Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Just when I thought it was safe to turn my TV back on...

I can't turn away, hard as I try, from the Michael Jackson funeral. It reminds me of a major mob do.

Six of our Marines were killed in Afghanistan yesterday. There is currently a major offensive in the south of Afghanistan. Major.

Liberty Hall at Forest Lawn Cemetery is the site for the family and friends portion of the funeral this morning. There's an aerial shot of pallbearers hauling out a huge gold casket to a waiting hearse. Good Lord, there must be fifty limos lined up--like Jackson was a president himself! What a strange country we live in.

Iraq is trying to play house now that we're pulling out. Hard to believe, isn't it, that we are actually getting out of there? I think it's a mistake, but my time at war college is limited.


Staples Center, known for Lakers basketball, is the venue for the bigger-than-life memorial for MJ whose contribution to society are those of a dancer and singer! Unfortunately, the city of Los Angeles, which is broke, is paying for the security and police (overtime) and accompanying costs. This unbelievable fact seems irrelevant to the Jackson family, who has enabled him and excused him or were in denial of his unspeakable character defects.


"That girl," Sarah Palin, has flushed her political career down the toilet by quitting her governorship in Alaska, purportedly for the sake of the state. She has decided to maintain the four point chip on her shoulder and alienate the moderates--like me--in the Republican Party who were more than on her side. She's squandered an opportunity with her stubbornness which has taken on an unattractive side. Instead of an interesting, becoming maverick, she's become instead a boor with nothing but a lame excuse and old stories about how she's saved the average Alaskan a bunch of money, you betcha, wink, wink. That is so over, Sarah.


They (the "theys" who know) say that MJ's casket will be on stage. Will it be open or closed? Oh, wait. It's Smokey Robinson. He's reading a letter from Diana Ross. Couldn't she bring herself to go to his funeral? LOL. What strange, selfish people these entertainers are. Gee, it sure is quiet in the Staples Center right now...you'd think the guy was a saint or something. I just don't get it.


VP Biden told everyone on Saturday the Obama Administration "misread" the economy. No one quite explained how the stimulus would thus work.


(Sigh)

Good grief, this thing does look like a mob funeral. I hear there are 6500 empty seats. Hmmm.

North Korea is continuing its weirdness. Do you suppose Kim Jong Il just wants to get the bomb off while he's still alive? I wouldn't be surprised.

Everyone who's anyone is at this funeral. Even Magic and Tobey came to talk about his philanthropies. What a guy, huh? Guess they missed all those stories about child molestation. Gosh, I must just have a dirty mind.

Robert McNamara, the ex secy of Defense during Vietnam, died this last weekend. Some of us remember him. For those who don't know, he was about as popular as Donald Rumsfeld.

Does anyone else wonder why all these famous people have shown up now that MJ's dead? Where were they when he was on trial for child molestation? I think it's rather odd.

Barack Obama has Freudian slipped his way into the good graces of Prime Minister Putin by addressing him as "President," and further flatters him by indicating the error was natural mistake considering...Mrs. O looks very odd, I must say, in her choice of fashions. I think they're too casual for the occasion, but then I think SHE's too casual all the way around. I'm just saying, I'd like to see her dress up some...the girls look wonderful, as usual. What cuties they are!

Good Lord, the Jacksons are letting that little girl, Paris, speak. She looks exactly like her mother, Debbie Rowe, sweet child.

It looks like we're not going to get out of this recession any time soon. The unemployment rate where I live is 11.5%. Of the seven people with whom we spent July 4th, five were unemployed. Of those six people, all were upside down on their mortgages, most were at least 100 thousand or more dollars upside down. Of those six people, all were prime borrowers with credit FICO scores of 750 to 825 and 20 years of excellent credit histories. All were over 50 years of age. Two were small business owners; the rest worked for companies. Three had mortgages in jeopardy and one in default, one owned freed and clear and the others not in default yet, but they were worried. The two people working were worried about losing their jobs as they were laying off their subordinates. We are all Repubicans. We just keep looking for jobs and wishing the banks would work with us (which they will not unless you're late).

