an unjust society, and his job is to make it more just.

We believe the President thinks the producers of society owe a debt to the the non-producers and must pay a steep price for their successes.

We believe the President truly believes the producing class can and will bear any cost to continue producing.

WE DISAGREE.

We disagree passionately.

We think he is ruining our economy and digging a hole so deep for our country that we will NEVER be able to recover.

We do not attack the man. We attack virtually everything for which he purports to stand. And we attack what we perceive as his frequent political disingenuousness.

We reckon we’ll get a few more missiles from the left about this blog. So be it. We’ll let the record speak for itself. And we’ll do whatever we can to make sure the record stops at 4 years. If we succeed, even the liberals will thank us some day.

What's good for the goose is not necessarily good for the gander!

And this just in. The President threw Israel under a bus today. Opine Needles asks its readers to answer this question. Other than caused by some deeply rooted centuries old underdog/guilt complex, will someone explain to us why the Jewish vote invariably leans left? Republican Presidents have consistently stood alongside Israel in its determination to survive against all odds. Israel is surrounded by oceans of enmity. Our role has been to be the one catching them in one trust-fall after another. Today we let them fall, and we were not there to catch them.

More to follow-

It's Not Getting any Better

2011-05-15T10:55:00.004-05:00

Our mendacious Mr. Perspicacious is up to his usual tricks. Students of Presidential elections know full well that the President who actually rests on perceived accomplishments eighteen months prior to an actual vote is the President whose head is mired in cloud cuckoo land. So let’s agree to put Osama Bin Laden’s death over to the side for future discussions regarding Mr. Perspicacious’s overall lack of fitness for the Oval Office.

Alas, unlike another President (GHWB) who actually did accomplish myriad feats on behalf of the American People (and still was rejected at the Polls in his re-election bid) our current Mr. Perspicacious has only Mr. Bin Laden’s death to claim as anything close to a leadership success. Otherwise, the train-wreck of social change and perpetual onslaught on a capitalist, entrepreneurial America continues unabated.

What we face is an insidious, nefarious, incessant assault on all that makes America a great country. Following are some examples. While viewed in isolation, perhaps each does not seem so egregious. But when considered from the perspective that every day this administration is pushing its destructive agenda, the impact on the cement that is our social and economic foundation should engender fear (if not loathing) in every rational American.

--Mr. Perspicacious on jobs: “The reason the unemployment rate is still as high as it is, in part, is because there have been huge layoffs of government workers at the federal level, at the state level, at the local level. Teachers, police officers, firefighters, social workers-they have really taken it on the chin over the last several months. And so, what we’re trying to do is to see if we can stabilize the budget.”

Verbal vomit.

Folks, the private sector has lost 8,000,000 jobs since 2007. The public sector has ADDED jobs since 2007. Sadly, we suspect some police payrolls are down, but the good news is that you may rest assured we have more community organizers in government!

--Mr. Perspicacious’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has recently filed an action against Boeing for deciding to locate a large facility in South Carolina instead of Washington State. The NLRB alleges Boeing violated the rights of union workers in Washington by deciding to build its Dreamliner airliner in South Carolina? Let’s not worry about the realities of managing a P&L. Boeing stands on the precipice of losing its leading global position because union labor has caused extreme inefficiency, cost overruns, and time delays on its newest aircraft. Boeing management is RUNNING A BUSINESS; something Mr. Perspicacious and his cronies have never done. Boeing CEO Jim McNerney wrote this week in a Wall Street Journal op-ed "The NLRB is wrong and has far overreached its authority. Its action is a fundamental assault on the capitalist principles that have sustained America's competitiveness since it became the world's largest economy nearly 140 years ago." Opine Needles applauds his candor and willingness to tell it as it is. More CEO’s need to step up and be heard. This administration is destroying American competitiveness!

A last word on the Boeing affront to free will and determinism—Mr. Perspicacious, his cabinet, and the NLRB refuse to look at the facts. There is a direct correlation between “right to work” states, and jurisdictions in the US that are actually growing!! The states mired in anti-growth union controls are the big BLUE states. The states that believe in growth and capitalism (right to work states) are RED and growing.

--Yesterday, Mr. Perspicacious finally made some positive noises about drilling in the United States. What he said was far too little, and more than far too late. After spending the first 2 ½ years of his administration pillorying the oil business, (and dreaming of an America run on wind and solar) it has taken $4 plus gasoline prices to prompt him to begin to connect the dots. His energy secretary may ride a bike to work, and may not be able to tell you what a blowout preventer is, but darnit, Mr. Perspicacious gets it! RIDICULOUS!

Every week we see snippets of attacks on our fundamental rights similar to those discussed above. Add them up, and Houston, we have a problem. Oh wait: we must not be in Houston, because Mr. Perspicacious decided that NASA did not deserve to receive one of the retired shuttles. Lo and behold, Illinois is to be home to a shuttle. Chicago, we have a problem.

Opine Needles attended a small dinner last evening. Attendees were all well educated, and the dialogue proved to be above average compared to the usual patter which might otherwise be expected for a Saturday night. Not surprisingly, Presidential politics entered the conversational fray. There are those who think Mr. Perspicacious is a shoe-in for re-election. Let’s hope for our country’s sake they are wrong. Here is what we think:

--The election is still another lifetime away. It does not matter whether a “winning” Republican candidate has emerged.

--The next President of the United States will be determined by the US economy in November, 2012. If unemployment is still in excess of 8%, and no concrete steps have been taken to reign in the administration’s profligate deficit spending, Mr. Perspicacious will have a problem. Ironically, the one thing that may help him is the fact that the Republicans forced him into an extension of the Bush tax cuts. (Businesses don’t grow in oppressive tax regimes.)

--If Mr. Perspicacious continues to suggest the deficit can be tamed by increasing taxes “on the rich”, his bluff will eventually be called. Even the mainstream media cannot possibly continue to perpetrate that farce on the American people. The only way the deficit will be eliminated will be by addressing our discretionary spending; repealing Obamacare, and reforming Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security. There, we said it. We dared to touch the third rail. If we don’t drastically restructure our entitlements, we are toast. Say hello to the Chinese Renminbi, and goodbye to the US dollar. The currency that brought the world to its feet from its knees after WWII, the currency that has helped countless developing countries mature…you can kiss it goodbye.

--As Opine Needles has mentioned several times, 50% of our country now depends on the Federal Government for some form of economic assistance. The liberal (emphasis on small case “l”) democrats have spent 80 years developing policies to make their form of redistributionist anti-capitalist government a self-fulfilling prophecy. Republicans and independents will need to turn up in force to vote in what stands to be the most important election in our lifetimes.

Lastly, (for today!) Opine Needles says this to those who see Mr. Perspicacious as a moderate, centrist President. ARE YOU KIDDING!!?? One need look no further than his hand-picked Attorney General. This week in Paris, Eric Holder said "Although we have not closed Guantanamo within the time period that we initially indicated ... it is still the intention of the president, and it is still my intention, to close the facility that exists in Guantanamo." This guy is as radical a deconstructionist of American values and virtues as has ever occupied the AG’s office. His positions should be an affront to every hard working American. In spite of the successful Osama mission, Eric Holder continues to prosecute CIA operatives who engaged in enhanced interrogation techniques, and Mr. Perspicacious refuses to take a position on this tragic situation. WE KNOW THE ENEMY AND WE DON’T HAVE TO LOOK OUTSIDE THE FLAPS OF OUR OWN TENT.

More to follow.

Opine Needles Interviews the President

2011-05-03T19:14:00.001-05:00

Brevity is a virtue:

Our blog today is simply a link to this exclusive interview:

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/11958176/opine-needles-and-the-president

You may cut and paste into your browser

Be well

Have a Nice Day!

2011-04-26T19:26:00.004-05:00

Sometimes we read something and say to ourselves, “Dang, we wish we had written that!”

So today’s blog is an ode to Mark Steyn. After reading the following, we think you will agree. Comments from Opine Needles bang the drums of apocalypse after Mr. Steyn's prescient words.

HAPPY WARRIOR
from National Review

By Mark Steyn

“Wandering round this great republic predicting the apocalypse, I’m often asked by audience members why it is I’m being quite so overwrought if not a hysterical old queen about the whole business. After all, President Obama’s now-forgotten “Deficit Commission” produced a report melodramatically emblazoned “The Moment of Truth” and proposing such convulsive course corrections as raising the age of Social Security eligibility to 69.

By the year 2075.

With wake-up calls like that, we can all roll over and sleep in for another half century, right?

But some of us have been here before. We know the smell of decay, and we recognize it in America today. Last year, Niall Ferguson, professor at Oxford, at Harvard, and on highbrow telly documentaries, joined Barbra Streisand, James Brolin, and other eminent thinkers at the Aspen Ideas Festival. “Having grown up in a declining empire, I do not recommend it,” he told them. “It’s just not a lot of fun actually, decline.”

Amen, brother. It’s the small things you remember. The public clocks that stop and are never restarted. “Stands the church clock at ten to three? / And is there honey still for tea?” wrote Rupert Brooke, aching from abroad for an eternal England. If the town-hall clock stopped at ten to three, it stands there still, and the one above the splendid Victorian railway station stands at twelve past four, and the one on the Gothic Revival opera house at 7:23: You are literally in a land that time forgot. Likewise, the escalators. In “developing nations,” they’re a symbol of progress. In decaying nations, they’re an emblem of decline. In pre-Thatcher Britain, the escalators seized up, and stayed unrepaired for months on end. Eventually, someone would start them up again, only for them to break down 48 hours later and be out of service for another 18 months. It was always the up escalators. You were in a country that could only go downhill: All chutes, no ladders.

If you live in certain of our more obviously insolvent states, you may already recognize the phenomenon. A waggish reader wrote to me from the nation’s capital a few weeks ago hailing what he called Union Station’s cutting-edge bidirectional escalator technology. The conventional escalator on the left had been out of order for a month and “requires two full-time maintenance workers to stare at it for hours at a time while discussing football and women.” But during the same period the equally non-moving escalator on the right had been used every rush hour to accommodate thousands of both upward and downward commuters simultaneously. All the advanced technology of a staircase — now in an escalator! The bright new future of mass transit: no-speed escalators to high-speed trains.

Incremental decline is easy to get used to. I’m sure a few of my correspondent’s fellow commuters are equally droll about it and a few more get angry, but untold thousands more just shuffle uncomplainingly up and down, scuffing shoes and bumping backpacks. That’s the trick with decline: persuading people to accept it. The Transportation Security Administration, which in a decade of existence has never caught a single terrorist, has managed to persuade freeborn citizens to accept that minor state bureaucrats have the right to fondle your scrotum without probable cause. The TSA is now unionizing, which means that this hideous embodiment of bureaucratized sclerosis will now have its fingers in your gusset until the end of time.

What was it they used to say? If we give up our freedoms, the terrorists will have won! Whether or not the terrorists have won, the bureaucrats have. And they’re a more profound existential threat to America than the terrorists will ever be. My accountant was trying to explain to me the new 1099 requirements of Obamacare, but who cares? In the Republic of Paperwork, there’ll be a new set of new requirements along any minute. I’m ashamed of myself for even knowing what a 1099 is. But that’s the issue: Once you accept the principle that one citizen cannot contract with another without filing paperwork with the state, imposing ever more onerous conditions is merely a difference of degree.

In such a world it becomes more difficult to innovate, and frankly not a priority. When I deposit a New Zealand check at my bank in Montreal, the funds are available to me within two seconds. The last time I deposited a New Zealand check at my bank in the U.S., they sent it for “collection” (an entirely artificial concept in the computer age) to Australia, and by the time it came back it had expired. They couldn’t understand why I was annoyed — c’mon, man, we were in the ballpark! To resolve the issue, I had to go to the bank president, who, on being informed of my Canadian comparison, said, “Well, you must understand smaller countries by their nature have to get used to dealing with the rest of the world. It’s different for America.”

This might have been reasonable enough in 1950, when America was last man standing on a Western world otherwise reduced to rubble. But it seems an odd attitude for a country whose households are entirely filled by products made elsewhere and whose future is mortgaged to foreigners. And it made me wonder if perhaps Ferguson and I are being insufficiently apocalyptic. A gargantuan bureaucratized parochialism leavened by litigiousness and political correctness is a scale of decline no developed nation has yet attempted.

It doesn’t have to go like that. Abolish the 1099. Get the feds out of your underwear. Restart the escalator. But the clock is running down, fast.”

And on the subject of health care, he writes, “Meanwhile, USA Today reports that even a third of Republican voters say ‘the government should not try to control the costs of Medicare.’

Oh. Okay.

Where do this third of Republican voters live? Iowa? New Hampshire? And if you were a second-tier candidate trying to break out from the rest of the also-rans, mightn’t you be tempted to position yourself as their champion?

What happens if the government follows the advice of that third of Republicans and declines to ‘control the costs of Medicare’? The dollar dies as a global currency, followed by inflation, the wiping out of your savings, widespread social unrest, huge increases in crime and violence, Mad Max on I-95….

The question is whether enough Americans are willing to grow up—and fast; That’s to say, will they mature before the debt does? Forget the top line and the baseline; the bottom line is that it’s the end of the line.”

Good stuff! Depressing? You bet….but anyone who doesn’t get it, well, go figure. You can start your figurin’ with the President!

Seriously folks--unless you live in a cave, you woke up to a headline on April 18 that read something like this—“ S&P formally warns that unless Congress can get the $1.5 trillion budget deficit in line, there is now a 1/3 chance that the United States could lose its pristine AAA rating by 2013.”

Now, Opine Needles doesn’t expect every American to understand the consequences of our losing our AAA rating. In fact, Opine Needles is not sure it fully comprehends the extent of that potential catastrophe. What Opine Needles can only hope is that enough Americans have a growing, nagging, gut-wrenching feeling, something that hurts so bad that it travels from their navels through to their spines….and that feeling is that something is wrong…really wrong…and unless we turn it around really, really quickly, the America we know and love will NEVER recover.

As they say at any self-respecting and uniquely American establishment, “Have a nice day!”

More to follow-

Our Perspicacious President?

2011-04-02T08:46:00.001-05:00

Opine Needles recently listened with incredulity as the President rolled out his plan for “America’s Energy Security”. In addition to the normal nauseating rhetoric on the renewable front, the President actually had the unmitigated gall to blame the oil industry for not drilling its existing leased acreage more expeditiously.

With respect to the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), he said “Now, today, we’re working to expedite new drilling permits for companies that meet these higher standards. Since they were put in, we’ve approved 39 new shallow-water permits; we’ve approved seven deepwater permits in recent weeks. When it comes to drilling offshore, my administration approved more than two permits last year for every new well that the industry started to drill. So any claim that my administration is responsible for gas prices because we’ve “shut down” oil production, any claim like that is simply untrue. It might make for a useful sound bite, but it doesn’t track with reality.”

Opine Needles wants to make it clear that anyone who remotely understands the vagaries of the oil trading markets knows that the situation in the US GOM is only tangentially related to the current price of gasoline. Our energy based issue with the President lies in how wholly disingenuous he is when he talks about reducing our dependence on foreign oil, while simultaneously crushing our domestic production capability!

The sad truth is that the vast majority of Americans don’t know better, (and thus give the President a free hall pass on the topic) and those in the drive-by media who do understand are most reluctant to call into question anything stated as fact by the chosen one. Just to put this telegenic nattering nitwit’s comments in perspective, we were averaging between 30 and 40 drilling permits a MONTH before the Macondo incident. And only ONE of the deepwater projects mentioned above is for a NEW well. This administration has cost the people in the Gulf of Mexico region tens of thousands of jobs. The ripple effect has run straight up the middle of the country to states like Indiana and Ohio; where specialty steel forging work for the US oil industry still occurs.

The service companies have mostly moved on to greener pastures. The bureaucracy and regulatory burden on the exploration and production companies is overwhelming. An anticipated outcome will be one where many companies will simply never return to explore and develop the Gulf. (It is instructive to remember that 65% of the oil and gas production on the continental shelf in the US GOM is owned and operated by independent oil companies; not the “majors”.) The Obama administration has achieved its own “Mission Accomplished” moment. It has just about killed off the US Gulf of Mexico as a vibrant and promising source of domestic hydrocarbons. Well, ok, it’s not dead. It’s just in a coma. And only a new President and Republican senate will be able to get it off life support and back on its own two feet.

Let’s not forget the ongoing moratorium in the eastern region of the GOM, along both of our Ocean coasts, and in Alaska. The Oil business is not the problem!

It’s a cloudy day outside the White House. President Obama meets with his top advisors. Names are withheld to prevent further embarrassment.

Comments to the President from West Wing Staff—

“Sir, we think you should just admit it. You do not like the oil business. It represents everything you seem to resent about our country. It was built by risk-takers and entrepreneurs. And God forbid, no matter how much we try thwarting that kind of behavior, there are still plenty of them left.

Oilfield workers are named Bubba, wear Wranglers and cowboy boots, drink in honky-tonks, drive pick-ups, own guns, go to church, and probably vote Republican a lot more than democrat. Oh, one more thing, and you won’t like this either. Workers in the oil industry don’t cotton much to unions. They pretty much take care of their own, and their own would just as soon spend their earnings as they see fit. You see, in that neck of the woods,

The President—

“Did you say redneck? Are you talking about that guy in Florida who burned the Qu’ran?

Response to the President from West Wing Staff—

“Ummmm, no sir, we were simply referencing the states along the gulf coast. Anyway, in that part of the country, they are pretty sure they can solve their own problems. They really don’t want the federal government and unions making their decisions for them.”

The President—

“Why, that’s insane! What on earth is it with these wacky private sector people? Is it the guns?...the wacky religious right?...I mean, I don’t get it…maybe it’s because they are not organized by unions. Maybe they just need some structure and control in their lives. ”

Response to the President from West Wing Staff--

“Frankly Sir, we don’t think many people from that part of world much like you. So you might as well focus on appealing to your base. Just stick with progressive, post colonial climate change oriented ideas such as carbon tax credits, and developing sustainable and renewable energy. Use words with lots of syllables. The effete elite love it when you use big words.”

The President--

“What exactly are you saying?”

Response to the President from West Wing Staff--

“Sir, your energy speech this week was pretty much the last nail in the coffin. The oil industry in the Gulf of Mexico is moribund. So let’s focus on solidifying your base of support.”

The President—

Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about! Moribund. I love that word. I hope I can use that someday on a Yalie in Scrabble. Good job, team. Heh, find me another industry that is inextricably intertwined with America’s history and greatness. C’mon, there must be another one. We’ll crush it too!”

Lights fade, as the battery in the solar-powered generator in West Wing dies.

The President, Middle East, and Japan

2011-03-20T12:55:00.002-05:00

After an exended hiatus, Opine Needles is back. Spring break and the call of business (aka making a living) pushed the yearning to expand and expound to the back burner.

Obama-same man, different views

We have a first cousin for whom we have respect and consider a good friend. We spent some time together last week. We remember sitting in Starbucks with him before the 2008 election and learning that he was going to vote for Barack Obama. We were dumbfounded. Even more dumbfounding was learning last week that he is pleased with his decision. Our Opine Needles cousin is a smart guy, and certainly knows what's up in the world of politics. So why are we left scratching our head(s) in bewilderment when we hear him support President Obama?

Perhaps the most perplexing comment we absorbed was that our cousin sees President Obama as a middle of the road pragmatist...someone who leans left when the political winds blow left, and toward the center when those wind shift toward the right. How can we see such utterly different people when we have watched the same man in action for more than half his term in office?

--Opine Needles has watched (and consistently written about) a man do everything in his power to emasculate the socio-economic fabric of our great country.

--We have listened countless times to him speak with vitriol and contempt for the business community in the United States. In particular, he and his Secretaries of Energy and the Interior have done virtually everything in their power to cripple our domestic oil and gas industry. With gasoline now exceeding $4 a gallon, when will the American people start to connect the dots?

--We have seen him stand by and encourage the unions he so strongly supports (and who so strongly support him!) to denigrate and slur Governor Walker in Wisconsin. He sees absolutely no irony in the use of "hate-speech" for causes with which he agrees.

