Need waders to get through the manure

Well, just briefly, because I really have more work than any human being can do. So just a couple things.

1.) Watched Stuart Varney (also deserving of a belated valentine) on Neil Cavuto. He was talking about the stupid green manure that lards up the Comrade's "budget" proposal. He asked this congressman from California (of course), "Why don't we just drill here in the USA?"

Garamondi, or whatever, the guy from California, pointed out that it's "increasingly dangerous" for us to drill for oil in the USA, because the oil is located in "more and more remote places."

Yeah, like North Dakota.

Damn. Not so sure about North Dakota, but I was in South Dakota once and pulled over to a roadside exhibit. Some other people we leaving, and the Mom of that group offered me a handful of cracker crumbs as they headed to their SUV in the parking lot. Naturally, I was glad to have them. For whatever reason.

So anyway, I go beyond this weathered rail fence and, Oh! Prairie dogs. Hence the cracker crumbs. Now I get it. Little squirrel-like heads popping up from their tunnels. Cunning eyes sizing me up as they sniffed the wind.

And let me tell you, once those little dogies got a whiff of those crumbled Ritz crackers, I was almost over-run.

Yeah. You wouldn't want to face that kind of peril just to drill for oil. I'm lucky I got out with my shoes on.

2.) Then Varney also was talking about how Wisconsin Governor Walker is trying to change the rules for collective bargaining for government workers. Apparently the teachers in Wisconsin and whoever else they can enlist are marching on Madison.

Reminds me about 20 years ago now when I lived in Niles, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. It's a working class 'burb, built mostly right after WWII. Almost a Leavitt Town, all little boxes, but modified over the years, especially people building a "hyphen" room between house and garage. Some people added a second story. In the early 1990s, about 60% of the population were retirees. No kidding. The village was doing what they could to attract younger families to the area.

So, anyway, for decades the teachers at the Niles schools -- actually township, I believe, so the union included teachers from a couple neighboring suburbs -- anyway, for decades, they'd automatically gotten a 7% to 8% annual raise. Every year without fail. It came up as a regular item on somebody's agenda and passed without question or objection.

Until about 1990 or thereabouts, when some wise-acre noted that the population of school-age children was actually decreasing as the general population aged, with many of them living on fixed incomes. They might have trouble with rising property and other taxes. Niles' biggest industry apparently is shopping malls, so the sales tax was a percent or two higher than Chicago or most other nearby places. So someone suggested instead of a 7% increase, the teachers might do with a 4% increase. So the teachers went on strike.

These were the days when everyone went, "Oh, poor teachers. They're so dedicated to our kids and they don't make any money" and yada-yada-yada.

So one of the Chicago network TV stations sent a reporter out to talk to the teachers. The reporter, a woman, asked the local union leader, a high school teacher from Niles, how much money he made now, anyway.

He said with no hesitation, "$85,000.00."

Which was at least twice of what the aging population on a fixed income was pulling down. And he only works six hours a day, nine months a year. Not bad work if you can get it, no?

The reporter's eyes almost fell out her head. I expected her to ask, "Hey, are they hiring?" I mean, this was about 1990. The reporter was probably making $35,000 and happy to have it.

Anyway, the bloom faded from that particular rose. The teachers lost all sympathy. I'm not sure what the eventual results of the strike were. The TV news lost interest and never reported it. "Nothin' to see here, folks. Just go back to your homes." I eventually moved out of Niles.

And I gotta go.

Save the Republic.

...Or get out of the way

Used to see a bumper sticker every so often that said, "Lead, follow, or get out of the way."

I'd like to give the same advice to the Comrade.

Obviously he's not prepared to lead. I mean, look at his record, starting with his stint in the Illinois General Assembly, where he voted a resounding "Present" most of the time. His strategy seems to be "Stand up and smile and do nothing else." Maybe he is a puppet for some sinister cabal of wannabe despots -- I mean despots apart from the every day democrats.