It is wonderful that Michael Jackson has finally been laid to rest. Now can we finally move on?

Thanks for the read.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Sarah Palin's idea of advancement

Sarah Palin should probably run for P.T.A. president, because that is about all she's capable of handling.


Her desultory, you-won't-have-me-to-kick-around-anymore press conference on Friday made clear to me that she is completely incapable of handling a major job outside of Alaska.


Prior to that, I was keeping an open mind. However, she now has demonstrated that her prickly skin is so thin, that I'm convinced a national office for her is not in the Republican Party's best interest.


The talk over the weekend at the gathering we attended was one of sympathy for Palin; however, I was the only one who thought she was completely out of her element, get out of kitchen if you can't stand the heat. Once I suggested we were speaking about the presidency, then asking everyone if they have heard ANYTHING new and fresh from her since they've been introduced to her--they hadn't because she's said NOTHING new--a couple of my friends admitted that what I was saying was true.

Now that she's resigned from her job--bad move--she's lost her credibility and shown me she can't go the distance.

Plus, she's become arrogant.

Thanks for the read.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Palin's redux in Vanity Fair

If you read the Vanity Fair piece about Sarah Palin you'll realize it's an awful lot like a recapitulation of Sarah's failures during the presidential campaign--in the eyes of the most vain and ridiculous of the media cultural elite.

There's nothing really new therein--something I was looking for--except maybe the latest dirty laundry statements made by Steve Schmidt, McCain's guy, about Sarah being a total whack job. He suggested she may have been deep in post partum depression (Yeah, that's it.) Other than that, most of the story was a gossipy thing, lazily written by someone who sounds like he'd be a silly type anyway, if one were to decide carry on a conversation with him. In other words, you know he'd never step up and do something serious with you.

And much of it is the usual he said she said.

After the election, I wrote that Governor Palin desperately needed to hit the books, find a subjects committee and work her little fanny off in research and learning, understand and base her beliefs in sound theory...work on the presentation. There were others who agreed that she does possess the "quick study" capability, and with some honing and grooming...well, maybe she could influence or at least hold her own with a hostile media. At least, they couldn't take advantage of her knowledge, or make fun of her lack thereof.

Well, evidently Mrs. Palin has decided against working within such a leveling constraint because here she is--bigger than before: at a ball game, hockey game, shopping, here and there. She's picked a fight with Letterman and sort of won; she's currently picking a fight with Vanity Fair and the McCain advisers (which will do NOTHING to help her); and she's continuing to play in the dirt with the rest of them. I can see her being "difficult." Sorry. She does so at her own risk, I think.

There's still time, maybe, for her to return to Alaska and become a hermit.

Thanks for the read.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Sanford: Another Republican man in power bites the dust

You know, as a Repubican woman, I can only say I'm sick of these men in our party who continue to carry us down the river to ignominy. The opposition is entirely correct in calling us hypocrites.

One of the reasons our party is in trouble is precisely due to men like Governor Sanford, whose sickening mea culpa I am now witnessing, cannot somehow find it in themselves to stay faithful to their wives. Currently, he is pontificating about God's law and sin. He also is suggesting that this news conference (the one right now) is his payback.

No it isn't, Gov. You've lost everything--not to mention maybe the White House, Dumbass. Hope it was worth it.

I suggest the cheaters simply do what Rudi did: out and out infidelity--in your face cheating and take the consequences. At least Rudi is not a hypocrite.

Again, a Republican man has cheated and we suffer. I'm sick of them and I want them out of party leadership.

Thanks for the read.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Maybe today isn't a good time to quit smoking, Mr President

Asked about smoking, Obama replies: "First of all, the new law that was put in place is not about me...I think it's fair to say...that you just think it's neat to ask me about my smoking, as opposed to it being relevant" to the law.

Fallen off the wagon? "Yes. Am I a daily smoker, a constant smoker? No...I would say I am 95 percent cured, but there are times when I mess up." (1:10 p.m.) Politico. Com 6/22/09

Psst...Sir...Mr. President! Over here.

