In Search of the 'Land of the (Financially) Free'
Posted by Ercille Christmas at 5/19/2011 1:52 PM 
Categories: Political
Tags: President Obama Osama Bin Laden US debt ceiling US unemployment US immigration Wall Street Journal Medicare Social Security Pakistan Israel
Categories: Political
Tags: President Obama Osama Bin Laden US debt ceiling US unemployment US immigration Wall Street Journal Medicare Social Security Pakistan Israel
The world's most notorious terrorist has been dumped into the ocean, after of course, receiving his pre-dumping ceremony according to Muslim "customs." Now, can we get back to acknowledging and curing the financial bloodletting of this country, before the next body being dumped overboard is Uncle Sam's? The "burial" for Uncle Sam could very well be a fiscal one, created when China and all of the other creditors of the US, look at the US financial carcass and decide "heave ho."
How many Americans know the specifics of the financial fix in which their country finds itself? At some level, the majority of Americans realize that things are bad, because they are personally affected, most likely by loss of a job, inability to get a job, being faced with foreclosure, high gas prices, high food prices, and on and on. But, do they know the overall mess, affecting the over three hundred million inhabitants of the land? This article Top Dog to Under Dog makes a pretty convincing case of how the country lost the war on its economy. When cops want to search for a dangerous suspect, an APB (All Points Bulletin) is sent out, or sometimes it could also be a BOLO (be on the lookout for). Maybe I should put out an APB – for the "suspects" who got the US in this situation. Quite frankly, my fellow Americans, we would all have to plead guilty. For many of us, our "crime" has been one of not paying attention to those folks we elect to "serve" us. They serve all right – themselves, their relatives and cronies! The following summation should send shivers down our spines, if we are still capable of feeling:
"Foreign entities have taken over 16,613 of our best wealth producing companies in the last 30 years, where the profits, taxes and technology now reside with them. With no ability to produce competitively in the U.S. we must live off foreign imports and outsource our manufacturing as we cannot compete with wages as low as $2.00 per hour. This allows other countries to destroy our ability to compete, while they pocket an immense profit by selling their goods to us while putting our companies out of business, forcing bankruptcies or sell-outs."
Do Americans still own the majority of real estate, businesses and organizations that were traditionally American-owned? I know that I have noticed, what to me, is a phenomenon, as I read time after time, that another American landmark, while still physically located in America, is now owned by foreigners who reside outside of America. Is the Statue of Liberty still in American hands? Is the White House? Lord, have mercy. By the way, in questioning if the White House is in American hands, I am referring to the physical structure, of course.
I am asking the Lord for mercy because of increasing foreign ownership of traditionally American real estate? My attitude of supplication is nowhere near at an end after reading that unemployment is to "remain stagnant for years to come." Speaking of unemployment and job growth/creation, how could over two hundred twenty thousand jobs be created in one month, and almost simultaneously the unemployment percentage jumped back up to 9%? Is there some sort of culinary activity, such as cooking of books, going on? It is especially heartbreaking to see folks breaking the bank to send their kids to college, and then those kids with their newly minted degrees, are unable to get jobs commensurate with their education. Positions requiring the ability to query "straight or curly fries?" will have some really (over) qualified personnel.
The government is also doing it share to make sure that students who are American citizens, will have even more competition for jobs other than "service" jobs, according to this foreign students extended stay article. Another of the tag lines for "Americans, you are stupid enough to believe what I am saying," coming from politicians, is the line "fixing our broken immigration system." That line, as with all of the other political-speak, essentially means that once again, Americans are going to get screwed by the politicians allegedly representing them. I don't think that I have ever come across a country with such a death wish.
