DUBAI AND U.S.

Fresh off a day of binge eating and holiday frivolity, America is waking up to the stark reality of the financial crisis that just won’t go away, and an administration that seems is in total disconnect between its ideology and economic realities.

Dubai World, the city-state owned corporation of Dubai, announced that it was seeking a 6 month extension to repay its bonds. Translated: it defaulted. It owes approximately $80 billion. Okay… what does that have to do with us…and U.S.? Well, if you are reading this, most of you have seen the pictures of those gorgeous buildings built in the middle of the desert on the Arabian Peninsula. If you are golfer, you have seen Tiger Woods play golf tournaments on Dubai’s green oasis golf courses. If you are a musician, you know that this is where Michael Jackson went to recover from his child molestation charges. That’s Dubai.

The Dubai government, with no oil of its own, attempted to build an Arab financial center on its little piece of heaven. Seriously, it was admirable effort to develop a pro-western financial center in one of the hot bed areas of the world. Although it enforced strict Muslim rules for its residents, guests were isolated in very pro-western luxury. It, indeed, is a beautiful city.

But it was built on borrowed money based on the overall influx of petrodollars into the region. The near financial collapse of the West in 2008 extended to Dubai as world credit markets froze, and have only partially and stingily thawed. The good times stopped rolling here, and they stopped in Dubai. One newspaper reported several months ago that the Dubai airport had thousands of abandoned Mercedes. Folks just drove the airport and flew off.

Although it sounds like a lot of money, the Dubai default is relatively small, but it has major implications. First, nobody knows who holds the bonds. Second, credit default swaps (bond insurance) exist Dubai bonds, and nobody knows who issued them. So far, it appears that European banks and financial institutions will bear the brunt of the losses. Asian banks also appear to have substantial exposure, although they have initially denied it. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Citigroup and AIG, the two largest American bailed out financial institutions, have exposure. It just keeps getting better.

The biggest risk to the fragile world markets is the fear of another credit freeze. The recovery since September, 2008, has been tenuous at best. The Obama administration, rather than concentrating on economic recovery, decided to push an ideologically based health care initiative and cap and trade garbage legislation. Not a good thing when the United States is awash in debt, with that debt growing geometrically each day.

In the meantime, Obama is out playing golf on a regular basis. He hosted a gala state dinner with Michelle dressed in a gold gown that was gorgeous, but a tad out of touch when people are banging on food bank doors in record numbers.

I doubt if the Dubai crisis will have long lasting effects other than a short term, but painful, blip on the radar screen. But the fact the blip is there at all should be a wake-up call to the Obama administration. Mr. Obama, please concentrate on getting our fiscal house in order. Leave your left wing politics for another day.

Government Health Care and Breasts: Do You Get It Now?

In a stunning example of things to come under the proposed Obamacare legislation, a government/medical task force has concluded that women under the age of 50 do not need mammograms, nor should they be taught how to do a self examination of their breasts. Such things are worthless and too costly.

Is there any more blaring example of what government will do to our healthcare? Can you imagine over 130 government bureaucracies determining not only whether women should receive breast exams, but whether men should get PSA exams, or prostate exams, or whether colonoscopies are necessary under the age of seventy; then to have these decisions enforced by coercion directed at what will be left of the private insurance industry, and be outright refused if you are under a “public option” plan.

Sarah Palin warned about death panels. People laughed. This is what she was referring to; panels of bureaucrats, sitting around looking at statistics and cost effectiveness of procedures. Who is too old for a hip replacement? Who is too old for cancer medicine? Lives saved from mammograms as a percentage of women aged 30 – 40 is not worth the expense of paying for them. Do you get it now?

According the government panel studying the cost effectivness of mammograms, they produce too many false alarms in women under 50. My question is, what about the ones that don’t? Those women would be dead. The study is framed in terms that mammograms cause more bad than good with unneeded biopsies. What they really mean is that the expense of the false alarms doesn’t outweigh the lives saved by the procedures.

Who determines where that line is drawn? Are 10% of the biopsies being positive sufficient to justify the mammograms? Is it 30%? Is it 50%? Who is the judge? Appointed bureaucrats with no political responsibility to anybody are the judges. Let me introduce you to the death panels.

Here is what the American Cancer Society said in response: "The task force advice is based on its conclusion that screening 1,300 women in their 50s to save one life is worth it, but that screening 1,900 women in their 40s to save a life is not. (They are) essentially telling women that mammography at age 40 to 49 saves lives, just not enough of them."

This is just a taste of what is to come if government starts to dictate what constitutes our health care. America…beware!!!

