The Hope To Change...Ourselves

So over the last few weeks I've been watching the stories of the day and sometimes it's difficult to come up with where I want to begin. I feel I'd be wasting your time if I just took the headlines of the day and threw them up here regularly with a touch of commentary and called it a blog. I try to make it a little more interesting since if you bother to read blogs such as this you probably already know most of the headlines of the day to some degree.

I will cover some of the important issues of the day throughout this blog but that's really not what this is about today. It seems we can't get away from the same old games when it comes to politics. One the one hand it's pretty much expected that most politicians are going to let us down but on the other hand we always head into election day thinking, (hoping is probably a better word to use), that the candidates will deliver on the promises they make.

The problem is seems for each of us is that rather than accept that a candidate we've believed in before is incapable of delivering on empty promises we want to play the blame game. It's easier to play the blame game than it is to admit being wrong. For several years we saw this with President Bush and it's our current situation with many who want to still believe in Obama.

Let's take some of the issues facing black Americans today, (I don't use hyphenated terms when discussing Americans like African-American, it's not to offend it's to point out that we're Americans end of story, you're an American who is black just as I'm an American who is white, I'm not a Caucasian-American, if any of that offends you....tough, because you're unreasonable). On the one hand it's easy to understand the faith black Americans have in President Obama, can you blame them?

I'm not going to go in depth on the history here because I've covered that before and if you want to take the time to read my previous thoughts on this feel free to, (warning: it's not a quick read so grab some coffee). I will say this though, what if the tables were turned on race? What if every previous president in American history was black and the civil rights movements or MLK jr., (who would be white in this hypothetical), were because of segregation and oppression against whites. Wouldn't most whites, (who would be a minority in this scenario), give a pass to many failures of our first white president out of pride?

Looking at the situation under those circumstances I can understand why so many minorities are willing to give a pass and make excuses for President Obama's failings. Take a look at this and let me highlight a few things. The first thing I'd like to point out is the fact that this article is from September 15, 2008 when President Bush was still in office. Keep that in mind as you read it.

"Young Black adults and recent college graduates (25 to 29-year-olds) are finding it difficult to find work. Their unemployment has risen from 5.1 percent in August 2007 to 6.9 percent last month"

"Perhaps for reasons of race or systemic economic justice, Democratic and Republican presidents have made the real unemployment statistics almost impossible to find in the media"

So in other words "perhaps" both Republican and Democratic presidents are somewhat racist and the media is helping them. Give credit for the willingness to hit both sides here but remember that President Obama has made things worse and the media is still helping hide the real statistics yet he's largely given a pass. We'll get more into that later but let's keep analyzing this story for now.

"People are rightfully suspicious of what the media now tries to pass off as “official” jobless statistic."

Do you understand now? Nothing has changed here this quote is 100% accurate in the current context. In 2008 under Bush it was fine, yet now the very same truth is treated like propaganda against Obama, funny isn't it?

"What makes the object — or the true jobless rate — so important is that it affects the social fabric of the African-American community.

A high unemployment rate can determine the quality of family life and education, crime, housing, how long people lives, how sick they are and many other vital factors."

I highlighted certain words here for a reason. If high unemployment is bad for all of these things, (and I agree that it is), then why was health care and bailouts the #1 priority of President Obama? It seems that had his priority been real job creation, (which he doesn't understand), then it would help with many of the problems within the black community.

"These social ills require special programs ranging from Food Stamps, AID to Dependent Children, unemployment compensation, housing support, energy assistance and Medicaid"

Record number of Americans now on food stamps, housing crisis, 3 years of unemployment. The vast expansion of these programs are directly tied to the lack of jobs. We need to reform these programs to eliminate fraud while at the same time follow smart economic policies that will have the effect of reducing the dependence on these programs. When both of these things happen it's good for everybody but if you say you want to reform these very programs your labeled as lacking compassion, or worse. I contest that it's not compassionate to put ideology ahead of logic thus condemning people to depend on these programs as a way of life, especially within the minority community.

"In the 1950s, the federal, state and local governments paid $23.5 billion for these program. By 1990, the cost for these programs hit $1 trillion — no small sum by any measure."

Look at that from this perspective. Between 1950 and 1990 we faced wars, recessions, political corruption, economic booms and busts, just like now and look how large the cost of these programs have grown. On our current course, how much do you think it will cost by 2030? Reforming these programs aren't just a matter of smart policy, they are a matter of our very survival as a nation.

"Some economists argue that the national Black jobless rate or employment-population ratio (the proportion of the working age population with a job) for African Americans is 42 percent of all those of working age. The translation: Almost half of all African Americans who can work aren’t working."

Remember, this is 2008, we aren't even talking about our current situation, which is worse.

