Fuzzy Math

Yep. I voted for Obama. I was convinced that because he was well educated and considered to be exceptionally bright we would be well served. I was convinced that because he speaks so eloquently he'd be able to explain things to the likes of me and so would his appointees.

Well. Forget Treasury Secretary Tim Geitner. His first appearance on the public stage was less than impressive. Not only was it disappointing after having Obama tell us his news conference was going to be great, his lack of explanation about anything was frightening.

Then there is the man himself. Obama. A multi-billion dollar "stimulus" bill has just been passed with more spending than stimulating. States and cities are beginning to get realistic in balking. They realize that once the federal money goes away the new programs will become unsustainable unless taxes are raised to cover them. Being politicians, they are savvy enough to realize it can be a re-election killer. The same goes for the banks who don't want the money because they don't want the Feds involved. The same goes for the auto industry. At least Ford. No one with an ounce of sense wants politicians anywhere near their businesses.

Now Obama is telling us he is going to cut this deficit by two thirds by the end of his first term. How? By raising taxes on businesses and the wealthy and cutting spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Math is not my strong suit but I'm not too bad at logic. No matter how much you raise taxes on businesses, it boils down to one thing. The consumer, you and I, pay it via pass throughs. Taxing the wealthy? How many times has "wealthy" been redefined? Cutting spending in Iraq and Afghanistan? We're not out of Iraq yet and there is no solid strategy as to exactly how or exactly when of which I am aware. An additional 17,000 troops have just been allocated to Afghanistan with the generals saying it will not be enough in the long run. What's going to be cut? Equipment? Again? I don't think so!

Okay. Maybe there are plans in the making yet to be made public. I certainly am not privy to all that goes on behind the scenes. I can only form an opinion from the information given. When I'm told, with great fanfare, that the average family is going to see an extra $67 in their paycheck beginning in April, I'm always glad I haven't a mouth full of coffee.

What the heck does $67 buy these days? Certainly not groceries for a family of two what's more a family of four or larger! If this is the "stimulus" to encourage we tax payers to go out and spend, spend, spend, they've got to be kidding! Someone is smoking something funny. It isn't me. I don't even smoke legal stuff. Forgetting the health issues, I flat out can't afford it!

Pelosi And The Pope - Does Either One Get It?

As I've watched Hillary's love tour progress around Asia I've found myself wondering if we really need a Secretary of State when we have all these Congressional delegations doing much the same thing. After all it's a redundancy of effort and an expensive one. I have no idea how many people are in Clinton's entourage, but Nancy Pelosi has seven other Democrats in hers! Not counting staff of course.

Nancy Pelosi? What the heck is she doing in Rome on my dollar? It's bad enough Obama is flying around on his big plane anywhere and everywhere. As is Hillary. I may think it's being a bit over done considering these economic times, but it is, at least, a part of their jobs. But Pelosi? She's a legislator! Supposedly she is talking with top Italian officials about the economic crisis and other "leading issues", whatever they may be. Oh, yes, she's talking to them about the environment and the situations in the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan. Right. How many troops do the Italians have committed? Or is it just chit chat?

I'm sorry. It's bad enough we, who pay our taxes and mortgages yet see the value of everything we hold dear diminish, are asked to bail out the deadbeats, but to also have to fund automatic pay raises and worldwide boondoggles is more than I can swallow. Enough!

Other than great food, wine and good shopping, what is she getting for our buck? An admonishment for every Catholic office holder who might dare to be pro choice? This from a man, and he is merely a man, who reinstated a Bishop who fervently denies the truth of the Holocaust? Talk about not getting it!

Everyone in the country is being asked to pay for the excesses of others. That should include government officials. There is not a one of them that can understand our pain unless they suffer a bit themselves. So far I'm not seeing it.

Huckabee - What A Stretch!

Wow. The ink isn't even dry on the stimulus compromise and the religious right is already up in arms!

Mike Huckabee has declared it "anti-religious". What?? It must have really hurt to have to take both the Democrats and Republicans to task for this offense. After all, it is a 'bi-partisan' bill. Well. Hardly. Three Republicans signing on hardly makes it 'bi-partisan'!

