We NEED Free Trade Agreements!

Another indicator of why I think the President Peter Principled out as a community organizer is his refusal to send three pending free trade agreements to Congress.  You know, those agreements that eliminate tariffs allowing for, ahem, free trade, between countries.

The three outstanding would be between the U.S. and South Korea, Panama and Columbia.

Whats at stake?  Cars for South Korea, heavy equipment for the other two.  Companies like Caterpillar desperately want it.

Think about what it would do for the economy.  Actually selling our goods.  Think of the jobs that could produce. Think about how much those countries can get their needs filled elsewhere if we continue to drag our feet.  These had been negotiated, just not finalized, before Obama took office.  Is this just one more area in which he has no interest so he ignores it?

Once again, the President has inserted himself into the legislative process and created more problems than he solved.  He wants to do something called 'trade adjustment assistance' first.  This is a payoff to the unions.

Harry Reid held a cloture vote opening the way. He knows Boehner would get it through the house. But here's the problem.  The Republicans don't trust the President to keep his word to move the agreements forward if they pass the 'adjustments' first.  The President not a man of his word?  Well, look what happened with the debt ceiling negotiations, among others.

The shame of it is the mistrust.  This isn't even a matter of ideology.  It's a matter of, well, mistrust. What a sorry state that is. It jeopardizes our ability to trade with healthy, growing economies who need our products. Why?

Once again the President dithers, unable or unwilling to make a decision, while the rest of us suffer for it. Why?

When I have a rant like this I'm often asked, if not Obama, then who?  Well, the one man no one seems to want to look at is Jon Huntsman.  Why is that, while I'm asking why?  Could it be time to look at the quiet achievers rather than the show boaters?  If not, why?

The Four Horesemen Of Our Apocalypse?

Remember back a couple of years when Honduran Manuel Zelaya tried to get re-elected by ignoring their constitution?  He was turned out by their supreme court and escorted out of the country by the military.  Oddly, though knowing how corrupt he was, our government insisted it had been a military coup and demanded his reinstatement.  To no avail I might add.  Right was on the Hondurans side.

Even stranger, we've never come off that stand and Zelaya is now back in Honduras and with the help of his brothers in corruption, no doubt, is jockeying for a return to power.  Like Qaddafi, he has his loyalists.

If for no other reason, having Hillary as Secretary of State may be good to the point that women tend to be better at multi-tasking than men.  With everything going on in the middle east and other worldly hot spots, this one may deserve a giant portion of our attention.  Because of its proximity and because it's happening again!

This time in Nicaragua .  Daniel Ortega, another longtime enemy of the United States, is going to run for another term as President in clear violation of their constitution.  One wonders where we'll stand on this one if the opposition should prevail!

Mr. Ortega, along with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, are big buddies with Iran's Ahmadinejad.  I can't help but wonder what they chit chat about when they get together for cocktails.  You can bet it isn't about how wonderful America is and wishing they could be just like us!

It's a frightening scenario.  With Cuba within shouting distance and the others not much further.  With Iran's nuclear ambitions that we clearly are unable to curtail, fueled by Venezuela's oil money and willing compatriots in the hood, we've much to be concerned about.

I'd like to think our State department and the administration have a handle on this even though we hear little about it.  But I don't.  I don't think our President has any interest in foreign policy nor the ability to oversee it.  It's a necessary nuisance, getting in the way of his troubled domestic agenda.

Maybe it's time for him to listen to those beginning to call for him to give up on a second term.  Those in his own party though what the far left want of him is even worse than what we're now enduring.

Someone I was talking politics with recently likened the country's current situation to the perfect storm.  Everything bad is converging in one spot at one time.  We know how that ends.

Between the world's economic crisis, the ever spreading wars,  a frustrated, underemployed, under housed populace and a government in Washington that can neither lead nor legislate, we've never been at a lower ebb.

I'm worried, really worried about our country and the world.  A nuclear holocaust isn't as far removed from reality as it once was.

We need new people in Washington.  We need people savvy about the ways of the world, not detached.  We need people worried about the world, as well as our country, over and above their personal ideology.

If we don't elect such people these four power hungry, corrupt men, right under our nose, may just make it moot.  They have nothing to lose, it's their way.  We have everything to lose because it has never been ours.

John Or Hillary ~ Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda

So Hillary Clinton is the most popular national figure in America.  I've even heard there has been a movement for her to challenge Obama in a primary.  She could, you know.  And probably win because all her fans would come out in force.  But I doubt she will unless things get far worse than they already are.  She's too good a soldier.

Hindsight being 20/20, I do believe either she or McCain would have been the better President.  Both look at the country more like most of us.  They'd be trying to strengthen it from the damage done before rather than trying to change it to match an ideology of mediocrity.

Neither would have even thought about leading from behind.  Actually I think McCain could have beaten Obama had it not been for Sarah Palin.  She was a great good ole gal cheerleader, but her obvious lack of knowledge on all things global scared most of us to death.  It still does.

