Obama, Romney, and the Angel Moroni

Mitt Romney is now the putative nominee for President of the Republican Party. It was a bitter primary leaving hard feelings among Republicans. Santorum has yet to endorse Romney even though he dropped out of the race. Notwithstanding, Romney is holding a slim two point lead among likely voters in the latest Fox News poll, with over 10% of the electorate still undecided. According to Dick Morris, the undecided vote will go to the challenger, and that means a solid victory for Romney in November.

However, and this is a big however, Romney has an Achilles heel. He is a Mormon, and thus far it has not been raised as an issue. But Obama and crew is a slimy bunch; and they play dirty. These are hard core folks with no conscience or morality. Their trumped up, non-existent “war on women” just blew up in their face as Hilary Rosen exposed their hypocrisy. George Stephanopoulos should be ashamed of himself acquiescing to Democrat operatives in asking about contraception in that infamous debate.

So what’s left? I pondered the dirtiest thing they could come up with, and my conclusion is religion. Republicans compare Romney to John Kennedy’s Catholicism. They are two different things. The press had concerns that Kennedy would cow tow to the Pope, but Catholicism is a main stream Christian religion with basic shared beliefs with mainstream Protestantism. Mormonism is different. Although it believes in Christ, the underpinnings of the religion are anything but mainstream, and I am concerned that it will give fodder to so called “non-affiliated” Obama operatives such as late night comedians, bloggers, and some of the whack jobs on MSNBC.  The mainstream media will willingly chime in.  These folks have no shame when it comes to Obama.

I did some reading on Mormonism. It is surrounded by allegations of racism. It has attempted to do after death baptisms of holocaust survivors. That obviously will not play well with the Jews notwithstanding Obama’s pathetic support for Israel. It believed in polygamy. It denies access to the interior of its temple to non Mormons. It has interesting rituals.

Then there is the theology. It does not believe in the Trinity as understood by mainline Catholics and Protestants, or original sin. It believes the Garden of Eden was in Missouri and that the New Jerusalem will be established in North America from which Christ will rule his kingdom on earth. Mormons are heavy duty evangelists. They don’t drink alcohol, tea or coffee. They don’t believe in hell, but rather in several levels of heaven. And that is just the beginning.

While I am not put off personally by a person’s religious beliefs, I have my own “ify” theology, there is no doubt in my mind that Mormonism is a great big target, and one that people with evil intent can exploit to suppress the Republican vote in the fall, namely among the Evangelicals. Obama is shrewd and the dirtiest politician I ever seen in my life. He can look into the camera and lie better than any president in my lifetime, and that includes Richard Nixon. This is just too big of a target for a person like Obama and his campaign to ignore. I can just see the skits on Saturday Night Live.

Even PBS will get into the act. They ran a multi-part history of Mormonism a year or so ago. Look for it to be run again this October. I can see vividly the black Mormon woman, previously banned from the church, looking into the camera giving her take on the religion: Some white guy finding golden tablets in a corn field in New York talking to some angel named Moroni. “Really?” she said.

Whether we like it or not, whether it is right or not, Mitt Romney and the Angel Moroni will rear its ugly head in this “year of the nasty’s” presidential election. Republicans and Mitt Romney need to be prepared. This is a down and dirty year.

Petrodollars and Gold

A friend of mine sent me a red meat Powerpoint slide show the other day.  It gave the history of the Petrodollar…or the dollars that used to buy Mideast oil.  It went off on a tangent becoming a very bad joke and off the wall.  Unfortunately, there was more truth to the joke than most would care to admit, as I had read several serious articles on the topic of Petrodollars over the past few weeks by coincidence. 

Up until recently, barrels of oil had to be traded in dollars.  But as of late, the European Union, China, Russia, and whomever, have been cutting separate deals with OPEC to purchase oil in other currencies.  China has been making noise that it wants its currency to become the currency of oil, and is making strides in attaining its goal.

What caused movement away from the dollar?  All that Quantitative Easing done by the Federal Reserve.  In laymen’s terms, the Fed started up the printing press and has flooded the market with dollars.  That devalues the dollar, and OPEC did not want to see its oil devalued along with the dollar.  The result has been higher oil prices.