Little testy, aren't we? I mean, you really need to tone down the pissant number. Snarky is as snarky does, after all. All that passive-aggression on foreign policy must be slipping through.

You know, it's tough to quit smoking, tougher to stay quit. God knows I quit at least a hundred times before I finally stopped. Ask any ex-smoker how tough it is...

But, trying to quit right now, while the entire world is on your shoulders? Do you really think now is a good time to quit smoking, what with North Korea and Iran, Afghanistan, Paki...I don't know, I'm just saying.

Try the patch. That finally worked for me.

Oh! And good luck. It's a bear.

Thanks for the read.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Obama's first major foreign policy failure: Iran

President Obama's basic squishy nature and fear of not being liked has become most obvious as he squanders the opportunity to possible revolution and regime change in Iran at most, or great societal movement and evolution toward change at least, by remaining cool and instead telling off color jokes at a dinner with his media pals.

I expect his numbers to fall concurrent with his delay in acknowledging and giving outright support to the brave Iranian street protesters. It is a supremely un-American that this president is this mum, muted...cool, above it all, uninvolved...disengaged. I don't recall this language and tone since the Carter administration. It is hard to listen to.

In one of his early missives he compares the Iranian situation to the American Civil Rights movement and even quotes Martin Luther King.

I didn't get the correlation (because there isn't any), but I suspect the Obama people were (attempting to) inferring legitimacy on the Iranian Regime--like it was the United States government--thus strengthening the Obama statement so they can "deal" with their nuclear program, which is what he's been talking about since his campaign. Gosh. He's just gotta talk with these Iranians...to show talking works, I guess, to make his point!

What all this is really about is Obama's narcissism and belief that he can take his shining personality into Iran and save the Middle East. He's seeing that go away on a daily basis and his fantasy is fading with each protester's realization that this freedom thing is worth dying for.

Barack Obama is shockingly silent to the point of world wide embarrassment when the very subject about which he should be the vanguard, the subject matter expert, the go-to guy, the ONE, is playing golf. Merkel, Sarkozy and Brown are all on board in strength with Iran's protesters and each had stunning statements.

Whar a huge disappointment it must be for some of the Iranian people to know that the American president is so sheepish when speaking about the greatest American product.


The evolution of a revolution
Last Monday, three-million Iranians (ostensibly) protested over the way the votes were counted in their Presidential election. By Friday, they were protesting that they can't hold hands in public or wear lipstick; or that women receive beatings from their husbands and they don't like that; and they want to go dancing in nightclubs and listen to the music they like, not the stuff the mullahs like.

This is a cultural revolution that initially masqueraded as a political one. Blue jeans and cell phones provide the foundations to the changing of Iran.

Meanwhile, the leader of the free world, Barack Obama, refuses to give them their boost in sending them his support, although he continues a tacit statement or two. It is a shameful display.

His impossible laid back nature and lack of engagement makes me worry about our safety.

Thanks for the read.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Cocktails and poetry at the "House"

Hrumph.

My Cocktail Party at the White House invite didn't arrive again last week. I guess it was lost in the mail. Instead, I was left to eavesdrop on the A-Lister's conversations and self-conscious banter with one another while the hostess, Mrs. O, must have exclaimed, "Why, this is just sooo French."

If there is one thing I've learned by standing next to Hollywood stars et al (I've been to two Academy Awards shows and have met a fair number of celebs), there is absolutely nothing more tedious than watching these people discuss politics, economics, social science, philosophy--did I miss anything? They usually do not look you in the eye if you happen to be a nobody; they're kind of like the guy you have a dud blind date with--he's always looking over your shoulder at other women. In words most of us understand, they are complete egotists and narcissists, almost to the point of pathology. That's why they do what they do.

Such strange little people these Hwood types are. First of all, most of them I saw are small...in stature. Tiny little folks. I was amazed that they weren 't the statuesque forces of nature we see on the screen. Secondly, as most people in "the industry" know, actors are singularly stupid. No, I mean dumb as a box of rocks.

