The Return of the Sons of Liberty

All over the nation, Americans will be gathering to protest the US Government's "generational theft" masquerading as "stimulus" and "fighting the recession."

I hope you will choose to attend one of these exhibitions of the 1st Amendment today. You can find where they are here.

I will be at Kiener Plaza in St. Louis, Missouri. Cheers!

PS...here are some facts to consider...

• If you’re a 50-year old-with a college degree, you will pay approximately $81,000 over your working life just to pay the interest on the debt in the Obama budget.
• If you’re a 40-year-old, you’ll pay $132,000.
• And if you’re a 20-year-old, just starting out after college, you will pay a whopping $114,000 just to service the interest on the debt created by the Obama budget.

Our New Commander-in-Chief: kudos and criticism

Let's get this said right away: good on you for the action against the "pirates", Mr. President.

I have been very critical of the president in this blog, so I want it clear that I will also speak out when he does something RIGHT. Taking out the pirates with the action by the Navy SEALS was the right thing to do. And yes, I would still be saying this if it had not been the unqualified success that it was; you can't appease terrorists. I hope Mr. Obama keeps this in mind as he formulates his approaches to North Korea, Iran, Al Qaida, etc., although early signs are not encouraging in Iran, or North Korea.

But there is no question that his approach to the military in the US is different from his predecessor. It's reported that huge military funding cuts are in the works for the Pentagon. This in spite of constant denials during the campaign that he would follow this path. Using the economy as an excuse won't wash, especially when you are planning to give billions to the International Monetary Fund in a strategy that even bypasses congressional approval. That may be considered to be a plus by the majority of those who voted for him, but some of his actions vis a vis the military are starting to cause dismay amongst the people he commands.

I support the Constitution of these United States over and above any person, of any ideology, so I expect and applaud the US military for keeping any misgivings about their new commander-in-chief to themselves. But at the same time, they have an obligation to give him their best advice on how to move forward in addressing some of our challenges in foreign affairs, and the importance of keeping our enemies reticent to take threatening actions against US citizens. I don't believe in random acts, so when we see that Somali pirates, who have been active for years, decide to attack a US vessel for the first time in decades within months of the ascension of a president who has been as critical of his country as some of our "friends" have been over the last several years...well, it's not a surprise. At least he now always wears his flag pin, where before he proudly didn't.

While we can all rejoice at the release of Captain Phillips, we should also be sobered by the prospect that President Obama seems intent on backing off of earlier strong statements about challenging the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran. It sends a very bad signal at the time when the action against the Somalis could have been leveraged with very little risk. This kind of precision action reminds the rest of the world's bad guys that they might think twice about messing with the USA. Perhaps that worked better coming from a Texan, but when the bullets are flying, even liberals from San Francisco want a Texan in the foxhole with them. The world is now our foxhole, and we need to make sure our "Texans" have the munitions they need to keep the bad guys in check.

The fact of the matter is that the quiet word has gone out that the president is not happy that the response of his visits to military bases has been less enthusiastic than say, German citizens in Berlin. Perhaps they continue to respect their former C-I-C because he at least recognized the need to not criticize those who have to inhabit that office. It's nice to see George W. Bush remain classy towards Obama, even if Obama isn't classy in return.
Few of us knew that in preparation for his "unannounced" visit to Baghdad, his advance people decided to ensure that the world's media saw a president beloved by the men he commands, even if it took some behind the scenes deceit to achieve a "candid" moment.

This smacks of the kind of "photo-op" worthy of North Vietnamese portrayals of "humane treatment" of "American war criminals" during their captivity in North Vietnam. John McCain has been back to Hanoi several times, and while he has forgiven, he has not forgotten the conflict between the mirage and the reality of life in captivity.

It's unfortunate that the president's people felt that it was necessary to pre-screen his "loving troops" in this way. It would have been better if he had asked himself WHY the troops were less than thrilled about their commander's visit. But then that would require taking positive lessons from Bush's example. And that would be a reversal from the Bush-bashing policy that began with his inauguration.

President Obama puts US Business on Double-Secret Probation

Now here's something I have first-hand experience in: US Business. I was a private investment adviser for 9 years and did money management for a private school for another 8 years. During that time, when analyzing what makes a business successful, you tend to learn some basic principles.