Lack of "qualified personnel" is a common reason given by certain American-based companies in order to fill positions in the US by using foreign personnel through the H-1B visa program. It is amazing to me that in a country of over three hundred million, a company cannot find one person already living in America who can perform the specific job. We therefore have the situation of the importation of labor, to do the jobs that Americans supposedly are unqualified to do, or will not do, fueled on the one hand by legally granted visas, and on the other hand by others who do not let legalities get in their way of "immigrating." They have heard of a land where there may be not only milk and honey, but employers willing to break the law of the land, in order to save a few bucks out of the back of a truck, under the table, wherever is convenient. "Illegally immigrating immigrants," the milk, honey and money are in very short supply.
Unfortunately, it is not only folks wanting to make a buck to send back to their country of origin, even if it means breaking into the country to do so, who are uninvited guests. Also immigrating are "100s of terror linked illegals who want to kill us. They know our open secret of making a show of locking the front door, but tying up the watchdog and leaving the back door, not just unlocked, but wide open. They know that the funerals will be held, the Flags will be flying, the eulogies will pour forth, as another couple thousand Americans are assisted into the great beyond, by bombs or any type of weapon that reduces bodies to rubble. It surely warms one's heart to read the following exchange of pleasantries, between folks "on the same side" of this same issue:
Guttentag wrote to Kneedler:
"I left a voicemail earlier today about checking in once the district court rules. Would you be available then? [Redacted statement] And from all of us, thank you again for your argument on behalf of the United States. Lucas"
Responded Kneedler:
"Thanks Lucas. We should definitely check in once we hear. We'll be huddling here as soon as we can. What is your thinking at this point on if/how you will proceed in various possible scenarios? It was good to see you, even if only briefly, and to be on the same side for once! [Redacted statement] I have a feeling we might be seeing each other again on this case. Ed"
Following up was Guttentag:
"Thanks Ed. Yes, a real pleasure to be on the same side. I think we will be strongly inclined to seek an immediate emergency injunction from the 9th Circuit... Can you share your current thinking with regard to the various scenarios? Best Lucas"
Wouldn't it be wonderful and heartwarming to read of such affection between Arizona and the Feds? Nah. That would be too much to ask from this administration which, when it is not suing states, such as Arizona, makes fun of them. One border community took umbrage at the "moat and alligator" piece of humor and the generally glib tone of the presidential speech on immigration. I guess that it is easy to be in a playful mood when your every need is met, including speechwriters who write what you should say and think, along with ever present "Teleprompter Tom." It pays to be in politics!
Lauri B. Regan is advising the president that she does want "alligators in a moat that protects our country." I am with her. I am glad that I read her article because I found out the following:
"In addition to the more than $500,000 that Obama spends on speechwriters, he also pays up to $100,000 to an outside public relations firm that he apparently uses for teleprompter lessons, "speech preparation training," "speech writing services," and "speech coaching services." Obama likely feels as if each of the meaningless metaphors that his speechwriters develop is worth the price we pay, but I am getting sick and tired of his kitschy, fighting rhetoric designed to pit citizen against citizen."
$500,000 for speechwriters and $100,000 for teleprompter lessons? Heck, I could write a speech for the president, at a rate of $10 an hour and people would believe that it came from his heart and his keyboard. I would also ban "Teleprompter Tom" from putting words in his mouth, and force the president to deliver the speech unassisted. The president's favorite sentence "let me be clear," would be banned. Folks are beginning to anticipate lies when they hear that sentence. The focus will be on the meaning of the words and not on the cadences and mellifluous nature of said words. Life in this country is getting too serious to have the president reduced to an actor reciting lines of prose.
How do we fix this? I make no claim to be an economist, but I do know enough about economics to know that the country is in economic trouble when "billions" is no longer the benchmark, and we have to go further up the alphabet to trillions, to indicate the country's debt and deficit. I found a writer who spells out what even we non-economists can deduce. John Marioti nicely sums up the problem:
"The US economic recovery is in distress. You don't need to be an economist to figure that out. You just need to pay attention—something our government's leaders have trouble doing. Housing is in the dumps. Prices are scary at the pumps. Inflation is hitting at the grocery store. And the economy is in a slump."