So, going to the poetry jam, as FLOTUS called it would have been an exercise in not laughing out loud.

Soirees don't belong in the White House.

Sorry. It's undemocratic and small. Does anyone really believe that the Barack is taking in one scintilla of advise from one of these twits? I thought that he was having these things so he could talk up Republicans.

Oh, George Clooney and Tom Hanks, those two Ph.Ds, of course. I forgot. Then there's the great John Stewart and Bill Maher. Now there are brain trusts you can believe in.

The fact of the matter is everyone who is in the drivers' seats currently are so full of themselves, they've feathered and bowed their outsides into preening peacocks fluffed up to be one of the Man's faves. As long as they are in the president's sphere, they have a chance to be important. They're like little children who dress up in Mommy's and Daddy's best clothes and step out so Pop can take a picture. They've arrived. Finally, someone is taking them seriously.

What is this need to idolize their leader? That is a distinctively Democrat Party trait--their idiotic hero worship, as well as their need to be acknowledged by same. (It's a third world, po' me thing.)

We're living in a country where substance has left our political conversation and has been replaced by silliness. There are two wars in which our men and women are losing their lives, people are literally losing their homes and jobs; meanwhile, White House cocktail parties and four-day prom-like events like the White House Correspondents Dinner have become shockingly common. Yet, to mention that these types of displays should be toned down is met with shrugged shoulders and the response that we Republicans are simply showing our usual sour grapes.

No. We're not.

There's a haughtiness about the Obama administration that is off putting to me. It is the raised chin, the very "obvious" superiority of their presence and the inferiority of yours which causes me to think there is a big fall coming.

Nothing lasts forever, even extreme coolness. Meanwhile, the GOP needs to sit and wait to pick up the pieces.

Thanks for the read.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Racehorses I have known

The last time I was at Churchill Downs I luxuriated on Millionaire's Row, delighting in a camphor-like essence emanating from a silver cup all iced up with Makers Mark, sugar water and ground mint. Folks around Louisville named that a Mint Julep.


As I recall, we were well into hot weather when Sister Shirl and I were squired about by our own personal--and genuine--Kentucky Colonel, my late brother-in-law, Warren. He sure did know how to show us a good time at America's most genteel race track.

It was thrilling to stand in the midst of the Downs history; I felt immense energy the second I walked through its gates. By having a love of horses myself, just being there gave me one of the happiest times of my life. It didn't matter that it was just another race day at Churchill Downs. I think I even won a couple of bucks. I was in heaven.

Now that I've walked around the track, the Kentucky Derby is even more special. Today's Derby run and win by Mine That Bird has brought back another time in my life that gave me much joy reminding me that life can be a wonderment of repeated events, if only just memories.

Or, I'm just getting old.

I've owned a couple or three horses. One of my horses cost me about the same as Mine That Bird once sold for. Originally, another I wound up with was won in a claim race by its original owner. If you don't know, a claim race is an event where iffy horses with iffy futures go to get a home. They run a race and people win them. It's not exactly the Special Olympics, but there are some problem rides.

The man who won one of my horses raced him too early and often, and messed up his legs. My understanding is the owner was not a horse person, but he had big ideas of raising a winner. Stupid man.

Having failed at his original plan, the horse was then anted in a poker game. The same thing happened with a new owner. Finally, this idiot got it through his head that the horse wouldn't run because he was broken down by age 2-1/2 and sold him to a nice lady who trained him to be a hunter/jumper.

This is where I came in. I bought this horse for a lot of money--not a small number for a single mother who was broke all of the time. But this single purchase kept my children off the streets and at the stables where they belonged mucking stalls for many years.

Years ago, someone told me that owning a sailboat is like standing in the shower and tearing up $20 dollar bills. Taking into account inflation, that amount should be $50 by now. That's one "hobby."

Owning a thoroughbred is like standing is a pile of manure and tearing up $100 dollar bills.

Back to my horse. The name the old owner came up with was "Halston." I'll bet the owner's girlfriend named him. His Jockey Club name escapes me. He was a big bay gelding--18 hands--who had a wild streak in him a mile-wide, probably emanating from his unfortunate childhood. Only one of my daughters could ride him well. I guess she wasn't afraid of him. But then, she wasn't afraid of me either. Or anyone else for that matter.

