The Curmudgeon Blog
Generally conservative with a critical view of most everything
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Right Direction Or Wrong Direction?
The Rasmussen Poll tells us this morning that 25% of the people in America believe it is headed in the right direction. 69% of us believe that we're going in the wrong direction.
There are apparently 6% who don't know where we're going or don't care where we're going, or both.
Sometimes I think that I might be better off if I were in that 6% group. I can't be, but I might well be better off to be oblivious to all that is happening around me. The overload that is our current news cycle and the overload that is our political debate today is very nearly overwhelming, and I am a political student.
Lest there be any doubt, I am firmly in that 69% that believes we are on the wrong path and that we are too far down that wrong path already, just a little more than a year after the election that installed King Obama.
Those of us in this camp, the majority, had better vote the right way in November, 2010 to begin the recapture of our country. It'll take time, but we need the reins of power to effect the change that we believe to be necessary.
There are apparently 6% who don't know where we're going or don't care where we're going, or both.
Sometimes I think that I might be better off if I were in that 6% group. I can't be, but I might well be better off to be oblivious to all that is happening around me. The overload that is our current news cycle and the overload that is our political debate today is very nearly overwhelming, and I am a political student.
Lest there be any doubt, I am firmly in that 69% that believes we are on the wrong path and that we are too far down that wrong path already, just a little more than a year after the election that installed King Obama.
Those of us in this camp, the majority, had better vote the right way in November, 2010 to begin the recapture of our country. It'll take time, but we need the reins of power to effect the change that we believe to be necessary.
Obama Ignores Peoples' Desires
President Obama is about to turn the dogs loose in an attempt to get Health Care Reform passed using the "reconciliation" approach that his Administration is now billing as "a simple majority".
Virtually three-quarters of the American people want the present Health Care Reform bill to be dropped completely or to not be passed in its present form. And yet, President Obama is expected to turn the Senate dogs loose this afternoon with his blessing.
There is still considerable angst between Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid since neither wants to go first given their distrust of the other side of Congress. There is no clear cut outcome that is yet predictable; it is plain that the votes are very fluid in the House. The Senate can muster the 51 votes it needs to pass the clean-up bill necessary to get the House on board. The House vote tallies are up in the air and will remain so until the last vote is counted.
If Pelosi had the necessary votes right now, or if she ever had them since that first vote, she'd have done the dirty deed already. The fact that she hasn't is clear indication that she has not gotten enough people to commit to risk taking the vote.
Beyond all this, however, is the simple fact that the Democrats seem willing to tell the majority of Americans to go stick it.
Virtually three-quarters of the American people want the present Health Care Reform bill to be dropped completely or to not be passed in its present form. And yet, President Obama is expected to turn the Senate dogs loose this afternoon with his blessing.
There is still considerable angst between Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid since neither wants to go first given their distrust of the other side of Congress. There is no clear cut outcome that is yet predictable; it is plain that the votes are very fluid in the House. The Senate can muster the 51 votes it needs to pass the clean-up bill necessary to get the House on board. The House vote tallies are up in the air and will remain so until the last vote is counted.
If Pelosi had the necessary votes right now, or if she ever had them since that first vote, she'd have done the dirty deed already. The fact that she hasn't is clear indication that she has not gotten enough people to commit to risk taking the vote.
Beyond all this, however, is the simple fact that the Democrats seem willing to tell the majority of Americans to go stick it.
Tax Increases Almost A Certainty
Tax increases at virtually every level of government are nearly a certainty as we struggle with a slow economy and with "super-sized" spending. While there are some signs of an improving economy, those can disappear very quickly if tax increases begin to be implemented and taking their toll on job creation, consumer confidence, etc.
Steny Hoyer, the number two Democrat in the House of Representative was quoted saying that increases are likely. Anyone watching Wisconsin's economic condition has to be thinking that their taxes are going to increase. Those increases could easily hit at the state level, the county level, the local community level and the school level.
Not apparently on any current office holders' radar is the thought of spending reductions. Our Congress continues to add new programs that require funding. Our state legislature is facing one of the worst budget situations ever recorded in Wisconsin.
Our local communities are struggling with all sorts of issues. Germantown has a severe road re-building issue that gets worse every week. Schools are receiving less money from state revenue-sharing programs and have the age-old budget issues of paying for union employees' wages and benefits.
We are about at the end of our fiscal rope. As has been said, we'd better tie a knot in that rope and hope we can hang on.