Stephen Moore is an economist and his opinion is that when government is increasingly becoming the employer of the land, and employing more workers than the private sector, in certain industries, then we "take," not "make." Isn't that part of the "master plan," to turn "land of the free" into home of the scared – of losing government entitlements and jobs? We should read the following and weep, at the passing of the once proud nation of innovators:
"Every state in America today except for two—Indiana and Wisconsin—has more government workers on the payroll than people manufacturing industrial goods."
But, the administration does have one proposal to reduce the trillions in debt? The answer is spending $53 billion on high speed rail. Yep, the same government that cannot get a handle on Medicare and Social Security, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Postal Service, to name just a few government-run entities, is going to introduce "brother of Amtrak"? However, we should count our blessings that someone did not think of adding another three zeros to those billions.
After all, half of the population is still contributing, voluntarily or more specifically involuntarily, to tax revenue. Maybe the thought is that until we get to the situation where 90% of the population is no longer on the tax rolls, we can keep spending. We, the country, will jump off that bridge, instead of crossing it, when we come to it. We, the politicians, deliberately bankrupting the country, will not be around to be given the "credit." Lookout, next few generations, here comes that (financial) can being kicked down the road – directly in your path!
US politicians don't seem to get it. You have been entrusted with governing a piece of real estate with bountiful and abundant horticultural blessings, a mostly very compliant citizenry, immeasurable financial resources (if you stop the damn spending and wasting), and perks enough to make an autocracy proud. Yet, you want to destroy the proverbial goose that lays the golden egg. To which country are you going to flee if you destroy the US, either through your incompetence or planned destruction? Hiding out in Pakistan seemed to have worked for a time, for Bin Whatever. That may not work for you, because the bankrupt US will no longer be able to send those billions in aid. I love the irony of this paragraph:
"He told CBS: 'They take your money. They do not co-operate. They created the Taliban. They are number one in nuclear proliferation.'"
Why does it seem as if the majority of these aid recipients of US taxpayer money, can barely contain their contempt for the "idiots" who keep them supplied? Brad Schaeffer identified yet another recipient of taxpayer largess:
"Oh, there is one oil subsidy I would very much like Congress to investigate. The roughly $2 billion our government is committing to helping Brazil develop its off-shore oil deposits...while we sit on 18 billion barrels of our own proven reserves that remain off-limits. You think that will happen?"
Monday, May 16, 2011 came and went. The debt ceiling was not raised. Did that stop the US Treasury money printing presses? As the situation stands, quite a few trillion dollars are standing between debtor nation (the US) and creditors (China, Japan, UK, Russia, et al) before that financial ceiling collapses on the US. Prepare the barge for the burial of Uncle Sam, along with a nice dirge, a few bugles, and a fittingly funereal bouquet.
Heck no! Americans, we cannot stand by and accept the fall of the US. This is still the last bastion of relative freedom. Let the ruling class members/spendthrifts know, that they have to stop spending money, as if they are at an "all you can spend buffet." Demand more accountability for how all of the innumerable government agencies spend money. The political spendthrifts need to stop creating more and more bureaucracies, before the bureaucracies outnumber the governed. If nothing else, let them know that their behavior is immoral, especially towards future generations, who will inherit the debt but not the perks, pork and privileges that these members currently enjoy. Enough!
By the way, for any nations out there lining up to sing a chorus of "Ding, dong, the witch (US) is dead," you may want to reconsider. The "witch" dies and your celebrating will soon turn to mourning, when the US aid to your country, also dies. Pray for this country, as I know traditional friends of the US are doing. Pray that Americans can re-learn wisdom in selecting wise leaders.
Breaking news! President Obama gave his "long-awaited" speech on the Middle East. The speech is entitled "A Moment of Opportunity." Why is it that the first thought that popped into my head was that the "moment of opportunity," is yet another to screw the American taxpayer and traditional American allies, especially Israel? With all due respect Mr. President, the billions that you are pledging to the regimes named in your speech, should be used for the benefit of the millions of citizens in your own country, by paying down the debt that you have racked up, the debt that is financially suffocating this country.