What, however, was so egregious it warranted this response? Both the House and the Senate version banned higher education funds from going to either a school or department of divinity. What's his rationale?

Actually the Congress got this right. It's what separation of church and state is all about. If included, how would you explain it to the tax payers? How would you explain to one religious persuasion that their tax dollars were being spent to support a religious persuasion to which they might be strongly opposed?

I'm not sure higher education funds fit the parameters of "stimulus, but if they do, the Huckabee wing of the Republican party needs to do better than this. It will, for sure, "stimulate"! It will "stimulate" strong opposition from those of us who actually understand and support the premise of separation of church and state!

Congress Fiddles!

Nero fiddles while Rome burns. Congress fiddles while the country burns! And so do I!

I've spent some time over the past couple of days watching Robert Gibbs give the White House press briefing. Time and time again he is asked if Obama has lost control and time and time again he claims the administration did not expect to change the way Congress does business in three short weeks.

It's a good thing because they haven't changed one iota. I am thoroughly disgusted with both the Democrats and the Republicans. Nancy Pelosi allowing all the pork to be added to the stimulus bill in the House saying that since they won they get to write the legislation. The Republicans digging in their heels for the sake of digging in their heels. It makes me want to pick both sides up by the scruff of their necks and shake them! Grow up! Get over it!

Ms. Pelosi. You did not win. Obama won with the promise of change. Many like me voted for him because we believed in the man; not necessarily the entirety of his message. You, fellow Democrats, aren't giving him a chance.

There are fourteen centrist members of the Senate trying to compromise on the stimulus package. No where near enough! Cut all the non-stimulus measures and come back to them another time. Give the Republicans something they want and get on with it! You know. Compromise!

Huge demands are being made of the companies and executives who have already and will receive bailout money. How about some demands on Congress to get something done instead of all the partisan posturing! This isn't about philosophical differences. This is about power pure and simple.

Yeah, I know. I'm on a really short fuse. My dog is dying, I'm emotionally exhausted and I'm not suffering fools kindly. Funny, though, I'd be on just as short a fuse without all the emotional baggage. Following politics will do that to you!

Governing By "Photo Op"

Hub, being a Republican at heart, is not enthralled with the daily Obama photo op nor the media's obsession with him. Like myself, he recognizes the flaws in sound bites. The current one that has us both concerned is the capping of executive salaries at $500,000 if their company receives bailout money. If one understands the way the business community works, a cap this severe may make we ordinary folks feel good but does little else that's constructive.

I'll agree that multi million dollar bonuses should be curbed along with retirement packages that are worth more than most of us will see in a lifetime. However, we should also consider what will be lost.

The President's salary is $400,000 per year. Everything else, with the exception of clothing and tooth paste is paid for by the taxpayers. For instance, using Air Force One costs somewhere in the vicinity of $27,000 per hour. That alone would kick his salary in to the million dollar range in very short order.

I agree with the premise that executives should not be rewarded for failing. I also feel actors are over paid at $15,000,000 per film and athletes making millions of dollars for playing their games. We should perhaps be looking at their tax returns too!

As for executives of companies receiving bailout money, they might not be guilty of failing as much as being the result of others failing. Should they be so penalized?

Then too, back to the question of what else will be lost. Assuming there are good guys caught up in this and they pay their taxes, they are used to living on multi million dollar salaries. With that comes the probability of multiple households and all the help and upkeep that is needed to maintain them. Nannies, cooks, housekeepers, grounds keepers, etc. Those are people being employed by those millions of dollars. Do we want them added to the already burdened unemployment rolls?

Consider the homes themselves. Do we want the keys to them thrown back at the banks who already have more than they can handle?

There's a lot of trickle down here and a whole lot of big brotherism that needs to be fleshed out to make sense. Consider that former Treasury Secretary Paulson forced banks that did not want bailout money to take it anyway. There is a flurry of activity afoot for companies to find funding partners so they can give the bailout money back. Those partners will no doubt be foreign entities.

It isn't as cut and dried as the rhetoric makes it sound. The administration has already backed off the "buy American" mantra due to threatened repercussions from other countries.