And who really gives a damn what the Comrade does? He's obviously dumped any responsibility for leadership off onto whoever is willing to take charge.

So, Congressman Ryan et. al... please take charge.

What is everyone in Washington afraid of? Maybe the USA will survive the coming economic collapse? Are they afraid that we might actually make it through? Well, the Comrade is apparently. I don't think there's anything he'd like more than to see US citizens on a chain gang, cattle-prodded by his dream-team dictatorship -- the Red Chinese.

So, the Comrade is irrelevant, know what I mean? He's taken himself out of the race. Forget him. Why do people want him on board anyway? Think he really has the guts to veto a solution that could get through congress? Let's try it and see what happens.

Rather than consider the Comrade's "budget," I'd like to see the federal government shut down and get off our backs. Would anybody really miss it? What do they do anyway but drive in big black cars and piss people off? Take our money, destroy our jobs, saddle us with debt. What good do they do, really? Think of it -- a few months with no feds. Man, the economic would take off like a rocket. Talk about "a new birth of freedom."

(Personally, I've never been married. Want to know why? Simple test: Does this person make your life bigger or smaller? I never found the guy that would make it bigger. So I'm better off on my own. You know, if you're not contributing to the plus side of the equation, you're only excess baggage.)

And the American public is much off on our own than being bled white and kicked around by a bunch of Ivy League assholes who've never had a real job, one where they actually have to produce measurable and PROFITABLE results.

The heroes in this story will be the people who actually have the guts to stand behind some real workable solution. They'll go down in history. The Comrade will be not much more than an asterisk* (*First African American president.) Not much more to be said about him. He didn't do anything else but play the race card in place of presenting any real ideas. To wit:

• The Comrade's "budget" wants to add 5,100 IRS agents -- do you want to see 5,100 more IRS agents in the USA?
• The Comrade's "budget" stacks some pretty hefty taxes on energy producers. Sort of a VAT -- although the dipshit has to know if he was honest and called it a VAT, even his precious union ass-wipes would run him out of town.

Speaking of ass-wipes, was just watching that Von Hollen guy on TV, pretending the Comrade's "budget" is, as Von Hollen claimed, "responsible." My God, how would you like to stand up in public and say something like that out loud? No doubt they've promised Von Hollen Steny Hoyer's job as soon as Pazzo Pelosi kicks off -- which should be any day now. I mean, she's what? Closing in on 80 years old under all the make-up and Botox. She may just keel over getting on and off of commercial jets anymore.

And ever notice the coven from Baltimore -- or Maryland, anyway. Pazzo Pelosi, whose dad was a Baltimore Boss. Steny Hoyer, now Von Hollen. Interesting. I think Maryland may be the only state in the union as corrupt as Illinois. And I mean corrupt. Not necessarily dishonest -- because they operate in the open -- but morally corrupt. Like the picture of Dorian Gray, just rotting from the inside out, buzzards wheeling overhead, flies already beginning to lay their eggs in the open sores.

Anyway, enough of the creep show.

I'll be looking forward to what the House Republicans come up with.

And, no, Ron Paul could not be elected -- as Donald Trump dared to suggest. No way. Let him try, but no way. Not that I think Donald Trump could be elected, either. And Donald, tariffs are never a good idea. It was tariffs that pushed the world into recession in 1929. Read your history. A better solution: Buy American-made.

Save the Republic.

It's still the economy, stupid

So Glenn Beck, become the prince of darkness over recent weeks, among others, is all over the new congress because they haven't fixed the economy yet. I mean, my gosh, they've been office about six weeks already.

I actually stayed up a couple hours this morning to see Paul Ryan on TV. Why doesn't Beck and others give him a listen? Paul Ryan actually has a plan -- for Social Security and Medicare, too. But I guess it's easier to whine and bitch and convince people to rebuild those old atom bomb shelters and hoard pork'n'beans. And exactly who the hell has $25,000.00 worth of useless stuff in their basement? I think maybe Glen Beck has lost touch.