I can come to no other conclusion, Mr. President. You are deliberately trying to destroy the US. Why do you hate this country, from which you have gleaned so much? I will continue to pray that you gain wisdom and appreciation of the US. Bless your heart.
God bless (and save) America!
How many Americans know the specifics of the financial fix in which their country finds itself? At some level, the majority of Americans realize that things are bad, because they are personally affected, most likely by loss of a job, inability to get a job, being faced with foreclosure, high gas prices, high food prices, and on and on. But, do they know the overall mess, affecting the over three hundred million inhabitants of the land? This article Top Dog to Under Dog makes a pretty convincing case of how the country lost the war on its economy. When cops want to search for a dangerous suspect, an APB (All Points Bulletin) is sent out, or sometimes it could also be a BOLO (be on the lookout for). Maybe I should put out an APB – for the "suspects" who got the US in this situation. Quite frankly, my fellow Americans, we would all have to plead guilty. For many of us, our "crime" has been one of not paying attention to those folks we elect to "serve" us. They serve all right – themselves, their relatives and cronies! The following summation should send shivers down our spines, if we are still capable of feeling:
"Foreign entities have taken over 16,613 of our best wealth producing companies in the last 30 years, where the profits, taxes and technology now reside with them. With no ability to produce competitively in the U.S. we must live off foreign imports and outsource our manufacturing as we cannot compete with wages as low as $2.00 per hour. This allows other countries to destroy our ability to compete, while they pocket an immense profit by selling their goods to us while putting our companies out of business, forcing bankruptcies or sell-outs."
Do Americans still own the majority of real estate, businesses and organizations that were traditionally American-owned? I know that I have noticed, what to me, is a phenomenon, as I read time after time, that another American landmark, while still physically located in America, is now owned by foreigners who reside outside of America. Is the Statue of Liberty still in American hands? Is the White House? Lord, have mercy. By the way, in questioning if the White House is in American hands, I am referring to the physical structure, of course.
I am asking the Lord for mercy because of increasing foreign ownership of traditionally American real estate? My attitude of supplication is nowhere near at an end after reading that unemployment is to "remain stagnant for years to come." Speaking of unemployment and job growth/creation, how could over two hundred twenty thousand jobs be created in one month, and almost simultaneously the unemployment percentage jumped back up to 9%? Is there some sort of culinary activity, such as cooking of books, going on? It is especially heartbreaking to see folks breaking the bank to send their kids to college, and then those kids with their newly minted degrees, are unable to get jobs commensurate with their education. Positions requiring the ability to query "straight or curly fries?" will have some really (over) qualified personnel.
The government is also doing it share to make sure that students who are American citizens, will have even more competition for jobs other than "service" jobs, according to this foreign students extended stay article. Another of the tag lines for "Americans, you are stupid enough to believe what I am saying," coming from politicians, is the line "fixing our broken immigration system." That line, as with all of the other political-speak, essentially means that once again, Americans are going to get screwed by the politicians allegedly representing them. I don't think that I have ever come across a country with such a death wish.
Lack of "qualified personnel" is a common reason given by certain American-based companies in order to fill positions in the US by using foreign personnel through the H-1B visa program. It is amazing to me that in a country of over three hundred million, a company cannot find one person already living in America who can perform the specific job. We therefore have the situation of the importation of labor, to do the jobs that Americans supposedly are unqualified to do, or will not do, fueled on the one hand by legally granted visas, and on the other hand by others who do not let legalities get in their way of "immigrating." They have heard of a land where there may be not only milk and honey, but employers willing to break the law of the land, in order to save a few bucks out of the back of a truck, under the table, wherever is convenient. "Illegally immigrating immigrants," the milk, honey and money are in very short supply.
