Veteran's Day

Today is Veteran’s Day. Please shake a veteran’s hand today.

Obama Refuses to Enforce Our Laws

Illegal immigration and the Hispanic vote. Just recently President Obama used his Executive privileges to decrease the number of illegal immigrants deported back to their country of citizenship. Under his direction, White House lawyers issued a memo that prevents Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from deporting illegal immigrants who have not committed any violent crimes or not considered national security risks. Never mind that they have broken the law by just being here illegally, hence the term “illegal immigrant.”

As Obama has done quite frequently in recent months, he has most likely over-stepped his authority by telling an agency under his control not to enforce the laws of the United States. Our Constitutional Scholar is at it again.

Obama has been issuing these orders over the last few months in an attempt to shore up his declining poll numbers. He knows that he has really lost the middle of the country and since the economy is not showing much in the way of improvement, Obama has to come at his reelection from a different angle.

He has allowed the EPA to run roughshod over energy producers who generate power using fossil fuels. Despite the fact that this will cause the loss of thousands of jobs, will reduce energy production capacity by as much as 20% in the Midwest and East Coast, and will cause energy costs to “necessarily skyrocket”, he still had his EPA chief push these new regulations through. All he is doing is shoring up his radical environmentalist base, the rest of us be danged.

Opposing Forces

If we are extremely lucky these two pieces of news will be able to coexist.

Jobless claims dip:

Fewer Americans filed for their first week of unemployment benefits last week, marking continued – but still slow – improvement in the job market.

About 390,000 people filed for initial unemployment benefits in the week ending Nov. 5, the Labor Department said Thursday.  The number of claims fell 10,000 from the revised 400,000 in the prior week, and is now at the lowest level since April 2.

…

“The passing of some of economic weakness is starting to show in a better labor market,” said Michael Gapen, senior U.S. economist at Barclays Capital.

The four-week moving average if initial claims, used to smooth out volatility, is teetering exactly at 400,000. While not an exact science, that number serves as a rough estimate for economists, who say claims below 400,000 could mean job growth has finally become strong enough to start bringing the unemployment rate down.

In a report last week, the government said the unemployment rate dipped to 9% in October, down from 9.1% the month before. (Source: Yahoo News)

Home foreclosures increases:

The number of foreclosures climbed in October, as mortgage lenders started to work through the paperwork that had delayed new filings for much of last year.

…
 

RealtyTrac said one in every 563 U.S. home had either a default notice, a scheduled auction or a bank repossession filing during the month.

“The October foreclosure numbers continue to show strong signs that foreclosure activity is coming out of the rain delay we’ve been in for the past year as lenders corrected foreclosure paperwork and processing problems,” said James Saccacio, RealtyTrac’s CEO. (Source: Yahoo News)

Considering that our economy is pretty much based on a health housing market, I am concerned these two numbers (declining unemployment and increasing foreclosures) are going to struggle against one another.  As long as unemployment stays high, people just aren’t going to buy homes. As long as people don’t buy homes because of fears the housing market still hasn’t reached bottom unemployment is going to have a difficult time recovering.

The final paragraph of the linked article on foreclosures says it best:

The best hopes for stopping foreclosures is an improvement in the overall economy, especially in the battered real estate and labor markets. But with so many foreclosed homes weighing on the market, and with unemployment still at 9% and consumer confidence low, even mortgage rates near record lows aren’t enough to fix the problem caused by the bursting of the housing bubble. (Source: Yahoo News)

Cain Accuser Has A (Brief) History

The plot thickens. Seems that a woman who filed sexual harassment complaint against GOP hopeful Herman Cain also filed a complaint against her next employer.

Karen Kraushaar, 55, filed the complaint while working as a spokeswoman at the Immigration and Naturalization Service in the Justice Department in late 2002 or early 2003, with the assistance of her lawyer, Joel Bennett, who also handled her earlier sexual harassment complaint against Cain in 1999. Three former supervisors familiar with Kraushaar’s complaint, which did not include a claim of sexual harassment, described it for the AP under conditions of anonymity because the matter was handled internally by the agency and was not public.

To settle the complaint at the immigration service Kraushaar initially demanded thousands of dollars in payment, a reinstatement of leave she used after the accident earlier in 2002, promotion on the federal pay scale and a one-year fellowship to Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, according to a former supervisor familiar with the complaint. The promotion itself would have increased her annual salary between $12,000 and $16,000, according to salary tables in 2002 from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. (Source: Yahoo News)

I know this already old news, but I thought I’d post in case you had been away.

Heavy Thinking

Some thoughts on the brewing controversy that is surrounding GOP hopeful, Herman Cain.

Over the past six months I have been looking for a candidate that could beat Obama and was not named Mitt Romney. Because of his stances on illegal immigration, universal health care, and abortion, Romney is nothing more than Obama-lite.

