Islam in Europe and Beyond

A version of the text found at the below link was sent to me. I checked it out on Snopes and indeed there are several versions floating around, but that the speech referenced is real. Amazing what is going on in Europe. Hopefully the terrible economics of the system that is described will one day show its fallacy and slow or reverse the growth.

http://www.cicentre.com/articles/gw_america_last_man_standing.html

No reasonableness to be found.

Afghan War Ad Nauseum

In early October I opined that I think we should stay in Afghanistan if that is what our military leaders think is best. I personally like that Obama took 6 weeks to think it through. Don't know if this "surge" will work, but I guess it is worth a try.

After we get rid of the rising Taliban, we need to leave and if they rise again, then that is the will of the populace in the area. Or the lack of will. As I have written many times on this blog, the root of the problem is not with us, it lies with long-bearded radicals who follow an extreme form of Islam and espouse ridiculous, unreasonable things about us, the infidels.

Get out of Iraq and load it up in Afghanistan and lets get this over with.

AZ Welfare

It is interesting that the State of AZ has enacted a new rule - if you are applying for welfare, you must fill out a three question form about your current and past drug use. If the welfare worker determines the applicant may be a drug user, then they can force the applicant to get a drug test. Yes, the state will pay for the test.

Apparently the state believes they can save about $1.7m or so per year. It seems likely to me that a very high number of people on welfare are also on drugs. Likewise, it seems likely that they will lie on the form.

Frankly, I didn't even know you could apply for and receive welfare if you were on drugs. I guess you could. Now you just have to lie about the drugs and then still get welfare. Progress is slow and unreasonable.

Barack Obama and the Polls

For the first time Barack Obama dropped below a 50% approval rating.

Hold your head up President Obama - you are in good company. It took Ronald Reagan 10 months to drop below the mark and he was the best president of the modern age.

He was also re-elected by a wide margin.

So, Mr. President - keep going, use your brain, use your incredible speaking skills, get some of your advisers in line or put them out, and get the health care thing done. Decide soon on Afghanistan and keep talking to other countries and representing us with dignity and grace and articulation.

Updated Ramblings

Douglas Hoffman is the Republican who lost in upstate NY a few weeks ago in an election that would have been won by the moderate Republican had the far right not stepped in. Apparently Doug Hoffman, similarly to Senator Craig, wants a do-over! Hoffman conceded the election but now thinks he shouldn't have because the vote is closer than previously thought. He even somehow blamed in on the ridiculous organization ACORN. Note: Senator Craig you will remember plead guilty to hustling men in the bathroom in Minnesota and then said (as an attorney) that he didn't understand what he was doing when he entered said plea. What? Are these guys for real?

Sarah Palin is drawing big crowds and rambling on about conservative issues. She should tone it down or shut up before the Republican hierarchy has to step in. If they even can. Sarah is a hit! The cover of Newsweek was a nice picture but they shouldn't have used that picture. Not fair to Sarah Palin at all. I hate feeling sorry for her in any way, but that was a pretty blatant slam.

The union for the grocery worker here in AZ at the last minute ratified the agreement and avoided a strike. Duh! Interestingly, when they announced the agreement, they didn't disclose what the "concessions" were that they won. Probably because the concessions were probably close to nothing. I can tell you first hand, the workers the next day at Fry's Food Store were pretty darn pleased to be working rather than picketing.

Favre is still rolling. Thank goodness Green Bay rebounded from an embarrassing lost to TB, the worst team in football.

Republicans - Palin

I have argued in this blog that the Republicans need to get back to the middle and stay away from the extreme right. If you want to get elected to the big offices, you have to appeal to the moderates and independents. That is the way it is.

Sarah Palin, who would easily be the best looking President, is a real problem. She appeals to the worst of the Republican, conservative base. She is popular and will sell a lot of books - no doubt about it. Heck, I might even buy it myself............nah, just kidding.

Newsweek writer, Evan Thomas, beautifully summed up exactly how Reagan and Ike led the majority by appealing to the Conservatives and moderates. Ms. Palin - take note because you have the political chops to make a run. Can you be a builder of consensus?