That being said, for all of the noise of other nations, their currencies aren’t much better.  The Euro is in shambles, and the only reason it is valued higher than the dollar is because countries like France and Germany…the driving forces in the Euro Zone…pay about 4.0% on their ten year note as opposed to about 2% or less here in the states.  China does not allow its currency to “float”, or fluctuate, with other currencies tying it in part to the dollar.  But in its effort to jack up its currency to international standards, China has slowly begun to allow its currency to move apart from the dollar, albeit in baby steps.

So now we are faced with $4.00 gas and rising prices for everything that is transported in anything that moves.  Of course, the government simply tells us there is no inflation.  But there is inflation, and those of us who go to the grocery store or the gas pump know it.

At the center of this mess is energy.  Energy is the cornerstone of our economy.  America has endless supplies of energy, but Obama has pretty much squelched oil and coal, and now is on the road to squelch natural gas.  He doesn’t like fossil fuels.  He wants electricity.  He said he was going to let prices rise, and he has.  Wait until you see your electric bill beginning in about a year.

But there are other reasons for our problems besides environmental extremism.  Up until the early 1970’s, America was on the gold standard.  Our government guaranteed that each dollar bill was backed by gold or silver.  Then Richard Nixon decided, along with the rest of the economic powerhouses, to go off of the gold standard.   That meant the government could print money at will, unfettered by such miniscule concerns like is the money worth anything.

America was the biggest customer of OPEC oil, and the Arabs went bonkers.  They didn’t want worthless dollars.  They wanted dollars backed by gold.  In 1972, gold was worth about $53.00 /oz. and oil was selling for $3.55/barrel.  In other words, one ounce of gold bought about 16 barrels of oil. 

There has been a lot of unhappy history between now and then, much of it rooted in the Arab effort to keep the real value of its oil.  Dig beneath the surface, and you will find many of the problems we have had with the Arab world are due to these fluctuating currencies, and nations, particularly the United States, printing money.

Now…forty years later…gold is selling for $1660.00/oz and OPEC oil is selling for $103.00/barrel.  Do the math.  After all we have been through...one ounce of gold still buys 16 barrels of oil.

That is inflation.  And that ought to tell you something about why we have problems in America today.

Justice Kennedy's Health Care Issue

Perhaps the most hopeful thing coming from the Supreme Court arguments on the Affordable Health Care Act was found in a New York Times editorial this morning written by Adam Liptak (Appealing to Justice Kennedy's Idea of Liberty). In it he discussed Justice Kennedy's unique perspective of what liberty is. He  pointed to Kennedy votes upholding abortion, but also to votes to uphold restrictions on abortion. In other words, he looks for compromise and the middle ground.

At issue is the Individual Mandate. Mr Liptak pinpointed the central exchange in the entire three day hearing. The Solicitor General pointed out that liberty must include the ability to get affordable treatment for serious diseases. Justice Kennedy then stated that young people without insurance "uniquely" effect the price of insurance that everyone else has to pay. And the opponents to the Act stated what kind of liberty forces people to buy insurance then bans the very insurance they need the most...catastrophic insurance.

Therein lies the Achilles heel of the Affordable Health Care Act. In classic progressive overreach, Obama, Pelosi and friends decided everybody should have a Cadillac policy that covers everything. Birth control pills and abortions are the most visible and obvious culprit of this overreach; but there are lots of other expensive goodies that King Obama and Queen Sebelius have decided should be in there.

So in the heat of the final debate, have the players in the Supreme Court high drama stumbled upon the truth? If you want to drive down the cost of health care, then people need to pay the bills themselves. They will seek out the best and cheapest care. There is some point when that becomes impractical. That's when you need catastrophic insurance...a car accident, a serious illness like cancer.

It is catastrophic insurance that should be the center of the health care debate; not these budget busting government mandates that no one can afford. What is the minimum needed to achieve the stated objective making it attractive to those who have willingly opted out of the system to buy insurance? More importantly, it should be affordable and available to those squeezed out of the system....those in their mid 50's and over and those with pre-existing conditions. So here might be a possible framework to a solution:

1) Insurance companies should be required to provide catastrophic insurance covering illnesses whose expenses exceed $10,000.00 the first year, with a $3,000.00 deductible every year thereafter for the same illness. It should include prescriptions. The government can state what it covers and what it doesn't with the assumption this is a CATASTROPHIC policy only with a sufficiency test of reasonableness.