Steny Hoyer, the number two Democrat in the House of Representative was quoted saying that increases are likely. Anyone watching Wisconsin's economic condition has to be thinking that their taxes are going to increase. Those increases could easily hit at the state level, the county level, the local community level and the school level.
Not apparently on any current office holders' radar is the thought of spending reductions. Our Congress continues to add new programs that require funding. Our state legislature is facing one of the worst budget situations ever recorded in Wisconsin.
Our local communities are struggling with all sorts of issues. Germantown has a severe road re-building issue that gets worse every week. Schools are receiving less money from state revenue-sharing programs and have the age-old budget issues of paying for union employees' wages and benefits.
We are about at the end of our fiscal rope. As has been said, we'd better tie a knot in that rope and hope we can hang on.
Beware of China Ties
We are aiding China's efforts to control the United States on multiple fronts. We are deeply in debt to China due to our seeming inability to manage our own finances thus creating our country's insatiable need to borrow to finance our debt burden. That is a political reality.
On another front, we are rushing headlong to provide some of our country's unique technological capabilities sooner than China would've been able to develop those on their own. We are doing that in the simple day-to-day business transactions that exist.
Kevin Kearns, the President of U.S. Business and Industry Council, wrote over the week-end about the myriad ties we now have through corporate America. Those disclosures seen in that one spot at one time were frightening. There was nothing secret that he disclosed, just the compilation of a mountain of such activities that tipped the scale of concern. He talked about the cyber-attacks originating from China under the apparent auspices of that government. He mentioned corporate names such as Google, and Yahoo and IBM and Microsoft and Hughes and Lockheed Martin and Cisco. Each of those, and more, have engaged in the exploitation of that huge new marketplace but may well have been the exploitees rather than the exploiters in those relationships.
Significant technological advances have been made on behalf of Chinese companies or the government. The companies, ostensibly did nothing wrong. They joined with European and Japanese companies in the race to penetrate a huge new market. They helped the government of China indirectly given that government's significant control over its emerging capitalistic endeavors.
The simple fact seems to be this: we have helped equip and train the technical minds that are now being employed in cyber-penetration actions that could be employed in any future conflicts in which we might find ourselves engaged. Those conflicts might not involve China, but could involve terrorist entities that received their technical capabilities from China.
Our country is, like many countries, highly vulnerable to cyber attacks. We suffer tens of thousands of such attacks every year. Some are detected but we know not how many have gone undetected. We do not know what malicious bugs may already have been planted in mission-critical software lying in wait until they are activated. We have found some of those bugs in mission-critical systems already. If we've found some, it has to be assumed that there are more; we simply don't know how many more nor where they reside.
The genie is out of the bottle. Our defense is very likely a good offense at this juncture. If we are to survive future "conflicts", we need to be much more engaged with cyber warfare defense as well as offense.
We could be just as crippled by a coordinated series of cyber attacks as by a nuclear strike or two or three. In fact, the magnetic waves from an air burst are already known to decimate chip-driven systems. That alone could cripple our economy and our infrastructure, and we'd then be almost defenseless against a take-over.
On another front, we are rushing headlong to provide some of our country's unique technological capabilities sooner than China would've been able to develop those on their own. We are doing that in the simple day-to-day business transactions that exist.
Kevin Kearns, the President of U.S. Business and Industry Council, wrote over the week-end about the myriad ties we now have through corporate America. Those disclosures seen in that one spot at one time were frightening. There was nothing secret that he disclosed, just the compilation of a mountain of such activities that tipped the scale of concern. He talked about the cyber-attacks originating from China under the apparent auspices of that government. He mentioned corporate names such as Google, and Yahoo and IBM and Microsoft and Hughes and Lockheed Martin and Cisco. Each of those, and more, have engaged in the exploitation of that huge new marketplace but may well have been the exploitees rather than the exploiters in those relationships.
Significant technological advances have been made on behalf of Chinese companies or the government. The companies, ostensibly did nothing wrong. They joined with European and Japanese companies in the race to penetrate a huge new market. They helped the government of China indirectly given that government's significant control over its emerging capitalistic endeavors.
The simple fact seems to be this: we have helped equip and train the technical minds that are now being employed in cyber-penetration actions that could be employed in any future conflicts in which we might find ourselves engaged. Those conflicts might not involve China, but could involve terrorist entities that received their technical capabilities from China.