Thomas wrote, "The two greatest postwar presidents understood this. Dwight Eisenhower governed in the 1950s by deftly uniting center and right, and Ronald Reagan did the same in the 1980s. They needed to be flexible to the point of gross expediency. To placate the far right, Ike shamefully refused to stand up for his friend and fellow statesman Gen. George Marshall, who was ludicrously attacked by Sen. Joe McCarthy as "soft" on communism. Reagan piously gave lip service to the right-wing social agenda while doing nothing to further it by legislation; he also chose George H.W. Bush to be his vice president and allowed the ultrapragmatic James A. Baker III to run the White House. The "Gipper" talked tough about the Russians--while doing more than any other president to foster détente. With a slyness that belied their smiling patriotism, Eisenhower and Reagan confused and occasionally exasperated their own followers. But it's no coincidence the Eisenhower '50s and Reagan '80s were periods of unusual peace and prosperity."

I have often opined that Ronnie was very conservative, but didn't make the rest of us feel like bad people for not agreeing. Where are the leaders like Ronnie?

Islam

It would appear that there is no other explanation other than Political Correctness (PC) gone amok to account for the shootings in Texas. Nidal Malik Hasan clearly had some bizarre ideas and a fair amount of contact with know terrorists in other countries. The FBI knew, and apparently the military did as well.

Those analysts should be fired. Hasan should be tried and hopefully convicted of treason and executed for this tragedy.

Also, the hubbub about trials in NY versus in the military now is just another pissing match between Democrats and Republicans - sort of the issue de jour. Notice how the hubbub rises on an issue and then dies in two weeks. Why? Because the issue isn't worth all the hubbub in the big scheme of things. Think - Republicans and Obama talking to school kids - remember that? Hitler and Hussein names were invoked. Talk about hype. The Democrats aren't much better.

Truthfully - on one side I don't like that these 5 crazy bastards will get an open court to avow their dislike for every American and pontificate about Allah. On the other hand, perhaps letting them do so will help to chip away at PC-ness since more and more people will be convinced that these radical Muslims want all the infidels (that is us) dead or converted to Islam.

In the end, I don't care where they try them - they just need to get on with it as his has already gone on for 8 years. Try and give them their wish - death. Crazy freakin' people!

More Hypocricy

Hmmm. I wonder how many elective "procedures" were paid for in the last 18 year? Yes, the Republicans made a stink about coverage for abortions in the various health plans. (As they should) And, yes their health insurance covers abortions.

Hypocrisy. Here is the story:

"The GOP is doing its darnedest to quickly move on from an embarrassing revelation -- that even as congressional Republicans insist that the health care overhaul does not cover abortions, the national party's own health plan covers elective procedures."

"Late Thursday night, the Republican National Committee acknowledged that its health plan, as far back as 1991, included some coverage for elective abortion. Chairman Michael Steele instructed the RNC's director of administration to opt out of any coverage for elective abortion services in its health insurance policy, the party said."

I agree that abortions shouldn't be paid for by the public. I don't really care if the Republicans, or Democrats for that matter, have insurance that covers abortions, what I do care about is the unreasonable hypocrisy running wild.

This Is Cool - Bogus But Still Cool

This was sent to me with a story about being built at a university in Iowa and being sent to the Smithsonian. Supposedly this was built with parts from John Deere, the tractor company. It looked a little too animated to me and so I checked at Snopes and for sure it is fake. Great animation though!

Enjoy!

Death Penalty

Somehow or other, I have pretty much jumped over the death penalty issue all this time. However, the D.C. Sniper was executed last night so now it is on our collective minds again. If you watch the movie "Dead Man Walking" or a few others, you almost get convinced that the death penalty is a bad deal. "Dead Man Walking" is a great movie - well acted and extremely thoughtful.

Having said all of that, I believe the death penalty is a deterrent. It should be used but in a more humane manner for everyone. You get sentenced to death (well not "you" per se, but you get the point), you get an appeal in your state at one year, and then the U.S. Supreme Court one month later, and then you get your date within the next 30 days. If the Governor wants to step in, so be it.

One year and two months on death row is time for catching errors and looking at legal rights and then it is over for the inmate and the families of those that were killed. Totally reasonable. Leaving them on death row for 7-10-15 years is a waste of precious resources.