Coming Soon: The New York Terrorist Trials

Khalid Sheik Mohammad (KSM), the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and the executioner of Daniel Pearl by beheading, will be moved from Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo) and tried in New York City. The news was announced by United States Attorney General Eric Holder. Several other Gitmo detainees will also stand trial in New York. Once again, as in all things Obama, ideology triumphs over common sense.

To be honest, my feelings are mixed. It certainly has degree of poetic justice that the 9/11 guru be brought to New York, the scene of the crime, to stand trial. It has the possibility of being cathartic. The country is still feeling the after-shocks of the World Trade Center attacks. Many of our current economic ills can be traced directly back to September 11, 2001, and the subsequent flooding of the world economy with dollars and cheap money causing economic bubble after economic bubble; and ultimately the near collapse of our financial system.

But I suspect that this decision was purely ideologically based, and as in all such decisions, has a high risk of being a complete disaster. Several of the issues are practical. There is no doubt in my mind that there will be a circus like atmosphere surrounding the trial. It runs the risk of focusing terrorist attention on New York City, and I fear NYC runs the risk of new terrorist attacks during such a trial. It puts KSM right smack dab in the middle of our prison system, where disaffected prisoners can fall prey to his propaganda, and become activists upon their release from prison.

Legally, KSM will now be afforded all of the Constitutional rights that we enjoy. He will be given the best legal defense money can buy at the taxpayers’ expense. And those high priced lawyers will do Eric Holder’s, and Barack Obama’s dirty work, in delving into perceived Bush missteps, like claiming the charges should be dismissed because any information derived came from water boarding. You can’t even fathom the issues surrounding classified information that KSM’s lawyers will demand. The possibility exists, although small, that KSM may walk.

And don’t be surprised if you see many of Obama’s supporters from the far left hope for that very result. In their eyes, the United States, and particularly George Bush and Dick Cheney, are the enemies. They would be far more interested in embarrassing the United States and the previous administration than convicting this piece of vermin. They have twisted view of life, and they will be unable to contain themselves.

I have a real bad feeling about all of this.

Pelosi Health Care: Lessons Unlearned

Watching Nancy Pelosi gleefully parading her 2000 plus page House health care bill made me literally sick to my stomach, especially in light of the overwhelming public opposition to this type of bill. Do you really think that any government bill consisting of 2000 pages will result in anything good for you?

It is a left wing socialist’s dream. They aren’t even trying to hide what it does anymore. Even the left wing media agrees it does the following

1) It cuts $500 billion from Medicare. Do you really believe they are going to cut that amount from fraud and waste? My God! If they haven’t done it yet, it can’t be done. What they are going to cut is services and medical procedures to seniors. It eliminates Medicare Advantage programs. That is a direct increase in costs to seniors and their proverbial fixed income. It points those folks to AARP insurance, which will charge the seniors substantially more money for a less comprehensive supplemental policy. That is a fact.

2) It will force all citizens to purchase a health care policy, and not the catastrophic type of policies that are attached to health savings accounts and are affordable. No, you will have to buy one of the Pelosi defined policies, and will cost between $3,000.00 and $5,000.00. If you don’t buy, you get fined, or worse, go to jail. This will affect primarily young people. That is a fact.

3) It will raise premiums and taxes on everyone else in between, not to mention cut services. Don’t believe them when they say otherwise. Do the math. If you are able to maintain your insurance, you or your boss, will pay much more. Most likely, your employer will eliminate the policy, and you will be forced into the public plan that Congress says is so wonderful yet won’t use it for themselves. They are sticking up you’re a--.

4) It requires at least one plan to pay for abortions. That, in turn, is funded by a surtax on your premiums for the public plan.

5) The Congressional Budget Office has said that this will insure at least 2.5 million illegal aliens. There is no enforcement mechanism to prevent it.

6) The Cost Effectiveness Board is still in place. This will determine whether or not you are too old to receive the best treatment available. Folks, this is the real death panel.

7) It creates over 130 new government bureaucracies. Who do you think is going to pay for all of those new government employees? And if you think they can do such a great job at handling your health care needs…try to get a flu shot.

I never thought I would see this day where a small cabal of leftists, making up about 20% of the population, hijacks our country.

The leftist leaders in Congress and the White House are ignoring the lessons currently being taught in New Jersey and Virginia. There will be hell to pay for Pelosi, Reid, Obama and Democratic Party in the next election, unless they try to stack the ballots, which is a possibility. That is how they operate. But read the article written by Fred Barnes on the main web site, and truly try to understand the consequences when the government ignores the wishes of the majority of the population in pursuit of ideological purity. It leads to tyranny, and to violence.

God Bless America.