He was a great jumper and fast as, well a rabbit or, a racehorse, an E-Ride for sure. But, worst of all, he was a horse I couldn't count on. That made me mad considering his job description.

Eventually, as my twin girls grew older, their interests changed. Turning 16 in the horse world is when most girls leave riding behind. They preferred other forms of transportation, so off to work they went to buy their cars. I was left holding the reins, so to speak.

Neither I nor my husband were going to actually try to stride this monster, whose idea of pleasure riding was cantering along for a while then throwing his head in wild ways and jumping up and down like a jack in the box, and then suddenly coming to a stop; then doing it again; and then again.  It was time to sell the horse.

I wish I could say I got my money out of Halston. Horses must believe in Karma, because every time I tried to show him to a buyer, he would break out in great, huge whorls of hives. It was as if he knew that any new buyer--especially those with darling daughters in tow--would send him through the same routine of living in a stable paddock (nice as it was) and schlepping to stupid horse shows with dumb, insipid, spoiled little rich people who cry all the time if they don't win and then gets blamed.

I always tried to console Halston regarding the horse show thing, telling him at least he'd see other horses and and he could compare notes; how handsome he was, that he was certainly the biggest dude in the barn. I certainly don't know why he complained. I even gave him extra carrots and apples.

His demonstration of appreciation was limited. After he nearly broke my arm when I turned him out in a corral, I yelled at him and told him I was going to give him away. Out of spite, I sold him to a trainer for a dollar, which is what I told him he was worth. I understand the buyer/trainer put him out to pasture, the best place for him.

I had another horse. "Marty" was a little over 15 hands, about the size of Mine That Bird who looked almost exactly like him in form and image. He used to slip in and out of places too like Mine. In fact, they should rename Mine "Mercury" for his ability to shimmey between those two semis on either side of him in today's final run for the roses.

We sold Marty to a polo player in Solano Beach for $500. No, not much money, but I've never seen a happier horse. Besides, we had an opportunity to attend a couple of polo matches. My girls and I cried when he left, but we parted on good terms. He was just too little for hunter/jumper events. Again, horse karma. He's happy.

Oh, Marty and I had no conversations. I think he might have had "little horse syndrome."

Gosh, those were wonderful times!

Thanks for the read.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Let's start at the very beginning...

It's a very good place to start.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UE3CNu_rtY

Thanks for the read.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Republicans have Obama Envy!

And bad.

There's not one substantive issue or event, short of a nuclear blast in the middle of Omaha, that will divert the world's positive attention away from President Obama. Most people, according to most polls, absolutely love the guy.

Sure, he didn't get all the stimulus goodies he and one-eyed Gordon tried to foist off on the Europeans; and a Pied Piper he's not when it came to recruiting "foreign" troops for all that unpleasantness in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Nevermind his tiresome, especially irritating inability to tell the truth about American cold war history during his big mea culpa speech in Prague. It was interesting to me that the audience there was so receptive, considering their parents' nightmarish lives with the Soviet Union. Indeed, I'm sure there were many generational arguments over Czech dinner tables of vodka, cabbage and carp when the kids said they thought socialism was okay. Old fogies know nothing, after all.

Then we see the next day that the Turks fell in love with him when once again he apologized for America's existence, explaining our country's origins as I've never quite heard them from an American president: he instructed the Muslim town hall audience that we are a nation of citizens who have come together as such, i.e., as citizens, not as Judeo Christians, but as seculars, which is, of course, a huge lie.

Words means things. He said so himself, I think maybe in Paris. I wish he would re-read America's Declaration of Independence. God is mentioned a lot therein.

No matter. Most Americans don't seem to care about such unimportant factoids. Why? Because they were relegated to unimportance in our union-heavy, left-leaning educational system which insists on rewriting history and sinking the Judeo Christian aspect of our nation's origins forever. It's called re-education. After forty or so years of it, we've got an entire generation who 1) doesn't care and 2) doesn't know any better.

