Will the Real President of the United States Please Stand Up!!

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No! It’s President Obama. No…wait!! It’s President Clinton. No…it’s President Obama. Will the real President of the United States please stand up?

I came home early from work yesterday and turned on the television. What to my wandering eyes did appear but a news conference featuring Barack Obama and Bill Clinton trying to do a hard sell job to the hard Democratic left wing whack-a-doodles on why they should approve the Obama deal with Republicans extending the Bush tax cuts another two years.

I thought how nice. I am a believer that ex-presidents should serve some function in their post presidential lives. After all, we pay them beaucoup bucks. First Obama talked. Then Clinton talked. Such kum bah yah moments are few and far between. But then…in a twinkling…Obama said Michelle has been waiting for a half hour and he had to go. He basically told Bill Clinton to stay and handle it. Off Barry goes to a Christmas party, leaving the former President to stave off those wishing to derail legislation preventing the most massive tax hike in American history.

Watching the news this morning, I am still trying to process this picture. There was Bill Clinton standing in front of the Presidential Seal doing what Barack Obama should be doing. I understand that nobody can do a snow…I mean sales…job like Bill Clinton. But Barry, you are the President. You are the Commander in Chief, not the partier in chief.

This only goes to confirm what I heard a White House insider say a few weeks ago. He said Barack Obama is a slacker, who really dislikes the mundane workings of government preferring a game of basketball or watching ESPN. He takes delegating to a new level, believing he is too intellectually superior to have to deal with the boring tasks of governing. He would rather pontificate grand ideas while letting the minions, including a former president, do the scut work.

Now we know why Obama was so angry about at his angry news conference last week. He actually had to do something presidential. He can’t delegate to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid when they are the object of his ire. So he found someone else…Bill Clinton. More troubling is that this isn't the first time. Everytime the going gets tough, the tough get going; except it is never Obama. It is always Clinton. This is getting to be a bad, and somewhat disturbing, habit. People talked about the lack of experience of Sarah Palin. Obama had even less when he was elected, and it is beginning show big time.

Talk radio will debate this debacle for the next few weeks. But at the end of the day, it makes Barack Obama look weak. He’s partying while Clinton is taking care of business. It’s going to be a long two years until the 2012 election. By the way, my wife made a comment while watching the news reports. Where is Hillary in all of this? Mmmmmm? Just sayin'!!!

Political Chaos

Each week it becomes more apparent that the United States is becoming a nation in chaos. It is adrift with a captain with little experience, minimal knowledge, and no inclination to fix what needs to be fixed. The latest example is handling of the looming tax increase after January 1 if the Bush era tax cuts aren’t restored. It will be a financial disaster for the country, but the Democrats in charge…even against the advice of many in their party…have taken an ideological, class warfare position, the consequences be damned. Obama’s tirade of a news conference on Tuesday afternoon shows that although he understands the problem, his political acumen in resolving the issue is non-existent. Who’d of thought?

But it just isn’t the tax thing. Our country’s foreign policy and relationships with the rest of the world is in shambles after the WikiLeaks revelations. Obama has been immobilized. He still can’t figure out how to vote present on this one. Julian Assange belongs in jail for espionage, but he and Eric Holder just bring themselves to do it.

Chaos is growing along the Mexican border as the drug cartels take control of the country. A fourteen year old boy has been arrested for beheading three or four people over the past year. Maybe it hasn’t crossed over to the United States yet, but it is only a matter of time. Obama needs to address the illegals question now…and he ideologically can’t bring himself to do it.

Rather than deal with the tax issue, or the WikiLeaks issue, or the illegal issue, the Democratic Congress is tra-la-la-ing its way through things like the Dream Act, which gives resident status to children of illegal immigrants who have gone to school here in the states for a certain period of time. It is concerned with Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. It is concerned with the Start Treaty...ideological issues all. But those things don’t do a thing for you and for me.

I am still hoping that Barack Obama can live up to his promise of being a uniter instead of divider; of being a post partisan President. Calling Republicans “hostage takers” in a press conference more geared to the deterioration within his own party is not a good start. My hope is fading. But this is just the beginning of the new political reality in Washington. We will see what happens.

Nooks and Crannies

This past week I paid a visit to Barnes and Nobel to buy a Christmas present for a family member who was visiting from out of town. I do most of my shopping online these days, and it had been over a year since I had been there.

