The I's Have It.

Apparently, in support of Obamacare, we have 2 types of people:
A) Ideologues
B) Idiots

There. I said it....and it had to be said.
Harsh, perhaps...but accurate nonetheless...

Before the ranting continues, allow me to make an observation or two (actually, you have no choice in the matter, but after starting out so rudely, I thought a modicum of politeness might be in order..)...
No rational human being can deny that reform is overdue when it comes to the delivery of our healthcare system. Of course, some reform - such as interstate competition amongst providers is not being discussed. Others, such as tort reform is essentially taboo given the truly ginormous amounts of money given to the Democratic coffers by trial lawyers - and as such, will not be considered by this administration in any meaningful way....but we aren't talking about reform here. Healthcare legislation, in it's current incarnation, is not reform. It is change. Reform is the process of making adjustments to a system (hopefully for the better) while leaving the core of that system intact - if the reform ultimately is found to be detrimental, the system can then be reverted back to it's original configuration. This current incarnation amounts to change. Once we go down this proposed road, there is no going back.

There are a myriad of reasons why Obamacare is a terrible idea (oh, that's right, I used the word 'myriad'...because that's what the thesaurus came up with when i said 'a bunch of')... requiring hours of typing and subsequent ranting to do them justice...so I won't bother. I'll just stick with one.... Uncle Sam's track record.

Our dear Uncle is many things and efficient isn't one of them. He tends to overreach, underperform and greatly underestimate the amount of money that will be required to do any particular project. Consider the following failures (we'll start with the public/private co-ops, since the Obamacare likes to talk so much about the 'public option'....:


Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - this public/private abomination's failures were instrumental (although certainly not solely responsible) for the housing market collapse and subsequent recession from which we are supposed to be joblessly recovering from... Uncle Sam now owns 5 trillion in bad mortgages.... do you know how many cheeseburgers 5 trillion dollars could buy?

AMTRAK - Never made a profit, never will. Keeps chugging along on waste and stupidity. The little engine that could not...so it is endlessly subsidized. Over 30 billion thus far...

USPS - Neither rain, nor snow nor dark of night can prevent Uncle Sam from crippling the Pony Express to the tune of 5 billion (conservatively) over the last 2 years alone.... Thanks Uncle!

..........................................................................................................................................................................

and now, the big-boys.....

Medicare -
will be insolvent by 2017. Our population is getting older and Obamacare will slice off a few hundred million from the budget. So glad to say that dear Uncle has been spending that considerable chunk of change out of our paychecks wisely. Any thoughts on how the program will be funded after that? Anyone? Bueller? ( I forgot to mention, millions get scammed annually from the system and the government has done little to nothing to stop it... and that will change why exactly?)

Social Security -
2037. Done. Zip. Nada. Thank God that it will be 25 years after the apocalypse in 2012, so we really won't feel the sting....

FEMA -
Consider that in the aftermath of Katrina. 6.3 billion was spent by the organization. 1/4th of that amount was either scammed and/or wasted (CBO report). Small change comparatively speaking, but you get the idea....

Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Reform -
The Bush administration initially pegged this beauty at 400 billion (10 years). The most recent estimate is 1.2 TRILLION. And here I thought everything was just bigger in Texas....
..........................................................................................................................................................................

My small brain is seeing a trend here.....

What rational being can possibly think that this can be done without bankrupting us? The writing is literally on the wall here. Obamacare (current iteration) will decimate the economy. Period. What planet do you live on if you think that this government program will be any different....?

.... So we are left with the ideologue. One who believes that it is the moral imperative of the government to provide these services to the populace, no matter the cost. Ideologues are entitled to their opinions and it is pointless to try to change them. We can just ask that they don't reproduce in great numbers....

So, we are left with 2 possibilities:
A) Ideologue
B) Idiot

At this point, we can ill-afford either.

Apparently, the "I's" have it....

Newt 2, Electric Boogaloo

Like the herpes virus, Newt Gingrich is back - and he's making me itch (not inappropriately, mind you - just that general 'heebee jeebee' all over type of itch).