But Hillary.  I know how much I ranted that being the wife of a President doesn't necessarily qualify her to step into his shoes.  Back to hindsight, having had Bill's back for so many years through so many experiences certainly  educated her as to how the game should be played successfully.

The biggest complaint I remember hearing was having another 'two fer' and Bill in the White House as, to borrow from Palin, 'first dude.' It probably wouldn't have been all that bad. Just as she had been his advisor all those years, he'd then have been hers.  He probably
is though we don't hear about it.

She doesn't have his charisma or charm. The 'aw shucks' persona to which we seem to be so drawn.  It wouldn't work for a woman anyway.  Consider Palin. It's fine, again, for a cheerleader, but not a woman dealing in what is mostly a man's world.

Yep.  Hillary can hold her own with world leaders.  Obama isn't doing so well.  She has across the board appeal if somewhat strident.  That could be perceived as strength in a woman.  She'd bow to no one.

She's still a Democrat and I certainly am not enamoured with their policies these days.  Yet I'd guess her emphasis would have been elsewhere, she'd have addressed the economy and the jobs problem long before now and perhaps best of all Nancy Pelosi would not have run roughshod over her.

Ahhh, hindsight.  McCain is alive and well and little different than he was before he ran.  My worries about his age and health seem to have been misplaced.  Considering Palin would probably not have had the role as she would have wanted it to be, McCain would have approached matters far differently and he could have vetoed anything the Democratic congress tried to force feed us.

But what's past is past.  What's current is current.  Why is it I feel like I'm in the middle of a pool of quick sand?

Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Obama

I've concluded I need to pay a lot of attention to temperment while studying the candidates.  I'm wondering how many don't have the temperment to be President.

Mr. Obama seems more and more to be just such.  He morphs into different personalities.  Joe Cool to Mr. Hyde with a few others inbetween!  Will the real Obama please stand up?

It's hard to find anything amusing with the country in it's current state and getting worse, but I do get a kick out of Obama and his jobs bill.  All of a sudden we're in a crisis and this bill has to be passed as is!  The bridges are going to collapse.  The sky is falling.

Where the heck has he been for the past three years?  Two of which he had  both the House and the Senate.  He might have noticed we were in crisis mode had he stuck around the White House and communicated with Congress rather than running the longest re-election campaign in recent history!

After three years I don't think he yet understands what the President is supposed to do.  Lead.

Now all of sudden he wants everything his way.  A lot of the mess we're facing wouldn't be so bad had he been paying attention and willing to do the very thing he's accusing Republicans of refusing to do.  Negotiate and compromise.

Yes, we do need to take action to get people back to work.  It isn't going to happen over night, unfortunately. But bullying and threatening Congress isn't exactly the way I'd go about getting their co-operation.  He did the same thing with Obamacare.  It seems to be his manner. His way or no way.  He doesn't realize he "won" because of Bush fatigue. That is not a mandate for his policies.  Leading and dictating are not synonymous!  That's what I mean about temperment. I just don't think he gets it.

Consider how long he's been complaining about how he inherited everything from Bush.  Well, maybe some of it.  I won't argue that, but where has he been since?  Letting business continue as usual.

Let's face it, his bill isn't going to get passed without scrutiny and changes.  Congress is going to be Congress and do things the way they always do - contentiously and slow. The television debates are giving us nothing about the Republicans that indicates they have a handle on solutions.  They are, however, doing a great job of making themselves look unworthy and incapable of the job. The Tea Party and the right wing conservatives aren't helping matters any with their demands.

My crystal ball says the future isn't looking good.  Perhaps the cool spell that's coming will also cool my frustration with our leadership. Or it may just chill me to the bone.

Forty Two Years And Counting...

We had our first child, you see.  Never mind that it was a Saint Bernard puppy.  We did what was expected of us.  We got married.   September 12, 1969.

Now, forty two years, four Saint Bernards, two mutts and untold numbers of fish later, we are still chugging along.  The years have been good to us, really.  We both are in good health if you discount the aches and pains that come with five acres and seventy some years!

We've still enough pride to struggle with our weight.  Our hair is thinner and lacking for color. We have our own teeth and can hear just fine.  We've finally matured enough to know what's important and to not apologize for our opinions whether or not people agree with us.  We still pursue life with zest. We still dine at the table every night, fashionably late if going out and dress for the occasion when few others do.  It's a standard of living, you see.

I could not have asked more from a husband than I've received.  One's confidence in the goodness of a person, the generosity, giving and caring becomes pretty easy after forty two years.

It's not that there weren't rough times.  Oh yes.  We are both terribly strong willed individuals and we've had some dandy battles of those wills.  But somewhere deep within we knew when to call a truce and actually listen to each other and talk things through.  That too comes easily after forty two years.

I have been married to this man longer than I had been alive when we first married.  That idea still astounds me.  Sometimes couples grow apart after years of marriage.  We've grown closer.  We share so many interests we've entwined our lives around one another.  It's comfortable.  It's predictable.  It's marriage.   Forty two years of it, and counting...