The "Perfect Storm"

Those that read this blog know that I am a Conservative Republican and all that goes with that philosophy - small government, less regulation of our lives, low taxes, and free enterprise.

But it appears that we are in for a big change. The party in charge always takes blame for existing conditions and this period in time has turned out politically to be the "perfect storm" for Democrats. Here are some reasons why:

1/ People are "war weary". Whether you were for or against the IRAQ war, it has turned out to be a mess and poorly managed. I was against the war - for financial reasons, and after being the parent of a son involved in the first Gulf war I did not think it necessary to risk American lives going after this maniac when we could have kept him under control with bombs. Saddam had thumbed his nose at thirteen UN resolutions, and I am sure he would have reconstructed his nuclear and chemical warfare programs given the chance. But I believed spending $300 billion on this "tin pot" dictator was ridiculous. As it turns out, the Iraq war will probably cost a trillion dollars before we are through...a "trillion" we don't have.

2/ The Republicans had full control of the government during the beginning of the Bush presidency and blew it. They spent money like they were Democrats, increasing the national debt to the largest in history and as a result lost the House and Senate. Now they do not have a leg to stand on when talking about fiscal restraint and "small government".

3/ The recent crash in the stock market is a phenomenon that even I have not seen in my lifetime. Much of the blame for this debacle goes to the Democrats and the Clinton administration. Allowing Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to promote ridiculous mortgages to people who simply could not afford them; trying to push poor people into the American dream - home ownership. Bush claims that the Republicans raised concerns several years ago about Fanny and Freddie's dangerous lending policies. If that is the case he could have stopped it, even if he had to shut down the government to make his point. So the blame falls at his feet. As Harry Truman once said, "The buck stops here".

4/ And finally, the Republicans have fielded a weak candidate this year and although Sarah Palin has added some "fire" to the campaign, she has been unable to overcome John McCain's lack of fire. He would probably be a competent President, but his performance in the last debate was not good, and Barack Obama seems content with just "stalling the game" until the election. If McCain says "my friends" one more time I will choke.

If John McCain can somehow pull out this election, I will be the first to applaud him as a miracle man, and applaud the American public for being smarter that anyone thinks. An Obama presidency along with a Nancy Pelosi House and Harry Reid Senate would be the most left leaning government this country has ever seen. But as of now it looks like the Democrats have the "perfect storm" working for them.

If they win it all, I predict the American electorate will look into the mirror in a few years and say "What have we done?"

"Show me the money"

As of this date the national debt is more than $10 trillion, and increasing at a rate of $3 billion/day. I am a businessman with some financial experience, but I cannot even comprehend these numbers.

Governor Paterson of New York recently announced the state has a $2 billion deficit and is in deep financial trouble. But Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor of our great state of California makes Paterson look like a financial genius as our state deficit reaches $16 billion.

Congress recently bailed out AIG to the tune of $85 billion and then followed that with a $700 billion "bailout" bill, even when 65% of Americas were against it. Congress responded to the citizen complaints by telling us "The bailout is needed and the 777 point drop in the stock market on the 29th 0f September is proof ". So Congress approved the "bailout" and the market responded with an 800 point drop the first two days of this week.

And now our governor is the first to run to the government and say, "We need help, bail us out too". I have read that California needs $7 billion just to get through the next few months. And believe me, many states will follow suit with this request for a "bailout". Incredibly the Democrats are still campaigning on the "populist" promise of more for everyone and "We will fund these programs by raising taxes on rich people". I am not rich, but during my career as a small businessman we provided jobs for several hundred hard working employees. No one ever got a job from a poor person.

We are doing all this "social engineering" and unlimited spending starting with a $10 trillion national debt.

Can anyone "Show me the money"?

"Joe: Say it isn't so"

In 1919 "Shoeless Joe Jackson", one of the greatest baseball players in history was accused of fixing the World Series that year and was later banned from baseball for life. He was never proven to be guilty, but the phrase from his fans "Joe: say it isn't so" became part of baseball legend.

Tonight in the debate, Sarah "Barracuda" used that line against Joe Biden when he spewed more of his untrue liberal rhetoric. For us die hard baseball fans that was a beautiful "middle America" moment - I wonder who gave her that line? By all accounts Biden made many outright lies in his responses, but it landed on deaf ears. Most will agree she was the star of the show.