The first thing that greeted me when I walked through the door was a massive display for the Nook. For those of you who belong to the technological unintelligensia, a Nook is the B&N equivalent to the Amazon Kindle, which is a poor man’s version of the IPad and the newly released Samsung Galaxy. All of these are different grades of a new computing class of machines called e-readers or pads. These are thin, hand held devices that are cross between a computer and a smart phone.

The low end Kindle and Nook are primarily used to buy and download books from either Amazon or B&N, along with newspapers and magazines. Most cost under $200.00. I know people who absolutely love them.

At the other end are the spectrum is Apple’s I-Pad and Samsung’s Droid based Galaxy. These are much more sophisticated and can almost do anything a computer can do, but in a hand held configuration. They are amazing machines. Prices for these: $300.00 ranging up to $900.00. The Nook has a new color version out that is closer to the upper end devices, but only has a wifi connection…no G connection. Keeps the cost right around $280.00.

All of these devices connect to the internet either through a wifi connection (you need a hot spot) or through a 3 or 4 G connection, which means you can access the internet from anywhere. Kindle and Nook connects you to a 3G connection for free. The limited purpose of their product allows them to do that. They are used primarily to download books and newspapers which involves minimum data flow.

The I-Pad and Galaxy, on the other hand, use the connections much more, and will charge a monthly fee for the G connection based on usage. These units also have a wifi card to allow the user to use the G connection only when necessary, like if you were stuck in a car in the middle of the Sahara and wanted to download Madame Bovary, thus keeping down the cost. You can adjust your G access cost from nothing to maximum by the month, depending on how you intend to use the device during that month.

It is complicated, and that is exactly the point. B&N used to be a refuge. People would go there to browse the books, get a cup of coffee, or go back to the CD room and listen to music samples to see if you wanted to spring the fifteen bucks for the tunes. Now…well it’s not really like Best Buy, but I hate to see books reduced to a computer screen. It almost seems like they are using the store to sell the gizmo that will put the store out of business. And instead of relaxing, you have to figure out more of that technology stuff.

Which one should you buy? More than ever, you need to know what you want to use it for. If you don’t, you will end up buying way more machine than you need, or under buy after you get the hang of it and wish it could do more.

If your intent is to buy books at discounted rates on line, download them at home onto your device, then go to the beach to read them…the Kindle or Nook are for you. The screen looks like a page of the book, and shows up well in direct sunlight as well as being easy on the eyes. No color here. The screens are top lit black and white and work well in the daylight. Access to your email account and limited internet usage is included.

If, on the other hand, you like color razzle/dazzle and like to watch videos and play games and look at colorful magazines in addition to downloading books, then look into I-Pad or Galaxy. They do amazing things, but if you don’t need those amazing things, save your money. I use the amazing things, and am leaning toward the Galaxy for a whole lot of reasons. But it is pricey and has only been on the market for a few weeks. I am going to wait until next year for the next generation after they get the bugs out. These screens are backlit, like a computer screen, and tend to be difficult to read in the sunshine. Such are the tradeoffs.

I felt bad when I left the store today. On the plus side, progress is great. I have downloaded the Kindle program onto my mini net book computer at home to get me through until I decide on which pad to buy. It works great, and beats paying thirty bucks for the book itself. I downloaded George Bush’s book and have enjoyed reading it.

On the other hand, it just isn’t the same. They were playing the soundtrack from A Charlie Brown Christmas over the store sound system. The world has changed a lot since Charlie Brown first set out to find the needy Christmas tree and discover the true meaning of the holiday. Are the new pad devices technological marvels making our lives better; or would we be better off keeping the lowly Christmas tree? That's a call for you to make. Nevertheless, it makes me sad...and makes me rant.

TSA: Genitals on Parade

I think the safest way for all Americans to fly would be to strip before entering the plane, and wear TSA robes…after a full body cavity search. Folks, that is about where we are at. Just because the technology exists to take graphic x-rays of your body doesn’t make it right. When Barack Obama got elected, I wondered just how much freedom America would be willing to give up in the grandiose government controlled scheme of things. Now we know that a good portion of Americans don’t mind being seen naked in a picture. By the way, the picture to the left is what they see. If it makes you uncomfortable, then you know what I mean.