--We continue to witness his Attorney General operate in contempt of our Constitution. He and his boss aim to use their positions of power to create a new social code, and they could not care less whether the Constitution grants them the leeway to actually do so. (We have a solicitor general's office to help the Justice Department navigate Constitutional waters. This administration does not appear to want fact to get in the way of what it sees as social progress.)

--Yes, after the November "shellacking", the President has made some centrist moves. But seriously folks, did you see the look of anguish and contempt on his face when he signed the extension of the Bush tax cuts? And recently in Florida he had Governor Jeb Bush stand behind him when he made a pitch for education in America. His theme was essentially "No Child Left Behind". To the surprise of nobody, he did not use those words. There is only one reason he signed the extension of the Bush tax cuts, and one reason he asked Jeb Bush to share a stage with him. He is running for reelection!

--Opine Needles recently spent some time with a former member of the Obama Cabinet. This gentleman served the President for two years, and is now in the private sector. He is articulate, smart, and a committed democrat. He is an economist by trade. He is absolutely convinced that the ONLY way out of our deficit is to increase taxes. He refuses to concede that draconian cuts in spending should even be considered.

It was during the conversation with this former public servant that the light in our Opine Needles head(s) was activated. These people live in intellectual bubbles. Most of them have never run a business. Most of them studied John Maynard Keynes and actually believe all that rubbish. Democrats truly believe the Federal Government is the answer to all problems. They really believe that devaluing our once great currency by printing trillions of dollars (and then increasing taxes on the producers in society to balance the account deficit) will actually solve all economic ills. Let's try to keep this simple. If a business spends more money than it makes, it is no longer capable of being an ongoing concern. That business thusly ceases to exist. This is where the "blue" states now find themselves, and where the United States will soon be. No business, state or nation can survive indefinitely on endless deficit spending predicated solely on the strength of past performance.

In soaring rhetoric, the President will talk about America's greatness, and the uniqueness of its people. But underpinning his every thought is the notion that the people can only be lifted by actions of their government. And therein lies the fundamental difference between us and them. If they win this philosophical battle, we will never see vibrant economic growth again in the United States. It's that simple, and that depressingly obvious.

And to our good friend and first cousin, we say, "You are still young and healthy. There's time to reconsider!"

Back to the Middle East

With reference to our last blog, events continue to be mismanaged by the administration. We CANNOT use our bully pulpit to make idle threats. The President announced that Gadhafi "has to go" nearly two weeks ago. It took some ten days to achieve a UN Security Council resolution with accompanying Arab League support to start supporting the rebels. In the meantime, Libyan rebels and innocents were slaughtered. This diplomatic naivete is a product of the intellectual bubble referenced above. This administrative does not appreciate realpolitik. They have failed to grasp the importance of words uttered by the President of the United States. They are learning, but as they learn, valuable strategic relationships (and perhaps more importantly, the POTENTIAL for future valuable strategic relationships)in the Middle East are disappearing.

Japan

It would be inappropriate to blog and not mention the horrific earthquake and tsunami that hit northeast Japan. Opine Needles admires the stoicism of the Japanese people. The devastating effect of natural and man-made aftershocks could have wrought a total public meltdown. Instead, the only possible meltdown lies inside the cooling towers at the Fukushima nuclear plant. The Japanese people in the impacted area are doing what it takes to get control of their lives in unimaginable circumstances. Our thoughts are with them.

More to follow-

Middle East Blues

2011-02-21T15:29:00.000-06:00

We don’t know about you, but Opine Needles has had some difficulty absorbing all potential ramifications emanating from recent events in the Middle East.

Egypt

The President mishandled this situation. Following is why-

--Western pundits and politicians love to hate self-declared presidents for life. (The one historical exception would have been Franklin D. Roosevelt.) We impose our values and systems on peoples who have no ability or desire to adopt same.

--While castigating President Mubarak’s strongman tactics and criticizing his thirty year reign in Egypt, Western media and politicians neglected a few important perspective checks:

• Egypt has supplied a substantial part of the metaphorical glue that served as the bond for a relative state of Arab peace with Israel. Mubarak has been the glue manufacturer.
• Egypt controls the Suez Canal. Think Commerce. Think Energy. Think Security.
• President Mubarak may be a tough guy, but he prevented the Muslim Brotherhood from gaining enough power to cause problems in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood is the proverbial lion waiting in reeds of the Nile. The Brotherhood’s creed is: “Allah is our objective; the Koran is our law; the Prophet is our leader; jihad is our way; and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations.”

--So, we have a radical Islamist group chomping on the bit to gain power in Egypt, and what does our President do? As the tension in Cairo’s Tahrir Square (the equivalent of Beijing’s Tiananmen Square) rose, President Mubarak came to the conclusion that he needed to step down. He developed a rational plan for his departure; one that could keep the lid on potential unintended and devastating consequences of regime change.

--With Mubarak having announced his decision to leave office after an orderly and democratic transition was organized, our President responded by saying this: "It's not the role of any other country to determine Egypt's leaders” (but) “an orderly transition must be meaningful, it must be peaceful, and it must begin now."

--President Obama did exactly what he said we should not do. He said it was not our business, and then he went on to provide the fodder for Egypt’s masses to continue their riots in the streets. He destroyed any chance Mubarak had to manage a resolution that ensured a stable Egypt in the years ahead.

--Egypt may well survive and remain on good terms with the United States. Time will tell. But our meddlesome rhetoric exacerbated an already difficult situation, and made Mubarak’s hastened departed a self-fulfilling prophecy. The Muslim Brotherhood must have been jumping for joy.

The Domino effect is real-

--While Tunisia may have been the catalyst for the people taking to the streets, the following countries now have major issues; Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, and Yemen. A fire has been lit. And in many cases, it’s about suppressed minorities (Shia or Sunni, depending on the country) breaking out of their structured lives. In the case of Iran, it is a suppressed people. It is NOT a Shia or Sunni issue. It is a Shia degrees of separation issue!

--Here is the problem. Our way of life has very little to do with what ails the troubled people throughout the Middle East. In most countries, the people of the street are dirt poor, and largely illiterate. They will grasp at anyone and anything who promises them hope. And guess where most of them will turn; to whomever tells them the lies they need to hear. 90% of Egypt’s Muslims are Sunni. The Muslim Brotherhood is Sunni.

-- Turmoil reigns in the Middle East, and radical Islam lies waiting at every turn.
Opine Needles would love to think of current events in the Middle East as being the manifestation of George W Bush’s freedom strategy; plant the tree of freedom in Iraq, and watch it take root throughout the region.What all freedom lovers may have misunderstimated (c’mon, a little humor doesn’t hurt) is that everyone in the world doesn’t value or define freedom as do we Americans. Remember the democratic process in Palestine. It begot Hamas.

--It is impossible to tell where all this is headed, but it is not impossible to forecast that we may end up with fewer allies in the Middle East. And that folks, is not good. If you think oil at the pump is expensive now, watch this space.

Finally, multiculturalism is no longer the new cool-

--And now for some good news; in the past few weeks, Presidents Merkel (Germany) and Sarkozy (France) and Prime Minister Cameron (United Kingdom) have all made speeches about the failure of Western Europe’s multicultural philosophy. They have finally figured out that if someone wants to live in their country, they need to embrace the laws and customs of that country!

--After decades of allowing Muslims to settle in various European countries and set up their own governments (virtually creating mini-Sharia states) and living in self-contained (and often hostile) cultural bubbles, governments across Europe are waking up to the fact that they have created ticking time bombs.

--They have much work to do to tear down the isolationist walls they have allowed radical Islamists to build and foster, but at least leaders are now acknowledging they have created a beast that needs to be tamed.

More to follow-

The Big Bomb

2011-01-30T09:41:00.001-06:00

He just doesn't get it.

Last week's State of the Union address was the President's big chance to demonstrate that he plans to govern from the middle. He had his own monumental Sputnik opportunity. But instead of sizzle, he gave us fizzle.

President Obama proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that his ideologically leftist bent will forever cloud his judgement and prevent him from representing the majority (at least for now) of his constituency. His radical plans to permanently alter the landscape of American life permeate his core, and thus impact his view on life (and consequently, the manner in which he governs) with each waking day.

His opening remarks had promise. His rhetoric did not soar, but neither was it entirely grounded. He at least achieved lift off. He set the stage for a speech that should have outlined BIG ideas for our HUGE problems. Instead, he outlined the challenges, and then announced that he was going to throw pabulum at them.

"This is our generation's Sputnik moment", he said, severely staring bullets through the teleprompter. And that was as high as the flight of his speech ever got; after that, he was on lefty cruise control until he landed an hour later.

Having achieved the height of his oratorical moment with his spaceshot reference, he then outlined his NASA-infused vision. For his first step in finding the cure, he intoned, "We'll invest in biomedical research, information technology, and especially, clean energy technology. We'll fund the Apollo projects of our time."

My friends, I hope the irony does not escape you. By launching into his dreamy visions for an American utopia, the President exposed his values once again. For implicit in every "solution" outlined in his diatribe was the notion that the answer lies with the federal government! And that is the crux of our dilemna. The President speaks in lofty terms of America's uniqueness and greatness. We all agree. But he consistently maintains that the only way we will continue to be great is through more and more government control and oversight.

He just doesn't get it.

He talked about solving the thorny immigration issue, but offered no ideas. He spoke loftily of the need to improve our childrens' education; while proposing nothing new, he did manage a sneak attack on Bush's "No Child Left Behind." He focused on deficit spending projects in high speed rail and renewable energy; clearly his two personal Apollo pets.

And of our deficit, what did he do? He proposed freezing domestic spending for the next five years. Seriously, I kid you not. Our national debt is $14,300,000,000,000. It has risen $3,500,000,000,000 since the President assumed possession of the Oval Office. George Bush's last budget proposal contained a deficit of $160,000,000,000. This year alone, the deficit is projected to be $1,500,000,000,000. WE DON'T NEED TO FREEZE SPENDING. WE NEED TO TAKE A HACKSAW TO IT!!!

And then, to make things even more egregious, he could not help himself on the class warfare front. After proposing his feeble spending freeze, he reverted back to form and lectured, "If we truly care about our deficit, we simply cannot afford a permanent extention of the tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans." Yes, folks, that's right, those 2% who already pay 80% of all federal taxes should pay MORE, because it is only FAIR!

Let's give him some credit. He did have a thought about how to fund government investment in clean energy technology. Said he, "I'm asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies." There ya go! There's some progressive thought for you. He has all but killed off the oil business in the Gulf of Mexico, and now will not allow exploratory drilling in any new areas off either the east or west coasts, or in Alaska. As our fellow Americans continue to pay more at the pump, when will the main stream media and the rest of the country start to connect the dots?

On the health care front, he was quite clear. He will fight Republicans until the last doctor hangs up his stethoscope before he cedes philosophical ground on his redistributionist gambit.

So on this January Sunday I leave you with this quote. In 2006, a prudent and prescient Senator saw the evil in the ever increasing US debt. Speaking on the Senate floor he said, "Leadership means the truck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of hard choices today on to the backs of our children and gradnchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership."

And that Senator was....drumroll....Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. You can't make this stuff up.

Remember this blog when the debt ceiling debate boils to the surface in a few weeks.

He just doesn't get it.

FDR, Obama, and Oh, Yes, Opine Needles Got It Right on the Oil Spill!

2011-01-09T13:14:00.001-06:00

Our rate of blogs has dropped since the November, 2010 elections. Opine Needles could chalk that up to many things; the holidays, work, family, etc. But the reality is the fact that the incandescent rage that fueled Opine Needles for the past year was lulled into a state mirroring a simmering sense of mere skepticism. The high flame of outrage has been turned back to low.

This, of course, is the very danger about which we wrote in our blog entitled “Stay the Course”. If the activists who got us to this point take their feet off the gas pedal, we run the risk of losing all the November elections positioned us to win. Perhaps it would be best to look at the challenge over the next two years in terms of there being an opportunity to claw back that which should be ours. The mission isn’t about winning, per se; it’s about restoring individual rights that should be revered as uniquely and intrinsically American.

The Obama Administration is not the first administration to fuel the fires of American constitutionalists. For at the heart of our ongoing national debate lie the quintessential questions revolving around the powers vested in the federal government versus those inherent in our fifty separate states. As opined nearly a year ago, this philosophical divide goes all the way back to Jefferson and Washington. For 220 years our elected officials have navigated and negotiated this slippery slope. The Supreme Court has often had to steer the discussion.

The presidential model for President Obama must surely be Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He remains the only President for whom a specific amendment to the Constitution was passed. (The 22nd amendment limited the President’s time in office to two terms.) Roosevelt’s New Deal created an unprecedented amount of new federal oversight. Agencies sprung from the earth like bluebonnets in a Texas spring. Massive deficits were incurred in a desperate attempt to stimulate economic growth. With the benefit of 80 years of hindsight, only the most liberal and ideological of economists still maintain that the New Deal was effective. The vast majority of economic historians now acknowledge it was an abysmal failure.

We can give FDR credit on one domestic front. At least his New Deal projects were shovel- ready! We’re still waiting to see something (anything) concrete (so to speak) to result from the Obama stimulus porkage-(pork plus package, for those readers who like to stick to details)

In a conversation over the Christmas break, a left-leaning friend suggested that we need to acknowledge the accomplishments of FDR. That prompted quite the discussion! Never the less, while we put FDR down as one of our worst Presidents in history, we cannot ignore his steadfast (albeit wholly deceitful and Machiavellian) management during WWII. So, for the record, let this be known! We were an insular nation in the 1930’s. Our mission (however poorly executed) was to extract ourselves from a prolonged depression. More than 90% of America wanted nothing to do with ANY problems around the world. Neither the rise (and external ambitions) of the Nazis in Germany nor the imperial conquests of the Japanese were of any concern.

The Roosevelt administration pursued a bipolar strategy. It lulled the American people to sleep with talk of American neutrality, while simultaneously setting the table for war on both sides of the world. Our lend-lease deal with Churchill and economic sanctions against Japan were not actions of a disinterested third party. FDR positioned us for engagement and only needed the catalyst he could use to incite the American people. The Japanese obliged by attacking Pearl Harbor. And we were off to the races.

Was FDR a good wartime leader? Arguably, the answer to that question is “yes”. But let us not forget that his legacy lived on in the form of a cartel of the “best and brightest” from his administration who dominated American foreign policy for the next two decades. And the 1950’s and 1960’s were not the United States’ greatest moments on the world stage.

In short, we can be thankful that FDR knew the US could ill afford to be a sideline spectator, watching disasters unfold in Europe and Asia. But historians who overlook the impact of his excessive and activist domestic agenda do so at their own peril. He was the first true limousine liberal in his class. He used his distant cousin’s (TR) bully pulpit model to redefine the role of the federal government. Henceforth, it would be seen by progressives as the tool for social reform and redistribution of wealth.

Now, to put this in perspective-In his first two years, President Obama has already created more new federal agencies than FDR did in nearly 13 years!

With the House controlled by the Republicans, we will see more and more covert activism. The President will use his control of his agencies (old and new) to pursue his domestic agenda. He will issue one executive order after another in an attempt to avoid Congressional battles. The progressive left has just begun to fight, and capitulation is not in its vernacular.

It will take a sustained effort and focus to build on the successes of our recent elections. One can only pray our elected officials have the vision and commitment to Stay the Course. In American Revolutionary terms, the November elections were our Lexington. Yorktown is still years away.

Lastly, readers may recall our blog about the oil industry "...in the Deep Fryer." The gist was the dangers implicit in an Administration dominated by environmental activists, and the inherent threats to American national security through the attacks on our native oil industry. One point expressed therein was the extreme overreaction of our government with regard to the lasting environmental impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It gives Opine Needles no small amount of satisfaction to see the government have to own up to its alarmist mistakes in this past week's announcement. Check out this Wall Street Journal article.

Fight on!

Stay the Course!

2010-12-08T11:27:00.002-06:00

Opine Needles has one message for the Republicans--STAY THE COURSE!

The November elections produced an exciting outcome. But the midterm vote only marks the beginning of what must be a sustained effort to wrestle back control of our destiny.

The democrats are bound and determined to post the following message after completion of their war on success in America--MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

The current compromise (which extends the Bush tax cuts for 2 years, reduces business payroll tax deductions, and implements a 35% death tax rate on estate amounts in excess of $5,000,000-- in return for a costly $56,000,000,000 13 month extension of unemployment benefits) is a temporary reprieve. Ironically, the deficit busting increase in unemployment benefits is a job retardant. (Why take a job that is "beneath" me when I can collect unemployment for another year?)

The President just fired his first re-election salvo. To not have done this deal was to sign his political death warrant. The lefties on the Keynesian social bandwagon of redistribution are furious. How dare the President abandon his plan to punish the wealthy?!

Sidebar--let's make sure we all understand what the liberals mean when they say wealthy.

--They mean anyone who has worked hard and accomplished something.

--They are talking about people who have diligently and steadfastly pursued and caught a piece of the increasingly elusive American dream.

--They are talking about the people who have been successful enough to hire other people. Yes, successful people hire other people, and give them an opportunity to be successful.

The men and women on the left are horrified. How on earth will be reduce our deficit if we don't tax the rich? Doesn't it amaze you that these people are oblivious to the lessons one can learn from history?

If you like ancient history, I recommend a visit to the decline of the Roman Empire. After too many costly wars, and a slow, steady dilution of the founding principles of their republic, the Romans taxed their wealthy class into a state of irrelevance. The wealthy class was the producing class. The Roman empire without capital crumbled.

If you prefer a modern case study, you only need look at the UK in the 20th century. The UK was basically broke after WWI. It just didn't admit that fact. They were still wrapped up in the false security blanket of empire. During the Battle of Britain, the harsh reality of economic destitution hit home. Enter John Maynard Keynes, who is clearly on our President's short list of idols. While ostensibly developing a plan to finance Britain's war debt, Keynes actually (and admittedly) promulgated a tax plan which would irrevocably redistribute wealth in the UK. By taxing the wealthy (with tax brackets of up to 90%) he forever crushed industrial output in the UK. His plan eliminated surplus capital by stealing from the rich, and giving to the poor.

To study the demise of ALL great civilizations is to witness common demoninators of decline...societies become self absorbed and narcissistic. Their currencies are inflated to a point where they no longer hold value. And sadly, inevitably, and inexorably, they tax their producing base into oblivion.

Am I ringing any bells here!?

The Republicans should line up behind the President's bipartisan committee results. With Alan Simpson as the senior sage on the right, the recommendations finally and necessarily take on many sacred cows. Is it perfect? No, but nothing ever will be. We cannot expect perfection. We have to stem the tide of runaway deficits.

The work of Congress must be about reducing expenditures-eliminate the deficit through reduction in spending-and rationalizing the tax code- permanently lower taxes for:

--everyone who earns a wage,

--businesses,big and small, and

--capital appreciation and gains.

We need to tax and spend LESS. If we create an environment for capital formation, capital will be formed!

I know, it's not rocket science. Unfortunately, we have a Senate and and White House controlled by people who do not get it. That's why we must stay the course. There is still serious work to do.

The Oval Office--Act II

2010-11-06T17:53:00.000-05:00

The Players-

Scene-The Oval Office, November 4, 2010

President Obama--sitting at the Resolute Desk, smoking a cigarette

Harry Reid--Senate Majority Leader—in chair to the President’s left

Joe Biden--Vice President—middle chair

Madam ex-speaker Nancy Pelosi--candidate for House Minority Leader—in chair to the right

Dialogue

The President--“Thanks for coming in.”

Madam ex-speaker Nancy Pelosi—with an apparent (albeit crooked) smile--“Mr. President, do you mind if I sit next to you?”

The President--“Umm, no..I guess not…may I ask why?”

Madam ex-speaker Nancy Pelosi--“The script above says I’m in the chair on the right, and that makes me uncomfortable.”

The President--“Madam ex-speaker, that’s just a scene description. It is not a political statement.”