But more important, she erased the main stream media's image that has been created by way of "gotcha" questions and clever editing. Tonight even die hard liberals had to agree that she was "Vice Presidential" material and believe me, she knows how to relate to the pulse of this country. The Barracuda was in her element tonight, speaking directly to the American people, and she made Joe Biden look like what he is - an old entrenched typical Washington politician; and after the events of this week do we really want more of the same in Washington?

Let the "Barracuda" swim

Sarah Palin has been getting it from all sides and I am impressed that she hasn't "caved in" or lashed out at her enemies. Her recent interview with Katie Couric was not good. Just like the Charles Gibson interview Couric seemed to be just trying to come up with questions that the "Barracuda" could not answer. That is not necessarily a bad thing; candidates need to be tough; but it seems to me these interviews should be directed toward trying to find out what kind of a person Governor Palin is.

I believe the McCain "handlers" are trying to box her in, and make her look like something she is not because they don't want her to make a mistake. She is the 44 year old governor of Alaska and of course she doesn't have much foreign policy experience. Why not say so? When Couric asked her about her foreign policy experience and she talked about how "Alaska was close to Russia", and "When Vladimir Putin flies to the USA he flies over Alaska", that was not a good response (or image) for someone that could be the next Vice President. The McCain handlers must have known that the foreign policy question would be asked, so I can only conclude that the "Russia proximity" and "Putin fly over" answers were prepared.

This is how Sarah Palin should have answered the question on foreign policy: "Katie it should be obvious to everyone that as a young Governor of Alaska I do not have a lot of foreign policy experience, especially compared to Senator Biden who has been in the congress for 22 years. But I am strong in many other areas such as energy and management experience. In this interview you should be trying to find out what kind of a person I am, what kind of an executive I am, and what kind of a leader I am. I have more executive management experience than both Senators Biden and Obama, and even though I may not be strong in certain areas like foreign policy that is not necessarily a problem. As Vice President I will most likely be surrounded with very talented people and I learn very quickly".

Let's remember that the McCain campaign was "brought back from the dead" by Sarah Palin so they should quit rehearsing her and trying to make her into just another politician.
Let the "Barracuda" swim.

Will taxpayers take it on the chin again?

We are among the millions of Americans that have bought homes over the years - homes that we could afford; and we rarely missed a mortgage payment. We used credit cards, but rarely got over extended. If we could not afford to get a loan to buy a new car we bought used cars. If we could not take that "dream" vacation because it was too expensive, we went camping or on a driving trip. We rarely took out an equity loan and rarely bought "risky" investments just to get a higher return.

Now we are asked to bail out the millions that did just the opposite. From the bottom up, home buyers, mortgage banks, financial institutions and corporations took the big risks believing that the real estate market would continue to rise. But that did not happen. Now we are told that we "have no choice" but for the taxpayers to pay a trillion dollars to bail out the risk takers and "save the economy".

I believe the economy can work its way through this problem even if it is a painful process. If Americans suffer financially, that might be just what it takes for people to get things in perspective in their lives. The "I want it now" generation took the risks, they should accept the consequences. Requiring the US taxpayer to bail out all of these bad loans is against the fundamental credo my depression era parents taught me: "Take personal responsibility for your actions no matter how difficult your situation becomes". Maybe the pain will develop some character in a society that thinks everything is easy and if you get in trouble the government will take care of you. Our family stands to feel the pain as much as anyone, but this country needs to get back to the fundamentals - work hard, stay within your financial means, and if you make a bad decision, take responsibility for it. This proposed bailout is nothing more than another step toward socialism.

Hurricane Sarah

"Hurricane Sarah" has swept in from Alaska and knocked the Democrats and the liberal media back on their heels. They are now trying to regroup and are in full attack mode. I'm sure as a Conservative Republican I look at the situation through somewhat biased eyes, but the personal attacks on Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin have been unbelievable. The liberals like to talk about what a tough lady Hillary is, but if she had had half of the criticism the "Barracuda" has taken so far she would have crumbled. Remember Hillary's breakdown in New Hampshire when she started crying because the campaign was "so difficult"? Well Hillary, this "hockey mom" from Alaska is showing you what tough is.