Contract with America 2 you say? Really?
It seems that Hollywood isn't the only industry that can come up with a crappy sequel.
Not that the message is bad...

1) Jobs.. yup, jobs are good (and when an administration touts the fact that at least we aren't losing them as fast these days as their #1 accomplishment, you just know we're hosed)

2) Energy... yup, energy is a good thing. Multifaceted approach combining petroleum, nuclear, gas and 'clean' renewables can only be a good thing. Becoming energy independent would free us of the hypocrisy of trying to tease out our foreign policy from our energy policy. Of course, giving the country a 'Green Enima' in the process.... not so good. Having Obama the 'candidate' promising that he would bankrupt the coal industry.... terrible.

3) Health Care fix... yup, 3 for 3. A system that would encourage competition, lower prices and bring the responsibility back to the consumer.... we have a winner (as opposed to this steaming pile of poo that is being pushed around on the floor of the senate floor... now that's a visual for you... that is wrong in so many ways that it brings up even more images of steaming poo)

4) Education...meh. Personally, I would rather see government get out of education and have the whole shooting match (literally) turned over to the private sector. Don't we have enough state run indoctrination with PBS?

You may be saying to yourself, 'self, what's his problem? 3 of 4 is pretty good, (or 4 of 4 if you think we should get deeper into the indoctrination business) what's his problem? To which I would respond, 'I have many, many problems, most of them are personal and I would ask you not to bring them up again.' And then I would say 'Newt'. Sometimes, its not the message, its just the messenger.

NY-23 anyone? Sorry Mr. Gingrich, your street cred is whack. How do you back a candidate who essentially spits in the face of EVERY conservative principle and not expect some backlash? Don't give me this 'the party has to make room for different points of view' crap. That is only true when you have at least SOME principles in common. Scozzafava apparently had none. Your glorious plans to rebuild the republican party on a foundation of cards has failed....oops. Triangulated that one wrong buddy.

And nothing gives the appearance of looking forward like looking backwards. Sounds a mite hypocritical - and I just love hypocrisy... (kind of like elective abortion being on the health coverage for GOP employees despite the constant drumbeat of anguished criticism against the practice - kind of hypocrisy).... makes me all tingly inside just thinking about it...

So, ideas = good(ish) ... delivery system = (bad) ... messenger = (laughable)

Gingrich is about the 'power' movement, not the conservative one. His concept of 'Contract 2' is equally as ludicrous as the concept that the current health care legislation is not a veiled attempt at government takeover of 1/6th of our economy....but that is another rant for another day....

Hello Déjà vu, it is Good to See You Again

Lessons learned from 9-11
Apparently, none.
Really.
Shall we review (and by we, I mean me)
Uncomfortable, but necessary - much like a prostate exam (have I shared too much)?

In the hearts and flowers world of pre 9-11, Clinton was more interested in fighting terrorism in court than on a battlefield. It was a magical time when the dot.com bubble was still building and we were beloved by all the world (or at lest that is the way it is portrayed in the Clinton Library and Massage Parlor...) oh yeah and Bin Laden was offered to us on a silver platter...which we refused on legal grounds ....which strangely didn't work out in our favor....
There were several mitigating factors in this decision:

1) Largely because the battlefield was a nebulous mess, not easily teased out into readily identified target areas ....it is very inconvenient when the enemy does not wear uniforms you know....
2) He was too busy fighting domestic terrorism in the White House after the whole Monica Lewinsky thing
3) In la-la land, one can rationalize with the irrational, evil does not exist and we can all just get along if, darn it anyway, we just try hard enough (because, everyone would really love us if they just got to know us better...)

Then 9-11 happened and along with the Towers that came crashing down, so did our sunshine and lollipops vision of the world. We were resolute. We were united. We recognized that enemies were to be defeated, not placated.
Yeah, that lasted. We are either incredibly stupid or suffer from serious memory issues....