Madam ex-speaker Nancy Pelosi—still seemingly smiling---“Oh, ok…well, I guess I’m fine where I am then.”

Joe Biden coughs and clears throat—“Well, I think we certainly proved our point last Tuesday.”

Senator Reid—“Absolutely!”

Madam ex-speaker Nancy Pelosi—“Wait a minute, I lost my leadership position!”

The President—“I think what we are all trying to say is that the election was a clear validation of our contention that the American people are way too stupid to be entrusted with a vote.”

Senator Reid—“Absolutely!”

The President—“We cannot allow the discussion in the media to turn the election into a repudiation of all we have done to change America. I promised hope and change, and we’re giving it to ‘em. Now, Madam ex-speaker, I know losing your pulpit is tough. But I got your back, and…..”

The President stops talking and looks at the Madam ex-speaker Nancy Pelosi whose smile appears to have remained stuck to her earlobe.

The President—“Is everything OK? Is that a smile or are you having a stroke?”

Madam ex-speaker Nancy Pelosi—“ Sorry, sometimes it just gets stuck. No, I am not happy. You still have your plane. I lost mine. Do you actually expect me to fly back and forth to San Francisco with the same hoi polloi that voted for Rand Paul?”

Joe Biden—“Listen, we gotta focus on the next two years. The 2012 campaign starts now. America is comprised to two kinds a’ people; the democrats, and the rest of the people who are too dumb to be democrats. We need the media see us tackling the number one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: JOBS.”

Senator Reid—“Absolutely!”

Madam ex-speaker Nancy Pelosi—“Joe, “JOBS” is a four letter word.”

The President-“The stimulus is working. Unemployment is just under 10% and holding. We need some more stimulus money. Look, we can make this work. The unions need more money. The unemployed need more money. We can take it from the people who earn money. This works. Read Marx. It’s time tested.”

Joe Biden—“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

The President—“Ummmm, Joe, that was actually something you said during the campaign.”

Joe Biden—“I know but everyone gave me a hard time, and I’ve always wanted to say it again in front of you to see if you are ok with it.”

The President—“I’m good with it Joe. So let’s focus again on the idiots in this country.”

Senator Reid—“Absolutely!”

Joe Biden—“When Clinton got spanked in ’94, he moved to the middle.”

The President—“let’s be very clear about this. I am not moving anywhere. I was elected to change America. And I cannot do that from the middle. We will continue the revolution.”

Madam ex-speaker Nancy Pelosi—“Joe, we got ‘shellacked’, not spanked.”

The President—“We must continue to slam big business. Those who are successful must pay. It is clear that their gains are ill-gotten, and have come at the expense of the downtrodden. We need to concoct more issues to take the peoples’ minds off reality.”

Joe Biden—“How about I just do a press conference every week?”

Madam ex-speaker Nancy Pelosi—“My candidacy for minority leader should be a good distraction.”

Senator Reid—“Absolutely!”

The President—snuffing cigarette out on Resolute Desk—“Those are both good distractions." Personally, I’m going to India. That will be cool.”

Joe Biden-- "In Delaware, the largest portion of the population is Indian-Americans. You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.... I'm not joking."

Senator Reid—“Absolutely!”

President Obama—“you’re always on the mark, Joe. Look, let’s wrap this up. And let’s remember, when all is said and done, we’ve got one fallback that works every time.”

Madam ex-speaker Nancy Pelosi—“I loved Boxer’s ‘don’t call me Ma'am, call me Senator.’ Is that the one you mean?”

Harry Reid—“Absolutely!”

The President—“No, no, no…not that one…guys, listen up…remember this…when all else fails, BLAME BUSH! It's bulletproof! Thanks again for coming in.

Meeting adjourns

Opine Needles commentary-

The conversation above is fiction. However, the quotes in italics and attributed to Joe Biden are actually his words. Go figure.

Seize the Day!

2010-11-02T20:42:00.000-05:00

And so it is. The dust is settling, and the aggrieved voters have spoken. But what have they actually told us?

--Is this election a validation of Republican values?

--Have we turned a corner and stemmed the tide of Democrat party control?

--Does this election confirm the majority of Americans believe in one of the core values that founded our great nation; that there is, in fact, a right for the individual to chart his or her own course in our society?

Alas, I think not. I wish it were so, but I think not. The results of this election tell us one thing. A significant majority of those Americans who chose to vote do NOT like President Obama’s vision of hope and change. They feel deceived. What he has done is not what 53% of the electorate thought it was voting for in 2008. And the Democrats have now paid a huge price at the polls.

In many cases across the country, respectable Democrat candidates lost to Republicans for no other reason than they were inextricably linked to the massive sense of disappointment attached to the President. It would be a mistake of epic proportions for Republicans to assume they have been given a mandate. They have been given only one thing; ANOTHER CHANCE. So let’s hope they do something big with this opportunity. If the Republican leadership does not step up and demonstrate true leadership, the moment will be lost.

What constitutes leadership?

-- Republicans must map out and clearly enunciate a course of action that will render Obama-Care moot.

--The Bush tax cuts must be extended for all Americans. NO MORE CLASS WARFARE!

--Stand up to and say “NO” to business as usual pork barrel earmarks. (The earmarks are a small fraction of our annual budget. But psychologically, it is important to demonstrate fiscal resolve.)

--Eliminate deficit spending. David Cameron and his Tory party have rolled out a four year plan that balances the UK budget by 2015. We MUST replicate this course of action. Republicans must commit to eliminating the budget deficit within 4 years. You may ask “with a $1,400,000,000,000 hole, how can we ever get back to square one?” We can, and we must. Through LEADING, the Republicans need to take a firm stand and explain that the prescribed course of action will be painful. We cannot continue to live on money we do not have.

This is no time to be the party of compromise. This is the time to stand up and be counted.

James Carville’s 1992 slogan is as applicable today as it was then. “It’s the economy, stupid!” Republicans MUST NOT let the 2012 election process become mired in social issues dominated by its far right constituency. It is too much red meat for the all important independent voter to digest. DO NOT get sanctimonious. Keep all eyes on the prize. Maintain a focus on fiscal conservatism.

The 2010 election has proven that while the Democrats have worked hard to create a plurality of the electorate that depends on the government for some form of subsidy, what still matters is who actually votes! Republicans must seize on the engagement of the involved voter and develop policy that keeps those voters involved in the process. The sad truth of the matter is that Republicans will never again be in the majority of eligible voters in the United States. The goal is to develop and maintain the allegiance of the majority of those who care enough to cast their ballot.

There will be great expectations of the new House of Representatives, and maneuvering for the 2012 Presidential campaign will now begin in earnest. All of us wait to see how hope and change can be redefined. Let’s hope the Republican Party seizes this unique moment in time. I pray they don’t drop the ball. This is one time I’m OK with invoking God in the affairs of state. We need all the help we can get.

More to follow-

Bullies!

2010-10-30T14:18:00.004-05:00

Today we leave politics aside and take a detour into the land of bullies. In the past few months, the main stream media has focused on four core issues:

--election day,

--the economy,

--terrorism, and

--bullying

Yes, it seems bullying ranks right up there with Al Qaeda in terms of its threat to the American people. The National Security Advisor doesn’t know whether to move it from an orange to a red alert.

A recent study has determined that children bully each other. Stop the presses! Surely the data points for this study must have been flawed. We all know that people have always been so nice to each other, and kids are never mean. Right?

My friends, this bullying nonsense is a product of our litigious, blameless, faultless society; a leftist progressive agenda to change our social mores. If my child is emotionally distraught, it is someone else’s fault. If someone is picking on my child, the institutions surrounding my child are responsible. It’s not my job to deal with the problem; the school, church, or synagogue need to manage the issue. Call 911. Sue somebody….anybody.

My kids attend a private school in Houston. Last year the school made the news across the US (and in the UK for that matter) as a coalition of parents rose up and said “NO MAS” to the PC leftist agenda that has infected so many of America’s academic institutions. The issues were myriad and too lengthy to review in this blog. Suffice to say, the school had lost its way, and the parental cup of angst had finally spilled over. A cathartic period of hand wringing self analysis resulted. While views of the end result vary, the general consensus is that the school resolved to embrace some of its core traditions that it had slowly (and seemingly quite resolutely) been purging in the name of political correctness.

One of the issues that had become a poster child for the school’s intrusive invasion into the personal lives of its students involved bullying. There were a number of cases where the school acted arbitrarily and (arguably) capriciously in its efforts to punish what it perceived to be bullying behavior.In some cases, punishments were exacted for off campus incidents. There was no due process. There were rushes to judgement, so examples could be made of children to make a larger point.

But what have we wrought? Since when do our schools assume the role of Big Brother? And why do some parents sanction this behavior? This is a reflection of how much the lives of so many Americans have been institutionalized.

When I was bullied as a child, I did one of two things:

--if the bully was smaller than I, it was a fairly easy process.

--if the bully was bigger, the solution was more subtle. I had to figure out how to survive! And ultimately, I had to figure out how to make the bully irrelevant. And therein lies what has been lost in today’s world. Dealing with bullies is preparation for the real world.

It seems school officials, politicians, media, and many parents have forgotten that bullying has always been and forever will be a reality on the stage of human development. To learn to deal with bullying is to learn how to deal with life. Bullying never stops! It just manifests itself in different ways.

If an event takes place on school grounds, it’s the school’s business. If a student or parent complains to a school official about the behavior of another student, (and uses Facebook-for instance- as “evidence”) it becomes the school’s business. But the school has NO business searching for such controversy, as has been the case in the past.

I’m going to focus again on politics. This stuff makes politics seem simple!!

The Election and Signs of Western Apocalypse

2010-10-15T09:02:00.007-05:00

This has been my longest “blog-pause” since starting Opine Needles nearly a year ago. A hectic work and travel schedule combined with really nice weather in Houston are more or less the culprits. Let’s face it, I’m mad, but if it’s Saturday and the sky is blue, and the weather cool, I’m playing golf!

The past month has done nothing but further stoke the fires of outrage here at Opine Needles! Sometimes I feel so disconnected from what I am watching in Washington that I have to remind myself it’s actually happening; it’s not just a bad movie.

Before sliding into the abyss of apocalyptic depression, I offer some election predictions.

--The Republicans will pick up 46 seats in the House, and regain control.

--The Republicans will pick up 8 seats in the Senate, and significantly change the dynamics as a much stronger minority.

--The President and his team will NOT do a Clinton. They are committed to their redistributionist view, and will not move pragmatically to the center.

Now, in no particular order, these are just some of the stranger than truth moments we have recently witnessed:

· Funds have been designated from the federal stimulus package to teach underprivileged urban children American History in rap. I kid you not. This is progressive liberalism at its best. Let’s take taxpayer dollars and help perpetuate incomprehensible, dysfunctional verbal gibberish so the recipients of this largesse can most assuredly NEVER be prepared to enter the working world.

Ridiculous. What are these bureaucrats thinking? America is the land of opportunity. We should be doing everything possible to give our underprivileged children the OPPORTUNITY to succeed. Perpetuating their dysfunctional lives only ensures perpetual dysfunction!!

· President Obama attacks the US Chamber of Commerce for accepting foreign donations to fund republican campaigns. (Absolutely false, by the way) When Obama mouthpiece Axelrod is asked, “ Do you have any proof that this has occurred?” his response is “Do you have any proof it hasn’t?” ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Can you imagine if Dee Dee Myers had tried to pull that off during W’s administration?! She would have been pilloried.

· Senator Chris Dodd, when refusing to add support June 2010 legislation to require 5% minimum equity as a prerequisite deposit to obtaining home mortgages, said “passage of such a requirement would restrict home ownership to only those who can afford it.” Again, I kid you not!

Now Opine Needles needs to go a place Western politicians are not willing to go:

Militant Islamists are systematically populating Europe. Most European governments, including the British, are aiding and abetting the process. The local law enforcement agencies seem hell bent on protecting the rights of the radical Islamists, while simultaneously silencing voices of indigenous protest! In Holland, they are going as far as to prosecute a right wing politician (Geert Wilders) who has dared to question why the Dutch are allowing their country to be usurped from within. The legislature actually changed the law so they had a legal basis with which to prosecute the man!

In England, Muslims who profess to hate everything English are populating towns and cities in an ever so calculated way. This has happened across Europe. After 9/11, there were celebrations on the streets in the east end of London. You didn’t see that on CNN, did you? After the terror attacks in the London tubes, some English classrooms erupted in cheers. “Kill all the Englishmen!”

A priest in London recently told three Muslims who were in the churchyard they were welcome to stay, but could they keep their voices down, as people were praying inside. The three Muslims beat the priest senseless. They were apprehended and each was given 100 hours community service. The story did not even hit the papers. Now just ask yourself. What if three young Catholic boys beat a Muslim cleric nearly to death? “Hate Crime Beating!” would be on the front page, and those boys would be spending some serious time at the crow bar motel.

The West is living a lie. It is caught up in some kind of self imposed guilt complex, and its policies reflect a horrific double standard. The West bends over backward to prove it can tolerate all forms of dissent. And in so doing, it is sowing the seeds of its own destruction.

A vibrant country is one which welcomes diverse cultures and peoples. That does not mean that such countries should encourage "separate but equal" nationalism. That misguided concept has already died its death. The progressive left has dressed up "separate but equal" and termed it "multiculturalism". Where the liberals err (again) is that their policies are nothing more than thinly veiled rationales for supporting more than one form of nationalism within a given country's borders. It may be a great ploy for stuffing the ballot box, but it is an unsustainable and wholly irresponsible policy.

It’s time for our leaders to stop the insanity. Here is what they need to say:

“Our country is open to any law abiding citizen from ANYWHERE in the world who wants to move here to pursue a better life. By better life, I mean someone who wants to CONTRIBUTE to our society; someone who wants to WORK HARD and ADD VALUE.

But most importantly, my invitation is to those who wish to come to our country and agree to adopt OUR laws, and OUR customs. If you don’t want to be part of what we have built, STAY AWAY. We don’t want you. Don’t you DARE move to our country, live off of our generosity, and then openly foment discord and hatred on our soil. This behaviour will not stand!”

Enough dreaming, I reckon. Signs of our western apocalypse abound. More to follow-

The Oil Business is in the Deep Fryer

2010-09-07T06:30:00.001-05:00

A note before diving into the deep fryer. A few people suggested my "Venom Time" blog was too full of its own vitriolic poison. My inference was that I should be more tolerant of the view from the far left. Well, there are two quotes which merit mention in response to that line of thought.

--To my friends I say, "If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong."

--To my nameless, faceless detractors I think "Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience."

Are we clear?

The American Thinker posted the following blog on September 5. It generated some good comments, so I am posting it now on Opine Needles.

www.americanthinker.com

It is hard to think of anything more reviled than the oil industry. While the President, his staff, and Congressional majority leaders are inadvertently giving Big Oil a run for its money, they won't have enough time to do enough damage to catch up. (It took the oil industry decades of attacks against its integrity to achieve its despised state.) Why haven't Americans seen through this political ploy yet? This ruse is no more logical than is the Democrats' long standing sway over Jewish, African American, and Hispanic voters.

It is important to note that oil and gas produced in the United States is not controlled by the monoliths associated with Big Oil. ( I don't know about you, but whenever I hear "Big Oil," I involuntarily picture five guys in suits with their hands up taking the oath before Congress.) In fact, more than two thirds of our daily oil and gas production comes from independent oil and gas companies. These companies are run by entrepreneurs; the kind of people who make this country what it is.

We Americans consume one out of every four barrels of oil produced on the planet. Even with our economy in the doldrums, we have a voracious appetite for all things made or fueled by hydrocarbons. None of us are against renewable sources of energy. The problem is that most self-proclaimed progressives refuse to acknowledge that we are decades away from developing economically viable ways and means of generating material amounts of those carbon-friendly alternatives. We are already billions of dollars into the renewable game, and yet less than one per cent of our daily energy demand powered by them. The simple fact of the matter is that we need oil and gas. And we will continue to need oil and gas for decades.

The Gulf of Mexico blowout in April was a tragedy. Eleven lives were lost and the region took an environmental and economic hit. That much you have heard countless times. But what you haven't heard is that the fishermen are out again, and life in that wonderfully unique ecosystem is rapidly returning to normal. Man, oil, and nature have lived together for decades on the Gulf Coast. Regardless of how the Democrat leadership is trying to upset that carefully woven tapestry, the Gulf Coast will once again find a way to restore the delicate balance. The oil plume (if it ever existed) can no longer be found. The vast majority of the oil (which is, incidentally, of, by, and arguably for the earth) is gone. The Gulf of Mexico has moved on. The real tragedy is that Capitol Hill has not followed suit. To the extent there is still an economic hangover, those in the know will argue that the administration's ongoing moratorium on drilling is the main culprit. Tens of thousands of hard working oil field hands are presently out of work. The administration's response is to delay and prevaricate.

Congress just cannot let a tragedy go by without making sure they make it worse! On July 30, the House passed HB 3534; the so called "CLEAR" bill that is as much a knee jerk reaction to the blowout in the Gulf as the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 was to the Exxon Valdez incident in Alaska. The Senate has yet to pass a bill (thankfully) and with mid-term elections looming, we can put our hands together and pray Harry Reid will focus on other matters. The fear is that Democrat leadership thinks punishing the oil industry is a winner for the midterm elections. And that gets me back to my question; how on earth did we get to this strange place?

The oil business is about risk taking. The CEO of a large independent oil and gas company recently said "Every time we punch a hole in the ground, we are putting the entire company on the line. That's what we do; day in, and day out." What other businesses walk such an operational high wire? The deep water drilling and production in the Gulf of Mexico is the stuff of pioneers. Companies spend up to $200,000,000 to drill a dry hole. That's real money. And yet the American people never hear about the risk. All they hear about the oil business is greed.

This past week there was a fire on board a production platform in the Gulf. There was no explosion. There were no injuries. There was no pollution. In fact, the source of the fire may have been the deep fryer in the galley. Yet CNN and other networks dedicated hours to a "breaking news" moment. "Explosion in the Gulf!" consumed the airwaves. It was reported that Congressman Waxman indicated that he wanted to launch an investigation into the cause of the reported explosion. As my kids would say "OMG"!

There are many voices speaking in Washington; the draconian economic consequences of the forthcoming legislative process may well force companies to reconsider whether they can afford to continue drilling and producing in the Gulf of Mexico. The last thing the United States needs is less oil and gas production. The environmentalists and most of those on the left are working hard to cripple our existing industry and ensure that no new areas are ever opened to new exploration. These people are wrong. Their actions will damage our economy and threaten our national security by making us even more dependent on oil emanating from unstable sources.

The oil business in the United States is in the deep fryer. We need to remove it from that grease, and give it a breath of fresh air. Perhaps after the November election we can put some of the newly jobless in the vacated fryer. Now that would be poetic justice.

Venom Time!!

2010-08-25T22:00:00.004-05:00

It’s been a hot summer just about everywhere in the east, midwest, and southwest United States. The snakes are big this year in south Texas. They’re mean too; lot’s of venom. I’m pretty sure they are democrats.

Politics has carried on as usual; and by that I mean the democrat party has continued to load the gun and aim same at its own temple. One can only hope the American people rise up in November and pull the trigger.

It’s been a sad summer for some of us in Houston. We lost two good friends; both well before their time. Their not being here anymore reminds each of us to make the most of every day; it’s not just a platitude.

Spring is usually associated with renewal. As a father of four, I think the annual renewal process begins with the first day of school. It matters not that Mother Nature thinks it is still summer. It’s not. Whatever vacations we took over the past couple months are over, and already seem as though they were in the distant past. The real world is back, and in full force.

And with the real world comes a reminder of things that remain wacky. To review just a few-

• The WTC mosque crisis---what a waste of time, effort, and money. Law abiding citizens can build a house of worship wherever they wish. It is truly unfortunate that these people want to build a mosque that almost touches the WTC footprint. It is inflammatory. It is insensitive. It makes no sense. But this is the United States, folks. It’s their prerogative. Now, that said, if our law enforcement agencies detect one iota of threat to the American people emanating from that mosque (should it actually be built at the proposed location) I’m sure it will easily be converted to a nice Boys and Girls club for families in need.

