Archive for April, 2011

A NASTY PIECE OF WORK

Sunday, April 24th, 2011

With all of these Air Traffic Controllers falling asleep on the job, I only wish it had happened on one of the tax-payer funded flights that carried Nancy Pelosi and her entourage of family, in-laws and groupies.  Not that I would want them to die in an aircraft accident, just get roughed up a little bit, or maybe a couple of go-arounds in mild wind shear and weather down to the minimums.

According to the Judicial Watch Verdict of 2010, Volume 16, Issue 12, the following numbers apply to Nancy Pelosi and her use of Air Force aircraft between March 2009 and June 2010.  The numbers are made available under the Freedom of Information Act, otherwise you can bet they’d be buried deeper than Hillary Clinton’s weightlifting records.

Remember, now, this is the diminutive crow of a woman who stood watch while the federal government spent more…in two years…than in the two hundred years preceding them.  All the while, blaming the Bush administration…still…for the ever-deepening recession.  And…advising the rest of us to tighten our belts, accept higher taxes, and continue on an entitlement binge.  This is the woman who proclaimed…and I’m not making this up…that unemployment benefits were one of the best stimuli for the economy because those people spent the money right off.  Fantastic.  And that would be true if the “money” she was talking about grew on trees or fell from the sky like snowflakes or could be squeezed from oranges like juice.  The problem, of course, is that the “money” comes from the paychecks of the rest of us…and then we can’t spend that money “right away” ourselves.  Indeed…we don’t get to spend it at all.

Imagine, then, that this same insipid bubble of a person spent in that 15 month period a little over 2.1 million dollars on Air Force aircraft.  Over 85 trips during a 68 week period, aircraft hours just under 500 hours, or, as it averaged out, $27,715.00 per trip.  Oh…that’s not all though.  There was the booze bill for these flights which almost always included family of some kind. A little over a hundred grand altogether, but averaged out at $1,193.00 per trip.  Not a lot when you consider what she demanded be available on the aircraft.  Are you ready?  Johnny Walker Red Scotch, Grey Goose Vodka, E & J Brandy, Bailey’s Irish Cream, Maker’s Mark Whiskey,Courvoisier Cognac, Bacardi Rum, Jim Beam Whiskey, Beefeater Gin, Dewars Scotch, Bombay Sapphire Gin, Jack Daniels Whiskey, Corona Beer…I’ll spare you the Wine List.

What’s more amazing than this?  That across the country, it is the “left”, the devout followers of Nancy Pelosi and her philosophy, that are becoming so angry, vile and vitriolic at demonstrations.  The Tea Party folks continue, by and large, to keep their cool.  That’s amazing…because when I read how much of our money that corrupt, ass of a woman…that nasty piece of work, spent keeping that massive ego of hers afloat…well…it makes it seem like the folks on our side should be the ones yelling and screaming.

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WE AND YOU

Sunday, April 17th, 2011

Listening to the President lambaste Republicans, and particularly Rep. Paul Ryan and his budget plan, in his recent speech, really lit my fuse.  Obama would have us think that conservatives would leave the elderly dying on the streets and autistic children lying in snowbanks.  How old and tired is this stereotype?  Has the “Left” noticed that the overwhelming majority of Americans are not buying it? Ryan’s plan faces the difficult truth of our predicament, and would help avoid a scenario where we are all starving 20 years from now.

I’m increasingly incensed at hearing “we” and “you” used in these arguments, and how “we” are all going to have to share the “pain” of getting America back to financially solid ground.  Sure…just like I’m anxious to help my neighbor bail his nephew out of a fourteenth arrest for meth production.  It implies that everyone is to blame for the nation’s debt crisis.  Not so.

The Administration would have us believe that we have all been naughty and now it’s time to pay the piper, when in fact, the federal spending binge that got us here has little to do with most Americans.  I can tell you that I have not been on any kind of spending and credit binge over the last few decades.  Instead, I’ve been struggling to keep a small business afloat, keep heating oil surging through the furnace, and to keep something resembling food on the table of a family of five.  It’s not been easy.  Most people I know have paid their bills, lived within their means for decades, and not had anything to do with the financial crisis facing this country.

Like most Americans I love this country and pay my taxes willingly…at least until recently.  But now I’m wondering if the sky is indeed the limit, or if the federal government will vote to raise the limit of “the sky” as well, in terms of how much money they are willing to extort from the working public.  When they finally want more than fifty cents of every dollar I earn, I’ve got to put on the brakes.  That’s just income tax…it doesn’t include the myriad of other taxes and “fees” we all pay in our day to day lives.

Is it any wonder that the gap between us is growing to an insurmountable breadth?  There are two Americas now.  The income-redistribution crowd that wants everyone beholden to the government and the same amount of chicken in every pot, and the rest of us that understand you can’t take everything from the “can-do” crowd to give to the “won’t-do” crowd.

The assault on “the rich” has become so tired and wanting.  America was built on the shoulders of those who wanted more…who worked harder…who were inspired to want the most of life that they could get.  Let’s be honest…some of us work harder than others.  I’ve owned a small business since 1981.  Eighty hour weeks were the norm, but I worked those weeks to carve out a better life for my family, not the family down the street.
The government now wants to level that field, and then, to add insult to injury, they want half of the half after I die as well.  I heard someone defending the death tax by saying, “you don’t want to spoil your kids, do you?”
Well…I’d rather spoil my kids than yours.