This nescience has gifted us with more of a preoccupation of Michelle Obama, her children and her fabulous pearls and J. Crew numbers than Sharia Law. Don't be silly. It could never happen here. That only happens in countries like, well...like Afghanistan, wherever the hell that is.

This morning we hear the president has dropped in on our troops in Iraq for a few hours. I think he refrained from mentioning the major cuts in military spending coming up. Big cuts that mean about 100 thousand jobs cut. Just as important are the defense machines being cut--missile defense. But then, when Obama's non-nuclear world is realized we won't need no stinking missile defense.

It seems there's really not much that the Republicans--especially the current rather lackluster ones--can do to stop all of this excitement--other than just wait and remember that the infatuation ends eventually. And vote no as many times as possible.

Sometimes being a Republican is no fun at all, especially if you live in Omaha.

Thanks for the read.

Monday, March 23, 2009

They're laughing all the way to the--WAIT a minute--they ARE the bank!

I knew you couldn't trust those guys. Somehow or other they got Paulson and the president (Bush) and the entire congress and a bunch of other people to sign off on a $700 billion dollar bail out back in September of ought eight--without strings.

THEN, a bunch of banks went under, and the TARP banks we righteous Americans lent money to held on to the funds, I suppose waiting for the new president (?).

THEN, the new president hip hopped into the House. The stock market fell into that place which Dante speaks of at about three-quarters into his novel. Bad Place. But we have a new president and we're happy, happy, happy...no bad places...no Dante.

THEN, the banks continued not to lend any money, and AIG kept asking for more money...and getting it.

THEN, the banks didn't lend any more money, and people were losing their jobs and AIG asked for more money and the stock market fell again.

THEN, the banks didn't lend any money at all, and people were really scared that they were going to lose their jobs, and many did...and darned if Americans didn't find out that the new Obama administration was all involved in a bunch of billions of dollars worth of AIG retention bonuses. Too bad most of them left.

THEN, unfortunate things just kept happening. And the bankers are just sitting and waiting for the amateurs to settle down so they can make their money. And all I can do is wonder: if I own the bank why can't I demand that they lend that money?

Thanks for the read.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

The right wing bottle blondes, Limbaugh and the rest of us

I've written about Limbaugh. People know how much I dislike the man for his narcissism and coldness. He has crowned himself kings of kings without permission from hardly anyone except the Democrats and continues to truckle along as if someone actually thinks he is the royalty of my Republican Party.

The Democrats love to redefine us Republicans. In fact, that duty has always been Job One for Dems--not running the country, but making sure they destroy Republicans. They care about nothing other than maintaining power at all costs. Look it up in their rule book. Thus, they are earnest in their predictable effort of calling the idealogue Limbaugh the leader of all Republicans. I would remind them that most Republicans are not crazy right wingers regardless of what brush they try to paint us with.

The same goes for the Anne Coulters and Laura Ingrahams, those right wing harpies who roost on the lower limbs of the extreme right (in speech), whose periodical droppings are left for the rest of us Republicans, usually women, to clean up. Meanwhile, I'm beginning to wonder if it's more a hormonal/emotional/personality issue for these women. Gosh, they're unpleasant. And the big, garish crosses they wear? Nice touch.

Their latest target is Meghan McCain, John's daughter. She is a moderate Republican who had the temerity to speak up and voice an opinion contrary to Mlles Clairol, criticizing the far right wing of the party. That never sits well with any of these folks. She may have well copped that she was a mass murderer, the reaction was so strong. One of the kinder responses was Ingraham calling Meghan "plus size" and the Dems' "flavor of the month." Nice, Ingraham. I can only imagine what the phone call among the three, Limbaugh, Coulter and Ingraham, consisted of the night before this lambaste.

Does any well meaning American really, honest and truly, WANT President Obama to go down in flames as Limbaugh basically insists he wants? I don't. Even if it's beneficial to our party? I think that reveals poor citizenship and I'd be ashamed to admit to such hatred filling my heart and soul. Of course, there is nothing wrong with comity and civility by remaining, as we have done for 250 plus years, the loyal opposition. But to hope and pray for complete failure? No.

