The Texas 18th District Blog

 What an old anecdote about Mo Udall in the hospital reveals about McCain’s character.  (and Slate has not been kind to Republicans)

A nurse entered and seemed surprised to find anyone there, and it wasn’t long before I found out why: Almost no one visits anymore. In his time, which was not very long ago, Mo Udall was one of the most-sought-after men in the Democratic Party. Yet as he dies in a veterans hospital a few miles from the Capitol, he is visited regularly only by a single old political friend, John McCain. “He’s not going to wake up this time,” McCain said.

On the way out of the parking lot, McCain recalled what it was like to be a nobody called upon by a somebody. As he did, his voice acquired the same warmth that colored Russell Feingold’s speech when he described the first call from John McCain. “When you called Feingold … ” I started to ask him. But before I could, he interrupted. “Yeah,” he says, “I thought of Mo.”

 Mark Steyn: Obama’s a better symbol than president

And why not? Obama in the White House, Obama on the dollar bill, Obama on Rushmore would symbolize the possibilities of America more than that narrow list of white-bread protestant presidents to date.

The problem is we’re not electing a symbol, a logo, a two-dimensional image. Long before he emerged on the national stage as Barack the Hope-Giver and Bringer of Change, there was a three-dimensional Barack Obama, a real man who lives in the real world. And that’s where the problem lies.

The senator and his doting Obots in the media have gone to great lengths to obscure what Barack Obama does when he’s not being a symbol: his voting record, his friends, his patrons, his life outside the soft-focus memoirs is deemed nonrelevant to the general hopey-changey vibe. But occasionally we get a glimpse. The offhand aside to Joe the Plumber about “spreading the wealth around” was revealing because it suggests a crude redistributive view of “social justice”. Yet the nimble Hope-a-Dope sidestepper brushed it aside, telling a crowd in Raleigh that next John McCain will be “accusing me of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in kindergarten.”

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Not only has this party belittled working people in this campaign, it has also been part of tearing down two female candidates.

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The final straw came the other week when Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (a.k.a Joe the Plumber) asked a question about higher taxes for small businesses. Instead of celebrating his aspirations, they were mocked. He wasn’t “a real plumber,” and “They’re fighting for Joe the Hedge-Fund manager,” and the patronizing, “I’ve got nothing but love for Joe the Plumber.”

Having worked in politics, I know that absolutely none of this is on the level. This back and forth is posturing, a charade, and a political game. These lines are what I refer to as “hooker lines”—a sure thing to get applause and the press to scribble as if they’re reporting meaningful news.

As the nation slouches toward disaster, the level of political discourse is unworthy of this moment in history. We have Republicans raising Ayers and Democrats fostering ageism with “erratic” and jokes about Depends. Sexism. Racism. Ageism and maybe some Socialism have all made their ugly cameos in election 2008. It’s not inspiring. Perhaps this is why I found the initial mocking of Joe so offensive and I realized an old line applied: “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me.”

 ***

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When was the last time a poor person offered you a job?

Engineer2

American Voters know which politicians failed us in the Mortgage Meltdown!

“If It Redistributes Like a Duck…”:

Friday, October 31, 2008

By: David Harsanyi

Obama is first ever presidential candidate to call for redistribution.

Barack Obama is going to fix the economy by “spreading the wealth around”?

Now, I’m not attempting to demonize Obama, God forbid. It’s just that, as we all know, that’s what Obama told Joe the Plumber.

Obama laughs off the charge of socialist behavior — and to be fair, socialism isn’t the precise term to affix to his ideas. It’s more like Robin Hood economics. On a recent campaign stop, Obama joked that by the end of the week, McCain would be accusing him “of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in kindergarten.”

A funny line. But of course, Obama’s lofty intellect must comprehend the fundamental difference between sharing your GI Joe with a friend and having a bully snatch your GI Joe for the collective prepubescent good. It’s the difference between coercion and free association and trade. In practical terms, it’s the difference between government cheese and a meal at Ruth’s Chris.

Now, I’m not suggesting Obama intends to transform this nation into 1950s-era Soviet tyranny or that he will possess the power to do so. I’m suggesting Obama is praising and mainstreaming an economic philosophy that has failed to produce a scintilla of fairness or prosperity anywhere on earth, ever.

If It Quacks Like a Duck, it’s a Duck… Read the rest here, originally published by RealClearPolitics.com:

If It Redistributes Like a Duck…

Ken

American Voters know which politicians failed us in the Mortgage Meltdown!

