WFMJ Meets the Declaration of Independence Meets McDonald's Coffee

So it was five in the AM and I was watching the WFMJ Good Morning program today. It came time for the call in game segment of the program…you know…the one where people who don’t know their name call in for a chance to win a prize-pak consisting of a small McDonald’s coffee…and….well…a small McDonald’s coffee. What some people won’t do for a small McDonald’s coffee.

Being the 4th of July and all, WFMJ decided to ask some patriotic questions. This morning’s question was “What is the opening line of the Declaration of Independence?” Some guy called in from who knows where. He spent the weekend doing some four wheeling stuff.  He was given three choices:

1) When in the course of human events it becomes necessary….

2) Give me liberty or give me death.

3) Four score and seven years ago….

After some contemplative thinking, he picked “Four score and seven years ago….” I almost wet my pants. Not only did this guy NOT know the Declaration of Independence, he obviously didn’t know the Gettysburg address either. He must have slept through his history or civic classes, if he had any.

But it's not funny. In fact, it is pitiful. It is absolutely indicative of what is going in America today. I don’t blame this guy one bit. This is what our schools are producing. We had to memorize the Gettysburg Address when I was in 5th grade. We also had to memorize large portions of the Declaration of Independence, and studied the meaning behind these documents. This is America's foundation.

Why am I not surprised? Schools today worry about everything but what they are supposed to…teach the students. In Maryland, the state Board of Education, by decree, stated that all students in Maryland must graduate environmentally literate, whatever that means. Although guidelines have yet to be established, the environmental group charged with promulgating these standards has already said it wall contain knowledge of global warming, the waste of nature’s resources by mankind…you get the picture. It will be a propaganda indoctrination program.

And in the process, because there are only so many school hours in a day and so many school days in a year, other things will have to be shoved out for the left wing educators to mold the minds of our impressionable young people as to the evil ways of man…and to ride bikes instead of driving cars. Certainly there will be NO room for evil items like the Pledge of Allegiance, the Declaration of Independence, and the Gettysburg Address. No, those items stem from the racist bourgeoisie that founded this country. Global warming must trump everything, including our Constitution if they even bother to teach that we have one.

Governor Kasich sent his assistant to the Valley last week to talk with teachers about the merits of Merit Pay or the lack thereof. My wife attended the meeting. Midway through the session, another teacher stood up and said that the schools have to move to protect children. We have to keep the schools open to 10:00 at night to provide a safe haven for our kids…and to make sure that they get three meals a day. The schools must step up to the plate. Huh? My wife was dumbfounded, and asked this “educator” who is going to pay for all of this? Her question was met with stoic silence and rebuke.

So there you have it. Schools are becoming propaganda vehicles for the left wing environmentalists, and they want to keep the kids in school until 10:00 at night to make sure their minds aren’t polluted with ideas that might come from the families that are supposedly responsible for them.

No wonder the four wheeling dude couldn’t answer the WFMJ question. Guess he will have to spring for that small McDonald’s coffee himself. I would pay for a small McDonald's coffee if that would help fix the problem.

Greece is the Word

At the end of the day, the issue is always “Who pays?” If you don’t think Europe matters, think again. It will affect you both directly and indirectly. If you are watching rioting in the streets of Athens, you need to know that sort of thing could be heading here. In fact, I would argue that it is already here showing up in the anger that is currently rampant in the country. And you also need to know that it will reach directly into your pocketbook. Your money will be buying more than baklava over the next few years.

If you want to understand what is going on, you need to know that Greece has a complete cradle to grave socialist system with generous benefits. Although the official age for retirement is 61, the vast majority of Greeks can retire somewhere between the ages and 50 and 55 with full pensions. For example, a hairdresser’s job is classified as hazardous and she can retire at age 50.  The demonstrators are resisting governmnet efforts to raise the official retirement age to 63.

Greece manufactures very little. Its primary source of revenue is tourism and associated industries. Its government has been on a borrowing spree and right now owes something like 145% of its GDP. No matter how the Greek debt is sliced and diced, it is impossible to repay and there will be a default in one form or another.

