Category: Politics

Steve Taylor’s old song is an apt description of the financial mess our country finds itself in this month. The stock market is almost half of its all-time high. When do the stock brokers start jumping out of the windows instead of facing the disgrace? When do the Democrats that arranged this wholesale theft of the financial markets finally get theirs? Now we know the real legacy of Bill Clinton.

“For whatsoever a man soweth , that shall he also reap.” The “greatest economy ever” was the claim of President Clinton. Now we know how he did it. Financial institutions were forced into making bad loans in the name of affirmative action. No down payment, no proof of income, no proof of citizenship, just sign the papers. Does it bother anybody besides me that five million of these bad mortgages were to illegal aliens? Dire Straits had a song many years ago about “money for nothing and your chicks for free.” That’s the Clinton legacy in a nutshell.

Now the housing bubble has burst and many people are confronted with reality they always knew. The pyramid scheme has finally collapsed. The funny thing is that this is a cakewalk compared to the collapse of Social Security that is about two decades away.

The other factor that is amplifying this whole mess is something Congress did about a year ago. They changed the way that companies have to report losses on assets that they own. While it is technical I will give you the layman’s version of what they did.

Suppose that you bought a house for $400,000. Because of the housing bubble bursting it is now worth $300,000. As long as you continue living in the house and making the payment, everything is fine because the issue is not current value but the value when you decide to sell the home. If you hold onto the house, hopefully the value will increase and you will not take a loss if the market recovers before you sell.

However, under the new rules enacted by Congress, your lender is in a much different situation. On the books your lender must now show a loss of $100,000! There is really no loss because the mortgage payments are being made and the property is not for sale; however, the new Congressional rules say that it must be shown on the lender’s financial statement as a loss. This has turned otherwise solvent institutions into bankrupt lenders. Effectively, the Congress has turned the housing collapse from a 9/11 attack on a segment of the economy into a hydrogen bomb detonation in the middle of the economic heart of the country.

As I’ve said before, if Republicans were to blame for this mess there would be hearings every days 24/7 until the election, but there are no hearings, no subpoenas, no investigations of any kind. There is only more government programs and money to the same people that created this mess in the first place. Reward the failures, it’s the Democrat way.

The only question is can the Dems fool the voters for another month without being exposed for who they are?

Congress defeated the “Wall Street Bail-out” earlier today. There’s too much government power grabbing to think it’s a dead issue. Maybe it will be less socialist next time it reappears.

My question with this whole issue is if this legislation passes in any form similar to what was voted on today, won’t it be a huge step toward nationalizing several sectors of business and making the federal government the biggest owner of residential real estate in the country? If this is true, how does it benefit us? Until several ranking democrats and CEOs are frog-marched to jail in handcuffs, I think the taxpayers should root for private sector solutions. Let these troubled companies sell assets and restructure before Congress starts writing checks.

Congress seems bent on doing economic brain surgery with a chain saw. Why not make the sausage in public so the process has openness instead of trusting Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi to write something in secret and then expecting YES votes before anyone can read it. The root problem with these financial issues is government mandates so why is the solution to intrusive government to get an even more intrusive government?

Congressional Democrats cave again and will let the 25 year old ban on off-shore drilling expire. Yahoo!

This is wonderful news. Now the states can decide the issue.

If only the socialists in California would see that this opportunity is a key component on the path to solving the debt problem in Sacramento. Why borrow lottery monies when you can get more debt free cash from drilling leases and royalties. (Of course if they come to their senses enough to allow drilling, they just might decide to tackle their spending addiction. )

John McCain seems to have hit a homerun with his VP pick. Sarah Palin appears to be right on all the issues that Obama is wrong and she has more experience.

Viva McCain!!

Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham and the rest of the talk show conservatives are giving each other high fives as Barack Obama makes yet another stupid decision today. Going with Senator Joe Biden is such a dumb move that Obama is all but finished. The only prayer of winning that he has is if John McCain were tone-deaf enough to name a pro-abortion running mate.

Biden represents everything that is wrong with the current political establishment and he has more negative bagage than John Kerry. Any doubts that Obama is an elitist have vanished.

The only up side for Obama is that Biden has the capability of saying stupider things than he does, thus making Obama look better.