Glenn Beck gets more like Alex Jones everyday. FYI, Alex Jones never met a conspiracy he didn't like. He's one of the people responsible for littering YouTube with tall tales about George W blowing up the Twin Towers, showing stop-action tapes to show the !!TWO!! explosions. (Yeah, #1 when the plane went through the side of the building, #2 when the jet fuel blew up.)

Or no, maybe it was Woodrow Wilson and the Progressives.

I mean, after seeing the Tea Parties rise to the occasion, has Glen Beck learned nothing about the indomitable and resilient spirit of the American public?

So this my valentine to Paul Ryan, who remains a reasonable person and probably has more trust in government than I do about fixing things. But I've read his blueprint. I don't expect it to get passed without any changes, but it is certainly far preferable to the load of crap the Comrade dumped on the nation in the form of his "budget."

The Comrade's "budget" is more like a spending spree. The Comrade really, really has absolutely no good information about economics. Or maybe he wants to destroy the nation. Hey... it is a possibility. All the indicators point in that direction. Or maybe the Comrade is just off-loading his leadership role onto congress. I mean, that is what he did to Nancy Pelosi -- and God, what a frickin' disaster than was!

So here's a belated little valentine heart to Paul Ryan, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell and others who can and will fix things. I don't expect it will be painless, but they aren't whining about it. Rather, they're doing the American thing, rolling up their sleeves and ordering a pizza for an all-nighter.

Save the Republic.

Hey, Prez, ever listen to yourself?

Well, Mubarak "resigned" as grand high potentate of Egypt or whatever he was.

One down, a few more to go. Starting in the USA.

The Comrade made a speech that actually was kind of hot mess of either barefaced lies or brain-dead hypocrisy.

He talked about the "universal urge" for freedom that was driving the Egyptians, but he fails somehow to recognize the same impulse among Americans.

According to Comrade Butthead, Egyptians should be free.

According to Comrade Butthead, American's need to be nanny-stated like a pack of three-year-olds, enslaved under a burden of unsustainable debt, and most of all, Americans need to SHUT THE FUCK UP while he and his army of knuckle-dragging minions rape us blind.

The Comrade really isn't so very different from Mubarak, or any number of pompous, power-crazed, wannabe masters of the universe who have preceded him. And he'll probably end up the same way.

The Comrade should get down on his knees and thank whatever god he prays to (Marx? Allah?) that the USA can dispose of him peacefully.

And that's it for now.

Save the Republic.

Egypt, the Gordian knot

No offense, but I'm getting weary of Egypt. I understand the people want to be free and that Mubarak just can't seem to give it up (and maybe for good reason.) And yeah, the USA is "walking a fine line" as the journalists say, not wanting to support a dictator, but rather apprehensive about the alternatives.

Ever hear of the Gordian Knot? Apparently in ancient times, the king of Phrygia, called "Gordo," (possibly a native Canadian?) tied a knot around the gates of his kingdom or capitol city or whatever, saying that whoever untied the knot would be the next king. So Alexander the Great came along and sliced through the knot with his sword. Thinking out of the box....

Seems like whatever happens in Egypt, the USA will be raked over the coals for it. First, because we propped up Mubarak for 30 years, ever since the Muslim Brotherhood killed Anwar Sadat. And Mubarak agreed not to attack Israel anymore, which was nice and has if not "kept the peace" in the Middle East, at least limited the violence there to the level of sporadic outbreaks and individual acts of terrorism.

So the Comrade and Hillary Clinton and the rest of the thousand clowns running things in DC came out with very cautious statements about the mobs collecting in Cairo, and apparently suggested directly to Mubarak that he consider stepping down. Mubarak has even agreed to step down -- next September, when elections are scheduled. He says in the meanwhile, he'll work on legislative reforms. So, all you crazy people in the square, you can all just go home now.

I must say, I'm not convinced that Mubarak really gets it. Those people aren't leaving, and in a sense I don't blame them.