More Union Stupidity

In Arizona there is the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 99 which has 25,000 members who work for Fry's Food grocery store (owned by Krogers) and Safeway. The members are primarily checkers, butchers, stockers, etc and are hourly wage employees. A few weeks ago, the misguided members voted to authorize their union leadership to use strike threat to get their collective agreement completed.

Oops.

Once again, similar to the story I recounted about Mercury Marine in Fond du Lac, WI, the union has to be kidding. They have said that concessions must be made by Friday at 6:00 p.m. or they will go on strike. In the mean time, people are applying for the jobs that they anticipate will be opening up.

Non-union employees are going to go to work, new workers will be hired, and the business will go on. Sure, they will lose some customers who don't want to shop where the union is being busted. However, times are tough, and in Fry's case, they are cheap and most people will still go shop their. Safeway - I don't know as it is pretty spendy in comparison.

Now, some union members are asking for another vote as the companies have floated a mild concession, one that union leaders discounted and ignored. Smart move by the company to float this small concession, thus giving membership a way to say they stood up to the company and won. However, the union leaders aren't allowing another vote.

In the end, most of these jobs aren't high skill (butcher excluded) and the jobs that are will still be able to be filled. There is massive unemployment and many people who would love to have the job. One gal quoted in the paper said (and I paraphrase), "I am here at work watching people coming in to apply for my job."

Unions need to have their head's examined in these unprecedented times.

Public Insurance and Abortion

I am a supporter of the "public option" for medical insurance and a woman's right to choose what she feels is best her for body. Never should the two meet however.

The House of Representatives bill that passed (thankfully) over the weekend restricts federal funding for any insurance policy that covers abortion. The Senate versions are little more lax, which I actually find a bit confusing, so anti-abortion groups are urging their supporters to contact their Senators.

Even though the majority of people in the U.S. are pro-choice (true no matter how the conservatives try to spin it), the number of people who are against abortion is a substantial minority and using their tax money to support something so vile to them, is a powder-keg issue. Helping poor people to get abortions with public dollars isn't tolerated now, nor should it be. Abortion is a decision best left to the woman, and she (and hopefully the sperm provider), not the public, should pay for that decision.

Pictures We Remember Our Whole Life

Every person has events that they will never forget. People born in 1959 will always remember John Kennedy's funeral. I suspect we will all remember pictures from Oklahoma City and 9-11 in NY. I will also always remember the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 - 20 years ago today. I suppose I remember the guy with the pick ax or hammer - similar to the picture below.

As a side note - the East German-West German divide is like a huge, human petri dish. The countries that whooped the Germans put up this wall, in part, to divide the spoils of war and to promote their own philosophical agenda. When that wall came down, the differences between the two cities couldn't have been more pronounced. In some cases, these were the same families, divided by the wall themselves, but they too couldn't have been much different. Communism doesn't work, not because the rise of communism was forced, but because not all human beings are wired the same. Many, without rewards, will simply do the minimum to get by. The achievers and risk takers aren't rewarded, or even encouraged. The city of Berlin, proved beyond any doubt that Communism is a failure.

Any way, the picture is a reminder of a very special time for those of us who grew up worrying about the Soviet Union and nuclear proliferation. It was the beginning of the end of a terrible time.

Unemployment

Unemployment hit 10.2%. All the ideology, on both sides of the aisle (maybe congressional members should have to sit Republican-Democrat-Republican-Democrat and that would make them work together better than this left and right side of the aisle business), will not make a difference to voters if they don't find jobs for people.

In order to create jobs, they need to grow new industries (batteries for hybrid cars comes to mind) and punish harshly companies who send jobs overseas. Our economy is shedding jobs, yet productivity is rising. What that tells us is, the jobs aren't going to come back because they are unnecessary. The trick it to create necessary, good paying jobs. This will take time but President Obama and the congress need to put the screws to companies to stay put in America, and to get the lenders to move money to innovative start-up companies immediately.

We cannot save the automobile or steel industry, although automobiles could be resuscitated sufficiently to be viable.