I heard an old preacher say that “when you get saved you don’t quit dancing, you just change partners.” Perhaps this explains the behavior of Governor Schwarzenegger. For the last few years he has been walking away from the Republican Party and squarely into the company of the Democrats. Maybe not the Looney Left, but clearly he has moved in their direction.

Yesterday, it was reported that Senator Diane Feinstein will not be attending the Democrat Convention in Denver. Today, I read that Arnold will be skipping the lovefest in the Twin Cities with John McCain. Yesterday, I also heard media accounts that the good Senator may not run for re-election but instead run for Governor in 2010.

Arnold and Diane are now at about in the same place politically now so why not? Rumors have been swirling for years that Arnold might run for Senate and here is his chance. No incumbent in the seat and large campaign coffers so why not? He can probably buy the office if he throws a few crumbs to the union thugs.

Therefore, look for Feinstein to switch jobs with Schwarzenegger in 2010. By then there will be a need for a new Kennedy in the Senate. The big question is what will Arnold’s political affiliation be in two more years?

I have often heard that being President of the United States is one of the toughest jobs in the world. We’ve all seen the before and after photos of young candidates who leave office looking twice their age. After last night, I found an even harder job. Try being an apologist for John McCain in front of some true Reagan Conservatives.

It’s one thing to defend your own stupid statements, but to defend John McCain as a conservative candidate! That takes reality to places where no one returns without a huggycoat (straight jacket.)

This poor guy is a mid-level operative in the McCain campaign in California. He was telling us about the outreach they will be doing to conservative democrats and independents. They sort of forgot to include the outreach to get Republicans to cross over and vote for McCain.

This guy was defending McCain’s opposition to domestic drilling for oil and his stupid tax hike scheme disguised as “cap and trade” carbon credits. Yes, candidate McCain wants energy independence and he is a great fiscal conservative. What a load of steaming b.s.

Then we got to hear about whether McCain will take matching federal campaign funds. The bottom line, if Obama will, the he will. That’s true leadership? More like honor amongst thieves.

I think most people in the Republican Party would like to vote for McCain; however, it will be a very cold day in hell before we work for him. He has offered us nothing but contempt and offense. If he wants our help then he better throw us a big bone.

McCain is an economic fascist and Obama is a socialist. Some choice we have in November. As if to prove the point, today McCain talked of windfall taxes and the evils of corporate profit when addressing the rising cost of gasoline.

Sorry I have been gone from this blog for a while but I’m back now. It is now a week since the June 3rd primary in California. Yeah, the one without the top of the ticket candidates.

Amazingly, in this age of instant gratification and computer technology, one of the local races is far from over. California’s 15th Assembly District on the Republican side is far from decided. There were four candidates in this race. Between the four, they spent in excess of one million dollars for a job that pays only ten percent of that amount.

Once, a safe Republican district, the Fifteenth has seen the Republican registration advantage erode and at least on paper, the Democrats now out number Republicans in the District.

The two leading candidates are opposites in personality and temperament.

Robert Rao (pronounced Ray-oh) made his fortune as a car dealer. He had dealerships in several California cities. He is a self-made millionaire and mostly retired. He decided to enter politics because he was tired of the B.S. that bureaucrats and politicians keep mandating on the private sector. In short he’s mad as hell and decided that someone needs to do something. One day he decided that someone should be him.

Abram Wilson is a mellow guy that has been mayor of a mid-sized city in the East Bay Area. A veteran and former financial guy, Wilson is quiet and soft-spoken. He once managed portfolios worth tens of billions of dollars. He brought this expertise to his job as mayor and has worked wonders for his city. Wilson has decided that Sacramento could use someone with his fiscal background.

I have met with both men and decided to hitch my proverbial wagon to Rao. Wilson reminded me of the old Rodney King “Why can’t we all just get along” or George W Bush’ “New tone.” I felt that we need someone in Sacramento that will fight for us not find better ways to get along with Democrats. Arnold has been great at that for the past few years and Republicans are in worse shape now than before he took office as Governor.

Anyway, the ballot results per the Secretary of State’s website put Wilson up by 449 votes. The California Republican Party sent out congratulations to Wilson and so did defeated candidate Judy Lloyd. Better luck next time right? Wrong!

As it turns out, there are over 100,000 votes uncounted in the counties that comprise AD 15. A portion of these votes are in the district but how many?