I wouldn’t mind it so much if there weren’t other means available to do what needs to be done…like profiling. Every one brushes aside the example of the insanity of searching an African from Nigeria while looking for Irish Republican Army terrorists. But this is exactly what this is. In some bizarre twist of logic, we are willing to show the genitals of ourselves, our family, our parents, our children…in order not to hurt the feelings of young Muslim males with one way tickets flying from Yemen!!

Liberals pontificate that profiling doesn’t work, like it is the 11th commandment. Everybody knows that. It’s a given. No, I don’t think so. Just look the Israelis who haven’t had a plane hijacked in years and years. Feeling up a blond haired, blue eyed Scandinavian five year old little girl does not increase our security one bit, and I defy anyone to tell me how it does.

Over the years we have subjected ourselves to cameras everywhere, drunk driving checks, and GPS systems installed on our car. Our internet activities are categorized and traced. Our telephones and credit cards are available for the world to see. Our health care records are being compiled and stored. And now we are allowing ourselves to be photographed naked in an airport; all in the name of security based on political correctness rather than common sense necessity.

In all of this, our constitution is lost. Whatever happened to unreasonable search and seizure? And while we are being groped and patted down and ogled at the airports, illegals are streaming across the border by the thousands, attending our schools, getting instate tuition…but they aren’t a threat. No, not at all! Worse, the government is suing the states trying to stop it.

Just for the record. Profiling is absolutely justifiable under the constitution. Courts continuously weigh competing rights to develope a legal basis for compelling public policy. Think shouting fire in a crowded theater. No rights are absolute. It depends on how the argument is framed.

So I ask you, pit my right to privacy and protections against unreasonable search and seizure (having my genitals displayed on a screen in an airport) against those opposing criminal profiling because someone's feelings might get hurt. Which is the better public policy position? Does the governmnet really have a compelling interest to feel up someone with an artificial knee?

If we continue down this absurd path instead of using common sense…we can tear up the Constitution. This is the face of illogical, bureaucratic, big brother liberalism. It is an ugly face, a dehumanizing face. The searches they are doing now would not have stopped 9/11, and most experts say would not have stopped the underwear bomber...who was a young muslim male, not granny in a wheelchair. Wake up America.

Quantitative Easing Explained - The Video

Just a fast comment on the TSA: name just one incident that TSA has stopped with pat downs or the invasive xrays. There aren't any. All of the near misses that were caught these past two years were based in intelligence, and the perp bypassed all screening. These intrusive, and unconstitutional invasions of our privacy are rooted in political correctness, not in any proof they do any good, or they actually work. No one should be subject to what is, for all intents and purposes, a stip search before boarding a plane, when more sensible and effective means are available to solve the problem. Grandma in a wheelchair won't have bomb. Once again, liberalism leads to slavery.

Sometimes a picture or video can do the job better than any written explanation. A friend of mine sent me this explanation of Quantitative Easing. It nails it.

The Letter the Vindicator Wouldn't Print

The Vindicator
Letters to the Editor

Sir:

Once again, Bertram De Souza’s ramble on the state of politics in Mahoning County can’t abide without comment. In his column “What Are Voters Thinking?” he once again attacks the quality of Republican Party candidates specifically referencing the Republican candidate for Auditor, Tracey Winbush. He should be ashamed of himself.

1) In what way was Tracey Winbush unqualified to be Auditor? In a previous column, he made much of her not having a college degree in accounting or law. As a lawyer, I can tell you my most successful clients don’t have college degrees, graduating instead from the School of Hard Knocks. Perhaps Bertram should do us a favor and review which of our elected public officials do or don’t have college degrees, and amend previous Vindicator endorsements accordingly. As Chairman Munroe so aptly pointed out in his letter after De Souza’s last rant, the prisons are littered with “qualified” college graduates from this area. Tracey is a business woman, has actually taken numerous college level courses, is an active Rotarian, sits on numerous area boards, is a community activist, a hard worker, a fast learner, and honest. What do you see in her, Bertram, that makes her unqualified?