On the other hand, due to the powers-that-still-be in Egypt, apparently no one is quite qualified to take over after Murbarak -- or no one the Egyptians would likely approve. Mubarak has appointed a guy named Suleiman to head the state, but Suleiman had headed up Egypt's intelligence agency. If I were an Egyptian, I'm quite sure I wouldn't be applauding over that selection.

It seems the Mubarak regime has worked very hard at a kind of political homogeneity, or roughly translated, "My way or the highway." So there's no organized political party to oppose the monolithic rule that the Egyptian people are trying to remove from power.

Except, apparently, the Muslim Brotherhood. This is a decades-old organization that not only killed Anwar Sadat, but spawned many of the terrorists of al Qaeda fame, etc.

For the USA and our ally, Israel, the Muslim Brotherhood is not an acceptable replacement for Mubarak. For very obvious reasons. Israel is even outraged at the way the Comrade dumped Murbarak twenty minutes after the crowd began to filter into Tah'rir Square. The Comrade didn't show any kind of sympathy for the Iranians who objected to Abracadabrajab's dictatorship -- and that situation should have been very clearly one that required support from the USA.

At any rate, apparently the US intelligence community had no inkling anything like this was going happen, and are still reeling in disbelief. I think the CIA is headed by a guy named Clapper who seems to be completely asleep at the wheel. I mean wasn't it just last month or so that he was completely taken by surprise to learn that a bunch of terrorists had been arrested in London? Now he's telling congress that The MUSLIM Brotherhood is a "largely secular" organization. Yeah. Like, Hey, Clapper, who's buried in Grant's Tomb? Just give us a ball park....

I actually wish someone would/could maintain some kind of governmental order in Egypt while it transitions to something more open and respective of human rights. Not so sure Murbarak is the man for that job. Even heard hints that if Mubarak or Suleiman remain head of state, between now and September, many of the people now rebelling might find themselves rounded up in the middle night, never to be seen or heard from again. I don't know enough about Egypt to believe or disbelieve that.

Maybe the Egyptian army? The people seem to like the army, and the army seems to be quite tolerant and willing to mingle, let people paint graffiti on their tanks and armored personnel vehicles and things like that.

What a mess, n'est-ce pas? Where's Alexander the Great when you need him?

I am especially worried about Israel.

Save the Republic -- all republics, everywhere.

The railroad to nowhere

Drawing upon my own travels and personal experience, I've noticed a peculiar phenomenon. Picture this:

You drive -- or walk if you want -- into a section of a city that's usually located in the Rust Belt, or a one-time "blighted area" in one of the nation's larger urban centers. You come across an area that's like really, really, clean. Often the streets are blocked off, or the street lanes are comparatively narrow, or there's "knuckles" -- where the super-wide sidewalks have occasional indents to allow for car parking. Usually there's something like a wide median strip in the street, planted with neglected, vandalized, and/or dying foliage, or something like a trolley or electronic rail system running down the middle of the street.

OK, it looks kinda like one of those kid's toy villages, the kind that has the streets painted on a sheet of vinyl, and then you arrange the little cardboard buildings, stores and all, where you will. Usually, these areas seem to be designed on the model of Small Town America circa 1938. Like the set of Bedford Falls.

And despite all of these rather remarkable features, the thing that really sticks out about these places is that they're usually empty as ghost towns. Oh, you'll probably see some winos or homeless curled up in a doorway or on a molded-concrete bench. The cutesy trolleys and/or buses (double-deckers would seem to fit) roll past with regularity. But otherwise, there are no people.

The stores are empty. The concrete streets are a bleachy white, like concrete poured in winter. No disposed gum infused into the pavement, no spit or cigarette butts. Matter of fact, you probably can't smoke anywhere around there. And the sidewalks, by the way, might consist of European paving stones for that sort of cozy, homely touch. But the stores are all empty and there are no people.