There have been some possible contenders out there.

Palin teased us for a while. While I would have supported her with both guns ablazin’ I think in these divided times, she is just too polarizing. The left HATES her with every fiber of their being. Even after the vicious attacks on her ranging from her IQ level to her decision to keep her baby, an organization that purports to support women’s issues couldn’t even find the time to give even a lukewarm response in support of woman who has done it all. Career woman, raised a family, married to the same guy, things you would think NOW would get behind. But because Palin is a conservative, there wasn’t a snowballs chance in a hot place the NOW would issue even a squeak.

Christie has too many liberal stances (2nd Amendment, illegal immigration) that he never really stood a chance to gain my support. I will give credit where credit is due. He has brought NJ back from the brink with the hard choices he has made. But his non-committal to the 2nd Amendment and his stance on illegal immigration was a huge red flag for me.

McCain Wants to Take Health Care from Veterans

Most of you know that I am a veteran. Been retired now for just over a year. Over the years that I served, the benefits that I received changed, some slightly, some dramatically. Health care was one of those benefits that saw changes over the years. When I first entered the service, health care was free and accessible. Not exactly sure when it changed, but I believed it was about five to seven year after I joined that accessibility to health care was altered. No longer could family members go to the base hospital for treatment. But at least it remained free. But for dental, there was a change to both cost and access. Family members initially had access to dental clinics, but as a cost saving measure, the DoD decided to trim the number of dentists on active duty, which in turn forced family members off base to receive dental care. Then to top it off, they charged a small monthly fee for what was then called “Delta Dental.”

There have also been other benefits that have seen their time on the chopping block, but avoided elimination. The one that sticks out most in my mind was our Commissary benefit. For those who are unaware, on nearly all bases there is a grocery store that falls under military control. It is staffed and managed at the store level by civilians, mostly dependents, and is controlled at the upper levels by military and senior level civilians. This benefit is a real treat for most of us because costs are lower than at Safeway and other similar stores. These savings are achieved in three ways. 1) Buying power, which is not unlike what other large chains also do; 2) profits, which are not a consideration. The stores have to make enough to pay staff and obviously purchase stock, but there are no share-holders to answer to; and 3) unions. There are no unions in the commissary driving up operating costs. For my family, we probably average about $200.00 in savings each month.

Recently, the drive to cut costs all across the board in the federal government has brought about talk that would eliminate one of most cherished benefits. Sadly, this talk is coming from someone who in the past has been one of our most ardent supporters; Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)

Cain Accuser Comes Forward W/ Allred

I really hate to see it happen, but it certainly looks as if the “Cain Train” has derailed.

With the famous, bomb-throwing attorney Gloria Allred by her side, a fourth woman came forward Monday to charge Herman Cain with sexual harassment, giving full details on the alleged incident.

Sharon Bialek is the first woman to give her name and speak publically about what she is alleging the GOP front-runner did to her while he was head of the National Restaurant Association.

Allred introduced her client, Bialek, as a Republican, full-time, single mom and commended her client for coming forward to tell about Cain’s “idea of a ‘stimulus package.’” (Source: Daily Caller)

Occupy Movement Goes Violent in Oakland, CA

Folks, a very good post by Doug over at American Power Blog on the Occupy Oakland violence and anarchy.

Things have really gotten out of control there with building being vandalized and businesses forced to shut down.

As much as they would like you to believe you are part of this movement this is not a 99-percenter movement. It is a socialist-anarchist movement. Nothing short of shutting down the government and rebuilding it to their desires will satisfy these people.

Very similar to the 1960’s counter-culture protests. Back then, these people grew up in a very easy-going time of the late 50’s and early 60’s. Purchasing a home was no longer a pipedream as wages were adequate for most to take the leap. Unemployment was low, we were prosperous and becoming more so, and American was leading the way in the world. Of course, it wasn’t without its bad points (Civil Rights). Fast forward to the turn of the century. We had years of prosperity led by the boom in technology, which we were the leaders in innovation. Generally speaking, jobs were plentiful, and our economy, led by housing and technology, was booming. But there were also dark clouds (terrorism). The common thread here is the generations that grew up in these times separated by a whole generation is that they were spoiled. And being spoiled, they wanted more and didn’t think they had to work for it, unlike the generation that spawned them.

It seems to run in a cycle. A generation works their tails off, getting to the good life. They treat their families to the spoils, essentially spoiling them. That next generation then wants to continue being spoiled. As youths, they didn’t have to work for anything as it was all provided. Once they came of age, reality it them in the back side and they didn't like it one bit.