No, narcissistic ideologues that these people are, they seem to not be capable of facing their own vanity and humanity and just shut up. Just. Shut. Up.

I wonder how much money has to with this. As Richard Nixon always said: "Follow the money." He was right.

Thanks for the read.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Selective capitalisim isn't new.

So if you're not green, you're not on the the Democrat's list for the Stimulus Bill cash.

If you're not shovel ready, you're definitely not on the list.

If your management consists mainly of white males, you're probably never going to be in the running.

If your company sends your customer service operations overseas and you're not Google or some big outfit like them, you can kiss any chance of receiving guvment moolah goodbye.

If you own a small business and live in California you will realize nothing in the way of a surplus because the unique taxation that the state throws on its business people will eat away at profits and their ability to maintain.

In other words, nothing is new here, except the political correctness of this revolution.

We'll see how many jobs are actually created in the long run, say in two years.

Thanks for the read.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Obama's transparency: Stimuluswatch.org

Before you join the other 71% who are looking to queue up for the mark of the beast--President Obama is an righteous communicator after all--take a look at Stimuluswatch.org.

Prepare to be amazed at the sheer volume of the Stimulus Package the Congress is about to implement. Moreover, this site is so humongo, one must endure a tutorial to take advantage of its capabilities. Critically speaking, the site navigates well and is straight forward enough for the layman, although I only spent about an hour there. It seems to have other attributes which is suggested in a more intensive tutorial than the basics introductory one, in which I participated. It will become a key management and process tool.

Dial in the city/state and voila, up pop projects (updated every ten-minutes) within that Democrat stimulus bill that they couldn't wait to pass because they had vacations to take and slopes to ski.

That ten million dollars put aside for the Santa Cruz, CA tannery shack that will provide 20 jobs? For ten million dollars? That's in there too. That's about $1/2 million per job. For a guy to skin a cow and then hang the hide up to dry? Wow. That's expensive for just killing a cow. I guess you'd have to feed the cow...

People like you and I also get to vote on the project's "importance" or priority. The word they use is "critical." That's part of the updating function. I doubt that can be legit, though. Who's to keep a labor union from having their people vote early and often? How can you track something like that?

I wasn't surprised to locate the infamous zillion dollar bullet train from LA to Vegas, while Detroit stays in the 20th century with a pittance of help--a measly $2 billion. Californians voted that idea down, by referendum last November. However, someone must have "reasoned," probably those lobbyists for the service unions, that zillions of people travel to Vegas from LA. That same Someone had better call Steve Wynn and remind him to build still another empty hotel next year for no one to stay in.

No doubt we'll pay for that too somehow. People like Steve Wynn always seem to get breaks from the government.

Of course, while going through this elaborate website one expects to find the earmarked ACORN bucks (I've read there are four billion of them) we've heard so much about during the Obama campaign hidden somewhere. I found them in a category called CDBG (Community Development Block Grants). That's Organizer Speak for over-the-top tax dollars for what they do best: develop blocks of voters by communities, usually in the form of labor unions which usually turn on the thing they claim to love the most--democracy--and they do so in the most tiresome third world, po' me style. These folks have the worst opinion of true democracy, something I've never quite understood. Why do they leave their countries of origin only to reinstate their old political styles? They also vote early and often, in absentia, posthumously.

Obviously, there are many good projects, but hold your sides as you peruse the Table of Contents. Another interesting experiment is to locate your town and determine how "heads up" your local politicians are in the money grab. My little town is so out of touch that there isn't one request; however, the up and coming little town nine miles south and recently named one of the top ten places to live in the US by a respected mag had ten projects on the books!

Now, don't get me wrong. More power to Barack Obama if he can accomplish even half of what he promises. After all, President Obama could sell a ham sandwich at a bar mitzvahs, but even he has will have to talk awfully pretty when the Pelosi/Reid pork starts smelling up the place.

Thanks for the read.