2) These policies shall be offered to anyone who wants them, with a health savings account attached to it if desired by the purchaser, who can contribute, tax free, up to $3,000.00/year to be used against future deductibles.

3) Subject to reasonable government regulation and approval, the insurance companies may set their own prices for these policies and may compete in the open market across state lines.

4) A payroll tax will be charged to all Americans, with an equal tax credit deducted against their income taxes if they have a health care policy equal to or better than the above mentioned catastrophic policies through their employer or through individual private purchase.

5) If an individual is not insured, the health care payroll tax is not deductible, and placed in a fund to which health care providers can make claims for treating those without insurance.

6) The government should provide tax incentives to stores like Wal Mart or Walgreens to operate fee for service clinics to handle mundane medical matters through nurse practitioners and provide these providers with substantial protection from malpractice claims.

7) Provisions should be made to expand Medicaid to cover those who are not otherwise covered and meet minimal financial requirements.

I believe that this type of approach maximizes incentives to buy insurance, taxes those who don't, provides alternate medical treatment centers to emergency rooms for routine medical matters, provides for savings for future expenses, balances those with pre-existing conditions against those young folks paying into the system but not using it much, and allows price competition in the market in the market place.

If anyone can figure out how I can get this to someone who counts, let me know.

Supremes Meet Obamacare

So now the health care debate is in front of the United States Supreme Court. At the end of the day, this is a win/win situation for the Republicans. If the court decides that the individual mandate is unconstitutional, the Republicans, and for that matter a majority of Americans, get what they want. If the Supremes decide it is constitutional, the Republican base will rally and vote in droves to elect a Republican president and senate. Bye Bye Obamacare either way.

The pundits are all over the place as to how this might turn out. There are certainly legal grounds to find it constitutional if you follow court approval of the expansion of the commerce clause over the years. But there is also dicta in those cases stating that the power of the federal government is not absolute. Where that line is nobody knows. This may be it.

I personally feel the Supreme Court does not operate in a vacuum. They saw the chicanery and manipulations used when the bill was passed. They have seen the polls and understand this was foisted on a public that didn’t, and still doesn’t, want it. They know the ideologues in Congress voted for this without reading it…and that the majority in Congress and President were elected not because the public wanted these guys, it was because of a worldwide economic meltdown. They also know Obama dissed them in front of the nation at a State of the Union address. It’s not nice to mess with the Supreme Court.

And finally, at the same time they are hearing arguments, the are observing the debate over Dick Cheney’s heart transplant, and understanding that if Obamacare was operating now, Dick Cheney, the former Vice-President of the United States, would be deemed too old to get a heart transplant by the 15 member non-elected economic justification panel. This is the death panel that we were told didn't exist.  Wait until they do it to one of your loved ones.

America is now going to learn the lesson that once you give away your freedom to a government filled with people who know what is best for you, you will never get that freedom back. “Oh..they won’t do any of that stuff” you might say. Look at Mayor Bloomberg in New York who would march into your house and remove the salt from your shelves if he were able. He is the food police and New Yorkers should be afraid. His is fanatical nut, and he is raiding schools, public office buildings and parks, restaurants, and now food banks. This is what Obamacare will bring you. Panels deciding if you are too old for treatment, and panels deciding everything about your life including what you eat, what you drive, what you wear, and how much you should weigh.

George Orwell’s 1984 is here...a little late..but here nonetheless.

These are the things that will not be presented in the Supreme Court arguments. But these are smart people. They can come to the same conclusion I do just by watching the news. There may be three days of oral arguments, but I guaranty you these justices have already made up there minds.

My prediction: I am predicting a 6 - 3 decision......that could fall either way.  And either way...the Republicans will control the Presidency and both houses of Congress in January of next year!!!!

Chu Chu Chu

In 2008, the now Secretary of Energy Chu told the Wall Street Journal. "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.” In 2012, when gas prices are exceeding $4.00/gallon in California and Illinois, Chu testified in front Congress saying “I no longer share that view.” It was fun watching him stumble around. The story missed by the media was that Chu almost said it would hurt an already bad economy, but he caught himself. Instead he said that it would hurt the recovery.

