The Charge Of The Lightweight Brigade

Earlier this week I had a slight nervous breakdown and posted this on Facebook:

““OK...R.E.M. disbands ten years too late and now the U.S. Government is threatened with shutdown again. REALLY? REALLY? Again? We seriously cannot do any better than this? This is leadership? From anywhere on either side of the aisle? People pay taxes to support this type of leadership? People die on the battle field to support your current way of governing our great country? Our economy is in decline, people are not working and you squabble like petulant children. Every member of congress, Senator or House Member should be hanging in their head in shame. Real shame.
"It's the end of the world as we know it..." R.E.M.””

Slightly over wrought? Way over wrought? Probably the latter but really guys, this is embarrassing. I had overblown expectations for our President to use his HUGE popular support to be transformative. It retrospect that was very childish but we had come from a Presidency that was so stage managed and tone deaf that I needed change and certainly John Mc Cain was not the change I needed. I can still shudder to think about how his Presidency would look and we would all be beating on an old man. At least with Barrack we are beating on a young man in the prime of his life. But even though he was dealt an unplayable hand, he has played through every attempt to unite our country under a banner of real, PROUD change. Congress failed him totally, first the Democratically run congress and then the democratic minority dealing with a Republican majority in the House of Representatives who was elected with a mandate from the people, God and the Constitution to thwart anything else he tried. But the original fault is with the Democratic congress originally which played the same liberal, entitlement program that has been pretty thoroughly debunked by our countries history. Nancy Pelosi sucked...and she looked really, really scary, especially when she was worked up. The President, upon getting to his office should have asked she and Reed to resign their leadership posts because it was not what this country needed. He didn’t. Now we are here.

My brother, whom I love, is a Tea Party Conservative. God Bless him and them and their cause because they have changed the argument. I don’t believe they have changed it for the better but they have changed it and that is indeed what makes our country the greatest country in the world...still...no matter what the nay sayer’s say. They have successfully thwarted anything being done by government. Seriously, anything. Now I don’t pretend to know what the proper role of government is but I will tell you that it has to have a role and it is our largest employer and that tearing it down quickly, threatening to shut it down every time there is a spending bill, is reckless and stupid. Obama will be a one term President unless they run a crazy man like Perry or a crazy woman like Bachman. You cannot say stupid things frequently in public, and then stand by them and double down. Both of these candidates confuse this for courage and fortitude. What worked on their small stage (and Texas no matter what they tell you is an intellectually small stage) will be a disaster on Broadway (likely because of the pointy headed New York Intellectual Elite). So that is going to take care of itself. Run whomever you want and they should win and they too will likely be a one term President because we are in a deep trough with no easy way out.
But back to my brother. In regard to politics we agree on nothing. Ever. This might almost be a point of pride for both of us. But we have found a common desire and we need another one term President. We need someone who is brave enough to say the following:
1. We are in a deep, bad economy.
2. Government cannot spend or save us out of it
3. The American People are going to have to get us out of it.
4. We are going to have less government services and our churches and not for profits have got to start really stepping up because there will be needs that the government simply cannot meet for the needy and for those without a voice. This is a tragedy but this is reality.
5. We are going to pay more in taxes.
6. Our standard of living as we knew it was the creation of a bubble and is not sustainable. We can argue about this but time and economics have proven it.
7. Our standard of living will still be the highest in the world and we can lead like America should lead, by example.
8. Social security retirement age needs to be rolled back.
9. Means testing for benefits needs to take place. (I don’t know if my brother would agree with that one but my point is that we should not pay out the “safety net” of social security to people like Warren Buffet, or maybe even to people like me who have managed to put some monies away for retirement.)
10. Having troop fight wars overseas (even with radio controlled airplanes) is expensive AND we are going to have to figure out how to employ and equip all these troops we are bringing home for civilian life and it will be VERY expensive for a while but we have to invest in our best.
11. Something has to be done about health care. Here my brother and I would totally disagree so I will stop but that is the third rail of debt. Social security, War and Health care. Something has to be done about health care. Stopping frivelous lawsuits, stopping waste will not even cover next years % growth of the costs. So...something has to be done about health care costs and we will leave it at that for now.

So we need another one term President after Obama or even better we need Obama to embrace for his last year and a half, the role of being a one term President. Lead us to what is next. Dignity. Real Christian values that question our materialistic and militaristic culture and speaking the truth with love, rather than speaking the truth, when convenient, for votes and campaign dollars. But if not Barrack, and not the next Republican President, than it has to be the next guy or we are in some deep shit and the country will be so angry that we will elect a madman. So watch, pray and expect more of these guys. Congress? We cant shoot them. So lets vote them out and see if we can get some people who put America before their party and who can think for themselves without an agenda of talking points to get people to clap and sing God Bless America. What we need as President and in Congress are real people. Smart people. Creative people who are willing to take risks to do what is right and what this country needs. It didn’t have to be this hard. God already has blessed America, and he still is.


*cue the large eagle flying down with American flag in it’s beak...cue the country song about God and Country...fade to black*

OBAMA Where Art Thou?

Sooooo...it is March and we are about to begin March Madness and two months into Barack Obama’s America. If I listen to the news (which i have stopped doing) I know I would hear that Barack has not fixed the banking system and has not restored confidence. If I listen to Fox he is running us down the road to socialism, running up a huge bill we cannot pay and that Rush Limbaugh wishes he would fail (like that was even worth talking about?). If I listen to the liberal talking heads we are doing just what we need to and Republicans need to stop being so obstructionist.