• The Gulf of Mexico oil spill---worst environmental disaster in US history? Balderdash. OIL IS AN ORGANIC SUBSTANCE! The oil is mostly gone. Presto! The famous plume that Oliver Stone conspiracy wannabes had lurking 3,000 feet under the Gulf’s surface is not there! Puff! The liberals and main stream media wanted this to be a disaster. They continue to talk in terms of disaster. It is not. And now the liberals are using it to destroy the offshore exploration and production business in the United States. The economic hardship caused by the administration’s drilling moratorium is much worse than any temporary cessation of commerce caused by the spill.

• Hurricane Katrina---August 29th marks the fifth anniversary of New Orleans’ big bath. The main stream media is using the occasion to once again bash the Bush administration for its lack of response to the crisis. Brian Williams of NBC is interviewing the President in New Orleans later this week. One can only imagine the self-righteous lovefest that will ensue. I don’t have the ability to change public perception, but at least I can set the record straight to Opine Needles readers. The Bush administration was virtually begging democrat Governor Blanco to ask the Federal Government for help IN ADVANCE OF THE STORM and to prepare for the worst. The Governor’s office refused the offer of FEMA assistance, and to add insult to injury, waited for two days AFTER the event to finally ask for help. You see, the United States government can only enter a state if that state is operating in violation of federal law or it has been invited. The Bush administration did NOT abandon the people of New Orleans. The Governor of Louisiana and Mayor of New Orleans were hopelessly out of their league. Bush took the blame.

• The administration has proven itself beyond inept in the field of economic revitalization:
1. The unemployment number is actually well over 10%, because the
administration’s 9.7% number does not include people who have stopped looking for jobs!
2. The economy is in tatters. Home sales sunk to a post World War II low last month.
3. Investors have removed $35,000,000,000 from equity funds this year alone.
4. Consumers are not spending retail dollars because they have ZERO confidence in the economy and where this country is headed.
5. The democrat party (with a few exceptions) is gearing up to let the Bush tax cuts expire. No economist in his right mind (which exempts Paul Krugman) would recommend higher taxes in this economic environment.
6. With each passing day more information about Obamacare is coming to light, and its estimated costs to the taxpayer are skyrocketing. AMERICANS DO NOT WANT THIS LAW!

For the first time in our lives, we have a White House wherein less than 10% of all appointees have ever held private sector jobs. Our country is being run by people who have no idea what it means to meet a payroll. Our country is being run by people who truly believe the government can solve all ills.

Abraham Lincoln once opined, “The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities.”

The strength of this country has always rested in the capabilities and achievements of its citizenry. This administration and the democrat controlled Congress are systematically neutering its citizenry’s right to work for and achieve a lifestyle of its choosing.

Summer is over. It’s venom time!

Remembering Matt Simmons

2010-08-10T20:35:00.000-05:00

Matt Simmons was a friend. Unlike some of my best friends, I never worked with or for him. He just became a friend.

Matt was infectious and infuriating at the same time. He was like a 17 year old daughter; everything she does and says drives you crazy, but you can't help but love her.

At his core, Matt was an incurable and incredible analyst. He could not help himself. He was really good to boot. Simmons & Company is Matt's. He checked out years ago, and the firm has moved on, but no one can deny the mark he made on Houston's energy banking community. Matt almost single handedly put the energy diving business on the map. And to this day, there are CEOs in the drilling patch who believe they owe their success to his acuity.

Matt was one of those successful executives who recognized that he would be more successful if he surrounded himself with really smart people. He wasn't threatened by their success; he bathed in it.

And somehow, someway, Matt also managed to be a loving, caring husband to Ellen, and father to five wonderful daughters. We all chuckled over the novellas that appeared in the mail every Christmas. Tolstoy shuddered in his grave, as the Simmons Christmas card rivaled War and Peace. BUT WE READ THOSE CARDS EVERY YEAR. And a little piece of each of us gave Matt a figurative pat on the back. He managed to do it all.

Matt was an artist. Over the past decade, as he spent more and more time in Maine (and rather relished lording that fact over his friends!) he spent time dabbling in water colors, and dammit, he was good!

"Twilight in the Desert" was published in 2005. It was a major success amongst the peak oil gurus, and Matt was off and running in a new direction. That direction led to a number of controversial positions culminating in his campaign against BP's response to the Deepwater Discovery incident. Ultimately, Matt decided it was time to focus 100% of his energies on his newly founded Ocean Energy Institute.

To listen to Matt discuss the potential still harnessed in our oceans was to listen to unadulterated joy. For no other reason, Matt needed to live another fifty years, so we could see whether his dreams could truly come to fruition.

In the past couple years, Matt and I argued about EVERYTHING. He had done a political 180 on me. I called his bluff on countless positions he had taken. I had him pegged. And do you know the beauty of it? He couldn't have cared less!

Matt was on his own mission. WE WERE JUST ALONG FOR THE RIDE!

Matt made me laugh. I couldn't stay mad at him. He was so passionate and downright committed that no matter how nuts I thought he was about many issues, he was OUR nut.

Matt Simmons, I will miss you. All your friends will miss you. I'm mad you're gone. There is a hole in our lives that we need to figure out how to fill. I'm not sure we can. I look forward to arguing again with you some day. And when we meet, you will have had enough time to think about these past few years, and you can look me in the eye and say "Jim, you were right about Obama!"

Obamashead Revisited

2010-07-22T10:27:00.002-05:00

Setting: The Oval Office

Scene: President Obama meets with team and Chairman of the Fed

Characters: President Obama sitting at his desk

In chairs facing the desk, from left to right:

Chief of Staff-Rahm Emanuel

Empty Chair-

Treasury Secretary-Tim Geithner

Federal Reserve Chairman-Ben Bernanke

President- "Ummm, thank you for coming in today Mr. Chairman."

Bernanke-"It's Ben, Mr. President."

President-"Ummm, ok, of course, Ben. Thank you, and I want you to feel perfectly comfortable calling me ‘Mr. President, OK?”. The President chuckles.

Emanuel- chuckles, grins, and flips the bird at Bernanke.

President-"Ben, your speech yesterday did not do much to inspire confidence in the people."

Bernanke-"I have a duty to tell it as it is Sir."

President-"Rahm, should he call me Sir?"

Emanuel-"Technically, a subordinate addressing you as Commander-in- Chief may call you Sir, Mr. President."

President- "As Commander in what, Rahmbo?"

Bernanke-"Mr. President, my apologies, I will make sure to refer to you today and forever as Mr. President."

President-"Good. Ummm, where were we? Oh, well, Ben, we are trying to tell the American people that the 9.5% unemployment figure is OK, and things are looking up. Tim, isn't unemployment exactly where we said it would be when we signed the porkulus--whoops, I mean stimulus--package into law?"

Geithner- "I would like counsel present before I answer that question."

President-"What? Why?"

Emanuel-"Tim's been a little nervous ever since that tax dodge he got nailed with Mr. President."

President-picks up phone and buzzes his assistant-"Send (Attorney General) Holder in here."

A scuffling noise manifests itself under the President's desk, and Eric Holder pops up and places himself in an empty chair next to Emanuel.

Bernanke does double take.

President-"Eric, I really need you here on the double when I call."

Holder-"My leg fell asleep under the desk, but I'll try harder next time Mr. President."

President-"Tim, you can talk now under protection of counsel. What unemployment rate did we promise by the summer of 2010?"

Geithner-"7.5%"

President-"Ummm...well if you say that really fast, you can make it all sound the same, right?"…Ummm, well, how about the early savings from health care reform. How is that coming along?"

Geithner-"It appears adding giving 40 million people health care benefits with coverage for pre-existing conditions is actually INCREASING health care costs to the Treasury."

President-"What? I thought we were going to get the money from insurance companies and rich people?"

Geithner-"Mr. President, even if we tax all Americans making more than $250,000 a year at 100%, we will not make much of a dent in our growing deficit. And the insurance companies are publicly traded companies trying to make a profit. If it's a known condition, it's not really insurance. I mean, that's kind of how they see it, Mr. President."

Emanuel-“Wait…hold on a second…I make more than $250,000 a year in interest and dividends.”

President-(Still focusing on Geithner) "Ummm, what do you mean when you say "publicly traded?"

Geithner-"Their shares are bought and sold by investors."

President-"You mean on Wall Street?"

Geithner-"Yes, Mr. President."

President-"I knew it! That proves they are all evil! Our health care package will eradicate that scourge!"

Silence permeates Oval Office. Bernanke clears his throat.

Emanuel-"Maybe it's time to tell Netanyahu to take out the Iranian nuke plants."

President-"Are they part of the health care package?"

Emanuel-"No, Mr. President, I segued."

President-"Ummm, isn't a segue the family vehicle of the future in our new carbon tax credit based energy bill?"

Geithner-"I can answer that Mr. President. The answer is 'yes', but the Chief of Staff was referencing a change of subject. He was looking for us to draw an inferential conclusion that we could make Americans forget about this mess we've created if Israel bombs the livin' burkas outta Iran."

President-"Are they hiding their nukes in burkas? My grandmother wore one of those."

Emanuel-"No Mr. President, the Treasury Secretary was demonstrating his skills at alliteration. We believe the nukes are being constructed hundreds of feet underground."

President-"In burkas’?"

Bernanke-"Mr. President, I'm not sure I should be part of this conversation"

President-"Ben, are you saying you have a problem with traditional Muslim clothing?"

Emanuel-“We’ll get back to you in a minute, Mr. Bernanke. Mr. President, I think we have a little problem on the Shirley Sherrod issue.”

President-“Who?”

Emanuel-“The lady we fired for giving a really good speech about racial tolerance.”

President-“the Native American woman of African extraction?”

Emanuel-“Not really sure where that is going Mr. President, but the American people think we might have rushed to judgment a bit in firing her.”

President-“The people know I stand for hope. It will be OK.”

Bernanke- Mr. President, I really should be going.”

President-“I hope you see that all roads lead to the Fed and your disastrous policies. It’s not easy taking the hits here in the White House for your cockeyed decisions.”

Bernanke-“Thank you for inviting me to see you Mr. President. (Bernanke shakes hands and leaves through the door opposite that of the President’s aide.

President-(Looking at no one in particular)“Ummm, Well, I’d say we have things pretty much where and how we want them to be, wouldn’t you?”

Geithner-“Am I still protected by counsel?”

Holder-“I think I’ll just slither back under the desk.”

Emanuel-“I’ll get Netanyahu on the line now.”

The Oval Office

2010-07-05T12:17:00.001-05:00

July 2nd—The Oval Office

Rahm Emanuel enters from the President's right, through his secretary’s door-

The President- “Rahmbo, my man…whaddup?”

Rahmbo-“'Sup, O-man?…today’s economic news is not so good.”

The President- “It takes visionaries to have vision, Rahmster.”

Rahmbo- “We have passed the largest Recovery Act in the history of the country. I’m just a little concerned about the Recovery part of it all.”

The President- “Not to worry, my perspicacious purveyor of chiefly staff duties; just think how bad it would be if Bush was still President! Hah, and he didn’t even play golf when things were in the tank. Silly man.”

Rahmbo—“Good point O. Say, I was wondering, do you ever wake up hating yourself as much as you do every day Americans?”

The President—“There you go again. You’re not letting your conscience get to you are you? Or have you been talkin’ to Michelle again?”

Rahmbo—“No conscience issues here, Mr. P, remember, I’ve never had one.”

The President—“Well anyway, no, I never hate myself as much as I hate most of the people in this country. Are you kidding? That’s why we’re sitting here, Rahm. You know that. The gun totin’, bible thumpers out there have had free reign for too long. We are here to change all that. And we are, aren’t we? And as long as we have Tony Hayward and Goldman Sachs to kick around, we’ll keep on takin’ ‘em to the cleaners. They don’t have a clue what we are actually doing to them. And this will be remembered, my Chief of all insulters, as the American Zeitgeist. We will be forever credited with dismantling all that were known as uniquely American values. No longer will our European peers mock us.”

Rahmbo—“True dat, O-man. I mean, how cool was it to see the Europeans lecturing us on fiscal austerity at the G-20! We showed them. We’re gonna stick to our guns-whoops, pardon the 2nd amendment slip there-no harm no foul, right? - and we’re gonna keep on spending money we don’t have!”

The President—“That’s why you are my loyal lobby leader for hope and change, Rahmbo. We cannot be kowtowed by Europe’s fiscal austerity plans. We need to keep spending! Look how well it’s working! In another couple years we’ll be able to get the “let them eat cake” chant going. We can do it from the Truman Balcony. Michelle would dig on that…but I digress. Where are you going to celebrate July 4th?”

Rahmbo—“You won’t believe this. My brother has a place up in
Rhode Island…right on the coast…it’s full of the people we hate. And they do this fireworks thing every year, and they all stand around celebrating who knows what. But they don’t even see that we are taking that all away from them, one step at a time. In fact, most of them actually like me! What a joke.”

The President—“Don’t be so hard on them. You’re talking about the people who are going to pay for all this. They are the bankers; they just don’t know it yet. And their kids better get on the ball, because mumsy and daddy won’t have anything left for them.”

Rahmbo—“I’m going to take 2 Suburbans and an army of secret service up there and rock their little seaside world. The speed limit is 25. We’ll see if two Suburbans doing 60 can create enough draft to launch a little 7 year old republican off his bike and into the ocean!”

The President—“Rahmbo, you’re not an elected official. Have you had any threats or something?”

Rahmbo—“No, but c’mon, blowing into their little country club with sirens blaring and lights flashing is as good as it gets. We’re killing their way of life, and they don’t even get it. Anyway, we’ve passed the stimulus and health care bills; do you really think anyone will blow the whistle on my taking a few secret service people with me everywhere I go? Bush’s office of Chiefs of Staff was full of bankers and preppies. I’m Rahmbo! I need protection!”

The President—“Heh, I hear ya. Well, have a good one. But don’t get too caught up in all that 4th of July crap. The declaration was wonderful for some, but not for all.
When we’re finished, however, the people will understand what you and I mean when we say ‘all men are created equal’.”

More to follow

A Peter Finch Moment

2010-06-24T17:26:00.003-05:00

I’ve been in Asia for nearly three weeks. But before I go there, I’d like to ask you to take less than two minutes to watch the video on the right side of the blog. (Just click on the words "Peter Finch loses it...." which you'll find with your mouse right below "Mad as Hell...!") For those of you long in the tooth, it should bring back memories. For all readers though, it should ring eerily true of our plight today.

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Well, now that you have taken that trip down memory lane, ponder this. We the people have been suborned into violating our implicit creed of existence in the United States; we are the land of entrepreneurs, hope, risk and reward. For centuries we have been the representative bastion of freedom and personal opportunity. These are not just ideas; they are composite pieces of a uniquely American value system.

With each passing week, President Obama and his goon-squad are quietly chipping away at EVERYTHING you and your family have grown up to cherish as an intrinsic American right. Just in the past week;

--Congressman Joe Barton was pilloried by the White House (and sadly, members of his own party) for being brave enough to tell the world that he was embarrassed by the administration’s Chicago style strong-arming of BP. Barton was right. The President has no legal authority to cajole (bully) a private sector company into setting up an escrow account. This is not Cuba or Venezuela. This is the United States.

Barton’s apology to Tony Hayward (since retracted as he feared he would lose his minority leadership position) has nothing to do with what one may think about BP. Further, it has nothing to do with the cause of the offshore blowout and subsequent release of hydrocarbons into the Gulf of Mexico. This is about upholding fundamental rights under established civil law. The administration has repeatedly shown a blatant disregard for individual rights. This government does not believe it is comprised of the people, for the people, and by the people. This government believes it is not in office to serve the interests of the people; but rather to use its power to radically and irrevocably alter the social and economic structure of the United States.

--General McChrystal made a mistake. He let his guard down in front of a liberal reporter writing for a liberal newspaper, and he has now paid the ultimate price. Insubordination is not tolerated in our military. Opine Needles gets it. But good leaders know how to lead. And this was a time for leadership on a biblical (the other cheek thing) level. The President needed to rise above petty vindictiveness and do the right thing for the war effort in Afghanistan.

Afghan President Karzai implored President Obama to keep General McChrystal in his post. Secretary of Defense Gates lobbied for his retention. But the fact is that he was toast the minute the Rolling Stone article surfaced. Obama and his cronies will not countenance ANY criticism. This is classic illiberal leftist behavior. It is their way or the highway. And now we will not have a US commanding officer in Afghanistan, until General Petraeus is approved by the Senate and makes his way over to assume control of operations. We have removed the most important cog in the troubled wheel of wartime progress in Afghanistan; at a crucial time in the Kandahar surge. This is not leadership. This is small, petty, vindictive, and downright pitiful behavior.

Some brief notes on Asia-

Every time I make the trek to the Far East, I return convinced more than ever that the Obama administration’s redistributionist policies will force the sun to set on the American dream at warp speed; and the Asian world awaits the fruits of our self-inflicted misfortune as if it were Ochocinco catching buttonhooks in a summer workout.

Tens of billions of dollars are being spent (and will continue to be spent for years to come) on infrastructure projects throughout Asia. The entire region (save North Korea) is experiencing double digit growth. I imagine European visitors to the United States in 1900 felt much the same way.

I don’t know about you, but it truly irritates me. I don’t begrudge Asia its day in the sun, but that same sphere of light does NOT have to set on the United States. Only through adoption of previously failed socialist policies will we succumb and tacitly cede our unique position in the world to an emerging Asian power.

In November, the American people have the chance to tell Washington that they are as mad as hell and they aren’t going to take it any more!

Crikey!

2010-06-02T11:20:00.003-05:00

The Aussies would sum it up in one word; “CRIKEY!”

The bloviating popinjays on Pennsylvania Avenue are still strutting in full regalia and spouting complete nonsense. They are verbal wells out of control. Will someone please develop a top-kill for them! They continue to bang on about the limitation of liability provisions in the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. They are also promulgating burdensome regulations for explortion activity on the Gulf of Mexico shelf; what are referred to as shallow water wells. What on earth are they doing?

For over a month, President Obama has made statements similar to the one he made last week. “BP is responsible for this horrific disaster, and we will hold them fully accountable on behalf of the United States as well as the people and communities victimized by this tragedy."

Interior Secretary Salazar said “Our job is basically to keep the boot on the throat of BP”, and then White House press secretary Robert Gibbs had the good grace to reiterate that pleasant Nazi-era image. I’m waiting for brown shirt uniforms to emerge.

On June 1st, Homeland Security Czarina Janet Napolitano told BP to get its checkbook out because it has a big bill headed its way.

Not to be outdone, Attorney General Holder (he who refuses to acknowledge the 2nd amendment for what it is, and he who arranged the release of the FARC terrorists) stepped up to the spill and announced a criminal investigation. The government must “ensure that anyone found responsible for this spill is held accountable,” Holder said, after touring the Gulf and meeting with federal and state prosecutors. “That means enforcing the appropriate civil — and, if warranted, criminal — authorities to the full extent of the law.”

Holder said Justice Department lawyers were investigating a wide range of possible violations under a number of federal statutes, including clean water laws and the Endangered Species Act, which provides fines and prison time for people found guilty of harming or killing wildlife.

My friends, this is big government at its absolute worst. The Endangered Species Act envisages jail time for people who wantonly kill endangered species….picture a guy popping baby bald eagles out of their nest from his kitchen window. A little time at the crow bar inn might do him some good. But putting someone in jail over this spill? CRIKEY!

While the Administration prevaricates, it is doing absolutely NOTHING to help resolve the problem or contain the spill. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has been asking for specific help for weeks. He has been invited to a number of meetings which have proven to be wonderful photo ops, but his requests for actual action have largely been ignored. So while our Administration talks tough and blows smoke, it has been absolutely useless in lending a constructive hand. And now it has created an adversarial relationship with the one company that has the best chance of finding a solution to the problem.