I’ll tell you one thing, the more I hear “we” and “you” coming from Washington, the more nervous I get.  I have a hard enough time paying for my own mistakes.  I don’t want to be paying for everyone else’s, too.

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WISHY WASHY WASHINGTON

Monday, April 11th, 2011

I found a certain sense of relief not long ago when I stopped imagining our Capital, our Congress and Senate, as remarkable, stoic enterprises, and began to accept them more as a ditzy blonde on a bowling team.  Affable, not that bright, well-meaning and mostly harmless, and adorably, blissfully absent of any sensible notion regarding nearly  any subject.

Consider the “budget crisis” we just endured in Washington, D.C. .  Never mind that the Obama administration has had since October to hammer out the same details that now had to be plowed through in another “faux” emergency.  Now, with Republicans holding some sway, and the nefarious Tea Party bearing influence in untold sums, agreement on spending and cutting became hard to come by.  Many argued that the 60 billion or so that was holding things up was indeed a small percentage of the overall budget, but there is also a growing sensibility that dictates that no amount is too small to forgo scrutiny.  I am with the latter group.

So naturally, rumors grew about the possibility of a “Government Shutdown”.  We all know that means practically nothing because government never “closes”.  We should be so lucky.  No..it is simply an increasingly popular gimmick to add pressure to hold-out votes.  We soldiered through a brief government shutdown under President Clinton and nobody noticed.  Granted, this one was to be a little more consequential, but it was still little more than “non-essential” workers being told to stay home, and probably still get paid.  I would point out here that only in government could the phrase “non-essential worker” even exist without snickers and guffaws.  For those of us in the private sector, that sounds silly. “I’m here for the non-essential job. I know you don’t need me, but I’d still like to show up everyday for 35 years and then leave with a huge pension and health benefits.  That is…if you don’t mind…”.  Problem is…the taxpayers are starting to “mind”.

This is why Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget plan, which was alternately heralded as brilliant or evil, was, if nothing else, radical.  And needed.  Liberals howled that old folks would be dying in the street, and the less fortunate would be left to die as entitlement programs were hacked back and thrown to the States.  This is where they belong, though.  States and communities can do what the Federal Government(the ditzy blonde on the bowling team) cannot…they can discern.  They can discern the needy from the lazy and greedy and we need to do that. There isn’t enough money to help the needy…and THEM too.

States and communities can get more for each dollar because the programs are not enveloped in federal government lard.  If you give fifty bucks to a needy person…they get the entire fifty.  Boom.  You give that same fifty bucks to Washington, and by the time they get it to that needy person…it’s twelve cents.  That’s the problem.

So Ryan’s plan, or one like it, is painful for everyone but it reflects the true need of the country. It isn’t wishy-washy, it is serious and reflects the urgency that every American should feel about getting federal spending under control.  We can continue on our spending spree and run the entire nation off a cliff.  Or we can get serious about the pain that is going to be inevitable, and begin getting it out of the way.  I’m with the latter group.

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PILSEN

Monday, April 4th, 2011

I stumbled across an article recently about this small town in the Czech Republic, Pilsen, and the rather remarkable citizens that live there.  Actually, what is most remarkable about the people of Pilsen is that there are not more like them, and even more remarkable…why such a moving story is not retold more often.

They have a celebration in Pilsen (Plzen) every five years, on May 6th.  A “Liberation Celebration” which includes a parade, various festivities and a solemn prayer at a very unique monument.  In this granite monument, carved and brilliant gold letters reads: “Thank You America! On May 6th, 1945, the City of Plzen was liberated by the U.S. Army”. More precisely, General George Patton’s 3rd Army.  How touching.  Simple, yet heartfelt and sincere.

The parade includes vintage U.S.Army vehicles and uniforms.  Children seek out the autographs of U.S. Soldiers who may be in the crowd, visiting for the event.  One native pointed out that the “United States soldier is the ‘rock star’ to our young people”.  Pictures show, indeed, young Czech children seeking and acquiring said autographs and the looks in their eyes bears out the statement by their elder.  They gaze upon these guys with the wistful, dreamy look of a teenage American girl watching The Beatles in 1965.

The story of Pilsen, their liberation and their own history, is entwined with our own history there.  This was the town, the place, where Lt. Virgil P. Kirkham, a USAAF pilot, was shot down and killed.  Lt. Kirkham was the last recorded pilot killed in Europe during World War II.  It was Kirkham’s 82nd mission…and one that he volunteered for.  He was 20 years-old when his P-47 Thunderbolt went down.

A 14 year-old Czech girl, Zdenka Siadkova, remembers the crash.  She remembers also being liberated, and was so moved by the sacrifice, that she vowed, then and there, to care for Virgil’s crash site and the memorial that is there.  She is now 79 years-old and has kept her promise for the last 65 years.  The crash site and memorial are near her home.

Here, Czech children are taught in school about America’s sacrifice for their freedom.  Here, the Brian LaViolette Foundation established The Scholarship of Honor in tribute to General Patton and the American Soldier.  Each year the Foundation pays tribute to an American Soldier.  In May, 2011, that recipient will be Lt. Virgil Kirkham.

As we look at world affairs today, we should all remember the efforts and sacrifices this great nation has made on behalf of so many oppressed people.  It is reassuring to see a place where the expression of gratitude is volunteered with such enthusiasm.  Thank you, Pilsen.

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