Soaring rhetoric and indignation sounds wonderful but it needs substance behind it. So far the substance, let alone how to enforce the pronouncements, has been lacking.

As with his cabinet appointees, Obama might be wise and cut out the photo op of the day and give himself time to think things through. The constant reminder that "I won" won't get him far if we the people continue to lose.

These Requests Are "Shovel Ready" All Right!

Boy, can a picture ever tell it all! Today was the U.S. Conference of Mayors' turn to come forward with hat in hand and their lists of "shovel ready" projects. In reading through some of the requests I'm beginning to think we are a nation governed by those who just don't get it.

Granted, a lot of the projects would indeed provide jobs and therefore stimulate the economy. However, by their own admission, some used the "throw spaghetti against the wall" approach. Throw enough and some of it will stick.

The Wall Street Journal listed some of them. $2 million for neon lights for Las Vegas. Enlightening. $4.5 for butterfly gardens and gopher tortoises for an "eco" park in Boynton Park, FL. $500,000 for an off leash dog park in Chula Vista, CA. $3 million for an environmentally friendly golf course clubhouse in Lincoln Nebraska. The construction of said clubhouse would create a whopping 54 jobs! Then what?

I shouldn't leave out $886,000 for a 36 hole "disc golf" course in Austin TX and Shreveport, LA wants the Feds to pony up the funding for eight Harley-Davidson's for their police department. Vrooooom!

Either these mayors are the smartest politicians in the country or the dumbest of the dumb. I'm not sure. When they look at what Congressional pork projects have included previously, why not try? On the other hand this does not seem to me to be the time for frivolous wish listing. It gives me the feeling the economic meltdown is not being taken seriously.

Is it?

If The Shoe Fits!

We expend a lot of energy trying to get the rest of the world to see itself as we would have them. What we sometimes don't do well is lead by example. We're a very self indulgent people.

The news has been full of the story about a single mother of six who just gave birth to an additional eight - all conceived by vitro fertilization. The ethics issue involved here is a book yet to be written as well as the idea that we tax payers will undoubtedly foot the bill until the children reach the age of responsibility. The mother obviously has not at age 33!

Other countries in the world are concerned about their over population problems. China, for instance, one child per family. I am not an advocate of this degree of big brotherism but with economies suffering to the extent that children cannot be fed, housed, cared for nor educated, maybe the restrictions make some sense.

Now, it would seem the Brits are suggesting that couples having more than two children are creating a huge burden on the environment. A study claims each child born in Britain will burn carbon roughly equivalent to 2 1/2 acres of old growth oak woodland in its lifetime.

The global population is expected to be 9.2 billion by 2050. Multiply that out! Does the world have that much acreage in woodland? Are we killing ourselves here or what?

There has been a great deal of controversy about U.S. tax dollars going to support family planning efforts around the world if they include contraception and/or abortion. It's bad enough that teenage pregnancies are still outrageously high and that no matter what the country may be, someone other than the mother will bear the financial burden.

It's even worse when in this country an unmarried mother stockpiles embryos just because she wants babies! And she is able to do so! She's adding to the environmental problem on my dollar. Enough.

Use my tax dollars if you must but at least let them go to stem cell research! Not the old lady in the shoe.

What's The Point Of Suing?

It has been announced that Barnes and Noble has canceled proceeding with a new store in Coeur d'Alene. Considering they reported a third quarter net loss of $18.4 million it should have come as no surprise. How many companies are closing stores and laying off employees? Too many to count.

The developer, however, has decided to sue. I'm not sure to what advantage other than to add to both his own financial burden, Barnes and Noble's and retailers who have leased space in anticipation of Barnes and Noble being an anchor store from which they could draw. It reminds me of the kids poem "This is the House that Jack Build".

This is the house that Jack built!
This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.

This is the cat that killed the rat
That ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the dog that worried the cat
That killed the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built...

You get the idea. Where does it stop?

I don't know the answers. If I did I'd not be sitting around blogging. However, if an over ambitious developer couldn't see indications of bad times ahead and have contingencies in mind that would be fair to both him, his tenants and potential tenants, then shame on him. As for Barnes and Noble and the other retailers, I would hope that they have contingencies in their lease agreements that will preclude the further financial drain of a lawsuit.