Have you seen BP’s share price? How much of that precipitous fall has been caused by traders shorting its shares, following the United States government’s announcement that it is holding a Gestapo boot to BP’s throat and is now investigating criminal charges?

In the insurance world, political risk insurance has been available for decades. Coverage can be purchased to protect the seizure of assets (or suspension/termination of operations) by “foreign” states or entities in countries in which western companies are operating. This coverage has not been available in the US or UK, as the view has long been that the “problems” were in developing nation states in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and in former Soviet states.

I gave a speech in Dubai this past February in which I suggested that the paradigm was shifting, and it might be viewed as supreme western arrogance and folly to continue to view business operations in the US and UK as somehow immune to arbitrary and capricious governmental acts that adversely impact the right to conduct business. Well folks, we have arrived. CRIKEY!

This administration is no better than a developing world puppet regime. Doing business in the United States should now be considered with a view that an inherent political risk exists. Any overseas entity considering an investment in the US will have to add a “risk premium” into its projected return on investment in consideration of the fact that the United States government may take action that adversely impacts the investment. What have we wrought?

Last week’s announcement by Obama that all drilling operations in the Gulf were being suspended was one of the biggest blunders of this ill-fated Presidency. In effect, the Administration last week:

• extended the moratorium on new deepwater offshore drilling permits for six months while a recently appointed presidential commission investigates the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico,

• announced that it would not consider applications for permits to drill in the Arctic until 2011; that includes the five exploratory wells that Shell Oil was planning to start drilling this summer off the coast of Alaska in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas,

• cancelled the pending lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico and the proposed lease sale off the coast of Virginia, and

• suspended action on 33 deepwater exploratory wells currently being drilled in the Gulf of Mexico.

On June 3rd, the MMS confirmed that ALL drilling in the US Gulf of Mexico was suspended. This advice was then contradicted by its parent, the Department of Interior. It appears that drilling on the shelf may continue, but only after confirmation that the drilling plans conform to new (and yet to be fully disclosed) MMS safety regulations.

30% of the oil and gas produced in the United States comes from the Gulf of Mexico. Tens of thousands of jobs will be lost because of these decisions. The impact at the pump WILL be felt. The impact on the American economy will be one of consequence. In short, to virtually halt oil and gas operations in the US Gulf of Mexico, and stop progress off the East Coast and Alaska is stuff of cloud- cuckoo-land.

So what on earth are they doing up in Washington D.C.? Your guess is as good as mine.

CRIKEY!

More to follow-

Three Dog Night

2010-05-09T09:05:00.004-05:00

That’s right. It’s time to reminisce, albeit briefly. The last couple weeks have put me in a downright Three Dog Night funk. For a while last week, I was thinking about a massive Republican victory in November; I imagined the President singing “One is the Loneliest Number.” Then I was focused on a work issue in Madrid, and moved to “Never Been to Spain.”

But watching the democrats bounce back and forth pillorying Goldman Sachs and BP (“Wall Street” greed, “Big Oil” greed: Lordy, Lordy, we certainly have scary enemies in the United States!) has me switching gears again. This time I’ve had to change the words. I’m sure most of you remember the song “Celebrate”. Try this:

“REGULATE, REGULATE….DANCE TO THE MUSIC!

Now I can’t get it out of my head. It’s worse than “Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves.”

What have we wrought? Ronald Reagan is doing cartwheels in his grave; (big grave, I reckon). I think even the old robber baron buster himself, Teddy Roosevelt, would be apoplectic over today’s state of affairs in Washington. The answer to every crisis is to point the finger of blame and impose new layers of bureaucracy on an already burdened capitalist state. Populists unite! To Hell(!) with this Bud; this democrat government is for YOU!

Let's focus a while on bubblin' crude; oil that is, black gold, Texas tea.

The rig explosion and subsequent pollution event are both tragic occurrences. And the timing could not be worse. Having (finally) made progress on lifting the senseless drilling ban off the US east coast, the odds of that ban remaining lifted are slim to none.

It behooves all Americans to put oil drilling in perspective. The last US drilling related major incident was offshore Santa Barbara in 1969. The exploration and production industry in California still hasn’t recovered-and now it likely never will. Since 1969, we have produced in excess of ten billion barrels of oil in the US Gulf of Mexico. The recorded spill rate from over all these years was .00001 of amounts produced; infinitesimal. Until two weeks ago, there has not been ONE relevant blowout related pollution incident.

So what has our government (Big Brother) done to protect its people? First, it declared a moratorium on new drilling in the Gulf. Now there is a good idea. Want to kill off a good chunk of the economies in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi (and in manufacturing states such as Ohio, where specialty products are made for the oil industry) and ultimately drive the worldwide price of crude oil up? Stop drilling. Good thinking.

Even better, the bright lights in Washington are reviewing the financial responsibility provisions of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. (This kneejerk piece of legislation was rammed through Congress after the Exxon Valdez incident in 1989.) It stands as a marvelously ambiguous piece of lawmaker modern art. To this day, no two experts can agree on how it actually is meant to work. Presently, an offshore leasehold operator (the “responsible party”) must demonstrate financial responsibility in amounts ranging from $35,000,000 up to $75,000,000 before spudding a well. This can be accomplished either by way of insurance, or “qualified self insurance”. This does NOT limit the responsible party’s liability in the event of a pollution loss to $75,000,000. There are holes (gross negligence, willful misconduct, and provisions under the NRDA [National Resource Damage Assessment] clauses) that any good plaintiff attorney can drive Exxon Valdez sized tankers through to ensure the responsible party is on the hook until all the oil cleansed cows come home.

But our congressional Mensa candidates haven’t really taken the time to understand their own law. So what have they done? They’ve jumped on the $75,000,000 limit being bandied about in the main stream media (msm) and derided same as woefully insufficient. They are presently preparing for hearings in which they will discuss requiring an oil lease operator to certify $10,000,000,000 in financial responsibility! That is not a typo.

Adding insult to injury, you know an issue is in trouble when the talking heads on Fox News get it wrong. Fox News bloviators (my word) have hyped the spill almost as irresponsibly as the msm.

Opine Needles should accept the fact that it may be wrong. Perhaps this opinion is dredging up paleontological thought that has no place in today’s progressive western world. But then again, Al Gore took a stand against all offshore drilling this week. So Opine Needles will leave it up to its readers to decide the right side of the drilling fence on which to stand.

Incidentally, did you see the movie Hangover? I think the character Alan has cloned himself and has gained majority control of the House and the Senate. My friends, they are talking complete and utter nonsense.

If Congress follows through with this idiocy, it will effectively shut down oil exploration and development in US offshore waters. Then wait and see what happens to the:
• price of gas at the pump;
• US jobless rate, (jobs nationwide supply the oil business)
• US economy, and
• voter mood.

The lunatics are running the asylum.

REGULATE, REGULATE….DANCE TO THE MUSIC!

More to follow-

Tar Baby

2010-04-26T19:51:00.005-05:00

Over the past couple decades I have been asked if I ever considered running for office. I was close once; the answer almost invariably has been “yes, but….” To be asked is flattering, but then again these are generally the same friends who detest the bloviating popinjays of O’Reilly’s world, so one could view the suggestion as faint praise. The reality is that I see things in black and white, and today’s political environment has morphed into various shades of grey. For instance, I simply will not and would not countenance today’s illiberal left. This movement has become rigidly intolerant of ANY alternative viewpoint. Theirs is a world full of victims. To the left, almost every perceived societal ill has arisen somehow through the overt neglect and malevolence of those cursed with Anglo-Saxon heritage.

While there may be dozens of reasons why I am not suited for public office, one reason (and reason enough) is that my politics would never survive the slurs of a high pitched main stream media battle. Special interests and the effete elite would make me a poster child for all that is wrong with traditional America. The liberals are at their very bigoted best when they have some good red meat on which to chew.

I’ve labeled this blog “Tar Baby”. You and I see that expression and we think of something we do not want to touch, because if we do it will stick to us. It was perhaps made famous in the Uncle Remus stories, but the origins of the expression are thought to have Native American roots. It is only in recent times that activist African Americans have decided that the expression is a racial slur. Sorry, I’m not buying it. So there you go; I told you I am not made of the right stuff to be a politician in today’s world of politically correct revisionism.

My Tar Baby topic is the issue of illegal immigration. The illegal immigrant issue is vexing. We are, after all, a nation of immigrants. The rich tapestry of American culture has been indelibly embroidered by and with numerous cultures and ethnicities. But until the latter part of the twentieth century, there was always a common thread holding the tapestry together; everyone who came to our shores came to pursue an American opportunity, and ultimately, to become an American. Being an American (which, in spite of the threats to its very essence, remains a very unique and enriching distinction) means one country, one culture, one language, and one flag. In the last fifty years, we have witnessed steady erosion in commitment to "one country". Numerous politicians have promoted policies encouraging multi-culturalism and multiple languages within our borders. ("Press 1 for English, and 2 for Spanish," if you get my drift.)

The influx of illegal immigrants in the United States has created massive economic, social and political upheaval. So here is the long and short of it. The hard cold reality is that we don't have an influx of Europeans and Asians causing these issues. We have an influx of Hispanic speaking peoples from Central America. They have come to America to make money. Who can blame them? They have poured over our state borders for decades. If Canada was destitute and the Central American states all affluent, the problem would be on our northern border. So it is what it is; the issue lies to our south. And no one wants to deal with this tar baby.

Opine Needles says this:

--Israel has blazed the trail. Secure border fences work. I'm not talking about rusting barbed wire. I'm talking about double barrel trenched fencing with electronic eavesdropping capabilities.

--Do not offer blanket amnesty to those presently living illegally in the United States. Why on earth should they be given rights that LEGAL immigrants from all over the world have worked hard to achieve? Offer the "illegals" the opportunity to become American citizens by registering, and proving over a minimum of five years that they are qualified to be American citizens. Anyone with a criminal record goes; full stop. Call it the COAL program-Chance Of A Lifetime. Anyone who does not comply with the COAL law goes; along with their offspring.

--Continue the worker program for itinerate workers.

--Build the fences, patrol them, pass the COAL bill, and ENFORCE THE LAWS we already have on the books.

I'm sure you have seen the Main Stream Media and democrats heaping abuse on Arizona. (President Obama referred to the recently passed legislation as "misguided".) All Arizona has done is open the door for state and local police to do the job the federal government has refused to do; enforce the law of the land.

Illegal immigrants cost our country TENS of BILLIONS of dollars every year. They are increasingly involved in violent crimes, and make up an ever growing number of our prison population. Our border is also an open door to terrorists seeking to harm Americans on American soil. It's time to shut that door! Let me be perfectly clear; Opine Needles wants the United States of America to continue to be the beacon of freedom and hope to the world. We want those who are politically or ethnically oppressed to know they have a safe haven in the land of opportunity. We want intellectual capital from other nations to WANT to become Americans. But we have laws for those who would emigrate to the United States, and those laws must be enforced.

So why all the political prevarication? The political southpaws (couldn't resist-apologies to my left-handed family and friends) see any attempt to deal firmly and decisively with the millions of illegals in our country as overt profiling; a blatant racist ploy. And most Republicans have been too scared to tackle the issue in the manner in which they know it has to be tackled. It's time to call a spade a spade; (oh my, there I go again. That is another expression that has become unacceptable in today's PC world, even though it dates back hundreds of years and refers to a gardening tool.) We have a huge problem that is contributing directly to the economic, social and cultural degradation of our country. ENOUGH ALREADY!

Illegal immigration can be slowed to a trickle. The expense (both in terms of infrastructure and ongoing oversight) would be a fraction of what is already being incurred by state and federal taxpayers. But it will take resolve, and it will take guts; two characteristics in very short supply right now in Washington D.C.

More to follow-

Mired in Ash

2010-04-17T06:40:00.003-05:00

When I awoke last Thursday morning, I was interested in television reports of volcanic ash spewing into the atmosphere, but I did not connect the dots. I did not think that I would be sitting in a friend's flat in London three days later with absolutely no hope of returning to the United States any time soon. It is a beautiful day in London. But for a light dusting of ash on parked cars, and a sky eerily empty of air traffic, one would never know that Europe is paralyzed.

You may think it is somewhat self indulgent for one to complain about being marooned in London. That's fair enough, I guess. It's not the Green Zone. None the less, I have two things to say in my defense:

1) I've travelled enough in my life where there is no place I'd rather be than home, and

2) My family is in Houston, and I'm not.

I knew I might be in for it this morning when I logged on to the Cunard website to check on the availability of a transatlantic voyage as a possible means of getting home; only to find out that the next voyage is April 22nd, and it is sold out!

Switching gears, I watched the first ever UK equivalent of a televised presidential debate on Thursday night. I have two things to say about that too:

1) Nixon and Kennedy did this in 1960, and it is happening for the first time here?

2) Listening to the liberal democrat, labour and conservative candidates was frightening. The liberal democrat and labour policies make ObamaCare look like a walk in the park of fiscal restraint.

The Europeans and Brits have already got to where the President and his cronies so desperately seek to take the United States. Life here has already transcended the notion of equality of opportunity. It is now all about equality of outcome. The UK and Europe are great, festering, bloated melting pots of redistribution.

How about the government going after Goldman Sachs yesterday? Look, I think any objective observer can see how our banks took the securitization of these bad loans to an extreme. The quest for profit did indeed exacerbate the problem. But fundamentally they did what they are in business to do. Ours is (for now, at least) a private sector driven economy. Our politicians and federal-backed institutions created the environment and easy money for the mortgage crisis to occur. The banks took the concept and ran with it. If government policy had not been geared toward free money and homes for everyone, the issue would be a non-issue.

On both sides of the Atlantic, the "bankers" are an easy target for the politicians. And so the bankers are in the hot seat. Indeed, after W, the bankers are next in line in the gotcha blame game. Come to think of it, the Houston Astros are off to a horrendous start. Sue Goldman Sachs!

Free time is a dangerous thing. After my third Starbucks espresso this morning, I began thinking about the November elections. What if the Republicans can actually pull it off and regain a majority? What should they do? The answer is clear to me. They must not, under any circumstances, agree to any legislation involving an iota of increased tax or spending. Further, they should pen legislation to extend the Bush tax cuts. Put the President in a place where he has to explain why implicit (just letting the Bush tax cuts expire is an insidious tax hike) and explicit tax increases are the right thing to do. The democrat party cannot get away with the cynical, fraudulent "Bush tax cuts for the wealthy" war cry forever. The people are beginning to wake up and smell the tax increases.

Enjoy your weekend.

Smugness Galore

2010-04-08T10:44:00.004-05:00

I don’t know about you, but I’ve found myself fighting melancholy over the past couple weeks. Melancholy has not won the battle, but it has subdued me upon occasion as I tackle my daily tasks.

The last time I would have felt such melancholy was during Jimmy Carter’s abysmal stay in the White House. Fortunately, I was young and stupid and didn’t connect the dots. Reagan lifted everyone’s spirits (except perhaps for Bruce Springsteen’s, who didn’t like his song “Born in the USA” co-opted by Reagan’s re-election team.) George H W Bush may be remembered as our last great statesman President. He is the whole package; student-athlete, war hero, successful entrepreneur in the oil patch, and dedicated public servant. He followed Reagan. John Major had the misfortune of following Thatcher. Timing is everything. Following an icon is what I call bad timing.

Clinton was the human equivalent of a tsunami. He entered a room like a wave and his personality enveloped most people. He was smart and could charm the shell off a turtle. The problem was that he often would do just that, and then wonder why he ended up holding a smelly turtle shell. He lost sight of the end game. Tiger comes to mind on that front, but that sod has been amply trod.

George W Bush was guided less by polls than any President in our lifetime. He did what he thought was right to protect the United States. He has become the democrat poster child for all that is wrong in America. Our voters are funny people. On one hand, they seem wholly oblivious to the nuances, intricacies, and complexities confronting our country. Then again, over time, the American people always seem to be able to smell a rat. The longer the democrat leadership tries to blame W for its own failings, the more the people will begin to smell that rat.

I guess what really bugs me about the last couple weeks is the sheer arrogance exhibited by democrat leadership following the President’s signing the bloated health care bill into law. From Joe Biden’s “this is a big f___ing deal” to Congressman Dingell’s glee over health care’s colossal step toward total “control (of) the people”, we have seen and heard nothing but SMUGNESS GALORE from the President, Speaker Pelosi, and Majority leader Reid. They talk of the health care bill as a “VICTORY”. Opine Needles would like to know exactly whom did they CONQUER?! Yes, that is a rhetorical question. You know the answer. The American People are the losers. American businesses are the losers. Our children and grandchildren are the losers.

I won’t throw statistic after statistic at you. It is easy to do, as they numbers are readily available. Opine Needles has addressed the democracy issue before but it is worth mentioning again. There is a quote (presently making the internet rounds) attributed to an 18th century Scotsman named Alexander Tyler. In fact, he did NOT author the words I am about to paraphrase. No one seems to be able to trace the origin, although the closest source may be an American businessman in the mid-twentieth century. Since there is no one author for purposes of attribution, Opine Needles has taken the liberty of crafting the message. None the less, the following words ring true and presciently:

A democracy may, by definition, be temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy; the natural consequence of such collapse is the manifestation of some form of totalitarian government.

A review of the great civilizations over time demonstrates the evolution as follows:
• From bondage to spiritual faith;
• From spiritual faith to great courage;
• From courage to liberty;
• From liberty to abundance;
• From abundance to complacency;
• From complacency to apathy;
• From apathy to dependence;
• From dependence back into bondage.

People left Europe and other domiciles to escape bondage (economic, spitritual, or political) and pursue opportunity and freedom of faith in America. Rooted in faith, they found great courage to stand up to the naked aggression and arrogance of King George and Parliament. That courage led to liberty and the creation of the United States of America. Hard work, natural resources, and diligence won through the fight for liberty (and preservation of the Union) led to abundance.

Starting during the Great Depression, we began to see the inexorable tidal wave moving toward complacency, apathy, and dependence.

Folks, we have arrived. The health care bill tips the scales of dependence to the point where more than 50% of our people rely on the Federal Government for some form of sustenance. And to add insult to injury, we are actually relying on public debt to fund more than 50% of the entitlements we are heaping on the people!!! That is not just a shame; it is a criminal.

I don’t know about you, but I prefer the liberty and abundance phase of our evolution. This November is the first chance you have to reverse course.

See, I’m all worked up now. The desultory state of democrat driven melancholy has been beaten back for another day. Fight on.

Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves

2010-03-28T20:21:00.011-05:00

1971 was not a special year. In fact, I would argue that the 1970’s were fundamentally lamentable, if not just down right entirely forgettable. None the less, here are a few random bits of 1971 perspective for you:

• Gas was $.40 a gallon.
• A stamp cost $.08.
• Amtrak was formed
• Lance Armstrong was born.
• Disney World opened.
• The “Summer of 42” and “Love Story” played at the theaters.
• Jim Morrison of the Doors died.
• The voting age was lowered to 18.
• First oil flowed in Norway.
• Fed Ex was incorporated.

The Taft School wanted me to stay back; I said “No way, Jose”, and went to a public high school instead. That shrewd calculation resulted in a three year educational hiatus, but what the heck, I had some interesting experiences, went to a good college, and somehow survived. Believe it or not, something more amazing happened in 1971. Cher had an epiphany. It was not like my mother’s epiphany. My mother’s epiphany occurred when she finally realized the smell seeping from under the door in my older brother’s room was actually not incense. But I digress. Maybe Cher was caught in a vortex; knowing that she had somehow escaped Sonny, only to face a future (albeit of nanosecond-like duration) with Gregg Allman. Whatever it was, for a brief period of time in 1971, she saw nearly forty years into the future and (with assistance from songwriter Bob Stone) sang a prophetic song about the CURRENT democrat leadership in Washington. She actually looked into her crystal ball and saw Pelosi, Reid, Obama, Biden, and Emanuel; and as one can be moved to opine, Cher was compelled to sing.

