Well it's that time of year again. What are your picks for the Superbowl?
I'll go with a long shot.
Cincinnati vs. Minnesota
Minnesota wins 31 to 17
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After the election is over we will look at all of the votes and the winner will be announced no later than Monday at noon. There has been a flurry of late activity, and we've seen some dormant accounts "spring to life" with no CR and no activity at all. We've also seen a late rush of visits from email accounts as the referral, which indicates real activity from unique IP addresses.
Remember guys, it's all in fun.
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We cannot reflect on what binds us together as Americans without reflecting on our divisions. Many of the pundits and politicians in their musings remind us of the differences between us. Some try to exploit those divisions with awful language and personal attacks. Nancy Pelosi refers to Tea Party protestors as "astroturf" and some on the right accuse Obama of trying to take over America.
This is largely politics as usual, and it really isn't a big deal. What makes it bad for The United States is when we the people fall in to the trap that has been set for us. Both sides refuse to consider the opposition position. When the issue is health care, taxes or monetary policy these divisions may be unavoidable and perhaps even healthy.
But when it comes to the war on terror, it is nonsense. This is an issue that should not, and can not be divisive when viewed logically. The people behind the attacks of September 11th make no distinction between liberal and conservative. They make no distinction between black or white Americans. They are simply driven to kill you.
Despite the economic downturn, the United States is still a wealthy country. The entire Western world lives in a comfort and security that was unthinkable just 100 years ago. Those in power around the world see a world that looks very similar from country to country, and they assume or modern era is beginning to transcend war and misery. Those who understand history and the cultural and religious differences of the world know better.
The world is not small, and it is getting bigger every day. We can still say with the utmost confidence that only the dead have seen the end of war.
We have been told since we were children that the lesson of history is "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
This is not the lesson of history. It is a myth used by political parties to push a position. The real lesson of history is not nearly so vague. The real lesson of history involves every human being on the planet.
When the people of a nation are not diligent in preserving their freedom, they will surely lose that freedom. History shows us clearly that when we lose our freedom, many will lose their lives.
We as citizens of the United States have a common enemy hell bent on our destruction. This enemy lives in the shadows and is sometimes protected by governments. We will make mistakes in fighting this enemy. Because of his mobile nature it is difficult to derive a foreign policy to fight this type of enemy. One day the fight may be best fought with diplomacy, another day large scale armies. One faction may need to be addressed as a criminal issue, and another may be open to negotiation.
But the fight must continue. For the moment we surrender, we lose our freedom. All of us have skin in this game.
So while we should pause today and remember those who lost their lives eight years ago, we should also reflect on why we have become so divided. Are the divisions enough to give up our freedom? Should brother fight brother over a health care policy that will surely line the pockets of politicians and lobbyist of one stripe or the other, but will just as certainly not be the best solution for us? Or should we join arm and arm and say, "We may fight with words among ourselves, but we will fight to the death those that try to take our freedom."?
President Obama is the President of the United States of America. George W. Bush was the President of the United States of America. John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi are both members of the United States House of Representatives. They do not agree on much to be sure. But they must come together and understand that the Islamic terrorists wish them all but one fate, death.
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Something big is brewing over at Foxnews. Glenn Beck has been foreshadowing a big story all week. Tonight he really pushed the envelope suggesting that it is so big, we won't be talking about health care reform tomorrow. This is bold. President Obama is addressing a joint session of congress tonight on the issue of health care. For Beck to suggest it won't even be the big topic tomorrow indicates he is sitting on a mighty big story.
If this flops, it will certainly be the Segway of politics this year.
UPDATE!!!!!!
Looks like Breitbart has uncovered the story. Thanks to Smashey for finding the link.
http://biggovernment.com/
My guess is this will not be as big as Beck thinks, because he may get the story wrong. Acorn could make the case (and probably will) that this is again a group of rogue employees, and that it was a setup anyway.
The interesting thing in the video is that someone trained these Acorn employees, and it appears they know exactly what they are doing. In other words, it doesn't look like this is the first time down this road. It is of course horribly disturbing that anyone would find under aged prostitution acceptable. But it gets worse. They seem to be almost encouraging the behavior. Why? What does Acorn have to gain from this? Am I missing something?
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Sarah Palin is out as governor of Alaska and all speculation is that she intends to focus on the Republican nomination for president in 2012. Could she beat Obama?
We're going to run a mock election for 30 days to see how U4prez members would vote. Voting is limited to one vote per account.
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http://www.u4prez.com/UserList.aspx?Party=2012
| Today and tomorrow are your last two chances for submitting blogs to the U4prez blog contest. The winner will be decided by end of the week and announced on Monday of next week. Keep the blogs coming because we will be running another contest in late spring or early summer.
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The blogs have become a very popular feature on U4prez.com, and some of them, actually many of them are outstanding. We want to continue this excellence and encourage our members to continue creating this outstanding blogs. To that end we introduce the U4prez.com political blog contest. The contest will work as follows.
Blogs will be accepted for judging until Friday March 27th.
The editors of U4prez will judge, and determine the winner.