Another view on why the stock markets are so bad  Wall St Journal article you should see.

 Obama and the Politics of Crowds

“On the face of it, there is nothing overwhelmingly stirring about Sen. Obama. There is a cerebral quality to him, and an air of detachment. He has eloquence, but within bounds. After nearly two years on the trail, the audience can pretty much anticipate and recite his lines. The political genius of the man is that he is a blank slate. The devotees can project onto him what they wish. The coalition that has propelled his quest — African-Americans and affluent white liberals — has no economic coherence. But for the moment, there is the illusion of a common undertaking — Canetti’s feeling of equality within the crowd…”

Obama and “The Left” 

A candidate who spends two decades promoting polarization and then runs as a healer and uniter, rather than a divider, forfeits all trust by that fact alone.”

This video has more to say than all political candidates have said in the sum total of their campaign appearances & debates.  Its a must watch this campaign year, one of the best I’ve seen. It’s refreshing to see the truth pick it’s head up over the millions of dollars of political rhetoritic we are being inundated with this election year, especially when the Democrats are hammering Fox Network for being “Right” while CNN is even further “Left”.

Thank you machosauceproduction  for taking the time to present sanity in these uncertain times. This is one of the best and most honest political videos I have seen this year:

Checking Site stats, I found a link to this video… I believe author Exyankee probably posted a link to it in one of his blogs.

Thanks for having the insight to bring this video to the forefront here!

He should be out campaigning with Joe the Plumber and Sarah Palin!

Ken 

At first I almost didn’t listen to this guy.  He spoke so fast I had a hard time understanding him (I’m old).  But I did listen and I’m glad I did.  Here he is.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxhYampIl7A

Found this over at The Corner.

What Walter Williams describes matches what my relatives in the UK experience.

“One of the campaign themes this election cycle is “affordable” health care. Shouldn’t we ask ourselves whether we want the politicians who brought us the “affordable” housing, that created the current financial debacle, to now deliver us affordable health care? Shouldn’t we also ask how things turned out in countries where there is socialized medicine? ”

Great article about Joe the Plumber and licensing 

The Obama camp has been attacking Joe Wurzelbacher saying he isn’t licensed to be a plumber!

“In Ohio Joe’s not required by law to get a license before he can practice plumbing. But he need to get a license if he decides he’d rather make his living as an accountant, architect, barber, chiropractor, cosmetologist, dental hygienist, dentist, paramedic, funeral director, hearing aid fitter, insurance agent, land surveyor, lawyer, nursing home administrator, nurse, occupational therapist, optometrist, pesticide applicator, pharmacist, physical therapist, physician assistant, physician, podiatrist, psychologist, public school teacher, real estate agent, real estate appraiser, school counselor, stock broker, social worker, truck driver, veterinarian or vet’s assistant.”

A quick comment about polls

When you listen to the radio or TV you hear Obama is up by 2%, up by 5, up by 10 or even that McCain is up by 2 on the same day.  You also hear that Palin and McCain are doing  poorly when every rally they go to the crowds are enthused and excited far more than Obama and Biden’s supporters.  Some polls are calculated using a moving average or other “smoothing” technique.  This means the poll is averaged with poll results from several weeks ago.  In some cases the poll a few weeks ago reflected an event favorable or unfavorable long ago forgotten or dismissed by the general public.  When people are angry they respond in a way to pollsters to punish someone. As the anger subsides they change their minds.  Pollsters also misinterpret the reasons for polling answers.  They have to take large amounts of data and make sense of it quickly because the media wants it yesterday.

Another interesting piece of data was presented by Karl Rove on O’Reilly last night.  He showed a handwritten chart he made showing the red states with minuses for states McCain might lose and how many electoral votes each had plus states with their electoral votes he hoped to pick up.  The result of the calculation being that if he is correct he gets about 4 more electoral votes than he needs.

He showed a similar chart for Obama.  Of course the pluses and minuses are the key.  That’s why they are campaigning diligently where they are.  If McCain keeps the states he is unsure of (e.g. like Florida) he has some extra margin.  This is why a nationwide poll is not always accurate. He can be unpopular in California but so what.  Republicans never get California anyhow.

Weak earnings rouse worries about global recession

3 cheers for investors, they finally realized why they have been selling stocks for the last months.  Did they expect corporate earnings to increase?  Under the “perfect markets” theory of investing weak earnings expectations were already built in.  Did investment analysts expect earnings to increase when customers cannot get more credit and retailers cannot borrow to stock their shelves with the latest fashions and newest technology.