How she saw the signs of deceit so far in advance, one will never know. And Cher still isn’t talking. But the fact is that her hit single, “Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves” was a warning shot across the bow that remained unheeded until last week’s passage of the HCDB (Health Care Debacle Bill). Cher tried to tell us then that it all boiled down to selling "a couple bottles of Doctor Good.” And folks, that’s where we find ourselves. We have been sold the world’s largest bottle of Doctor Good.

Sonny would tell us to chill out, and accept that “the beat goes on.” But we know the creators of ObamaCare and democrat leaders in D.C. are wryly smiling as they say “I got you babe”!

This week, a number of Fortune 500 companies announced that they are taking large expense hits (as required by law!) in anticipation of their increased health care costs. Representative Waxman (democrat from California) is outraged. He can’t believe these companies are giving ObamaCare such bad press!! He wants to launch a congressional inquiry.

So let’s get this straight. For months, U.S. businesses and Republicans have been discussing the economic devastation that will be unleashed by ObamaCare. Now that the bill is law, and the first economic chickens have come home to roost, the democrat leadership is downright MIFFED! In a word, ladies and gentlemen, it is nauseating.

In my blog two weeks ago, I warned of the steep hill America will have to climb to repeal ObamaCare. Well, we now find ourselves in that “place”. Democrat leadership is openly talking about ObamaCare being just the first step in their effort to “control the people”. (Representative Dingell-democrat from Michigan)

Friends, this IS the stuff of socialism! This isn’t some right wing psycho-babble. These people want to redistribute your hard earned savings and create a leveled-living “outcome” for all Americans. We are experiencing George Orwell’s 1984. It is no longer an academic argument. It is happening. The United States is a jet and it has been hijacked. We are the passengers. It’s time to roll.

The election in November 2010 is the first step in what MUST become an American electorate revolt.

--Those who believe in hard work and consequential reward must rise up and take their government back.

--Those who believe in free enterprise and low taxation must rise up and take their government back.

--Those who believe in the Constitution as the rule of law must rise up and take their government back.

--Those who believe in freedom of choice must rise up and take their government back.

--Those who believe in the power of a private sector as the engine of economic growth must rise up and take their government back.

--Those who want to continue go to the doctor of their choice and receive the world’s BEST health care must rise up and take their government back.

--Those who believe that America has been a beacon of hope and light for hundreds of millions of people around the world (and in its own enlightened self interest should continue to be) must rise up and take their government back.

A lesson from history merits mention here. EVERY time a country has moved toward inwardly focused social redistribution, there are three inevitable consequences;

1) higher taxes,

2) wealth destruction, and

3) military obliteration.

There simply will not be any money left to maintain a role as the world's becacon of hope. The history lesson starts with the Romans and ends most recently with the British. The lesson will add another victim if we do not reverse this radical course.

Back to Cher; as you probably can imagine, she actually did not have that aforementioned epiphany. In fact, Cher once said, “If you're black in this country, if you're a woman in this country, if you are any minority in this country at all, what could possibly possess you to vote Republican?” Alas, Opine Needles responds by asking “if you exist in this country (Descartes-"I think, therefor I am"), if you value and respect the Constitution in, of, and for this country, if you believe in opportunity and freedom to choose in this country, what could possibly possess you to NOT vote Republican?"

Opine Needles will not be singing back-up for Cher anytime soon.

More to follow-

The Left Loves to Hate Texas

2010-03-22T07:03:00.002-05:00

I am a Christian, but I’m the kind of Christian one of my cousins calls a “holiday Episcopal”. I think I’ve missed one Christmas Eve service in my life, but truth be told, I’d rather be on a golf course on Sunday morning. I believe in a higher power, and I think it is man’s ultimate folly to think otherwise. I tell you this because it is important in the context of the current hullabaloo the main stream media is making over the changes in school curriculum for which the Texas State Board of Education has recently voted. I firmly believe our children should be taught about the theory of evolution. I also believe it is borderline criminal to rewrite US history and omit the important role played by Christianity.

In 2007, Governor Perry appointed Don McLeroy to lead the State Board of Education. (SBOE), and charged Mr. McLeroy with chairing the process to revamp the core social studies, economics, and history curriculums. Mr. McLeroy is a dentist by trade, and is alleged to be a strict “creationist”. (Liberals love that word. The closest synonym they can muster is “Neanderthal”.) His term as chair of the SBOE just ended, and he recently lost his reelection bid (to a more moderate Republican) to continue on the SBOE. Governor Perry did not do himself or Texas any favors with this lightening rod appointment. Texas would have been better served by having a more moderate leader. But be that as it may, the SBOE did a good job and Texas has managed to stem the tide of secular liberal activism creeping into the educational process over the past several decades.

Texas buys a lot of textbooks. Many smaller states end up following along once Texas orders new books. So the publishers and the educators pay attention when Texas decides to change its course curriculums.

That is basically all the background you need.

The national media has had itself a self-righteous picnic with the debate swirling around the SBOE curriculum amendment process in Austin. Last week, an Austin based AP reporter names April Castro was given nationwide coverage by penning an article entitled “Texas Board Vote Reflects Far-Right Influence”. Her tome epitomizes the viewpoint espoused by today’s radical left. The New York Times also covered this story from a similar viewpoint. A self evident message here is that one really has to be discerning whenever one reads ANY news. The left has turned the news into nothing more than an opportunity to distort and convert current events into unrepentant editorial opinion. THIS UPROAR IS REALLY ALL ABOUT SECULAR lIBERALS' (small case L, because these people do not stand for classic Liberalism in any way, shape, or form) HORROR THAT TEXAS HAS HAD THE COMMON SENSE TO SAY “NO MAS” TO SECULAR PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION BOARDS USING OUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN AS GUINEA PIGS IN AN ONGOING POST WWII ATTEMPT TO COMPLETELY ALTER UNITED STATES HISTORY.

Following are some quotes and thoughts extracted from Ms. Castro’s article, with Opine Needles comments in response:

Castro-“…a far right faction of the Texas SBOE…succeeded in injecting conservative ideals into social studies, history and economics lessons that will be taught to millions in the next decade.”

Opine Needles—simply translated, by majority vote, the ELECTED Texas SBOE has decided to reorient the course of education in Texas and cover important topics which have, BY DESIGN, been neglected and gradually omitted in the state’s curriculum for the past several decades. For instance, the course study will once again examine the Judeo-Christian roots embedded in the core of our nation’s birth. This study will link our founding with thought from the Enlightenment. (Duh!) The Declaration of Independence reads “When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them…..We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness….”

God, per se, was part and parcel of our founding. Fifteen years later, The First Amendment to our Constitution codified that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting free exercise thereof.”

One cannot find any suggestion in the Declaration of Independence, Constitution or Bill of Rights that Christianity was not embraced by our country’s founders. Indeed, the First Amendment served to protect it, separate it from Federal funding, and also ensure that Americans were free to worship as they wished. In short, Christianity was celebrated as part of our culture.

The secular liberals love to point to Thomas Jefferson’s “separation of church and state”. This is a red herring. Jefferson never once suggested that America should be a secular society.

The modern secular left prefers to have history taught from the perspective that eliminates Christianity as an important component of our past. Over the past fifty years, we have witnessed incessant attacks on references to God and Christians in virtually all public forums. Just last year, the President of the United States gave a speech in Turkey, and stated that the United States is “not a Christian nation.”

Mr. McLeroy’s alleged “creationist” views aside, Opine Needles supports the notion that Texas children cannot be taught United States history without reference to the important role Christianity has played.

Castro—is upset that the United States will be referred to as a "Constitutional Republic” as opposed to a “democratic government”.

Opine Needles—Whoa Nelly! We ARE a Constitutional Republic!

Castro—laments the fact that students will learn about:

--the decline in value of the US dollar
--the abandonment of the gold standard
--dates will be referred to as B.C. and A.D., rather than the new politically correct B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) and C.E..
--the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including who Golda Meir was.
--the Second Amendment to the Constitution
--the impact of the Reagan Presidency on the Cold War
--the argument for low taxes and trickle down economics

Opine Needles—are you kidding me? How can curriculums NOT discuss these topics? Opine Needles readers will know that the Second Amendment is near and dear to my heart. Scroll down the page to see what Messrs. Washington and Jefferson had to say about the right to bear arms.

Of course, there has to be a race card as well. The liberals decry the fact that students will no longer have to “explain how institutional racism is evident in American society.” This is classic permanent victim stuff. Enough already! If we want to talk about racism in 2010 American society, let’s start with Reverend Wright and Louis Farrakhan. The left continues to confuse the need to continue pushing for equality of OPPORTUNITY with their manic obsession with the need to continue pushing for equality of OUTCOMES.

In her article, Ms. Castro refers to the majority of the Texas SBOE as “ultraconservative”. These ultraconservatives have insisted upon course study that includes discussion regarding “American exceptionalism and the U.S. free enterprise system, suggesting that it thrives best absent excessive government intervention.” Lordy, lordy, God forbid our children learn about the tremendous work ethic and capitalist traditions which played such a crucial role in our development as a country. For crying out loud, the next thing we’ll be talking about again is manifest destiny!!

Case rested. I am sure there will be some omissions or statements in the new text books that upset every Opine Needles reader, as well as this Opine Needles author. (There is a yet to be finalized motion to delete Jefferson’s writings as part of an Enlightenment section. If true, that is regrettable.) But I couldn’t be happier that Texas is the ONLY state in the nation to have the nerve to stand up to the seemingly inexorable movement to destroy core values and actual events that created our great nation. The mainstream media can pontificate as much as they wish about Texas and its ultraconservatives. The “wack-job” righties they are describing are every day hard working Texans; people who care about their state AND their country. You and I are those wack-jobs. We want our schools teaching American History the way it happened; not the way the secular liberal left WISHES it happened.

More to follow-

Sex

2010-03-18T20:45:00.000-05:00

Gotcha!

You see, every week I receive an analytic report from Google. The report records how many people read my blog on a daily basis. Readership almost doubled on the first day after I posted "Why I Love Texas". Now this can mean a lot of things:

--my political opining is putting you to sleep...

--a lot of Opine Needle readers also love Texas...or,

--"Why I Love Texas" is a better attention grabber than "It's ALL Bush's Fault!"

I'm thinking the answer is a combination of the last two options. But that means there is something to the eye grabber theory. So this blog is simply called "Sex". It's monosyllabic, and certainly qualifies for any straight talk express you can conjure.

I regret to say that the rest of this post has nothing to do with sex. And while you've probably already figured out you've been duped, you might as well hang in there for a couple more minutes.

I am writing as the President and his democrat leadership seem poised to defy the will of the people and manipulate the constitution into uncharted legislative waters. They stand on the precipice of dramatically changing (irrevocably, most likely) the landscape for the provision of what up until now has been world class healthcare in the United States. Our country is being stolen before our very eyes. These elitists, who profess to feel so deeply for America's downtrodden, (yet have exempted themselves from the impact of this redistributive program), are bound and determined to lead the United States down a path of previously failed economic and social experiments. No republic or democracy has emerged from such radical social engineering with stronger economies, or healthier people! This course has been tested time and again, and this course has failed the test every time.

Yet here we are, on the verge of witnessing the borderline clandestine (by way of arcane manipulations) passage of one of the most catastrophic bills in American history. Don’t you ask yourself, “How can this be happening?” I have concluded that the American people elected a chameleon as President. No one really knows this man. We do know that he spent his pre-political years associated with people who do not like the United States of America. At this point in time, it is not a stretch to connect the dots and draw the conclusion that President Obama does not even like the United States you and I love.

Many friends of mine have already ceded the health care fight, but are taking solace from the fact that the American people will surely rise up and take Washington back in November 2010 and 2012. That may happen. But that isn’t the point. The point is that once this legislation (and more that is sure to follow) gets on the books, the inexorable hand of government will be digging deeper and deeper into your pocket, all the while taking more and more of your liberty and freedom of choice away. And when was the last time you saw government get smaller? The damage this Administration is doing is incalculable.

So it doesn’t do anyone any good to be able to look forward to a day of voter retribution. Too much damage will have been done. If you believe in God, I suggest a prayer. If you don’t, summon whatever power you can muster to hope for a miracle in the next several days. We need one.

I’ll let you know if the Sex title topped the Texas theme in my next post. I’m betting on it.

More to follow-

Why I Love Texas

2010-03-10T23:28:00.003-06:00

Apologies to Opine Needles readers from afar; this is a blog about Texas. I do not expect you to understand, and I ask you to lend me your ears on this one.

I don’t know about you, but once every few weeks, I receive an email from someone written by somebody who loves Texas and wants the world to know why. Strangely enough, every time I read one of these emails, I say “yep, that man is right.” (For some reason the author is always a man. Don’t ask me why; that’s just the way it is. I think it has something to do with the fact that men are actually much more sentimental about this kind of thing). So I just got to thinking about this great state, and decided to take a detour from the dismal state of affairs in Washington D.C.. I mean, really, the fact is that next week’s blog can pick right up on health care and taxes (and it needs to!) and not miss a beat. But, for now at least, health care and taxes are on the backbench. ("Backbench" is British Parliamentary jargon.)

I don’t imagine I’m about to unleash a torrent of praise that hasn’t been rained on readers by someone sometime before now. But that is not really the point. Today’s blog is a metaphoric pinch. Every once in a while we all need to be pinched to be reminded how lucky we are.

They say “happiness is Lubbock in a rear view mirror.” Well, they (whoever “they” are-I am not sure) got that one wrong. For me, happiness is any state but Texas in a rear view mirror. The best decision I ever made was to pack up my stakes (at the age of 25) and move to Texas. I was in the oil and gas insurance business, and even then I knew it made as much sense to do that from New York City as it did to eat chips and salsa made anywhere but in Texas. (Have you ever eaten Tex-Mex up north? Do yourself a huge favor and wait until you get home.)

Upon arrival in Houston, I encountered some anti-Yankee sentiment; and still do upon rare occasion today. I am always amazed. I’ve lived in Texas for thirty years. That’s longer than 50% of native Texans have been alive! I’m a walking chamber of commerce advertisement for Texas. I AM the bumper sticker which reads “I wasn’t born in Texas but I got here as fast as I could!” So I don’t really cotton much to those who cling on to the Yankee thing. I prefer to look at the vast majority of hard working Texans who welcomed a 25 year old kid and said “If you’ve got something to offer, bring it on.”

Whenever I leave Texas, I invariably end up feeling like an alien in a distant galaxy. How on earth can I be so at home with all who surround me in Texas, and seemingly drop off the face of the planet as soon as I land in New York or Los Angeles? Leaving Texas is an out of body experience. I know this much; I can’t tell you how happy I am that my children are growing up in Texas. I don’t know where they will end up, but I know they will be the luckiest kids in the world to have spent their youth here in Houston, Texas.

I’m not done yet. I am also sick and tired of people coming to Houston and telling me how ugly it is. Those people need to get a life. I think all of us wish the “paths” from Bush or Hobby were not littered with billboards, strip malls, and car dealerships (or what were car dealerships). But have you ever driven into downtown NYC or LA from their airports? Take a good look around. It ain't pretty. Anyway, I’m talkin’ about Texas. Texas is beautiful. From east Texas to Big Bend, we have it all.

Cutting to the chase, we have a sense of pride in this state that is unmatched anywhere in the world. Texas is not a place; it is an IDEA. Texas is HOPE unbridled (hope, not “change”, I should hasten to add), and Texas is THE place that thinks BIG. Texas is OPPORTUNITY for someone willing to work to make it happen. Texas is FRIENDLY. People help other people all the time. Texas citizens are not embarrassed to embrace FAITH. Texas does not know its limits. That is powerful, and that is good.

Texas is burnt orange AND Aggie maroon, and BOTH are colors of which to be proud. Texas is multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and multi-national. Texas is a melting pot. Texas is home to more Fortune 500 companies than any other state. Texas does not have a state income tax. Texas is Friday night lights in the fall, and little league baseball in February. Texas is a place where it is ok to be a cheerleader.

The list goes on. If you want to make your own list, you can get in your car in Texarkana and drive to El Paso (yes, that “west Texas town”) for another 12 hours (or 860 miles) thinking about it. All the while, you’ll be in Texas!

The detour now draws to a close. For those of you who are able, as you look at events in Washington and wonder with perplexed incredulity how things have gone so wrong, you can still take heart and thank your lucky stars you live in Texas!!!

More to follow-

It's All Bush's Fault

2010-03-04T19:41:00.001-06:00

Before I begin this week's rant, I would like to point out the pictures on the right. So often I hear the refrain "I wish the Republicans has someone to run in 2012". The reality is that there ARE good people "out there". It's just hard to find 'em. Mitch Daniels and Rob Portman are two examples of smart public servants who should emerge on the national stage. I encourage you to look them up. Now on to the rant.

It's ALL Bush's Fault

The West Wing spin doctors maintain President Obama has conducted a nearly flawless first year in the Oval Office. He has apparently done everything humanly possible to salvage our economy and health care system from the abyss into which we are told they have fallen. That is certainly one view. Another opinion is that he has accomplished absolutely nothing and hasn’t left so much as a stitch on the tapestry of our great Republic. But the point is that his failure as our 44th President is NOT his fault. It is ALL George W. Bush’s fault. Let us review some obvious signs of the Bush administration’s neglect:

--the sub-prime mortgage crisis—even though this crisis was born fundamentally of flawed populist policy sponsored and pushed by prominent zealots within the democrat party, and even though the Bush budget sent to the Hill warned Congress of a looming crisis, the current economic crisis is 100% Bush’s fault.

--while the size of the Bush/Paulson economic stimulus and “bailout” plans and the 2008 Bush budget absolutely PALE in comparison to the comparative Obama/Geithner stimulus spend, 2010 budget plan, and massive mounting deficits since January of 2009, ALL deficit spending and current economic woes are, by definition, Bush’s fault.

--the Bush tax cuts “for the wealthy”—while creating jobs and simultaneously INCREASING revenues to the Treasury, the President wants America to know that the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy are UNFAIR. These tax cuts do not DIRECTLY redistribute wealth to Americans who deserve a larger slice of the economic pie. Reagonomics, Schmeaganomics; Americans who enjoy the financial fruits of their labor MUST pay a higher rate of tax and contribute more money toward the equalization of income for all Americans. Lower wage earning Americans or those who don’t work at all deserve MORE, and the fact that they don’t have more yet is Bush’s fault.

--the Obama administration is very excited about letting the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire, so that progressive income tax rates for income producers may rise again up to 42.5%. That way, since the Obama administration will only be marginally raising taxes, and the majority of the increase will be the result of the Bush tax cuts expiring in 2010, the actual increased cost to working Americans will also be Bush’s fault.

--I was talking to a member of Iraq’s oil ministry last week. He told me the Iraqis feel abandoned by the present administration. In Afghanistan, the President took nearly half a year to act on General McChrystal’s request for more troops. I don’t imagine many tea parties are being thrown for the President there either. The President has made it very clear. This is all Bush’s fault.

--President Obama says the United States must bear its economic burden for reducing its carbon footprint. The President says we have delayed and prevaricated far too long. While he maintains that our efforts to significantly reduce our carbon footprint will be job accretive, (yes, you read that correctly) to the extent that we actually end up mired in an ongoing low growth-high unemployment economy, this too will be Bush’s fault.

--morale in our intelligence community has rapidly sunk to mid 1970 levels. (Students of American history will know that it was George H. W. Bush who restored confidence and morale at the CIA in the 1970’s.) The parallels between then and now are myriad; but they are rooted in our obsessively intense and self serving White House and Congressional oversight of covert activity. We have many Neros busy fiddling while our enemies plan their respective burns. Can you imagine being a CIA agent working to defend the interests of your country, while knowing that the White House and Attorney General are ready and willing to prosecute you for violating the civil liberties of an apprehended terrorist? The demise in morale and effectiveness in our intelligence agencies is clearly Bush’s fault.