Unfortunately, it is not only folks wanting to make a buck to send back to their country of origin, even if it means breaking into the country to do so, who are uninvited guests. Also immigrating are "100s of terror linked illegals who want to kill us. They know our open secret of making a show of locking the front door, but tying up the watchdog and leaving the back door, not just unlocked, but wide open. They know that the funerals will be held, the Flags will be flying, the eulogies will pour forth, as another couple thousand Americans are assisted into the great beyond, by bombs or any type of weapon that reduces bodies to rubble. It surely warms one's heart to read the following exchange of pleasantries, between folks "on the same side" of this same issue:
Guttentag wrote to Kneedler:
"I left a voicemail earlier today about checking in once the district court rules. Would you be available then? [Redacted statement] And from all of us, thank you again for your argument on behalf of the United States. Lucas"
Responded Kneedler:
"Thanks Lucas. We should definitely check in once we hear. We'll be huddling here as soon as we can. What is your thinking at this point on if/how you will proceed in various possible scenarios? It was good to see you, even if only briefly, and to be on the same side for once! [Redacted statement] I have a feeling we might be seeing each other again on this case. Ed"
Following up was Guttentag:
"Thanks Ed. Yes, a real pleasure to be on the same side. I think we will be strongly inclined to seek an immediate emergency injunction from the 9th Circuit... Can you share your current thinking with regard to the various scenarios? Best Lucas"
Wouldn't it be wonderful and heartwarming to read of such affection between Arizona and the Feds? Nah. That would be too much to ask from this administration which, when it is not suing states, such as Arizona, makes fun of them. One border community took umbrage at the "moat and alligator" piece of humor and the generally glib tone of the presidential speech on immigration. I guess that it is easy to be in a playful mood when your every need is met, including speechwriters who write what you should say and think, along with ever present "Teleprompter Tom." It pays to be in politics!
Lauri B. Regan is advising the president that she does want "alligators in a moat that protects our country." I am with her. I am glad that I read her article because I found out the following:
"In addition to the more than $500,000 that Obama spends on speechwriters, he also pays up to $100,000 to an outside public relations firm that he apparently uses for teleprompter lessons, "speech preparation training," "speech writing services," and "speech coaching services." Obama likely feels as if each of the meaningless metaphors that his speechwriters develop is worth the price we pay, but I am getting sick and tired of his kitschy, fighting rhetoric designed to pit citizen against citizen."
$500,000 for speechwriters and $100,000 for teleprompter lessons? Heck, I could write a speech for the president, at a rate of $10 an hour and people would believe that it came from his heart and his keyboard. I would also ban "Teleprompter Tom" from putting words in his mouth, and force the president to deliver the speech unassisted. The president's favorite sentence "let me be clear," would be banned. Folks are beginning to anticipate lies when they hear that sentence. The focus will be on the meaning of the words and not on the cadences and mellifluous nature of said words. Life in this country is getting too serious to have the president reduced to an actor reciting lines of prose.
How do we fix this? I make no claim to be an economist, but I do know enough about economics to know that the country is in economic trouble when "billions" is no longer the benchmark, and we have to go further up the alphabet to trillions, to indicate the country's debt and deficit. I found a writer who spells out what even we non-economists can deduce. John Marioti nicely sums up the problem:
"The US economic recovery is in distress. You don't need to be an economist to figure that out. You just need to pay attention—something our government's leaders have trouble doing. Housing is in the dumps. Prices are scary at the pumps. Inflation is hitting at the grocery store. And the economy is in a slump."
Stephen Moore is an economist and his opinion is that when government is increasingly becoming the employer of the land, and employing more workers than the private sector, in certain industries, then we "take," not "make." Isn't that part of the "master plan," to turn "land of the free" into home of the scared – of losing government entitlements and jobs? We should read the following and weep, at the passing of the once proud nation of innovators:
"Every state in America today except for two—Indiana and Wisconsin—has more government workers on the payroll than people manufacturing industrial goods."