What is driving the liberals crazy is the more they attack, the happier Sarah seems to be...they cannot understand why she is not getting angry. When she faced ABC's Charles Gibson last week, he was obviously in the "attack mode". Yes, it was his job to find out more about her qualifications, but you could tell he was just trying to make her stumble. She did very well; not perfect; but experience in those kinds of interviews will make her even stronger. The more they attack, the more she smiles and seems comfortable. They have made fun of her on Saturday Night Live, those morons on the "View" television program have criticized her almost daily, Hollywood hates her, she gets negative front page articles in the New York Times and Washington Post - the liberals are frustrated...why?... FEAR. Here is a Conservative Republican who could become the first female Vice President and she speaks openly about God, she is pro life, she is pro business, pro energy, she loves large families, she loves guns, hunting, and fishing, she believes in lower taxes, free enterprise , small government...of course the liberals are afraid.


The "Barracuda" seems to be tough and is facing all the attacks head on - we will see how she does during the next month because the attacks are going to get vicious. If she does become the first woman Vice President, it will be a great day for women. Can you imagine the empowerment it will give other conservative women? Watch out you male "elite" politicians, if Sarah wins, there may be more "hurricanes" on the way to Washington.

Cold War II?

Our children were too young to remember the "Cold War", and it was over before our grandchildren were born. After World War II the Russians began to annex countries all through Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union was born. Millions of people in Poland, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Lithuania, and many other small eastern bloc countries who were previously dominated by the Germans, succumbed to Russian communist rule. As communism spread throughout Eastern Europe, fear started to spread here in the USA as the Russians expanded their empire. So the Cold War began - USA vs Russians; who could "out threat" the other; who could outspend the other on their military build up; the nuclear race was on and an incredible number of nuclear weapons were developed. In the USA, missiles in silos were aimed at Russia, in Russia similar missiles were aimed at the USA. Both countries developed nuclear submarines that could go anywhere in the world and wait for the order to fire their arsenal of nuclear weapons. I recall people building bomb shelters in their backyards in the event of a nuclear attack. As a teenager I became a "civil air" volunteer working one night a week tracking and reporting all aircraft sightings over our small town in Florida. Everyone thought a nuclear attack from Russia was possible.

War threats went back and forth during the 50's, 60's, and 70's. Diplomacy was the order of the day; promises and treaties, but nothing changed. Both countries were on a collision course. Then something happened - Ronald Reagan was elected President and decided that the only approach to the Russian threat was to build our military up to a strength that would discourage any enemy. So each side continued to build up their militaries; then another thing happened - the Russians went broke. Their economy was breaking down, citizens were protesting for more freedom, there was civil unrest in all the satellite countries, and the so-called "Soviet Union" broke down - symbolized in history by the destruction of the Berlin Wall. Millions of people throughout Eastern Europe became free and finally controlled their own destiny. Russia withdrew to their original borders and tried to repair their society. Ronald Reagan had won the cold war.

The Russians began rebuilding their economy and even installed a "quasi" democracy. They started developing their vast natural resources, especially oil and natural gas. Now they are totally energy self-sufficient and have Europe in their grasp, supplying a significant portion of Europe's energy. During this same period, we knuckled under to the "Eco Extremists" here in our country, limited our drilling and development of nuclear and other energy resources, and today we are dependent on 70% foreign sources for our energy, and many of these foreign sources do not like us.

Now that the price of oil has reached $100 + per barrel Russia is flush with "liquid gold" and are able to laugh at the rest of the world. They have money and are building a large military again. The recent invasion of Georgia had no real response from Europe or the USA. We and Europe issued all the classic diplomatic cliches - "This was unfortunate", "This is unacceptable", "Russia needs to recognize the sovereignty of Georgia". The truth is, the USA is bogged down in the Mid East and Europe is so dependent on energy from Russia, neither of us had any choice but to "walk softly" when criticizing the Russian invasion.

Russia seems to be on an expansion program again, refusing to withdraw from Georgia and claiming that South Ossetia (which is within Georgian borders) is now "sovereign" territory. Recently their President said "We are not afraid of another cold war" - why not, they are now rich in oil. One of their top generals even recently said "The installation of USA defensive missiles in Poland could justify a nuclear response". So the military bluster begins again, reminiscent of the old cold war.

Meanwhile we fight and argue amongst ourselves and come up with no energy plan. Better to not disturb the Caribou in Anwar than to work toward USA energy independence. So we will see what the future brings, but those of us that lived through the last cold war realize this could be serious, and the USA must develop more energy security. As for me, I want John McCain in the White House if the "Russian Bear" comes calling again.