In the revisited land of sunshine and lollipops that is the current administration we have:

1) An end to the war on terror (tho nobody told the terrorists that). I believe that it has been renamed the 'unfortunate altercation with people who don't like us for causes purely of our own making'
2) Soldiers who need to read Miranda rights to the enemy... an idea so asinine, it actually boggles the mind (it is true, my mind has been boggled...)
3) Farewell to GITMO... ah yes, now our enemies are privileged to have access to our court system and rights previously only known to our citizens... SWEET! Because nothing says 'deterrent' like access to US courts
4) Phrases like 'crime against our nation' and 'tragedy' are used by the administration to describe the recent events in Ft Hood. Sadly, phrases like 'shout out' are also used prior to announcing the necessity of said aforementioned phrases.... (insert old man voice here) " I remember way back in 9-11 when we used to call things like that 'terrorism' "
5) A criminal trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his gang of merry murderers in New York City...
6) Did I mention .... A criminal trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his gang of merry murderers in New York City...? Silly me, here I thought the killing of thousands by a foreign enemy would be considered an act of war, not as a crime. Then again, a military tribunal wouldn't potentially damage our intelligence operations nor would it give the terrorists (oops, can I even say that word anymore) a forum to spew their hatred from.... and we can't have that, now can we?

Hello Déjà vu, it is good to see you again. At the risk of repeating myself, repeating myself, are we really this stupid? Did we have a collective Alzheimer's moment, erasing the last 8 years?
I have the audacity of hope that the administration does not get us all killed by wallowing in naiveté and abject stupidity....

I will leave this posting with another prostate exam-like question... If acts like 9-11 are criminal and not an act of war, why are we in Afghanistan? How then, was it ever the 'right' war, the 'just' war, the 'necessary' war?

Methinks the administration forgot to put some lube on the glove....

The Only Thing We Need to Fear...

......Is stupid people

(Methinks that this will be an ongoing segment, as humanity's stupidity cannot be adequately serviced nor explained in such a brief span of time and/or space. Today my ranting shall be focused upon the rocky shores of fiscal irresponsibility...)

...Especially elected ones. More so when they control all 3 levers of government (and no, I'm not just talking exclusively about Democrats here - G.W. and the Republicans showed us how fine a job they could do with things earlier this decade....and that turned out really well, didn't it?)

The problem with elected stupidity, is that they get to do stupid things with our money - brother, can you spare a few trillion? Of course, I was furious with G.W. when he ran up billions. I understood some of it... wars (could've been much better managed, but - ok), multiple natural disasters (katrina, et, al. - again, could've been much better managed - waste, fraud, etc.., but again, understandable). It was more of the Medicare drug prescription, TARP (a rant for another time) and loads of other pure crapola that spewed out of that administration that really drove me crazy. Pork was no longer 'the other white meat', it was a governmental dietary mainstay...or so I thought...
Then came Obama.
Holy shit but this man can spend money.
Our money.
Our children's money
Our grandchildren's money.
Our grandchildren's grandchildren's money.
Our grandchildren's grandchildren's robotic overlord's money...
On the bright side, we now own: significant portions of the auto industry and banking industry; majority of home loans and all of student loans (to name a few)...Which is good because the private sector and capitalism are bad, right? Isn't that what Michael Moore said? He makes such good points and he really is workin' that whole fat slob thing isn't he?......but I digress...

How do we expect to be taken seriously as a nation when our currency is the global equivalent of Charmin 3x-ply?

Truly, this stupidity must stop. A few more fiscal gems like 'cap and trade' or 'heathcare reform' (each both worthy of additional solitary rants) will irrevocably bury us. Until then, let's have the Fed drop interest rates to 0, thus encouraging people to spend more money that they don't have...because that has worked so well for us so far...

How I would love to see an amendment requiring a balanced budget..... maybe our grandchildren's grandchildren's robotic overlords will institute one...

An Abbreviated Tribute

I had planned to compose a meaningful tribute today to our nation's veterans - a blog entry truly worthy of those who serve and have served..

but there were 2 small problems..
1) I just don't write that well
2) I'm freaking exhausted (the wahmbulance will be here soon - and yes, I had a wahmburger and french cries for dinner)

So, in a very un-soldierlike display, I am taking the night off.
A veteran, taking veterans day off.... sheer madness...