A different topic

I heard Obama respond on TV this morning regarding McCain’s criticism of Obama taking more money from working people and giving it to people who don’t work.  The context is that Obama wants to give a “tax refund” to people who don’t pay taxes.  McCain says that is welfare and not a tax refund and McCain simply wants Obama to call it what it is.  Obama says “what John McCain doesn’t understand is that even though those people don’t pay income tax, they have other taxes to pay”. 

What Obama doesn’t understand is the people who pay income tax have to pay those very same taxes and probably in larger dollar amounts.  People who work and pay income taxes probably pay more gasoline taxes because they use more gasoline for commuting to work.  They probably pay more telephone and internet taxes because they call for work related tasks from home or check their work emails from home at night or on weekends.  They buy clothes to wear to work so they pay more sales tax.  If they eat lunch in McDonalds during the week they pay sales tax for lunch.

I understand that everyone pays taxes aside from sales tax but those who pay income tax are included in everyone.  If an elderly person, a disabled person or a single mother with several kids cannot work, fine let government help them.  But don’t punish people who work.  Reduce some other category of federal spending and divert the money to those who cannot take care of themselves.

What is Sheila Jackson Lee’s position on the issue?  I’ll bet she mirrors Obama.

Flying a Flag Upside-Down is an International Symbol of Distress – Is America That Broken?

This weekend I watched yet another Hollywood Oscar nominated statement movie starring Tommy Lee Jones, entitled; “In the Valley of Elah”. It was a good thought provoking movie.

Not having ever served in the military or being a mariner, I didn’t realize that flying a flag upside-down was an international symbol of distress:

It seems like we are losing more focus on who we are and what we want and need every day. 

I hope this year that Americans understand before they go to the polls and elect a (One-Party) Democrat President, Senate and House (Congress) that, that choice will clear the way for a Socialist encroachment of Government beyond belief.

All Americans want and need change. But we need to maintain some “checks & balances” to keep socialist policy and agendas from sailing through clear and unchecked.

In the Great Depression we were cast into a hell that took a long time to recover from by similar policies being advocated by the Democrat party right now, every day in the news.

Flying the American flag upside-down doesn’t show disrespect. It’s simply an International Symbol of Distress.

If we elect a One-Party Government either Democrat or Republican, healthy “Checks & Balances” will be challenged in a way that could charge the American public with a great deal of malcontent, even more than we have now.

Maybe America is broken. Maybe we are broken by an antiquated 2-party system that is almost assured to bring us more of the same, no matter who we elect this year.

If we go to the polls as uneducated Americans and elect a Democrat President and a Democrat Congress (House and Senate), we will shoot ourselves in the foot and I would expect to see quite a few flags flying upside-down just after the elections.

If we ever stupidly elect a one-party government, especially Democrats pressing Socialist agendas… we probably deserve just what we’ll get:

• Bloated Government
• Higher Taxes
• Loss of Personal Choice
• Higher Unemployment
• Loss of Medical Insurance Choices
• Extended Government Interference
• Personal Invasion in our lives

It won’t be pretty! I don’t particularly like to see the American flag flying upside-down and neither will you. If you feel distressed now, wait till you see what happens if you make the wrong “change” choices at the voting booth this year.

Yes America is broken, but we were broken by both parties, including the Democrats who have led both “Houses of Congress” (Senate & House) for 2 years without commanding governance… and the news media is guilty of helping them wash their hands of guilt. It’s time to replace the guilty parties, including Sheila Jackson Lee.

If Americans go to the polls and elect a full Democrat Government we will take one giant step toward Socialism, which will cause great distress and malcontent for many.

If that happens, take note that Americans who decide to fly their flags upside-down aren’t being disrespectful, they are simply making a statement against those that turned America upside-down, disregarding the basic freedoms we have always stood for.

Again and again Obama has made reference to a new Socialistic American Health System based on “Preventitive Medicine”. I don’t know about you, but my wife and I don’t need or want to recieve letters or e-mails from our government mandating proctologist or gynecologist visits! Do we really want to go there?

This whole social medicine issue is so absurd, it’s obscene. You won’t believe the government’s incursion into your personal lives if and when we go there! I really don’t think any of us need them “to ram it up any further” than they already have with this economic bail out package stuffed with abject disrespect for the American taxpayer. Do you really want that kind of governance over your health system too?