2) The local Republican Party fielded some great candidates this past election, and the Vindicator chose to ignore all of them. Matt Lewis and Mike Pestian ran outstanding campaigns for State Senator and the 59th State Rep District with little resources against all odds. I was close to the Pestian campaign. He knocked on over 10,500 doors meeting the constituents. He is a successful businessman, a good family man with a great personality, and a relentless campaigner. He reached out to local teacher unions and attended other local union events not normally frequented by Republicans. Both of these campaigns were managed by a group of Young Republicans who spent countless hours doing the drudge work to make them viable. Yet the Vindicator gave absolutely NO coverage to these guys notwithstanding numerous attempts to bring attention to their efforts, qualifications and issues…not five words. So Bertram, don’t you and your paper dare complain about the lack of qualified Republican candidates and the lack of new young local political activists when they are right there in front of your face and you deliberately choose not to see them. How about getting up from your desk, talk to some of these folks about what is going on in this area, and do some actual reporting instead of pontificating?

3) Finally, a word to those Republicans at all levels of the party, who donate money on a regular basis to Democratic candidates and not the Republican candidates. Stop it. Come home. If you want Mahoning County to have a viable two party system, now is the time to re-examine what we have to offer and work with us to further develop a viable alternative to one party county rule. There is a new wave sweeping the nation and state. It is now here in Mahoning County. We would be glad to have you join the ride.


Mark G. Mangie
Attorney at Law
Finance Chairman, Mahoning
County Republican Party

Quantitative Easing - $5.00 Bread and $5.00 Gas

The Federal Reserve System was set up in 1913 by the government in order to help quell a series of financial panics. It is quasi-independent, which means it is a creature of the United States government, but acts independently and without review of the government. Among its many purposes is to act as a central bank, regulate other banks, and establish the country’s monetary policy which, prior to 1913, was subject to the political whims of Congress.

How does it do it? It can raise and lower interest rates on loans from one bank to another. It can establish the amount of reserves banks must have to back up outstanding loans. It can put money into the economy, or take money out of the economy. All of these things are supposed to keep our financial system stable. How’s that working out for you?

Over this past week, you may have heard about the Fed doing “quantitative easing.” That means the Federal Reserve is pushing cash into the economy. They are literally printing money, and putting it into circulation. How do they do that? The United States government owes a lot of people a lot of money. They borrow the money by issuing bonds to folks like you and me, corporations, investors, and other countries. If the Fed wants to add money to the system, the Federal Reserve buys up those bonds that are being issued by the government, and pays for them with money that is literally printed up. In other words, the government buys back its own bonds.

In this second quantitative easing done over the past several months, the Fed is buying back $600 billion worth of bonds…or it is simply putting an extra $600 billion worth of currency into the world financial system. This “easy money” policy is directed at flooding the system with so much money, that the banks will start to lend money to businesses…which the banks can’t do because the FDIC, another arm of the government, has tightened the lending standards for the banks. Does it sound confusing? It is, and you wonder why things are FUBAR!!

The immediate effect of this much money pouring into the system is a devaluation of the currency…an old trick of debtor nations. That's us!!! Experts believe this quantitative easing will devalue the dollar by 20%. So the government will pay back a $100.00 debt with money that is only worth $80.00! Neat trick! But there’s a catch.

When the major currency of the world is being devalued, investors look for places to put money that will protect it from the devaluation…usually hard assets. You, as a consumer will get the double whammy. Let’s say you wanted to buy a pound of widgets for $100.00. But the currency is being devalued. Speculators start to buy up widgets driving the price up to $120.00. As the currency is devalued, your money is now worth less…only $80.00. So what would have cost you $100.00 last month, will now cost you $140.00 in devalued currency…the speculators drive up the price, and your money is worth less. That is called inflation.

And you are seeing it right now. There is already a rapid rise in all commodity based goods. That includes not only gold, silver and oil…but also food….including sugar, corn (at an all time high), wheat, coffee…you get the picture. There is a real possibility that you will be paying $5.00 for a loaf of bread...and just as much for a gallon of gas within a year.

But even as prices begin to skyrocket, the government will tell you there is no inflation, because it figures inflation by a formula that leaves all of these things out…seriously. The inflation figure will be “ex food and energy.” So there you have it. All is right with the world. Such are wages of government borrowing and spending. Quantitative easing is a way the government can tax you without taxing you. And it is only going to get worse.

This is what the Tea Party movement is all about; and why these folks are so upset.