Some of the factors will be how well written a specific blog entry is written, how much debate the entry, or the entire blog generates, and over a five day period, which blog entry generated the most traffic in terms of unique visits. The winner will be announced on March 31st. Blog entry of course must be original and posted on U4prez.com.
Editors will be looking for:
Well presented argument
Grammatically correct
News breaking content
Level of debate and comment about the blog entry
You may blog about anything related to politics or politicians. State and local politics are also encouraged. Blogs will be judged on specific entries, so the more blog entries you create, the better your chances.
The first prize is $1000
Second prize is $250
Third prize is $100
Good luck blogging. Judging will begin February 2nd and existing blogs are eligible. No entries after March 27th 2009 will be considered for this contest, but may be considered for future contests.
Winning blog entry will also of course be posted on the home page of U4prez.com.
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Has anyone else noticed that there are no new ideas coming out of Washington D.C.? Just not long ago, intelligent men and women were able to disagree about issues, and yet still use history as a guide to do the things necessary to keep the nation on track. Moynihan, Goldwater, Reagan, O'neill and others worked towards a common good. They did this with a keen eye towards the past, and avoided making the mistakes that earlier generations had made.
A Democrat in John Kennedy was thus able to lower taxes, and point to the past as a guide to increasing the economy. Reagan took office and deregulated industries and lowered taxes resulting in a great economic boom both on Wall Street and Main Street.
Today, our leaders from Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Bush, McCain and every other member of congress our so woefully inept and unaware of our nation's history that it is frankly embarrasing. For a few years think tanks from The Heritage Foundation to Brookings stepped in and offered some leadership from afar, and pundits like George Will and tried to keep politicians at least if not honest, informed. Now pundits try to be as accomodating and politically incorrect as the politicians they are supposed to watch. The think tanks simply strive to hold on to what they have and not a single voice is heard speaking the truth.
So here it is.
For two hundred years or so, a laissez faire, balanced with moderate but necessary intervention has worked to keep the economies of the world growing. The reason for liassez faire is simply that there is no way to regulate billions of transactions equitably.
Taxes have been low or stable throughout most of this span. After World War II they went higher for a time, but this worked only because half of the world was rebuilding the manufacturing base, and the infrastructure to deliver goods. Many other countries simply opted out of economic growth and were ruled by totalitarian regiems under the auspices of communism and socialism, both of course failed miserably.
The notion of a leader looking to Queen Elizabeth as the exemplary model is not just gone, our present politicans don't even know what it means! Instead each political party tries to grab as many interest groups as it can to hold of the opposition. All is in the name of the "people" and the individual doesn't exist.
The cold hard fact is that of all the polticians in Washington, Obama is one of the most inexperienced, and least able to lead the nation. McCain was even worse. Obama is an exceptional orator (to the masses at least) short on specifics, and even shorter on economic theory and history. McCain is a doddering old man who relishes the role of a maverick, for the simple reason that he doesn't appear to know what else to do.
What does the future hold?
It doesn't take a crystal ball to predict the future. The stimulus package will lead to a rebound in the second half of 2009, followed by the realization that we are trying to fix a credit problem by increasing credit. At this early stage it appears that the lion's share of the spending will go towards "infrastructure". This is simply stupid. Building roads to areas where no manufactures and services can be delivered is an infrastructure investment. Fixing roads that are a little bumpy doesn't increase the productivity of the nation. When the drunken stooper is over, we'll be left with a hangover of monumental proportions. The eighty million baby boomers will still be around, waiting for their social security checks and medicare payments, the government will be in debt (that means you and I will owe the money) to the tune of 150% if GDP, and the sale of bonds will become next to impossible. This will of course lead to a round of tax increases on the wealthy, and more regulations to keep the interest groups employed and voting for whatever party happens to be in power when the bottom falls out.
When the bottom is finally reached, and there are no more buyers for the bonds, and no more income to be taxed we will be at the final fork in the road. There will be only two choices, the tyrant and hopefully, the last honest man. The last honest man (think someone of George Washington's character) will tell us that it is time to go back to the things that have worked; self reliance, hard work and fiscal responsability. The tyrant will find a scapegoat, and promise to punish the wicked traders, imprison the bankers, and point fingers at various religious and racial groups.
If history is any guide, the people will choose the tyrant.
This sad state of affairs was caused by us. We elected people who promised goodie bags full of lollipops and big screen TVs to be paid for by someone who was luckier in the game of life.
The real tragedy is there is still time to fix the country. Draconian cuts in government spending, an avoidance of costly wars, lower taxes, elimination of all business regulations not directly related to public safety, and tort reform, coupled with an aggessive pursuit of our own natural resources, and limits on free trade (which is really mercantilism disguised) would set a path for growth that would not only refill the treasury, it would create surpluses to honor the promises to the baby boomers.
A tip of the hat to Faulkner for that last sentence.
The solutions are easy to see. Say's Law (see the Ipod) and Pareto's weak optimal are your two guidelines. We can find them in each of the last ten decades proving their validity time and time again. All that is needed is a man with the character to say no. Does our generation have an Adenauer, a Washington or a Queen Elizabeth? I think not.
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