Health care has taken too long, primarily because the Conservative far right wants to protect insurance and pharmaceutical company's profits and basically could care less about "thy neighbor", and because the Liberal far left wants to have socialized medicine. The result, the number one initiative of Barack Obama, which he outlined clearly and concisely in his campaign and resulted in his overwhelming election, remains mired in "Death Panel" and Medicare scares, and discussions about how to make a mammoth health care system belong to the public entirely.

Get it done - pick out something in the middle and get it done now. A public-option, tort reform, remove underwriting, and open up total competition and do it now.

Then you can get back to figuring out how to create sustainable jobs. Oh, and any company, especially one that took dollars from tax payers, that pays out more than a nominal bonus based on the surging stock market should be fined until the unemployment rate drops below 7%. That will give them incentive to create jobs.

NY, the GOP, and the Right

Okay, first it should be noted that I don't pretend to understand NY politics. Keeping track of the ding dongs here in AZ is hard enough. However, my premise about the far right and the Republican party was just proved (perhaps not beyond any reasonable doubt, but to some extent none-the-less) in an up-state NY election.

The Republican party's picked candidate was a woman named Dede Scozzafava; a person the Conservatives would deem a RINO (Republican in Name Only). Get used to the term because it is going to get used a lot among the Conservatives. I digress. The Conservatives wanted a man named Douglas Hoffman and the Democrat's candidate was Bill Owens.

A month or so ago, Republican Scozzafava, was the leader of the race which isn't surprising as the seat has been held by a Republican for about 100 years. Are we good so far? It is a bit of a confusing story.

The Conservatives don't like RINOs so they pumped a million dollars into the election and sent in Sarah "Death Panel" Palin, Fred Thompson (Law & Order actor and ex-Senator and late-to-the-race Presidential candidate), and Dick Armey to embarrass Scozzafava into dropping out of the race. Throw in the blow-hard Glenn Beck, mix in the Conservative meddlers, whip up the radical right into a frenzy, and what do you get?

A Democratic win in a seat held by Republicans for 100 years. Good job!

Idiots.

Ft. Hood Tragedy

12 people dead and many more injured by a crazy psychiatrist, trained by the U.S. Military. Unbelievable. Mr. Hasan was apparently without many friends and was called a Camel Jockey. So what! As Laurie pointed out, this morning's newspaper article appeared to try to make him into some sympathetic character.

Reportedly he actually said that U.S. Soldiers should stand up and help the Iraqi and Afghan fighters, rather than his own U.S. Army. I think soldiers have a right to express their opinion without Rush Limbaugh calling them Phony Soldiers, or without being drummed out of the military. However, saying you disagree with the wars is different than saying we should fight for the opposition. That seems like treason to me.

The military has never struck me as an organization that would stand for such an offense - yet they apparently did. Why? Was it to appear sympathetic to a so-called devout Muslim? Seems likely that they didn't want to seem harsh on a Muslim soldier. Perhaps any troop who is a member of the military medical community is afforded some leeway - sort of like the military putting up with Hawkeye Pierce on MASH because he was a great doctor. We may never know for sure I suppose.

Whatever the reason, had they locked him up for treason or some lesser crime related to his remarks, those 12 people in Texas would be alive today.

Various Topics

A few things I want to ramble about, which is reasonable I believe.

I was embarrassed by the poor reception (even hostile) that Brett Favre received in Green Bay. Sure, once the game started they should have rooted for the Pack and harassed Favre like any other quarterback. But he isn't just any other quarterback - he is the guy that saved the franchise from 20 years of oblivion. He and Reggie White teamed to get good players to agree to move to and play for the Packers. By the way - once again did anyone else notice how he can still zing that ball?

Virginia elected a Republican governor. Interesting to see what that means going forward, if anything. I don't personally see it helping in national elections, but time will tell. The job situation will be the key a year from now. Since 1970 they have been even on electing Republicans and Democrats in Virginia gubernatorial races. Under the pattern, it appeared to be the Republicans turn and they didn't disappoint.