--our health care is the best in the world. People travel from every country imaginable to receive treatment in the United States. While it is true that we have a systemic COST problem, the democrat party seeks to use the cost control argument as its stalking horse to create a socialized union controlled health care state. If the democrats were serious about cost control, they would get serious about tort reform and allowing private sector choice across state lines. President Obama thinks it’s time to “fix” the health care. He thinks the government can do a better job. (This is the same government that just announced the United States Post Office is projecting a $238,000,000,000 deficit in the next decade! There is a case study in efficiency for you.) The President says the private sector has failed and it is Bush’s fault.

--to be fair, in the 1980 campaign, Ronald Reagan did a pretty good job pinning most of America’s troubles on Jimmy Carter. But there is a difference. Carter deserved it. His Presidency was a horror show. A smart Annapolis graduate who worked on Admiral Rickover’s nuclear navy team, President Carter micromanaged the day to day minutia, and never unharnessed the intellectual capital at his disposal. George W Bush was obtaining an MBA from Harvard at this time, but in retrospect it is apparent to all objective analysts that Carter’s shortcomings and failure’s were Bush’s fault.

So will George W Bush become the next Herbert Hoover? Will democrats for decades blame all ills on our 43rd President? They will try, but they will not succeed. While Hoover did NOT deserve to become the poster child of the depression, the reality is that FDR and Truman had 18 uninterrupted years to convince a generation of Americans that he was the culprit who led the United States into its prolonged depression.

President Obama will not enjoy such a honeymoon. It is clear that Americans are beginning to tire of his relentless and pointed fickle finger of blame. The chickens are starting to come home to roost. George W Bush will not be the scapegoat much longer. My guess is that the democrats will continue the blame Bush game through the 2010 elections. The results will force them to change direction. For now, get ready for more democrat blame-o-rama by Obama.

Oh yes, by the way, I assume you heard about the root cause of the Haitian and Chilean earthquakes? You guessed it. They were caused by Bush’s Fault.

Now bear with me just a moment longer. It is important to say this. The Bush Presidency was not perfect. Mistakes were made. NO PRESIDENCY IS PERFECT. MISTAKES ARE MADE. With the benefit of hindsight, courses of actions and decisions taken would be altered. But none of that changes the blatant disregard for truth emanating from today’s democrat leadership. Enough said.

More to follow-

A Dangling Modifier of Deception

2010-02-26T15:09:00.003-06:00

I am back from Dubai and can report that Dubai is still standing. Dubai is a vibrant city. The roads, trains, and buildings are all new; when one looks at New York, London, or Paris, one can't help but be struck by how decrepit their infrastructures (transit and utilities) are compared to this city that emerged from the sand over the span of just two decades.

In spite of the ongoing frenetic pace in Dubai, there are clearly some ongoing challenges. I stayed at a hotel adjacent to the Dubai Festival City. That is really a nice way of saying "Dubai Big Mall". This facility is brand new, and hosts over 400 stores and restaurants. Having a spare hour, I walked through the Festival City at about 6 PM. It was virtually empty. All stores and restaurants were fully staffed, and the people were as friendly as one could possibly imagine, but NO ONE was there!

Houston has one big mall, known as the Galleria. It has just about every store of which anyone could conceive. Houston has almost four times as many residents. Dubai has at least FIVE (!) Galleria sized malls. Festival City is one of them. There is a day of reckoning coming on the retail front, and it won't be a pretty sight.

Back to the land of the free and the home of the brave. My cup of partisan angst runneth over one night in Dubai when I watched a President Obama soundbite and heard (for perhaps the millionth time in the past 24 months) "...the Bush tax cuts FOR THE WEALTHY." Am I the only person whose stomach turns every time Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Biden or some other talking head democrat modifies the Bush tax cut with "for the wealthy"!!?? This outlandish brainwashing is demagoguery at its finest.

--The Bush tax cuts cut taxes for the people who pay taxes!

--The Bush tax cuts created jobs and increased revenues to the US Treasury!

--Of course wealthier Americans received bigger tax cuts. They pay a progressively higher rate and pay higher amounts in tax dollars!

The current administration is waging a covert class war. It is time to call their bluff. Let's all acknowledge what is really happening. The democrat party is systematically creating an environment wherein more and more Americans rely on Uncle Sam as their primary source of income; either directly or by way of tax refund and/or rebate. The percentage of Americans in this situation is nearing 50%. Now you do the math. If more than 50% of the electorate's income is funded by the (working) balance of the electorate, then for whom do you think that majority is going to vote?!

And how long will that working minority of the electorate tolerate being an economic punching bag? There is a reason America saw a surge in immigration from numerous European countries in the past several decades. Intellectual capital fled to the US because it was a land that still rewarded entrepreneurialism. How many of those who emigrated to the United States are appalled by the social activism they see today? I've said it before but it is time to remind readers of Margaret Thatcher's words on socialism. "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money". Amen.

As an aside, this exact battle is presently taking place in the UK, as the incumbent Labor leader Gordon Brown (aka Mr. Tax) is pillorying the surging Tories (conservatives) with charges of elitism.

We have been very focused on health care reform, but income taxes are just as big an issue. Don't remain on the sidelines. Make your feelings known to your congressional representatives. There is more than one way to form a militia.

More to follow-

Taking wing and winging it

2010-02-17T19:17:00.002-06:00

I am taking wing for Dubai on Friday, so I thought I would take the opportunity to wing it your way prior to departure.

I've been to Dubai a number of times in the past few years. I suspect I will see fewer cranes dotting the skyline, and perhaps downtown traffic at 5 PM will not prompt images of parking lots as it has in years past. Dubai is certainly a reminder of man's hubris. We all knew something was amiss. Its troubles remind me of the old skunk test. If it looks like a skunk, walks like a skunk, and smells like a skunk, it's a pretty good bet that thing is a skunk!

But really, who are we to lecture anyone about fiscal responsibility? A lot of smart money says we haven't even begun to see the the worst of our own commercial real estate woes. So we have that going for us; which is nice.

As I prepare to take wing, I note that Tiger plans to announce to the world what he plans to do with the rest of his life. Yawn. Tiger is a sad waste of talent and space. He'll be back, and the sports media (Dan Jenkins excepted) will eventually find a way to sneak him back into the mainstream. Pitiful...next subject

I've added a link to my blog list. Glen Meakem is a successful businessman with whom I have a hard time finding any fault. He is pragmatic, passionate, and insightful. I have excerpted part of his fine blog on global warming below:

"Now, let’s leave the propaganda behind and look at some real facts surrounding current global climate trends. First, recent snow storms recall similar events which took place decades ago, including many decades ago in the 19th and early 20th Centuries, before the global warming zealots claim that “climate change” had begun to kick in. Second, since 1998, there has been a modest global cooling trend, not a warming trend. This cooling trend was not predicted by any global warming model, and, this cooling trend has happened without a drop in atmospheric CO2 levels. Third, in the face of this rather “inconvenient” trend, certain leading climate scientists deliberately falsified temperature data and blocked the publication of opposing points of view in peer reviewed scientific journals in order to bolster the man made global warming theory. This scientific dishonesty was blown open by thousands of emails and other computer documents made public in 2009 by a whistle blower (this scandal is known as “climategate”). Fourth, Michael Mann, a graduate student who became a professor at Pennsylvania State University, manipulated climate data and produced the now discredited “Hockey Stick” chart, in order to suggest that warming trends within the past 100 years are a unique phenomenon. Fifth, the 2007 United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report has been shown to contain numerous significant factual errors, including the completely baseless forecast that ALL the Himalayan Glaciers will melt in the next thirty years. And sixth, it is clear from the geological record that the Earth’s climate has changed very dramatically over time without any human influence and is in fact always changing."

In his State of the Union address, President Obama made a case for his clean energy legislation by saying "...I know that there are those who disagree with the overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change." That statement should scare people.

I look at a fellow like Glen Meakum and wonder why he doesn't run for office. Why do so many successful engaging Americans shy away from public service? In truth, you know as well as I that I've just posed a rhetorical question. The process has become wholly undesireable, and the burdensome regulation and scrutinizing (gotcha) media have turned the noble pursuit of public service into a game of whack-a-mole.

Historian William Lee Miller wrote an insightful book called "Lincoln's Virtues". He talks of Lincoln's ascent, and how, simply by force of presence and intellect, people just wanted to help him. There were countless examples of people lending an economic hand as the penniless Abe Lincoln climbed his ladder of success. When reading of his early days, it struck me that today such kindness would be savaged by the media and opposition party as corrupt behavior. Lincoln would be investigated endessly, and those who had lent a helping hand persecuted to the point of personal destruction. We have created a systemic electoral cancer; the cream of the crop is not running for office. Instead, we see mediocre opportunists (not all, but too many) entering the fray. (How many elected officials leave office with more net worth than when they entered?)

On a lighter note, Miller recounts a story Lincoln often told on himself. Lincoln did not drink, smoke, gamble or swear. He was once on a stagecoach with a man who (over the course of the ride) offered Lincoln a chew of tobacco, a cigar, a then sip from his flask. Lincoln politely declined all offers. When departing at the end of the journey, the man said "You're a clever but strange companion. I may never see you again, and I don't want to offend you, but I want to say this: my experience has taught me that a man who has no vices has damned few virtues. Good day!"

Winston Churchill once said "He has all the virtues I dislike, and none of the vices I admire." Lincoln and Churchill would have been quite a pair. It just goes to show there is more than one way to skin a cat.

More to follow-

Presidents, Valentine's Day, and Sarah Palin

2010-02-15T10:17:00.005-06:00

It is a good day to ponder how we got here from there. "From where?" you might ask. "There" was a place where there was no shame in hard work. "There" was a place where there was a correlation and connectivity between the fruits of labor and reward. "There" was a place where there was no such thing as the fruits of entitlement. In the dawn of the enlighted world Descartes said "Cogito, ergo sum." I think, therefore I am. Perhaps our leadership today would find Descartes falling short of their view of government inspired utopia because he merely connected his ability to think with his very existence. They would look to connect existence with entitlement. Something like "I think, therefore I am, and therefore I deserve something."

Most Americans are home today. Few Americans are taking time to thank the reasons they are home. How many fellow Americans are taking time out to ponder the sacrifices of Washington and Lincoln? Incidentally, if there had been a President's Day in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, do you think those honored Presidents would have remained idle on that day?

This country was built on a rock solid ethic that has lost its way. So I would like to throw down my marker. There is NOTHING wrong with hard work. There is NOTHING wrong with being rewarded as a result of that hard work. There is EVERYTHING wrong with an expectation that society owes someone for something that person has not earned. So as we think back on our nation's greatest Presidents, let us never forget how hard they worked to achieve their greatness. Let us not forget how each and every one of us have benefitted immeasurably from the incredible feats of those who blazed our now well worn and comfortable trails of life.

And now a plug for literacy. There is a famous picture of President Lincoln sitting at a table, accompanied by his son Tad. Even at a moment's repose, Lincoln has a book in his hand. Lincoln was a literary master; a wordsmith of epic proportions. It did not happen accidentally. Today, I have one resolve. I am taking my 9 and 13 year old children to the bookstore. They will each pick out a book, and they WILL read it. That is the least I can do to honor President Lincoln.

Every year, I have a hard time juxtaposing Valentine's Day with President's Day. Fluff and Gravitas all jumbled up. It makes for a good lyric for Bob Dylan, but it sure is hard for me to reconcile. It's really difficult for me to envision Lincoln running out to get that Hallmark card for Mary. What have we wrought? That said, I remember well the first year after I was married and I made the mistake of opining about how Valentine's Day is a creation of card and candy makers, and how on earth can we fall into such a commercial net! Well, suffice to say, the cold day in hell analogy comes to mind and from that year on I have made sure there are some Hallmark cards on Valentine's Day. I'm like the Coal Miner's Daughter. I may be ignorant, but I ain't stupid.

How about that Sarah Palin? As long as I am throwing markers around like so many softballs at the state fair, I need to be perfectly clear on this one. I am NOT a Sarah Palin groupie. I do NOT think she is the best candidate for the Republican party in 2012. I admire Sarah Palin for what she has accomplished. She is a poster child for the notion that one can do anything one sets one's mind to doing. Long live Sarah Palin for what she's done with her life.

So where am I going with this? I am just astounded at the vitriol spewing forth from the effete elite left. They absolutely, positively cannot stand Sarah Palin. She drives them bonkers. They are beside themselves with disdain and outrage that this gun totin', good lookin', "uneducated" (she didn't go to Yale, after all) mama has actually gained traction with middle America. God forbid!

Look, Sarah Palin is no Ronald Reagan. But I am intrigued to see the way the left is pounding her from their ideological/intellectual perch. For those who remember the 1970's and 1980's, we have seen this movie. They did it to Reagan. They hated him. They only came around to liking him when they they had time to kill during the motorcade procession following his funeral. So, let's be dispassionate and just watch this space. I think the left will continue to propel Sarah Palin into the national limelight. Now that is a little President's Day irony for you. So am I off to the bookstore? You betcha!

From Sublime to Surreal to Apocalyptic

2010-02-10T12:47:00.001-06:00

You just can’t make this up.

North Carolina Schools May Cut Chunk Out of U.S. History Lessons
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
By Molly Henneberg-Fox News

"He may be the president who governed during the Civil War, freeing the slaves, but under a new curriculum proposal for North Carolina high schools, U.S. history would begin years after President Lincoln, with the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877.

State education leaders say this may help students learn about more recent history in greater depth.
"We are certainly not trying to go away from American history," Rebecca Garland, the chief academic officer for North Carolina Department of Public Instruction , told Fox News. "What we are trying to do is figure out a way to teach it where students are connected to it, where they see the big idea, where they are able to make connections and draw relationships between parts of our history and the present day."

As the North Carolina curriculum stands now, ninth-grade students take world history, 10th-graders study civics and economics and 11th-graders take U.S. history going back to the country's founding. Under the proposed change, the ninth-graders would take a course called global studies, focusing in part on issues such as the environment. The 10th grade still would study civics and economics, but 11th-graders would take U.S. history only from 1877 onward."

JRP comment-

Well, I guess they have a point. I mean, really, what happened from 1600 to 1877 that is of any significance or relevance to today’s 11th grader in North Carolina? I don’t see what the fuss is all about.

North Carolina, listen up. This is your Scott Brown moment.(Scott Brown is an adjective.)Do not let it pass. I bet when you stop to think about it, there are many things like this that have been happening to you and your children. They happen at school, in sports, and at the town, county and state level. Take your rights back. That’s right, take them back. It’s time for administrators and bureaucrats to be put back in their boxes. You need to Scott Brown the Board of Education. (Scott Brown is a verb.) The people are watching this one. Carpe diem.

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs--It's the Private Sector, Stupid!

2010-02-05T10:34:00.005-06:00

The post from last Friday still stands below. The jobs issue is so vital to the economic integrity of our country. People MUST appreciate the slippery slope along which the current administration has the economy sliding. Please be vocal about this. Every educated voter matters, and every vote really does count. Scott Brown is the current poster child for that assertion.

How about Patrick Kennedy taking the high road on the Scott Brown election? On a labor related vote, Kennedy said "Brown's whole candidacy was shown to be a joke today...." when Brown did not support an Obama appointment to the National Labor Relations Board. Keep it up Patrick. You too could be looking for a new job.

The Jobs Post-

The U.S. jobs report is out today. It gives one a moment to pause and reflect. Over 8,000,000 jobs lost in the last couple years. But there is so much more. One must dig deeper.

The President keeps talking about a "jobs bill". Let's make sure we all understand what he means. He's implicitly referring to one of two things:

--permanent public sector jobs, or

--"one-off" private sector jobs-(a case in point would be the train from nowhere to nowhere in Florida...with apologies to friends in Tampa and Orlando.)

The point is that the private sector (the historic mainstay of American economic growth and ingenuity) is still shrinking. And the President's proposed tax agenda is tantamount to kicking the dog while it is still asleep in the corner. The democrats aren't stupid or mean enough to do something like that, are they?

All we hear about from the President, Pelosi, Rangel, Reid, et al is how the "Bush tax cuts" destroyed hope and created massive deficits. Balderdash! Revenues to the US Treasury INCREASED in the mid 2000's. The Bush tax cuts created private sector jobs and generated more tax revenue.

It is interesting to note that just today, the President spoke about the importance of the private sector. He even acknowledged that the private sector is the engine of growth. But his actions belie his words. His actions have repeatedly demonstrated that he sees the private sector as both a blessing and a curse. Most importantly, he sees the private sector as the economic vehicle through and by which he wishes to redistribute wealth in the United States. If only the President had ever had to actually meet a payroll.

Ronald Reagan once said "The most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'" Good Lord, how prophetic. To put this in perspective, in 2008, 1.1 trillion dollars were spent on state and federal wages and benefits. It is estimated that number (while experiencing a short term hiatus in growth) will expand year on year for the forseeable future. State and Federal workers make an average of $40 an hour in wages, salaries,and benefits. This compares to an average of $27 an hour in the private sector. State and Federal workers have more guaranteed vacation time and the job security is sweet!

Here is a little secret to get your blood boiling even more. There is already a massive unfunded pension liability issue looming for public sector employees. And as the President adds more and more employees on to the Federal dole, this problem only compounds itself. Now how are those liabilities going to be funded? Of course, the shrinking, increasingly tax burdened private sector will pony up. Are you detecting a pattern here?

This all ties into the notion that the government can solve the woes of the citizenry. The President has two major domestic policy issues on his agenda-

1) jobs, and

2) health care reform

In both cases, the Government is his proposed solution. Well, I guess we should understand his rationale. After all, look at how successful the government has been in running other initiatives-

--The Post Office-running record deficits

--Social Security-soon to be unfunded

--Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac-broke

--The War on Poverty-it's been waged for nearly 50 years and is the poster child for the fallacy of liberal doctrine which presupposes that throwing guilt ridden money at a problem will make it go away

--Medicare and Medicaid-beautiful (not!)

There's a theme here. It's about the private sector. It has always been and will forever be. It has been the economic backbone of this great country. It's time to take it back.

We have seen the enemy and we are it

2010-02-01T21:38:00.002-06:00

A few of my friends have suggested that my blogs are just strident enough to scare some readers away. Well, the context of this blog is that I write unapologetically. So, there you go.

That said, my Opine Needles is not a republican rant. It is a common sense rant. I have a friend in Houston who doesn't like that expression. He thinks it is used by politicians in borderline apocryphal ways. I think it works in this case.

I have been pretty hard on President Obama. From my perspective, he is an easy target. And he is surrounded by sycophants and misguided idealogues. It is not very hard to get wound up on just about any position postulated by the President. I am bemused by the fact that he and his cronies love to talk about the arrogance of the Bush years. Americans have seen more arrogance in the past twelve months than in the eight prior years! The problem with the radical left is that they do not countenance any position that deviates even slightly from theirs. They do not invite debate. Their positions are firm, and if you don't agree, you are wrong! Climate Change is a poster child for this assertion, and the guilt ridden cry for affirmative action (if you aren't sure how to right an age old wrong, you can always play the reparations card) is not far behind.

But actually, I am writing about the republicans in this post. They took a majority in 2004 and completely embarrassed themselves. Their leadership was petty, small minded, and vindictive. In fact, there was no leadership. They deserved what they got, which boiled down to being booted from office. They had a chance to work with the President to focus on defense and economic growth legislation. Instead, they were just as bad as Nancy Pelosi, Charlie Rangel and the rest of that crew as they demanded more and more pork.

The republicans EARNED their minority positions in both houses of Congress. In a word, their performance was pitiful.

So where to from here? First, anyone who thinks that beating Obama in 2012 will be a layup is seriously mistaken. The democrat machine will be ramped up. More and more of the electorate will be on the Federal dole; their loyalty duly bought. The republicans MUST reassert themselves as the party of IDEAS. They must demonstrate to the American electorate that free enterprize in a low tax environment is not dead. They have to give the people a roadmap; one easy to read, and easy to follow. It can be done, but it will take a spokesperson.

No one stands out at the moment as capable of lifting the republicans out of their own foxhole. The time could be ripe for a latter day Ross Perot. Personally, I hope not. A third party candidate is too much of an X factor. One never knows who will be hurt more. The Republicans need someone to rise from the ashes of their self inflicted incineration.