Our country is, like many countries, highly vulnerable to cyber attacks. We suffer tens of thousands of such attacks every year. Some are detected but we know not how many have gone undetected. We do not know what malicious bugs may already have been planted in mission-critical software lying in wait until they are activated. We have found some of those bugs in mission-critical systems already. If we've found some, it has to be assumed that there are more; we simply don't know how many more nor where they reside.
The genie is out of the bottle. Our defense is very likely a good offense at this juncture. If we are to survive future "conflicts", we need to be much more engaged with cyber warfare defense as well as offense.
We could be just as crippled by a coordinated series of cyber attacks as by a nuclear strike or two or three. In fact, the magnetic waves from an air burst are already known to decimate chip-driven systems. That alone could cripple our economy and our infrastructure, and we'd then be almost defenseless against a take-over.
Global Warming Retreat?
It is interesting to read the report found in the Daily Mail from yesterday that states there has been no global warming since 1995.
That article can be found here.
Now, if we could just get our Wisconsin government to understand that we don't need to rush headlong down the slippery slope, things would be much better.
That article can be found here.
Now, if we could just get our Wisconsin government to understand that we don't need to rush headlong down the slippery slope, things would be much better.
NASA Unnecessary?
The Obama Administration's expressed intent to severely limit NASA's future space exploration has been hotly debated in the past day or two. I listened to the Jay Weber Show this morning and heard things discussed, both by Jay and the listeners, that I'd frankly not thought about.
The points raised included the fact that we'll have to rely, for the time being at least, on Russia for future transportation to and from the Space Station. We will be giving space exploration over to China and India in addition to Russia. We'll potentially compromise our satellite system upon which we rely very heavily in both times of peace as well as times of war.
Space weaponry is upon us, and we'll knowingly give that turf over to whomever can make use of the same technology against us.
We currently use offshoots of our space exploration program in our daily lives and the development on that frontier will be severely curtailed or even stopped.
This list scratches the surface of the potential issues that will be created if the Obama Administration gets this pushed through Congress. Both parties ought be very, very concerned with this approach to 'saving' tax dollars. There are many far less dangerous areas where economies can and should be found first.
The points raised included the fact that we'll have to rely, for the time being at least, on Russia for future transportation to and from the Space Station. We will be giving space exploration over to China and India in addition to Russia. We'll potentially compromise our satellite system upon which we rely very heavily in both times of peace as well as times of war.
Space weaponry is upon us, and we'll knowingly give that turf over to whomever can make use of the same technology against us.
We currently use offshoots of our space exploration program in our daily lives and the development on that frontier will be severely curtailed or even stopped.
This list scratches the surface of the potential issues that will be created if the Obama Administration gets this pushed through Congress. Both parties ought be very, very concerned with this approach to 'saving' tax dollars. There are many far less dangerous areas where economies can and should be found first.
Gibbs "Anchor"
President Obama's Press Secretary is an anchor and may well be cut loose in the next week or two.
Robert Gibbs seems destined for ouster; he cut short the "bipartisanship" effort of his boss in a couple of minutes yesterday. It is difficult to think this was the Administration's planned effort.
The simple-minded attack against Ms. Palin was sophomoric and ill-conceived. He just felt compelled to write some "notes" on his palm so he could take a gratuitous shot at Palin. Does he not have more pressing issues to be concerned over? Is there not a sense of class that ought prevail?
Then there is the short-sightedness that has us not remembering that the President seldom can utter a few words without benefit of Mr. Teleprompter.
This seems symptomatic of the Administration. It seems darn close to the 'Hole In the Wall' gang. It has a hard time staying out of its own way.
Robert Gibbs seems destined for ouster; he cut short the "bipartisanship" effort of his boss in a couple of minutes yesterday. It is difficult to think this was the Administration's planned effort.
The simple-minded attack against Ms. Palin was sophomoric and ill-conceived. He just felt compelled to write some "notes" on his palm so he could take a gratuitous shot at Palin. Does he not have more pressing issues to be concerned over? Is there not a sense of class that ought prevail?
Then there is the short-sightedness that has us not remembering that the President seldom can utter a few words without benefit of Mr. Teleprompter.
This seems symptomatic of the Administration. It seems darn close to the 'Hole In the Wall' gang. It has a hard time staying out of its own way.
Drones Over Texas?
The Governor of Texas has suggested that Predator drones, unarmed, be used to fly over the borders to prevent illegal aliens from entry, at least from nearly effortless entry.
That sounds like a very good idea. We know the technology works based on the use of Predators in war zones. There are more and more small unmanned drones available that could easily make the southern borders far less porous, if that is what our government really wants.