1) You attract the best and brightest to come work at your organization. That usually means a good organization and top compensation.

2) You encourage them to compete and beat other organizations in the field of your business.

3) You work hard to keep distractions to a minimum.

4) You allow the people that know what they are doing to do their job. You hired them because they are the BEST, not because they are necessarily the nicest people.

5) You don't let your best people go to your main competition.

Barack Obama has revealed what we already know: He knows NOTHING about running a business and even less about running a country.

But he sure can make people swoon and he knows how to buy their votes. With taxpayer money.

That is what we have learned from his first 80 days. The Europeans are still swooning over his visit, but they didn't give him what he wanted: a more significant presence in Afghanistan, and a global stimulus package. (The trillion dollars promised was already in the works...this would have been on top of that)

His firing of GM president Rick Wagoner was intended to not only shake up GM, but ring a shot across the bow of ANY US business that has taken government money of late. Many bank executives, including some who were FORCED to take TARP money have tried to give it back lately. They have been told that they cannot. Some in a very forceful way...personally...but the new Czar of US business, Barack Obama. I'm still looking for that presidential power in Article II, Section 2 of the US Constitution. But no matter...after all, Obama has said that the Constitution "represents the fundamental flaw of this country." (the link include a link to the audio from the 2001 interview. And this guy used to teach Constitutional Law? Those students should get a refund. Perhaps he will "fix" the Constitution by ignoring it. He's off to a good start.

Obama's war on US business is persuading our best and brightest to leave US corporations and seek out more friendly places with foreign institutions. Some believe that he doesn't want the economy to recover, that is part of what has been called the "Cloward/Piven" strategy for the US economy. This strategy would end the US free market economy and make us look more like European Socialism. I'm not ready to go say he is doing this...yet. But I still don't believe many of Obama's moves are what over 60 million people thought they were voting for last November.

So it is understandable that some executives would be willing to go overseas. Look for that exodus to speed up faster than you can say "Governor Patterson hates the rich people who pay New York City Taxes." What was that about? It was about a governor with approval ratings even lower than Rush Limbaugh...bashing Rush Limbaugh.

Meanwhile, the president has managed to apologize for every American offense short of the Edsel and new Coke. He also threw in a slap in the face, this time to past DEMOCRATIC president Harry S. Truman, by flagellating America over Hiroshima. Looks like he was there for more of the Reverend Wright Hate America preachings then he led us to believe in the campaign. You may remember that Wright's indignant accusations that the atomic bombs dropped on Japan were about racism against Asians, and not about ending the war. Shame on you, Mr. President.

Fortunately, the students in my US History classes know more about that event than the president of the United States, as they watch the film Hiroshima every year. It's a pretty accurate accounting of the timeline and reasonings that led to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended World War II. I feel fairly certain that Mr. Obama never saw it. I believe it has great credibility as an accurate portrayal of the events leading up to Truman's decision because the Japanese side of the story is portrayed by Japanese and the US side portraying generally by Canadians. And we aren't terribly popular with Canadians these days...but I feel the US view is well-represented here.

Perhaps we shouldn't be too hard on our president for his mistaken view regarding that act. Even though it probably saved half a million US lives, not to mention over a million Japanese lives, by making the invasion of Japan unnecessary, but it showed us just how bad a full-scale nuclear war would be should we lose control of world events and let loose the ultimate "dogs of war."

Obama is obviously "historically-challenged." He was taught his high school US History in Hawaii where it is portrayed as a racist act by Americans against Asians. How ironic that this be taught in the vicinity of the still-rusting hulk of the USS Arizona at the bottom of Pearl Harbor. But that is the nature of politically correct history in our educational system in the US today.

The few of us who work overtime trying to be fair while at the same time making sure that they don't get the touchy-feely gobbledegook that passes for "social studies" these days.

So, when we hear him bashing his nation in foreign cities, he is getting applause for his more "reasonable" approach to US foreign policy and wiping away the memory of his cowboy predecessor.

Like a high-schooler at prom, they are excited at the thought of an "easy" date. But they won't respect him in the morning.

UPDATE: His boyhood home state asks him not to do anything to further trash their struggling economy