But, the administration does have one proposal to reduce the trillions in debt? The answer is spending $53 billion on high speed rail. Yep, the same government that cannot get a handle on Medicare and Social Security, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Postal Service, to name just a few government-run entities, is going to introduce "brother of Amtrak"? However, we should count our blessings that someone did not think of adding another three zeros to those billions.
After all, half of the population is still contributing, voluntarily or more specifically involuntarily, to tax revenue. Maybe the thought is that until we get to the situation where 90% of the population is no longer on the tax rolls, we can keep spending. We, the country, will jump off that bridge, instead of crossing it, when we come to it. We, the politicians, deliberately bankrupting the country, will not be around to be given the "credit." Lookout, next few generations, here comes that (financial) can being kicked down the road – directly in your path!
US politicians don't seem to get it. You have been entrusted with governing a piece of real estate with bountiful and abundant horticultural blessings, a mostly very compliant citizenry, immeasurable financial resources (if you stop the damn spending and wasting), and perks enough to make an autocracy proud. Yet, you want to destroy the proverbial goose that lays the golden egg. To which country are you going to flee if you destroy the US, either through your incompetence or planned destruction? Hiding out in Pakistan seemed to have worked for a time, for Bin Whatever. That may not work for you, because the bankrupt US will no longer be able to send those billions in aid. I love the irony of this paragraph:
"He told CBS: 'They take your money. They do not co-operate. They created the Taliban. They are number one in nuclear proliferation.'"
Why does it seem as if the majority of these aid recipients of US taxpayer money, can barely contain their contempt for the "idiots" who keep them supplied? Brad Schaeffer identified yet another recipient of taxpayer largess:
"Oh, there is one oil subsidy I would very much like Congress to investigate. The roughly $2 billion our government is committing to helping Brazil develop its off-shore oil deposits...while we sit on 18 billion barrels of our own proven reserves that remain off-limits. You think that will happen?"
Monday, May 16, 2011 came and went. The debt ceiling was not raised. Did that stop the US Treasury money printing presses? As the situation stands, quite a few trillion dollars are standing between debtor nation (the US) and creditors (China, Japan, UK, Russia, et al) before that financial ceiling collapses on the US. Prepare the barge for the burial of Uncle Sam, along with a nice dirge, a few bugles, and a fittingly funereal bouquet.
Heck no! Americans, we cannot stand by and accept the fall of the US. This is still the last bastion of relative freedom. Let the ruling class members/spendthrifts know, that they have to stop spending money, as if they are at an "all you can spend buffet." Demand more accountability for how all of the innumerable government agencies spend money. The political spendthrifts need to stop creating more and more bureaucracies, before the bureaucracies outnumber the governed. If nothing else, let them know that their behavior is immoral, especially towards future generations, who will inherit the debt but not the perks, pork and privileges that these members currently enjoy. Enough!
By the way, for any nations out there lining up to sing a chorus of "Ding, dong, the witch (US) is dead," you may want to reconsider. The "witch" dies and your celebrating will soon turn to mourning, when the US aid to your country, also dies. Pray for this country, as I know traditional friends of the US are doing. Pray that Americans can re-learn wisdom in selecting wise leaders.
Breaking news! President Obama gave his "long-awaited" speech on the Middle East. The speech is entitled "A Moment of Opportunity." Why is it that the first thought that popped into my head was that the "moment of opportunity," is yet another to screw the American taxpayer and traditional American allies, especially Israel? With all due respect Mr. President, the billions that you are pledging to the regimes named in your speech, should be used for the benefit of the millions of citizens in your own country, by paying down the debt that you have racked up, the debt that is financially suffocating this country.
I can come to no other conclusion, Mr. President. You are deliberately trying to destroy the US. Why do you hate this country, from which you have gleaned so much? I will continue to pray that you gain wisdom and appreciation of the US. Bless your heart.
God bless (and save) America!
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