Dr. Chu is the quintessential academic. He is a physicist. He doesn’t own a car. He is an environmental purist…the type that has raised earth worship to a religion. His wife drives a gas guzzling BMW (why am I not surprised?). In other words, he is a run of the mill utopian academic turned politico hypocrite. Do as I say…not as I do.

Obama himself, switching his own rhetoric criticizing George Bush during the oil spike of 2008, has said the President is powerless to change oil prices. It is geo-political forces. Increasing production will not drive oil prices down, but conservation will….huh? Meanwhile, as worthwhile as these solutions might be fifty years from now, putting seaweed in our gas tank doesn’t quite cut it today, and there is not an extension cord long enough that can make those electricity generating wind mills make electric cars go more than 20 miles, assuming the battery doesn’t blow up.

Obama is right in one respect. The president can’t “do” anything to manipulate gas prices down. What he can do is let the market work. You see, in a normal market, when the price of oil starts to go up, those who drill for oil will drill for more trying to cash in on the high prices. In turn, that drives the prices down until it hits “equilibrium”, where the demand equals the production. It is called the free market. Who knew?

We have a degree of free market in the natural gas industry. The result is the United States is now suffocating in an overabundance of natural gas and the price has dropped to give away levels. Can Obama explain to me why it works for natural gas but not for oil? And in those areas of the United States producing natural gas, the recession is receding. There are jobs, jobs, jobs.

Oil is not a free market. While the United States is producing more oil than it was 10 years ago, that’s because of permits issued by George Bush allowing drilling on private and state land. Oil production on Federal land and off shore is down 10% from 4 years ago as Obama and his EPA purposely slow the permit process if they would issue permits at all and increase regulations to such a degree it's not worth the effort. The only thing that Obama has done affecting oil prices is to put more Federal land and off shore drilling off limits.

Obama is an ideologue environmentalist who is lying to you. Don’t believe him. As in all things Obama, don’t listen to what he says, look at what he does. He is the propagandist in chief, and his minions are still drinking the Kool Aid. His sole goal is to “fundamentally” change America. He has taken over the health care industry. He has regulated the banking industry to a standstill. He has intruded into industry and manufacturing with bailouts and takeovers and exemptions. He has taken over student loans. He is attempting to regulate what you eat, directly!!  And he stands in front of his adoring fans and literally tells them they can't make it on their own.  They need the government to survive.  

North America has enough energy to be self sufficient for hundreds of years. Obama can’t have that…so he blocked the movement of oil from Canada to Houston by stopping the Keystone Pipeline. Meanwhile, while Obama is telling us to grow algae and worship at the altar of “Save the World,” China is opening coal fired electric plants at a rate of one per week. China will be the largest producer of those supposed green house gasses in the world…and you will be riding your bikes to work in the snow.

Wake up America. Don’t believe a word Barack has to say. Hope and Change to him is everyone suffering equally. Meanwhile, he continues to bow in front of the Saudi King. We can do better than this.  As for Dr. Chu, it would be good for America if he takes one of his green choo-choo's back from whence he came.

Is your Daughter or Wife a MILF? Bill Maher knows!!!

                          

Is your wife or daughter a MILF? Those of you who know me know that my language tends to be salty like my food. But I never heard that one before. So I looked it up. It is an acronym. It is disgusting. Google it if you are curious.

In the debate started by now outed Democratic Activist Sandra Fluke ( who apparently can’t afford $9.00/month for her birth control pills but can afford to fly from DC to California for a fun filled week with her boyfriend...with or without her pills), Rush Limbaugh called her slut and the left wing press went ballistic. But hidden under the veneer of righteous indignation was a rotten core and deplorable history of misogynistic comments about conservative women and their minor children from those currently casting the first stones.

There are several of these vile commentators. But at the top of the list is Bill Maher. I wrote about his vitriol years ago, and no one paid attention. “He’s a comic,” they said. Not really. His weekly show on HBO is a liberal Rush Limbaugh on steroids. It is 100% political complete with a guest panel that discusses political issues almost exclusively…mostly focused on atheism, gay rights, race and sex…lots and lots of sex. He does have conservatives on the panel from time to time, but their purpose seems to be that of foils or targets. They are mocked and made fools of. Just because he opens with a monologue doesn’t make him a satirist or comic. For those liberals reading this essay who have never listened to Rush Limbaugh…he too opens with a monologue, as does Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly (Talking Points).