I sincerely hope all American voters realize that this is probably the most important vote they will ever cast in their lifetime and that we all go to the polls educated and ready to vote for individual candidates at all levels. This isn’t a year where any of us can go into the voting booth and just jerk a single party lever and walk out with a good conscience that we’ve served our fellow Americans, family, friends or ourselves as we should have.

Engineer2

Let’s work together to put John Faulk in office. We need to elect members of Congress with strong financial backgrounds.

When congress passes a bill that covers many things they call it an omnibus bill.  I saved this document before I put a title on it and was afraid I had lost it.  Fortunately the software gave it a title, post # 298.  That wasn’t very descriptive so I changed it to something else undescriptive.

Palin envy - Katie Couric wore her hair in the Governor Palin style last night at the annual Afred E. Smith dinner.  Do you think Palin is influencing American women.

Agent provocateur - 20 people including secret service agents at the McCain speeches were interview to get more information about the hecklers shouting kill him pertaining to Obama.  No one saw or heard them.  It was made up by Obama and he said it on national TV.  I believe even the hecklers at the Obama speeches were setups by Obama to make McCain look bad.  Would someone who steals votes and pads voter roles do something like that?

I also think the person at McCain’s rallies shouting take the gloves off may be an Obama plant.  McCain has maintained a calm, polite manner when talking about Obama even in the debates.  Obama calls attention to McCain’s negative ads when there aren’t any.  An ad referring to something a person has done in his past is not negative if factual.  An ad pointing out that a senator has voted present instead of yes or no 99% of the time is not negative.

The voter registration workers in Ohio have identified 200,000 registrations they believe are fraudulent and want access to the drivers license database and social security number database to verify their suspicions (they are permitted to look at the last 4 digits only).  The Secretary of State in Ohio has refused to allow them to do that.  Federal law requires that the registration people check each new registrant against those databases.  The Secretary of State has been taken to court to force her to obey the law.  She is still refusing.  Her defense, “it would take too long”.  The registration people have already identified the suspicious cards.  Well, after going through 2 lower courts the case is now in an emergency session with the US Supreme Court.  Talk about audacity and determination to commit fraud.  I contend that a group of people could look up 200,000 social security numbers manually within 3 weeks.  My conclusion:  Obama must be desperate.

Students from Palestra, a college group, have done independent investigation on those questionable voter registration cards and have established that they are fraudulent.  One person who lives in England flew in to Ohio, registered, voted early and returned to England.  The students have identified that although he is a US citizen he has no connection to Ohio.  They have hard proof of all 200,000 being fraudulent.  The problem now is that the Supreme Court Justice, Stevens, is a liberal and may enact a new law overriding the law congress passed.  This of  course is unconstitutional but it is nothing new.  It is called judicial activism.  Ignore the actions of congress, the representatives of the people who sent them there, and do what you want to generate the outcome you want.  Supreme court judges are not elected to represent the people.  They are usually lawyers appointed by the president and congress to determine if laws are within the constitution and have been applied correctly.  What the law profession calls judge-made law is actually not law. BTW why isn’t our representative doing something about it?  What’s her name again?

McCain said the other night that nuclear power is the only way to go for the immediate future along with more offshore drilling.  Those who for whatever reason oppose nuclear power point to the 3 Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania as an example of what can go wrong.  I lived in Pennsylvania and had spent a few months in Harrisburg at the time so I had an above average interest in the event.  No one was harmed and the safety features of the plant operated according to design.  That big concrete dome that you see in pictures of nuclear power plants is called the containment facility.  Its job is to prevent the escape of the super heated (non-radio active water) should something burst. The radioactive material is in rods deep in the ground.  The water flows through those rods and creates steam.  The steam rises and turns blades like a fan (in reverse).  The turning mechanism is attached to a generator.  The steam is then cooled and flows into cooling ponds as purified water and after reaching air temperature flows back into a river or stream.  No water escaped the plant.  When the gauges on the control panels indicated a problem, the operators shut down the plant.  Nothing was harmed.  No one was killed.  It was all media hype.  We have about a dozen nuclear power plants in this country that have been in operation since the 1960s.  Nuclear power is the main source of energy for many European countries and China.  They have hundreds.  The opposition to nuclear power has to be radical politics.