The generation that brought us the “flower children” lived through the "Great Depression" and lived through WWII. After beating back a world shattered by a depression and the Axis Powers, they set their sights on working hard to gain security for their families. While working hard for this security, they shielded their children from a harsh reality, which in turn gave us the spoiled generation of the 60’s

The generation that has brought us the “Occupiers” lived through the 1970s which had tough economic times, Vietnam, and Jimmy Carter. They came of age under the prosperity of Reagan and to a lesser extent, Clinton, and they wanted a better life for their families. The cycle repeated and now we have to deal with the spoiled children who now want the government to pay for their student loans and give them jobs without them making any effort.

But there is a silver lining in all this. Eventually, the flower kids grew up, had families of their own and got to work. Let us hope the cycle continues.

A Letter to the Editor

The following was sent to me by a good friend. Not sure where this came from although it looks like it might have appeared the Iosco County News-Herald, a small northern Michigan weekly. Although I do not have any rights to reprint this I am going to take a risk. It pretty much sums it all up for those of us on the conservative side of the aisle.

If you are author of this or the editor of the previously mentioned newspaper, please leave me a comment if you wish for me to delete the post. I will do so.

Editor,

Has America become the land of the special interest and home of the double standard?

Lets see: If we lie to Congress, it’s a felony and if the congress lies to its just politics; if we dislike a black person, we’re racist and if a black person dislikes whites, it’s their 1st Amendment right; the government spends millions to rehabilitate criminals and they do almost nothing for the victims; in public schools you can teach that homosexuality if OK, buy you better not use the word God in the process; you can kill an unborn child but its wrong to execute a mass murderer; we don’t burn books in America, we now rewrite them; we got rid of the communist and socialist threat be renaming them progressives; we are unable to close of border with Mexico, but have no problem protecting the 38th parallel in Korea; if you protest against President Obama’s policies you’re a terrorist, but if burned an American flag of George Bush in effigy it was your 1st Amendment right.

You can have pornography on TV or the internet, but you better not put a nativity scene in a public park during Christmas; we have eliminated all criminals in America, they are now called sick people; we can use a human fetus for medical research, but it’s wrong to use an animal.

We take money from those who work hard for it and give it to those who don’t want to work; we all support the Constitution, but only when it supports our political ideology; we still have freedom of speech, but only if we are being politically correct; parenting has been replaced with Ritalin and video games; the land of opportunity is now the land of handouts; the similarity between Hurricane Katrina and the gulf oil spill is that neither president did anything to help.

And how do we handle a major crisis today? The government appoints a committee to determine who’s at fault, then threatened them, passes a law, raises our taxes; tells us the problem is solved so they can get back to their reelection campaign.

What has happened to the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Author’s name and location withheld.

Very interesting take on our troubles. I sure that many of you readers will recognize much of what was written here.

I don’t know if many of you follow baseball at all and the troubles that steroids brought to the game. When Congress decided to stick their fingers into this issue to gain political points they had a few prominent players from that era testify before a special committee. During the course of the testimony a couple of players were caught lying about their use of steroids. Now some of those players are being brought up on charges of lying before Congress. But when Nancy Pelosi and her crew lied to the American public about the cost of the health care bill, it was nothing more that political gamesmanship. The difference here what is at stake. The players lying to Congress costs us nothing, while this health care bill is now north of $1 trillion in taxpayer money.

Local Land USe Policy Under Fire (Long Post)

Over the past several months, as I have driven to work or to play, I have been noticing some signs popping up around the area. The signs are eye-catching but a little difficult to read as I sped by at 50mph. Several weeks ago I received a mailer from the organization that had been placing the signs around the area. The group was going to host a series of Town Hall meeting in various communities in the area.

After I received the mailer I decided to dig a little deeper into what this organization was all about. As I read the postings on their website and news stories that had made the local newspaper I began to get a clearer picture of what these activists were trying to get across.

In recent years the county in which I live has been attempting to regulate how private landowners can use their lands. Some of these policies and regulations have been fairly mild such as increasing or implementing fees to do basic upgrades to your property such as adding a deck or a patio and charging a fee to provide input to policy at public hearings. Other policies have been much more invasive like the Oak Tree Prairie Habitat, which not only can penalize the land owner who has the oak tree, but any neighbors who might be within 600 feet of the tree(s).

In recent months, the Thurston County commissioners have been attempting to strengthen three highly restrictive land use polices into that fall under the umbrella of something called Critical Area Ordinance. As required by law, this ordinance must be reviewed every seven years. Now is the time for the review. In conjunction with this review the county commissioners are attempting to further consolidate these restrictive policies through a cumbersome (900 pages) and over-reaching policy. Over the years, there are many restrictive policies that have been enacted by Thurston County leadership; however, there are three policies that are probably most restrictive and harmful to property owners.