I stopped watching Bill Maher when he introduced a song which repeatedly called George Bush a douche bag. In turn, he repeated the line verbally over and over and over again. He did this several weeks in a row, and it became apparent he wasn’t a comic, just a hateful, Godless individual who despised pretty much everybody but himself and those like him.

At the top of the page is a very small compilation of the continual amount of hate spewed from this man’s mouth. And yet Barack Obama, while crying about his daughters and their right to live without hateful comments about their gender, refused to answer questions about Bill Maher’s years of verbal garbage…and then was silent about his Super PAC accepting a $1,000,000.00 donation from this slime ball.  If you want to know who Barack Obama is, you have to look no further than this.

Bill Maher, who is no dummy, instinctively knew he would be in trouble and actually came to Rush Limbaugh’s defense. I wonder why? The always grandstanding Gloria Allred is less forgiving, and has written the Palm Beach County Prosecutor requesting that Rush Limbaugh be jailed for using hate speech (and you wonder why I am a Republican). Maybe Bill Maher, and for that matter David Letterman, ought to call her and have a discussion.  How about a jail cell for two?

The conservative movement has its moments of regretful comments and behavior. But nothing can touch the left’s degradation of women not only verbally by the likes of Bill Maher, but in its continued political support in defense of Islamists who will stone a woman to death if she even talks to a man who isn’t her husband, let alone give her a driver's license. Maybe Bill Maher should move to Saudi Arabia, or Iraq, or Iran, or Afghanistan. One former Congresswoman who was on the receiving end of his disgusting and vile attacks called him a pig.  I agree.  You should too.

Our Afghan Apology Shame

So I want to understand this. Terrorist prisoners in Afghanistan are passing notes to each other in Korans and other books in a military prison library. The army discovers what is going on, removes the books and destroys the note laden books by burning them. The radical Islamist whack jobs then take to the streets rioting and causing all sorts of trouble. In the process, six Americans are killed including embassy officials who are shot in the back of the head. Meanwhile, in a mini apology tour redux, Obama says he is sorry to an Afghan government whose very continued existence is owed to those same troops being killed by their people, and promises to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Meanwhile, in Iran, home of another bunch of Islamist whack-a-doodles, a Christian minister is condemned to death for converting from Islam to Christianity. And in just about every other Islamic country, it is illegal to bring in a bible punishable by mutilation, imprisonment, or death. Let’s not forget 9-11, and all of the billions upon billions of dollars spent in Afghanistan and Iraq saving those people from tyrants of varying degrees, Afghanistan being the worst where you could be executed for listening to a radio.

I am sick of these Muslim idiots. I am tired of being concerned we are offending them. These people are barbaric in every sense of the word. No religious belief justifies what is going on in these countries. And I can’t think of one damn thing that we should “apologize” to them for now, or at any time in the past. I am also tired of “respecting the office” of the Presidency when Obama has destroyed any dignity associated with that office by idiotic and asinine decisions like apologizing to these Islamic nutcases.

It’s time to put an end to all of this stuff. Iraq owes us oil for saving their ass. Libya owes us oil for saving their ass. Afghanistan has no oil, but plenty of other minerals that could mined if they only would quit praying five times a day and growing opium and go to work!!! And while they are at it, quit beating up on their women and homosexuals. Enough.

This election year evil is an issue. These people are evil. History has shown repeatedly the cowering in the face of evil doesn’t work. You can’t appease. You can’t accommodate. You can only kill and wipe these cockroaches out. It is incomprehensible that we continue to give these horrible people and deeply flawed cultures money. Cut them off. Let the Saudis take care of them. Let the Saudis, the birthplace of the Taliban, take care of the poverty in Afghanistan, and in Egypt, and in the other non-oil Arab states. If Iran wants a nuclear bomb, let the Saudis deal with them. But they won’t. The Saudis are willing to let us do what they are afraid to do, and too cheap to do, and too smart to do themselves.

North America has the means to be energy independent if we choose to be. We have sufficient natural gas and coal for generations to come. Instead, we choose to put up with this bull crap.

Enough. Obama should be ashamed of himself. His apology has certainly shamed this nation.