Greece is part of the Euro zone. It consists of most European Union countries minus Britain, Switzerland and Sweden, and maybe a few others. It is a confederation of independent states with a central bank issuing its currency, the Euro, but with very little authority to control the fiscal integrity of the member nations other than to set “targets” for debt, GDP and the like.

The banks of all the various member countries are each other’s clients. So, Greek banks can buy Greek government debt, and the Euro Zone banks have to accept that debt as collateral for further Greek bank finances. The Greeks know this. So they continue to run up their debt, and lay it off to other European banks knowing full well there will be a default.  One might as well make a little money in the process.

The debt is worthless. Greece cannot pay it back. A default of Greek bonds would have ramifications clear around Europe as European banks move to increase their reserves to write off the Greek government debt. The solution is to bail them out…and the only two countries strong enough to bail out the Greek government is Germany and France, who would do so to protect the interest of the German and French banks holding all of this Greek debt.

While the Germans and French citizens are kicking and screaming that they are being made responsible for another country’s debt, the Greeks riot in the street because they continue to want to retire at age 50 with the Germans and the French picking up the tab. What a sticky wicket.

And here is where you come in. The German and French banks are going to have to borrow money to pay off the Greek debt. While the Chinese have been skulking around Europe offering to assist, the Europeans are rightfully suspicious about the strings the Chinese will attach to any bailout money.

So they are looking to the Federal Reserve Bank, that would be our Federal Reserve Bank, to give them to the money to prevent the collapse of the European banks while they give the money to Greece to pay off the debt incurred by its citizens retiring at age 50. And Greece being the cradle of democracy and all, the Greek citizens are rioting in the streets…which means the Greek government may look like it is instituting austerity programs, but in reality they are really kicking the can down the street to deal with later…borrowing forward so to speak.

And you will be paying the bill, even though financially we are not too far behind Greece with our worthless money.

Spanakopita anyone?

In Obama's America: Boeing and Jobs

In Obama’s America, things are never as they seem. Don’t look at what he says. Look at what he does.

Today, Barack held a jobs council in order to determine what to do to create some jobs. Seated next to him was Jeff Imelt, CEO of General Electric. His head is so far up Obama’s rear it would take the jaws of life to pull him out. How sad to watch this charade of a meeting. What a show for you. What a pity for the nation.

If you want to know how Obama handles the lack of growth and jobs in America, consider The Boeing Company…you know… the airplane people. One of Boeing's recent success stories is the development of the fuel efficient 787 Dreamliner. Years in development, it is estimated to increase fuel efficiency aircraft by 20%.

Boeing’s main plant is in Seattle, and it is unionized. The union relationship with Boeing has been tumultuous. There have been four major strikes against Boeing since 1989. In 2008, a 58 day strike cost Boeing $2.8 billion (with a “B”).

In an effort to build goodwill with the International Machinists and Aerospace Workers to build the Dreamliner plant in Seattle, Boeing voluntary entered into non-required negotiations with the union to see what could be agreed upon. This was NOT required under the existing contract. What Boeing got was a demand from the union that it be given a seat on Boeing’s Board of Directors, and that ALL FUTURE PLANES BUILT BY BOEING….EVER….BE BUILT IN SEATTLE. Obviously Boeing couldn’t agree with that.

So Boeing looked for an alternative site, and found one in South Carolina. It invested $2 billion (with a “B”) in the new facility located in North Charleston, SC. It had a ribbon cutting this past week and was about to hire over 1,000 workers when the Obama appointees to the National Labor Relations Board  (who have yet to be approved by Congress) filed a complaint against Boeing for building a plant in a Right to Work state. No union at the plant!!!