By the time I'd stumbled upon my fourth location like this, I'd figure it out and confirmed it: It's a federally-funded "renewal" project. Every single time, the area was a federally funded renewal project.

Maybe in one corner storefront, you'll find a place open-for-business, then discover that it's the local Tourist Information Office. Often if there's a parking lot nearby, it's the home of the cutesy trolley or the double-decker bus. The whole thing is a government operation. Paid for the feds, staffed by brave-but-lonely sociology majors who can't find a more politically-correct job.

Down the street, there's the local Unemployment Office, or Welfare Office, or a Free Clinic, junkies milling out front, huffing on tobacco cigarettes as though they were joints, as they wait to see the doctor for today's load of Methadone.

So Vice President Joe "Slappy" Biden makes an appearance in some train station in Philadelphia, trying to rouse some rabble in support of a $53 billion federal project to build high-speed rail that will connect towns all across America. None of the railways will go clear across the country, they'll just connect the major urban centers with.... what, exactly, Joe?

The money is in the budget that the Comrade is submitting to congress. Good luck getting the House to approve that.

We had railroads, Slappy. We still do. Not a lot of people use them for passenger travel. Believe me, I know, because I don't fly and I've taken Amtrak on a number of occasions. Nice way to go if you don't mind sponge-like microwaved food and spending hour upon hour staring out the window at the "worst part of town." I mean, that's where the rails are. No one wants to live next door to a railroad.

Not a lot of people want to travel by railroad, either. Not when they can fly or drive.

Just like not a lot of retailers want to set up shop in gentrified blighted urban areas or dying Rust Belt suburbs. There's just not much of a market for any of this stuff for a whole range of reasons.

Being communists, the feds just don't get it. If these areas were magnets for commerce, if the railroads were the best way to travel across the America, entrepreneurs and venture capital would be falling all over each other to invest. But they aren't there.

Neither is anyone else.

The government doesn't really understand the concept of a "market." But then, the government is not capitalist, and the current regime is rather rabidly anti-capitalist. So they all end up stuffing all of our hard-earned and expropriated tax dollars down one bottomless rat-hole after another.

Save the Republic.

It ain't over 'til it's over

Very quickly, because I've got a lot more work than I've got time.

Saw Bill O'Reilly's interview with the Comrade, and just a few comments.

The Comrade, like the rest of the merry marxists, continues to refer to the repeal of socialized medicine as "fighting the battles of the past."

No, it ain't over 'til it's over. It's still very current.

Socialized medicine will destroy the nation. No American can afford to give up this battle, unless you want to live in a gulag.

And Mrs. Comrade is now trying to dictate food portions in restaurants. Switch out fries for carrot sticks. But you know what? Carrot sticks don't necessarily have any greater nutritional value than french fries.

And Mrs. Comrade and other ignorami have some superstitious kind of faith that if you eat vegetables, you won't get fat. She's apparently been reading vegan literature.

Vegetables are almost entirely carbohydrates, which are sugars in various forms. I love vegetables, but the only diet that ever worked for me severely limited them from the menu. You might as well drink a couple Cokes as eat a bunch of carrot sticks. So basically, Mrs. Comrade's promoting a program that will make everyone fatter than they already are. She herself always looks like she's about four months pregnant. Big belly. It's all those carrot sticks.

Back to socialized medicine. New Rasmussen Report says 58% of the American public wants repeal, and 63% of political independents want repeal.

That's way more people than voted for the Comrade for president -- and that anti-socialized medicine number doesn't change. Hasn't changed since the bill was debated, hasn't changed since it was passed.

So the Comrade's a blockhead. So, not much new.

Also, some states are trying to nullify federal socialized medicine. They don't want to have to pay for it -- actually CAN'T pay for it. However, if they nullify this federal law, they're effectively ignoring the US Constitution's supremacy clause. So... civil war or what?

By the way, I think O'Reilly did a good interview. Loved seeing him interrupting the Comrade, trying to reduce the "spin." And that certainly was no easy task.

Save the Republic