That is all one load of bullshit. I am beginning a disappointment with our new president but only beginning and he has plenty of time to bring me back home. Am I disappointed for any of the reasons cited by the Republican opposition? Yes, two of them. One is that he has not curtailed pork and earmarks at all in this new budget and two, he has not curtailed lobbying as the way to get things done in Washington.

It is depressing for me. I feel right now like I am looking at the other side of the Bush coin, and it is the same coin. There is nothing transformative about what is happening is Washington other then we are having the other side of an ideological, we are right, they wrong, mentality which I had incorrectly ascribed to the nasty, hateful Bushies. Now I am seeing the same thing but from the opposite side. It is making me sick. Not because the policies are so wrong. I have no idea whether the policies are wrong or not. It is the attitude of exclusion. It is the business as usual. It makes me sick.

Obama still has a chance to be transformative. He can call us out to a higher standard, a higher purpose. Our Judeo-Christian (and perhaps even Muslim but I do not know enough about the faith to even comment) heritage has an awesome history of higher values. Somehow in my life, we lost our way. We confuse success with money and things. Our grandparents and to some extent our parents main goal was to improve the life of the children so they could have a “better” life. We have become concerned (like a publicly traded company sacrificing the future and making high stakes bets) with immediate gratification and having more and better then everyone else. he can call on us all as individuals to be brave, show compassion, pick up our brothers and do more for others rather then our recent culture of getting everything I want...NOW!

The Republicans cannot lead us there. They are bankrupt of ideas and take no responsibility for our current predicament being the natural result of Gordon Gecko “greed is good” capitalism. Capitalism is awesome. It has a tremendous power to transform economies and people in a good way. But when we glorify nothing but dollars at the expense of long range sustainability and the value of the people we employ, capitalism becomes the snake that eats itself. The current Beatification of Ronald Reagan is the best example of the parties myopic view of the past and it’s very limited “get me and my friends more money now” view of the future. The greed heads with continue to partner with the pro life groups so that there can be no middle ground on anything.

I do not know what our President is waiting for. He needs to make a formal request to the Republicans that their leadership step down. He needs to use his authority to force the Pelosi/Reed/Barney Frank contingent to also step down. They are to agenda-ized and politicized to be part of any serious change. These people on the left are just as guilty, now that they in power as the Republicans used to be. There is no compromise for the group. They must have everything that is abhorrent to the right and damn the consequences and they are wrong, wrong, wrong.

America is the greatest country on the earth. If we are lead by admirable people we will continue for the next generation in that role. If we are divided, hateful, small minded and unwilling to every acknowledge that there might be good people with good idea on the other side of the aisle we are well and truly screwed.. So stand up Mr. President. Call your own party to account first. Hack the pork. Save your social agenda for 2011. Get rid of your own small minded leaders and then call the Republicans to account on the other side. Then and only then can you come to the people, come to me and lead us on to a greatness that might embarrass Tom Brokaw’s “Greatest Generation”.

We are tired of government making us afraid and expecting nothing from us but the worst. We are tired of government being corrupt, bought and sold and rife with special interests (business and social interests) which most of us in the middle are sick of hearing about. We are ready. Get off your ass and lead us. It was not the far left that you rode into office.

Zombie Rebuttal

One of the Diner Reviews sadder occasional readers gave us this response to Zombie Banks:

1. ..."Klaatu....." please explain this origin. I remember Klaatu only as a band from the 70's that released one album and was purported to be the Beatles re-unification effort.

2. killing zombies feels great, just like in the video games, but there are (at least) three problems with killing them:

a. the follow-on effects of closing them down would have serious (negative) ramifications. Small towns where a bank branch was built, and don't have a computer literate population (read the poorer parts of the country that need help) aren't likely to see anyone jump into that vaccuum anytime soon. accelerating a downward spiral isn't what we're trying to do today. I know that this in theory should make room for better (read luckier, newer) banks, but we've got 10 pct unemployment already, so there is a pool of people already, and no ones jumping into this space because WE"RE IN A DEPRESSION

b. There were plenty of stupid, overly aggressive banks and they need to take their lumps, but I think the bigger problem is one of accounting rules (marking to legitimate values), congressional interference (dont get me started here, but THE NUMBER ONE reason we had a fast shuffle on the stimulus/banking package is these guys knew they were significant contributors to the mess and didn't wish to get implicated), and business cycle. WE'RE IN A DEPRESSION. Banks traditionally do poorly in depressions, so let the worst of them fail, but we don't need to push others over the edge.

c. if we have a choice between saving Detroit and banks, I might choose to walk away from both, but banks at least perform the vital role of servicing the finance needs of companies between 1 and 500 employees. Old data (2 years ago) tells us this used to be over 70% of the US business sector, so they need an alternative if you're gonna shoot their only service option. Better if you would propose something to fill the void, because the surviving banks don't have the cash or the risk mentality to take on new clients because WE"RE IN A DEPRESSION.

3. Better idea: call in Wil Smith, 'cuz just like in "I am Legend" he could (and did) perfect a solution to cure zombies.

*****

In response your Diner Reviewer States:

1. Klaatu, Barada, Nickto is of course the phrase used in the classic movie, "The Day The Earth Stood Still" is order to keep the alien's robot "Gort" from destroying man kind. Dolt.

2.
a. The hateful monster banks NEVER built a branch in a small town. You might on the other hand lose 5 of the 20 banks in your sick, sad L.A. suburb. Boo hoo California Nancy Boy. (not to get personal)
b. agreed
c. I like banks. I just want the big banks killed. Is that wrong?
3. Will Smith can do anything. You remember him making that Alien's plane crash in "Independence Day"?

Any further questions I will refer to Gort.