And now to the heart of the matter. You heard it here. Remember this- if the Republicans allow themselves to be hijacked during the nominating process by the far right,you can kiss the 2012 election goodbye. I enjoy Limbaugh, Hannity, and the rest of the talking heads. But they are dead wrong when they suggest that the problems with the Republican party all come from the "center". Think of the electorate as 3 groups:

1) 40% solid republican who vote party line

2) 40% democrat who vote party line

3) 20% independent who vote for the candidate they like best.

The election will be all about category 3. And those people are and forever will be turned off by strident social activism. Great Presidents should not have to pass a litmus test designed by a vocal minority of their own party during the nominating process.

Now more than ever people need to see the danger of promulgating social agendas. We are dealing with the most socially activist White House in history! Now more than ever, we need a candidate to emerge who speaks up for the rights of ALL Americans. Time to pause. More to follow

Letter from George HW Bush to his children- December 31, 1990

2010-01-31T10:25:00.000-06:00

This is a letter written by President George H.W. Bush to his kids. It was written right after Christmas, and just during the build up to the first Gulf War. This letter puts to rest once and for all the myriad conspiracy stories concocted by cynics and critics. It is handtyped and reveals the thoughts and passions of the very human leader of the free world.

The effete elite (who were so quick to denigrate this statesman President)will be long gone when history records his feats in office. He will be rememberd as one of our greatest patriot statesmen. Keep a watch out for a biography to be released next year...written by Jon Meacham, Newsweek's editor.

Dear George, Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro .
I am writing this letter on the last day of 1991 .
First, I can't begin to tell you how great it was to have you here
at Camp David . I loved the games (the Marines are still smarting
over their 1 and 2 record), loved Christams Day, marred only by the absence of Sam and Ellie . I loved the movies- some of 'em- I loved mostly
the laughs . Most of all, I loved seeing you together . We are a family blessed; and Christmas simply reinforced all that.
I hope I didn't seem moody . I tried not to .
When I came into this job I vowed that I would never ring my hands
and talk about 'the loneliest job in the world"
or ring my hands about the pressures or the trials .

Having said that I have been concerned about what lies ahead .
There is no 'loneliness' though because I am backed by a first rate
team of knowledgeable and committed people . No President has been more
blessed in this regard . .

I have thought long and hard about what might have to be done .
As I write this letter at Year's end, there is still some hope that Iraq's dictator will pull out of Kuwait . I vary on this . Sometimes
I think he might, at others I think he simply is too unrealistic- too
ignorant of what he might face . I have the peace of mind that comes from knowing that we have tried hard for peace . We have gone to the UN; we have formed an historic coalition; there have been diplomatic initiatives from country after country . .

And so here we are a scant 16 days from a very important
date- the date set by the UN for his total compliance with all UN resolutions including getting out of Kuwait- totally .

I guess what I want you to knows a father is this :
Every Human life is precious . When the question is asked "How many lives
are you willing to sacrifice? "- it tears at my heart . The answer
of course, is none- none at all- We have waited to give sanctions a chance, we have moved a tremendous force so as to reduce the risk to every American soldier if force has to be used ; but the question of loss of life still lingers and plagues my heart .

My mind goes back to histtory :

-How many lives might have been saved if appeasement had given way to force earlier on in the '30's or earliest '40's?

--How many Jews might have been .
spared these gas chambers, or how many Polish patriots might be alive today?

I look at todays crises as good vs evil . . . yes, it is that clear . I know my stance must cause you a little grief from time to time;and this
hurts me ; but here at years end I just wanted you to know that I feel:

--Every human life is precious . . the little Iraqi kids' too . .
--Principle must be adhered to- Saddam cannot profit in any
way at all from his aggression and from his brutalizing the people of Kuwait .
--And sometimes in life you have to act as you think best-you
can't compromise, you can't give in...even if your critics are loud and numerous .

So, dear kids- batten down the hatches .

Senator Inouye of Hawaii told me : "Mr.President, do what you have to do.
If it is quick and successful everyone can take the credit . If it is drawn
out , then be prepared for some in Congress to file impeachment papers
against you" . . . that's what he said, and he's 100% correct .
And so I shall say a few more prayers, mainly for our kids in the Gulf ,
and I shall do what must be done and I shall be strengthened every day
by our family love which lifts me up every single day of my life .
I am the luckiest Dad in the wide world.

I love you, Happy New Year, and may God bless every one of you and all in your families.

Love, Dad

Letter from the President to Osama Bin Laden

2010-01-30T08:09:00.001-06:00

Dear Osama-

I note you have been a regular audio muckraker of late, with two recent messages condemning the United States. Your message yesterday chastising us for our irreparable damage to the environment (and reaffirming your declared war on the US economy) was interesting. Indeed, your climate change rant juxtaposed with your endless war on all infidels has provided the context for this note.

It occurs to me that Al Quaeda must also be feeling at least some of the pain of this global recession. Fundraising is surely impacted to some degree, yes? I know you and I can agree that the greedy non believers on Wall Street (and of course George W Bush!) are the cause of all our economic woes. Rest assured my administration will punish them accordingly. We have a great line that resonates with the people. All we need to say "it's time to stop paying the fatcats (pardon the infidel lingo, O-man)on Wall Street and take care of the real Americans on Main Street!" That one gets them everytime. It's like throwing a lamb shish kebob to one of your guards at the entrance to the cave.

But enough about the hoi polloi. Your message about climate change really resonated with me. I hope you saw that I immediately announced a renewed alternative energy initiative. We are committed to spending more money that we don't have on costly and hugely inefficient alternative energy projects. Not to worry, oh bearded greatness; we are going to tax the living hell (that means the same thing in the Quran as it does in the Bible, I think...at least my Christian friends say it does) out of every successful and hard working American. And get this, even if we don't reduce our budget deficit, we're still going to redistribute some of this money to Americans who have not earned it! If we can't raise it all from higher taxes, we are just going to print it. Isn't that incredibly progressive?

So you may be wondering where I am going with all this. Well first, I have to say that I wonder what the heck you do in your cave all day. I mean, do you have lights and stuff? Do you ever sneak a peak at Family Guy....maybe from a recliner or something? But I digress. The points about the recession, access to funds, and your war on America boil down to this moment of epiphany. YOU CAN CEASE AND DESIST! I AM DOING IT FOR YOU! Think about it O-man...I am spending us into oblivion. I am waging a war on the American economy and the American way of life. You can only dream about having the adverse impact that I am actually making happen!

So I write with all due respect to suggest that you might want to focus on Putin or some other easy target. You have to admit, when you take a step back and look at what I've done to the United States in the space of one year, you are ahead of plan in the US!

I hope you take this in the brotherly spirit in which it is intended, and look forward, inshallah, to your thoughts in response.

Yours in redistributive revolution,

Barack Hussein Obama

Obama and Bin Laden

2010-01-29T15:02:00.003-06:00

Following are two Washington Post headlines from this morning;

--News Alert: Bin Laden blasts U.S. for climate change
06:49 AM EST Friday, January 29, 2010
--------------------

Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has called in a new audiotape for the world to boycott American goods and the U.S. dollar, blaming the United States and other industrialized countries for global warming. In the tape, aired in part on Al-Jazeera television Friday, bin Laden warns of the dangers of climate change and says that the way to stop it is to bring "the wheels of the American economy" to a halt.

--------------------
News Alert: Obama sets greenhouse gas emissions targets
09:44 AM EST Friday, January 29, 2010
--------------------

President Obama set greenhouse gas emissions targets for the federal government, announcing Friday that it would aim to reduce its emissions by 28 percent in 2020.

"As the largest energy consumer in the United States, we have a responsibility to American citizens to reduce our energy use and become more efficient," said President Obama. "Our goal is to lower costs, reduce pollution, and shift Federal energy expenses away from oil and towards local, clean energy."

The White House estimated a savings of $8-11 billion in energy costs.

Beautiful. The west wing is delusional. Alternative Energy satisfies less than 1% of the nation's energy needs. For each increase of 1%, the cost to the United States consumer and taxpayer will be billions. The White House press statement is nonsense. Enough said.

State of the Union a day later

2010-01-28T19:16:00.000-06:00

A third blog in 24 hours could fall into the "get a life" category, so brevity will be a guiding virtue.

The lame excuse for a consensus building address last evening cannot be allowed to escape without mention of the President's attack on our Supreme Court. He said, "with all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law which I believe will open the floodgates for special interests including foreign corporations to spend without limit in our elections..."

This is beyond contempt. The sheer arrogance is borderline incomprehensible. So digest this please:

--Implicit in the President's thought process is that the Supreme Court should have actively "made" law. This is one of the crucial differences between activist liberals and libertarians or conservatives. The Supreme Court is the leg of our tripartite government that interprets law. It's job is to interpret the Constitution; our holy grail. Liberals want to use the courts to make law. The President sees the court as another means to socially reengineer the United States. YOU should be concerned.

--Just as importantly, the President attacked the Supreme Court with mistruths. The Supreme Court actually ruled on a section of the US election law code that prohibits all corporate political spending. The ruling was that this is unconstitutional. However, there is a separate provision of the code which was not an issue in this case, and which stipulates that foreign nationals, specifically defined to include foreign corporations, are prohibited from making "a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or to make an express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation, in connection with a Federal, State or local election." The code further prohibits foreign corporations from contributing to any political party...None of this was addressed in the Supreme Court ruling. That law still stands.

The President attacked the Supreme Court and he did not tell the truth. That, my friends, is pitiful.

The Lesson of an Affirmative Action President

2010-01-28T08:46:00.001-06:00

Sometimes it is best to let others do the talking:

The Lesson of an Affirmative Action President
By James Lewis
You don't pick brain surgeons by the color of their skin. You pick them by competence only. Same thing with airplane pilots. But we have allowed the profoundly irrational liberal media to persuade the American public that we are supposed to pick a U.S. president by affirmative action. Obama was elected to universal Hosannas because he is black. It wasn't a secret. That's why the Left around the world went into ecstasies when Obama ran and got elected.

We've been using affirmative action to hire and promote teachers and cops and to popularize movie stars and media heroes. We've had a generation of affirmative action agitprop, 24/7/365. Hillary Clinton was going to dictate racial and gender preferences for medical school admissions under HillaryCare. You can bet that reverse-racism is all over the 2,200 pages of ObamaCare. It's reverse-racism forever!

In America today, competence is suspect, and incompetence gets all the attention. Yet competence is what keeps us alive.

Affirmative action was allowed by the Supreme Court as a temporary exception to the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution until blacks had the same opportunities others did. It has now been about forty years, and the goal posts have just moved farther and farther Left. Today it's not just blacks -- it's women, homosexuals, and illegal aliens. And it's no longer equality of opportunity, but equality of outcome, which was the goal of Communism for seventy years in the Soviet Union, until the whole Soviet Empire crumbled as a result.

In the Soviet Union, everything was politicized. Incompetent people ran agriculture along Stalinist lines. Everything turned into a lie, and lies accelerated as they propagated through the system, in exactly the way the Climategate lies get worse and worse as they get passed along by politically correct bureaucrats and scientists. When political loyalty controls the outcomes, honesty and competence are driven out at every level of society. Nobody can point to Obama's anti-terrorist policies and say that's wildly incompetent -- without fearing they will be accused of racism.

From a temporary policy to give black people a better chance in life, we have now arrived at a Marxist goal of universal equality for everyone -- except for white, male, heterosexual, and excessively normal people. We have reversed racism, but guess what? Reverse-racism is still racism. As a direct result, corruption now pervades the big cities and Washington, D.C. That's because race, gender, and victim status have taken over as the criteria for all the benefits society has to offer.

Obama's election to the nation's most powerful office is the direct outcome of racial reasoning. It was race that put him over the top against Hillary, in a thousand media endorsements, and finally, against John McCain, who was old, male and white. Three strikes against McCain, who for all his faults is vastly more experienced and knowledgeable than the Obamessiah.

Meanwhile, blacks are still suffering from the pervasive social pathology of the inner city -- almost all self-inflicted, with the help of the welfare state. Europe shows exactly the same results, except that the victims of welfarism aren't black, but mostly white and Muslim immigrants. American blacks today are more bitter and more racially enraged than ever before, after forty years of affirmative action. Affirmative action hasn't helped women, who now have to work two jobs, one at home and one for income, especially because so many men have walked away from their families under liberal cultural values. Reverse-racism has actively hurt generations of children, who have grown up in broken homes as a direct result of pernicious social policies which Obama has actually tried to make worse. One of the first things he did was to reverse Clinton's welfare reform so that social pathology in the black community can spread its poison even wider and deeper. Obama isn't good for black people -- but then, blacks consistently vote for those who do them the most harm.

Reverse-racism has hurt Asian-Americans, who don't usually count as disadvantaged non-whites, but who by dint of talent and hard work are now among the largest ethnic groups in many colleges and universities and a majority at Berkeley and UCLA, where race engineering is banned by a California law passed by voters over the objection of the political establishment.

Any time a Muslim tries to explode a bomb on an airplane, Obama sticks his nose in the air and pretends he doesn't know what's up. But he knows, he knows. The next time an airplane blows up in flight, Obama will be history, but he will never blame himself for his own truly stupid and perverse policies. On the contrary, Obama will be around for the next forty years blaming White America for his own folly.

We've now been taught by the media to hire and elect people by the color of their skin, or by gender, or by sexual preferences -- including, in the case of Kevin Jenkins, their ability to peddle gay sexuality to kids and teachers for the Queering of the Elementary Schools.

Is it any surprise that a president who ran as the historic first black -- that is, on affirmative action grounds -- is not just incompetent, but perverse, so that we deliberately don't check the passenger lists for young Muslim males who were brought up in radicalized cultures, even if they are already in the terror database, even if they buy a one-way ticket with untraceable cash and don't check any luggage at all on their one-way flights from Nigeria to Detroit?

Obama's anti-terror policies are not just incompetent. They are suicidal.

They are exactly like all the other social policies that are supposed to help the poor, the disadvantaged, the black, females, homosexuals -- all of which invariably end up punishing and degrading the very people they are supposed to help. Who do you suppose is in the teachers' unions that are keeping black kids from escaping the inner city ghettos? Yes, it's black and liberal teachers. Who do you suppose is actively importing Muslim radicals into Europe and the United States? Who do you suppose has done more to spread HIV? Yes, it is the very Leftists who are always telling us how much compassion they feel for those very people.

The vote in 2008 was even crazier than picking your brain surgeon by the color of his skin. If the knife slips in the surgeon's hand, you might die, but the nation as a whole doesn't. But if the president has a nervous breakdown in the Oval Office, the whole world is at risk. It's a mad, mad, mad idea to elect people on the basis of race or gender.

We have been so PC-whipped as a nation that Obama's election as a black man -- not as a competent black man, not as an experienced and well-qualified black man -- was celebrated by liberals and Leftists around the world. It is the victory of brain-dead ideology over common sense. The guy in the White House today is potentially the most dangerous, mentally fixated, and irresponsible demagogue we have ever known. Those wacky ideas are once again on the rise, not just in the schools and colleges, but even at the very centers of power. The election of Obama was by far the screwiest thing American voters have ever done. It throws doubt on the whole American experiment, because we have inflicted this disaster on ourselves.

The lesson of the Obama presidency is exactly the opposite of what our stuck-on-stupid media are telling us. It is that we must never, ever hire, promote, or elect somebody to a position of power and responsibility merely because of his race. Abraham Lincoln would not have been surprised. Neither would Martin Luther King, Jr. Even the editors of the New York Times choose schools for their kids not by race, but by educational competence. Somehow the American people have forgotten their common sense while Obama was rifling their wallets.

The captain is drunk in the deckhouse, and the ship of state is heading for the rocks. Our enemies are trying to take advantage of our failure to elect even sensible leadership. If you don't think al-Qaeda, Ahmadinejad, and the Russians will try to screw us royally under this perverse and incompetent leadership, just wait a month or two. The Chinese have taken the measure of this guy. So have the other jackals prowling around the small campfire of civilization. They know he's a pushover, and they will act accordingly. The only question is how badly we'll get burned.

The Left have advocated suicidal policies, and now they have found their way to power. But ultimately this is a failure of the American people, of our pathetic excuse for a media, and of the anti-American hatred that pervades the Left.

Yes, God protects orphans, widows, and the United States. But you can rely on pure dumb luck for only a little while before the ship of state comes to grief on that unforgiving iceberg.

State of the Union-HELLO? REALLY?

2010-01-27T22:02:00.000-06:00

I wish I could say I was pleasantly surprised. Alas, the President lived up to all expectations. He:

---blamed all ills on the Bush years, Wall Street, and people who make more than $250,000 a year, and

---made the case for Government as the solution for all the perceived ills.

There was a dim ray of hope when he spoke up for nuclear power and offshore exploration, but then he stuck a dagger in the heart of those ideas by wrapping them up in his comprehenisve energy and carbon reform legislation. He even went further to mock those who question global warming given the "overwhelming evidence" supporting his position.

He blithely attempted to blame "Washington" for political gridlock. This was an implicit way of telling the American people he could feel their pain; that he is one of us, and not one of those evil Washington insiders. HELLO? REALLY?

Pundits were predicting that with the debacle in Massachusetts, the President would use this address to move his politics toward the middle. The pundits were wrong. While the President was deft at appearing to do so, in reality, he stayed on message regarding the need for energy, health, and tax reform. NOTHING has changed.

On health care reform, he challenged Congress to pass his bill. He suggested that no one can conjure up a better way. The premise continues to be flawed. HEALTH CARE IN THE UNITED STATES IS NOT SICK. HEALTH CARE COSTS ARE SICK. And one of the fundamental first steps toward reigning in runaway health care costs is to institute comprehensive tort reform. You will not find one iota of tort reform legislation in the democrat bills that have come out of the House or the Senate. Instead, the President blames insurance company greed. HELLO? REALLY?

The President wants to continue to bail out distressed homeowners. He wants everyone who is feeling pain to feel better. And the President thinks it is only fair that those who have been successful in this country should pay for his pain solutions. I looked through the papers of many of our Founding Fathers, and I could not find anyone, at anytime who wrote words to the effect of "Whilst the Articles of Confederation and subsequent Constitution of the United States remain wholly silent as regards the role of the Central (or Federal) Government in providing economic relief for its citizenry, it is the secret desire of these Founding Fathers to ensure that those citizens who have provided for themselves will be taxed progressively so that the surplus of their earnings may be redistributed to those who are less fortunate." I looked and looked and looked, but I could not find those words anywhere. Yes, one more time- HELLO? REALLY?

Take deep breaths.

More to follow-

Ongoing Insincerity or Benign Neglect of Duty?

2010-01-27T06:55:00.002-06:00

Earlier this week, I had the misfortune of watching the ABC interview with President Obama. The President's "sincerity"oozed through the lens, but as in most instances over the past two plus years (campaign plus first year of deception) very few Americans see the same interview as those who have pierced the veil of hypocrisy. This man, and his arrogant band of hooligans are absolutely determined to marginalize those institutions and traditions that have differentiated the United States from all other free societies. Indeed, by using the Federal Government in the fiscal equivalent of a reverse Robin Hood play, all those who subscribe to the "hard work equals just rewards" theory driving the free enterprize system are now poised to see their earnings and savings slowly redistributed to others the President deems so deserving.

The President and his Cabinet are equating success to greed. Where are we....Sweden? There is not one person on the current Cabinet who came from the private sector. This is a group of elites who have actually never met a payroll, or managed a P&L statement. This is a travesty. There are countless examples of successful societies that fail because the underpinnings of their success (strong social fabric and economic strength) are eroded by government and regulatory excess. We find our great country at such a moment in time. The great and wise, the bureaucrats, are ramping up their social engineering and economic redistribution plans to new heights. Their target is Americana. Their vision is a society in which all people have equal access to income, regardless of whether they have earned it. All one needs to do is reading Karl Marx to see that the book has already been written.

More to follow.