It just doesn't seem to make sense in this financial climate to be quick to sue. As with politics, why not try a negotiated settlement? Ill will could preclude a Barnes and Noble in the area when times get better.

Though we have both a Hastings and a Borders, is a law suit really worth it?

Money, Money Everywhere Except In My Pocket

One of the big things often talked about when someone makes a slip is "perception". I wonder if the powers about to be have ever though of the "perception" we're getting for the cost of the upcoming inauguration.

Here we are in the midst of, as we are often reminded, the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Billions are being spent and are going to be spent to try to stabilize an economic "melt down" that is now world wide.

The Bush inauguration cost in the area of $30 million. The Obama inauguration is going to cost around $50 million. That isn't pocket change!

At the time of the conventions I didn't think much of it when each party was allocated $50 million. I thought it a little pricey but it was a passing thought. That was before a sink hole developed under the money tree! But we now know. I wish this was part of some grand plan for their promised stimulus package, but I know it isn't.

What makes it even harder to swallow is that the automatic Congressional pay raises that are due to go into effect. This year they are getting $4,700 dollars. There are 556 members of Congress. That's a cool $2,613,200! Considering their average work week is two and a half days, when they actually are in session, that's pretty nice money.

Money well spent? That's open for debate. But $150,000,000 for the inauguration and conventions? Come on! Those are parties!

Maybe that too is part of the stimulus plan. If you party hardy enough on your own dollars you won't feel the pain. Except from the hangover.

What Was Pelosi Thinking?

The gavel had barely fallen when the Republicans were out in force blaming Nancy Pelosi's speech at the end of the rescue plan debate for causing the vote to fail.

If ever there was a time for leadership to take a conciliatory stance this was it. Especially with so many house members facing re-election. But no. She had to use it as a campaign diatribe of her own blaming the Bush administration for everything and touting how wonderful the Democrats are. Not even all of them agreed with her. Ninety five Democrats voted against it! That's leadership?

The Senate comes next. Oh, boy.

Back to Pelosi. Here we have a woman, a seasoned politician and Speaker of the House leading the way on a serious and delicate matter. Where was the deft hand? Instead of encouraging the vote why did she have to throw it in the administration's face? This was not the time for politics as usual.

A seasoned, experienced politician. An extremely partisan politician. A slip up of major proportions. These things happen. They shouldn't. I expect our leadership, no matter the party, to know when to be prudent.

McCain claimed that by his presence all was well. It was not. Another seasoned, experienced politician. Do we really want a light weight waiting in the wings?

We've potential wars looming all around the middle east, we've natural disasters on our own turf we have yet to figure out how to handle, the next President will have the responsibility of getting this financial mess back on track. I want that President to have a number two that can look all these issues straight in the eye and know how to deal with them.

What I don't know is what we will get.

Show Me The Money! Here's A Reason To End The Iraq War!

Does anyone have any real sense of the dollar any more? I was listening to Obama's press conference at noon and heard him tell how he will able to pursue all the programs he has promised in his campaign because they are paid for. If the American public buys into this rhetoric from either candidate, we're dumber than I think.

A seven billion dollar bailout isn't chump change and it is tax payer money. Our money. Lump that together with the approximate $9 billion per month its costing to wage our little war in Iraq and you're looking at a hefty chunk of change! Not Obama's change, mind you. Monetary change, as in pocket change - of which there is none!

Here we are fussing around with how to make ends meet because Social Security is barely a safety net. We struggle to afford the premiums we have to pay for medicare; forget about the premiums for a supplement. And don't forget the donut hole in prescription med coverage if that's where you are! It isn't pretty.

On the other hand the campaigns are bringing in 40, 50 million dollars a month each just to get one of them elected. How many mortgages could that pay off?

What's a billion, or 50 million here and there? To most of us, it's beyond our imagination. It's not even a realistic American dream unless your a movie star, athlete or failed company CEO!

We, who've collectively made all of this possible, deserve more of a return on our dollar. More than bankruptcy court. More than promises that mathematically don't compute. And more than the officials, elected and otherwise, who continually tell us it does.