Each of the four candidates seemed to have their bases of electoral majority. Wilson did well in Contra Costa country. Scott Kamena won in Alameda County. Judy Lloyd won Sacramento and San Joaquin Counties. However, Rao came in second in Alameda, Sacramento and Contra Costa counties.

Note to readers, the closer you get to Judy Lloyd’s home the lower she did. Translation, those that know her best voted for another candidate. The places were she underwent the least amount of scrutiny, were the ones that she did best in.

I started looking at the numbers on Wednesday (the day after the election). One of the trends that I noticed was that Rao beat Wilson 2:1 in Alameda and Sacramento counties. He and Wilson were about even in San Joaquin. It was evident that all of Wilson’s eggs were in one basket: Contra Costa. He did virtually no campaigning outside of his home turf.

The numbers that give Rao hope are the vote by mail ballots. Sacramento said they had over 66 thousand uncounted ballots. Contra Costa said they had about 22 thousand. San Joaquin had about 9 thousand. If Alameda has more than Contra Costa, then Wilson should be toast. Wilson has too thin of a margin to overcome 2:1 trends for Rao in Sacramento and Alameda.

By Friday, June 6th, Wilson’s lead had started to erode. He was down to 177 votes. At close of business on Monday, the lead for Wilson was down to 134 votes.

It appears that Contra Costa will be the first of the four counties to have all their votes totaled. Sacramento thinks they will have final numbers by Friday June 13. The big question is what is happening in Alameda County? I think by close of business on June 10th, Rao will be in the lead!

I will keep you posted.

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Update: Congratulations to Mayor Wilson on his Primary victory. 242 votes

I’ve been paying close attention to the on going budget discussions as the California legislature gear-up for the annual budget fight. I would like to take the occasion of this blog entry to summarize my solution for this situation.

First, the estimates in the range of 14 billion dollars are lower than the actual numbers. If nothing changes this debt will expand exponentially. Structurally, the debt is much closer to 100 billion without any reforms. The lawmakers have so much automatic growth build into retirement, healthcare, education and other programs that the economy of the State cannot support the promises made thus far let alone deal with infrastructure and other needs created by neglect of elected officials.

While the legislature’s problems are all self inflicted, they are made even worse by the multitude of ballot measures passes in the last two decades that attempt to fix issues for which lawmakers have failed to provide leadership. Term limits and safe seats created by gerrymandered districts have also made the problem more pronounced.

Republican proposals offered this week to shift blame onto illegal aliens are a diversion that only nibbles at the edge of the fiscal mess. These ideas will not fix the fiscal mess we are in.

There is a large gap between what should happen and what is actually achievable in the current climate. I would like to deal with what is achievable. My idea is both a face-saving measure for the current leadership in both parties and also provides political cover from the political fall-out that will result.

The creator of the Dilbert comic strip wrote that there is a right way, a wrong way and the weasel way. I am skipping the other two options and heading straight for the weasel way.

The legislative leadership and the governor need to do the same thing the Congress did many years ago when Congress decided to start closing military bases; namely, they need to create a “Blue Ribbon” commission to craft an omnibus fix for the mess. It will be a combination of closing tax loopholes, instituting cost of living increases for departments of government not automatic double-digit increases (kill zero based budgeting), undoing budget allocations via previously passed ballot initiatives, raising voter threshold to enact any new budget mandates to a supermajority, restructuring state employee benefits and reforming the budget process to a two-year budget not an annual one.

The legislature will then need to swallow their pride and pass this thing before it gets too hot to handle. In military jargon, pull the pin, throw the grenade and run like hell the other direction. If this idea works take credit for it, if it blows-up in your face, blame to other guys. Remember, failure is an orphan but success has many fathers.

This fix will probably require a set of ballot measures to be fully enacted.

After everything is back on track, the people should enact a part-time legislature; after all, I did say the budget was every two years.

Hillary Clinton is in trouble with children five and under for ripping-off the animated series Bob the Builder. As a parent of a small child, I know this to be true because Bob’s motto is “Can we build it? Yes we can!”

A central part of Hillary’s campaign is her theme that America is broken and only she can fix the ills of our country. Hillary is ambitious to do an extreme makeover of the United States. Hence her motto of “Yes we can!” This is obviously a rip-off of Bob the Builder. Where is Paul Shanklin when you need him?