Gays cannot get married in Maine. First they could and now they can't. I personally don't care one way or the other. If they are just going to pass laws to make them eligible for benefits, etc. and just keep them from saying they are married, then I don't get it. I see the economics of allowing benefits etc. as detrimental. Apparently in Maine they don't care about that, but do care about keeping the definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Seems like much ado about nothing to me.

Speaking of gays, the 16 year old policy of "Don't ask, don't tell" will be ended according to President Obama. When, we don't know. He promised to do it and now is listening to advisers on how and when. As was predictable, the military brass aren't too keen on the idea, which is how we ended up with the policy in the first place. I say that if they want to enlist in the military, take em' and God Bless'em.

The East Valley Tribune was published in Mesa, Arizona for nearly 120 years, but no more. One of hundreds of newspapers to take a powder. I never once read it, so I don't care. I do care about the trend however. I will miss newspapers, but I realize that the younger generation seemingly will not. Seems likely that many more will fail, victims of the electronic age. I like the electronic age, but this is a bad consequence.

I didn't win at McDonald's Monopoly game and I probably knocked a year or two off of my life and gained a couple of pounds eating that crap. I have decided it is a scam.

Health Insurance - Publicly Funded

I saw a commercial on TV the other night that was trying to scare Medicare recipients. It was funded by the health insurance industry. Hmmm. On another note.......

If you or your spouse work for a city, town, state, the Feds, school, or are military or retired military, then you are on socialized health insurance. Same with recipients of Medicare or Medicaid. The insurance companies would have you believe that you are all on terrible, flawed plans where you cannot get basic medical service. Another Hmmm.

I do not begrudge these folks the coverage they have, which I suspect is pretty darn good. I do begrudge them saying it is okay for me to not have the same coverage. Believe me, I would love to have such "flawed" coverage. I pay taxes now to pay for the teachers, and city workers, and state workers, and federal workers, and letter carriers, and retired folks, and poor folks, and our brave men and women of the military and their retired brethren to have "flawed" coverage and I would like the same.

Conservatives V. Republicans

This is a scary thing to me. In some local elections, the Conservatives have put up candidates against the Republican candidate. In other words, they think the run-of-the-mill Republican is too liberal.

My worry is that somehow this movement will take off. Yes, they may win some local elections with this tactic, even a congressional seat perhaps, but as a whole I have a hard time seeing how this will work on a national level.

I realize that Conservatives are well-heeled, and prone to vote, thus they can have an influence and even move some local elections. The problem is two fold: if the mainstream Republicans move further to the right to appease the Conservatives, they will further alienate the majority of Americans. The other possible outcome is that the Republican vote gets split, and the Democrats make hay.

In my humble Republican opinion, the party needs to unite around the moderate side, not the Conservative side. The moderate Republicans, so called RINOs (Republican In Name Only) aren't very inclusive to begin with and if they are forced to move to the right, where incivility and intolerance run rampant, the independents plus moderates in both parties will stay away from the Republican party.

The Republicans will no doubt pick up seats at the mid-term elections, unless jobs pick up quickly in the next year. This is normal in our national politics. However, if they misunderstand the public and move to the more Conservative side, they may lose this opportunity.

Fix Or Repair Daily (FORD)

It seems that this fake acronym (or was it Found On Road Dead?), which has been around for a long time, may no longer hold true. Apparently Fords are doing well in initial problems with manufacturing actually declining and making it where they can compete with Toyota, Honda, and Nissan.

GM and Chrysler can't say the same. In fact Chrysler stinks.

Now, Ford has announced that it made a hefty profit in this past quarter - a correlation seems possible. As the only one of the so-called Big 3 to not be partially owned by tax payers, this should be a cause for celebration.

Now the union workers at Ford are being asked for the same concessions as those at GM and Chrysler have endured. Ford is asking for this because they know that part of the profit was due to brisk sales because of the Cash4Clunkers program and some nifty accounting moves.

The union voted overwhelmingly - NO. So, Ford should say, see ya later and hire some of the thousands of laid-off auto workers scattered across the mid-west. The business model that Ford is following still needs to be trimmed, and the union needs to face up to that.

One last note: in the health care debate, the scary argument made is that public offered insurance will put the private sector out of business. Really? Ford is doing swimmingly well against its American competitors despite the others being tax-payer supported.