The majority of Americans want the borders sealed so that only legal aliens are permitted into our country. If the Obama Administration has any real interest in stemming that flow, it certainly has the tools available to make that happen. This would be a reasonable way to seal the constant flow of illegals. We could observe and direct ground intercepts to the right place at the right time to make arrests.
Beyond the illegal alien issue, this would serve as a more effective tool to prevent the use of our southern border as an open door to extremists who wish us harm.
A good idea that bears real thought. At the very least, we'll know just how serious the Administration is about thwarting the flow of illegals.
That sounds like a very good idea. We know the technology works based on the use of Predators in war zones. There are more and more small unmanned drones available that could easily make the southern borders far less porous, if that is what our government really wants.
The majority of Americans want the borders sealed so that only legal aliens are permitted into our country. If the Obama Administration has any real interest in stemming that flow, it certainly has the tools available to make that happen. This would be a reasonable way to seal the constant flow of illegals. We could observe and direct ground intercepts to the right place at the right time to make arrests.
Beyond the illegal alien issue, this would serve as a more effective tool to prevent the use of our southern border as an open door to extremists who wish us harm.
A good idea that bears real thought. At the very least, we'll know just how serious the Administration is about thwarting the flow of illegals.
Paul Ryan Is A Threat
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is a threat...to the Democrat Party especially, but also somewhat to the Republican Party.
Ryan is drawing fire for being knowledgeable in matters of budget and health care and Social Security. He is also knowledgeable in many other areas, but these are the current hot topics. Ryan's 'Road Map for America - 2' contains some very well-thought ideas for reforming health care, for solving the Medicare funding crisis and for generally reforming the way our government works. He is a bright, personable, good looking family man. He is a policy 'wonk' and he is not one whom another politician wishes to be forced to duel in public.
He is viewed as anathema by the Democrats because of his skill set, and he is worrisome to the Republicans because he is obviously among the brightest members of that party in Washington today.
As the attacks against Ryan ensue, as they almost certainly will, remember to look very carefully at the remarks made by the attackers. For example, his reformation approach for Social Security is being slammed now as placing old people in soup lines (my paraphrasing) and that couldn't be further from the truth.
We could use a 'Ryan-clone" so that we could have him both here in Wisconsin and in Washington at the same time.
I believe he is the "real deal". He won't challenge Feingold since both are from Janesville. Rumors have him thinking about the seat someday to be vacated by Kohl. I'd love someday to see him as our governor, and I won't be surprised to see him as a candidate for President if I am fortunate to live long enough.
Ryan is drawing fire for being knowledgeable in matters of budget and health care and Social Security. He is also knowledgeable in many other areas, but these are the current hot topics. Ryan's 'Road Map for America - 2' contains some very well-thought ideas for reforming health care, for solving the Medicare funding crisis and for generally reforming the way our government works. He is a bright, personable, good looking family man. He is a policy 'wonk' and he is not one whom another politician wishes to be forced to duel in public.
He is viewed as anathema by the Democrats because of his skill set, and he is worrisome to the Republicans because he is obviously among the brightest members of that party in Washington today.
As the attacks against Ryan ensue, as they almost certainly will, remember to look very carefully at the remarks made by the attackers. For example, his reformation approach for Social Security is being slammed now as placing old people in soup lines (my paraphrasing) and that couldn't be further from the truth.
We could use a 'Ryan-clone" so that we could have him both here in Wisconsin and in Washington at the same time.
I believe he is the "real deal". He won't challenge Feingold since both are from Janesville. Rumors have him thinking about the seat someday to be vacated by Kohl. I'd love someday to see him as our governor, and I won't be surprised to see him as a candidate for President if I am fortunate to live long enough.
Senator Thompson?
The likelihood of a Senator Tommy Thompson seems remote given the morning Journal Sentinel report that he has just landed another in a long line of appointments to an equity fund advisory board.
Seems that he would be divesting himself of such political millstones rather than adding to the list if he were really serious about taking on Feingold, doesn't it?
Tommy loves to be in the news and this seems to have been just such an exercise.
Now maybe the others who are thinking of a Feingold challenge, such as Ted Kanavas, can get on with their political lives.
Seems that he would be divesting himself of such political millstones rather than adding to the list if he were really serious about taking on Feingold, doesn't it?
Tommy loves to be in the news and this seems to have been just such an exercise.
Now maybe the others who are thinking of a Feingold challenge, such as Ted Kanavas, can get on with their political lives.