This is the first time in history that the NLRB, through its Obama appointees, has tried to say that if a company is located in a union state, it is not allowed to move OR EXPAND in a Right to Work state because that action alone is union intimidation and a threat to union workers. Never mind the fact that the workers in the new plant could agree to join the union if they so chose. The action of the NLRB is so far off the charts that Congress is having a difficult time processing it, and has threatened the legal counsel for the NLRB with subpoenas if he fails to show up to justify this type of action in front of the House Commerce Committee.

In effect, Obama’s America would be comprised of union states and non-union states in which there could be no free interaction of labor and services. It is kind of like the slave/non-slave states before the Civil War, with the new lines being drawn very close to the Mason Dixon line.

In Obama’s America, you will open you plant where he tells you to. But that will never happen. You see, American companies have foreign subsidiaries governed by laws of other countries. So if you are Boeing, where would you build you next plant? In South Carolina? No! In Washington State where the union want to take control of the company? No! The next Boeing plant will be in China or Mexico.  Boeing will NEVER build another plant in the United States.  Obama should be ashamed of himself.

And you wonder why unemployment in this country is 9.1%!!!!! It is in Obama’s America. Don't listen to what he says. Look at what he does...in Obama's America.

A Little Mustard with that Wiener (Weiner)?

Congressman Chris Lee(R) Resigns

Congressman Anthony Weiner(D) Refuses to Resign

Now I know the difference between a Republican and a Democrat. A Republican, after being caught with his pants down and pictures being scattered across the internet, resigns. A Democrat does not. This latest congressional peccadillo involving Congressman Anthony Weiner from New York City shows the spirit of Bill Clinton is alive and well in the halls of Congress.

This little wiener has reached new lows in hubris and narcissism. The scope of his online and telephone sexual escapades is growing by the day. I am sure there will be more to come. It has been pitiful watching this arrogant SOB wallow on television as he plays out his own inability to come to terms with his problems. Not only did he lie to Congress, the press, his constituents and his family last week, he used left wing attack groups such as Salon.com, The Dailey Kos, Media Matters, and MoveOn.org to blame conservative activist Andrew Breitbart for his problems. Breitbart now holds an outright explicit photo of Congressman Weiner, fully loaded, so to speak, which he is burying to save the Congressman’s family.  Weiner even introduced a bill into Congress to go after sexual predators on the internet and wrote about it at length on his Congressional web site.

Meanwhile, Republican Congressman Chris Lee resigned immediately upon disclosure of his sending a shirtless picture of himself over the internet last February. It was almost a non-issue, the Congressman moving quickly to avoid embarrassment to his family and the Republican Party. His Republican district just elected a Democrat after the Democratic Party ran ads showing Congressman Paul Ryan pushing an old lady in a wheel chair over a cliff.

I don’t like wallowing in other people’s misery. Bill Clinton set the standard as to what acceptable sexual practices in the White House. Anything short of sex in the Oval Office with a barely of age intern is apparently acceptable in the American value system. Internet and phone sex between a Congressman and another consenting adult doesn’t reach that level of perversion.

On the other hand, Congressman Weiner is a sanctimonious, arrogant little weasel, sex or no sex. He has a cocky (no pun intended) attitude. He has disdain for the American public. He represents the worst of Congressional politics generally. He is a liberal among liberals who has shown a major penchant towards spending other people’s money and thumbing his nose while he is doing it. He was media darling for awhile because he always put on a good show, but as of late has been overlooked interviews because he is just plain obnoxious.

He, along with Charlie Rangel, represents the worst the Democratic Party has to offer. That is the type of attitude we find in many of our office holders here in Mahoning County, and I find personally disgusting and distasteful. These hangers on who are all too willing to sit in judgment on everybody else while unable to admit their own foibles and shortcomings (again, no pun intended) represent politics at its worst. Minimally these folks have a defective value system and have very bad judgment. What kind of a Congressman would post a picture of his private parts on the internet? Would you want him to represent you?

Mr. Wiener should resign now, and save the country and his party another year of investigations and possible additional scandals. There are too many important things facing the country to waste any more time on Mr. Weiner’s ability to come to terms with his predilections and mental health issues. This is not a story that should be played out on the national stage.