I salute you my friends.

Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Dogs of Stupidity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QqD-RwM5PY

Let me start by saying that Dr. Phil is an unmitigated douchebag - and his finger-wagging friend is quite an entertainer as well. Truly, this a link too good to miss.

and Dr. Phil is a douchebag... just in case I didn't mention it..

Are we really, as a society, this stupid?

So many absolutely asinine statements floating about the airwaves and news outlets today... just for funzies, let's revisit a few.

1) This is Obama's fault. Wrong. People who think this is the case should report immediately for voluntary sterilization so that their genes will not pollute society as a whole. PCJS (politically correct jackass syndrome) was not inflicted upon this country by the president. He just (unfortunately) tends to suffer from the disease himself.

2) 'W'. Wrong again. Recommendations as per above. George, thankfully did not suffer from PC part of PCJS.. although the jackass part... (you are either with us or against us.. I had to go against the principles of free market to save it, etc)... well, at least he wasn't politically correct

3) Since Maj Hasan was apparently acting alone, it was just the actions of a crazy person, not a terrorist. Survey says... Wrong. Timothy McVeigh was not part of some larger plot and no one hesitated to refer to him as a terrorist (for obvious reasons). What then would make this case any different? Is it because explosives were not used or was the body count not quite high enough?

4) This is the Army's fault for sending Hasan to Afghanistan, even tho he really didn't want to go there. Ummmmmm....Wrong. Those drinking this kool aid should be slapped in the face repeatedly with a large, 3 day old tuna. A soldier goes where Uncle Sam tells them to go, period. Get over it. The Army's needs come before personal ones - and after the first Gulf War, if one is stupid enough to think that a deployment to somewhere in the Arab world isn't a distinct possibility, then one should refer to recommendations as posted in #1.

This could go on ad nauseum, but I think the pattern is fairly clear..

The real questions are these:
1) Has the tipping point been reached. Has the abject stupidity of political correctness finally worn out it's welcome? Have the self righteous jackasses who worship at this particular altar, realize what they have done? Do they see that their sacrifice at this altar had a price in blood and that it is on their hands?
or
2) Will we go back to the status-quo. Will we drown in our own stupidity. After all, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then we shouldn't jump to conclusions...

and in case I forgot to mention it, Dr. Phil is a douchebag

and Knowing is Half the Battle.....

Remember when, at the end of the GI Joe cartoon, they would have the cartoon version of a Public Service Announcement (like what to do if someone is choking or what not) and it would always end with 'and knowing is half the battle'..? You DID watch GI Joe cartoons as a child, right? If not, do push-ups...

Yet I digress...

They knew. They just didn't get off their brass and do anything about it. Had Hasan been a white supremacist, he would have been booted long ago (and rightfully so). The Army isn't supposed to see white, black, brown, yellow or f*ing purple! - they are only supposed to see GREEN! Apparently, not today, not anymore.

For fear of the almighty race card being played, officers sat and did nothing. The behavior was known. I won't re-hash what has been said (tho I will post a link). I do wonder how those sitting on his last promotion board are sleeping these days...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,573469,00.html

General Casey stated that he is concerned that 'it would be a greater tragedy if our diversity became a casualty as well'.. I had to listen to the clip twice to make sure i got that right...
a "greater" tragedy? To this I have the following response:
(a) General Casey vastly underestimates the integrity of his troops if he is seriously entertaining the aforementioned notion. Soldiers are brothers and sisters. Race/color/creed/etc are generally non-issues. His inference to the contrary is sickening and pathetic.
(b) This man should never command troops again. period. I am embarrassed to have ever served (however briefly) under his command.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/08/casey-muslim-backlash/

Our troops deserve better than this.

Inclusion is a wonderful thing. Bending over backwards to include those who wish to (and sometimes do) kill us, is not.

Methinks, somewhere, Gen. George Patton is spinning in his grave...