Obama also talked about farm subsidies by the taxpayers.  Small family farms today are rare.  They cannot compete.  It is not immoral.  It is a problem for those who wish to be farmers but  it is just like the Mom and Pop grocery stores.  The large grocery chains as the large agribusinesses can buy in large quantities and get better prices.  They can also hire experts to research technology, fertilizers, pesticides. etc.  Family farms were essential years ago but today they are functionally obsolete.  So if Obama subsidizes farmers with  your tax dollars, he is in fact making you pay more for your groceries.  This is occurring today already and should be stopped.  But those large agribusinesses make campaign donations that congress just can’t resist.  The answer to who is our representative today above is “Sheila jackson Lee”.

“One criticism of subsidy comes from proponents of free market economics, stating that subsidies are against the principles of free trade. Prices are the signals by which farmers, and other entrepreneurs, find out what people want.”  Go here for pro’s and con’s

More information here and more here

Agribusinesses don’t need subsidies.  It reminds me of Wall St.  Let the inefficient and mismanaged businesses go out of business or hire better management.

Let’s work together to put John Faulk in office. We need to elect members of Congress with strong financial backgrounds.

Obama said last night that “Guilt By Association” is unfair.  I have a better phrase that is more appropriate: “birds of a feather flock together”.  No one is indicting Obama for anything therefore “guilt” is not an issue. 

How about “You can judge a person by the company he keeps”.  Would you want your 8 year old hanging out with neighborhood kids that are always getting into trouble?  Would you want your 16 year old child hanging out with known drug users or dealers?  Obama’s friends Bill Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dorn have seriously bad rap sheets from the 1960’s era and are still today teaching overthrow of the US government and radical cultural ideas to naive, impressionable college students.  How dare I call college students naive and impressionable!  I was one and so were my daughters.  If you were one too then you too know.

Guilt by association- Sheila Jackson Lee is also a leftist.  Do a search on Sheila Jackson Lee leftist.  You’ll be amazed at how much you’ll find.  “leftist crowd at yesterday’s event”  Sheila Jackson Lee

Larry Elder’s latest article:

“The soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the (tax) rates now.”

On a lighter note, a little satire from Ann Coulter on pollsters

We don’t need lawyers in Congress, we need proven financial practicioners like John Faulk.

I just heard Neil Cavuto state that people are skeptical, to put it mildly, that John McCain and Governor Palin actually could balance the budget.  My answer is YES.  After Clinton campaigned on reducing federal spending and reducing taxes accordingly, he reneged.  The election was in 1992.  He took office in 1993.  The first thing he did was raise taxes.  The American people immediately reacted by electing a Republican congress for the first time since the early 1950’s.  They would no longer pass bills that contained Clinton tax increases and spending increases.  In fact Clinton actually reduced social spending with the workfare program.

I’ll grant that the Republicans  got giddy when Bush was elected and started spending on their own like democrats (their reasoning was that since the 1950’s they were only able to get crumbs for their constituents and now was their opportunity for some benefits).  We conservatives within the Republican Party were furious.  We wanted Bush to veto the spending bills and veto increased budgets.  But he didn’t. 

So my points are a president can veto bills that increase spending, also congress can control spending on its own just as they reigned Clinton in.  What about overriding vetos?

When re-election time comes every congressperson and senator wants to take home braggadocio (talking about loot) about what he/she did for constituents.  If they go home to campaign with nothing to show for their term their voters are not happy.  So the best thing they can do for themselves is cooperate with a strong president,  pass bills that accomplish the governments job but do not spend unnecessarily or increase taxes to cover increased spending.

A courageous president can just keep vetoing bills until congress gets it right.  Reagan tried this and congress outfoxed him by  shutting down the government and blaming it on Reagan.  Well the Republican politicians failed, I repeat failed, to back up their president.  The republican leadership are wimps.  Is McCain a wimp?  I don’t believe so.  As a matter of fact his one major contraint in this campaign is reigning in his boldness (temper).  He will do the right thing even if he makes enemies.  He is tough, Palin is tough.

Conservatives want a balanced budget and if republicans don’t go along they lose the conservative vote and they know it.  McCain learned a few months ago that he needs conservatives.  Republicans and conservatives are not synonyms.  We are annoyed with Bush, we didn’t support McCain in the primary and we won’t stop pushing for a conservative approach to government. Balanced budgets, only spending that is necessary to operate our government, obey the constitution (not re-interpret it or twist it into an unrecognizable shape), incarcerate criminals, work for a living, save part of your paycheck, actions have consequences, personal responsibility, look ahead to tomorrow, take care of the kids you bring into the world to name a few conservative principles.

It doesn’t take superior wisdom to balance a budget it takes a strong, stubborn leader.