"The social consequences of such a high unemployment rate are astounding. Policymakers and social science contend that they have resulted in overcrowded jails, failing schools, deteriorating housing and a broken health care system."

President Obama talks about all of these problems as most politicians do, yet he continues to follow failed policies in terms of job creation and reducing unemployment even though high unemployment is directly tied to many of these problems in the first place.

"since 1960 both Democratic and Republican presidents have rigged the numbers and the media has played along"

So much for change huh?

"He says even the Clinton administration, which was widely praised for its policies toward African Americans, helped push the real statistical realities of Blacks under the carpet.

According to him, the Clinton administration redefined the workforce as people seeking work for less than a year, so that those who were out of the job market for more than a year were not counted in the unemployment statistic.

The Clinton administration also thinned the household economic sampling from 60,000 to 50,000 by dropping mostly inner city households, resulting in a count that reduced Black unemployment and poverty levels."

So, simply put, Clinton lied, what a shock, but at least he didn't have sexual relations with that woman Ms. Lewinsky, right? Never mind, let's get back on track and look at today.

Let's analyze a more current story to see just how much of a hero President Obama has truly been for the poor and minorities since enacting his progressive platform of deception. Read this from August 17, 2011. Just 9 days ago.

"The poverty rate is 14.3%, the highest since the mid-1990s. A record 45.8 million people receive food stamps"

Think about that statistic for a second. How is this possible after nearly 3 years of President Obama, 2 of which the Democrats also controlled the entire congress? If you know about the past then this really wouldn't come as a surprise. This always happens when the government strays from the Constitution and becomes entrenched in issues it shouldn't be involved with. Big-government socialist policies always lead to massive increases in poverty and government dependence and that never works out well for those most vulnerable, the poor and minorities.

"There’s no major Washington lobby for the poor"

That right there is key. President Obama is currently out on the west coast going to expensive dinner fundraisers and trying to rally voters. All politicians and presidents especially do this so I'm not criticizing him for it. The point is that while there's no lobby for the poor, the poor also aren't where the major campaign cash comes from, hence no lobbyists.

"Earlier this year, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, released a study questioning the plight of the nearly 44 million Americans whom the Census Bureau categorizes as impoverished, but also own appliances such as air conditioners and TVs."

Not to mention homes, (even though many have fallen into foreclosure due to the housing market crash), cars (where the cost of gas hurts), and cell phones (which amazingly also has a government subsidy program now. That's great now people can become dependant on the government for their phones also).

Speaking of the cost of gas. Do you remember in 2004 when President Bush was being hammered for gas reaching over $2.00/gallon? While it's true that during Bush term 2 gas peaked at over $4.00/gallon, we now seem to accept the "new normal" as gas is averaging about $3.50/gallon and rather than hear complaints all over the place I actually heard more praise for the fact that gas had come down 12 cents. Don't high gas prices also disproportionately hurt poor people? Where's the outrage?

"At a Decorah, Iowa, town hall meeting on Monday, President Obama repeated his argument that “a rising tide does lift all boats” – in other words, economic policies that aim to benefit all Americans are sufficient"

The rising tide lifting all boats quote is actually a JFK quote originally and the only problem here is that JFK and modern Democrats, like Obama, have completely different views of taxes. Most Democrats fail to mention that.

"Our true choice is not between tax reduction, on the one hand, and the avoidance of large federal deficits on the other. It is between two kinds of deficits, a chronic deficit of inertia, as the unwanted result of inadequate revenues and a restricted economy, or a temporary deficit of transition, resulting from a tax cut designed to boost the economy, produce revenues, and achieve a future budget surplus. The first type of deficit is a sign of waste and weakness, the second reflects an investment in the future" - JFK

You see, the rising tide lifting all ships was a reference to how low taxes and a booming economy are good for everybody, especially the poor. The only problem is that after JFK was assassinated it fell to racist liberal LBJ to actually pass the tax cut. He did so, but coupled it with his massive government social engineering expansion often referred to as the "great society". The massive expansion of government led to a massive increase in government spending and diminished the gains of the JFK tax cuts, (which adjusted for inflation were actually larger than President Bush's). Isn't history fun? It's a shame that while President Obama like to use quick quotes of JFK he refuses to look at his economic policies when it relates to taxes as he travels the country calling for tax increases rather than spending reduction.

"But Smiley and West say the Obama administration has ignored the plight of blacks and the poor while focusing heavily on business interests."

Remember, as I said before, poor people don't raise a lot of campaign cash for either party, "business interests" do. That's the key. Much of the insight here is very telling as we always see progressive liberal politicians run on the platform of caring about the poor and attacking conservatives like myself for not having any compassion for the poor. Yet when they get into office the plight of the poor seems to increase under their policies while folks like me still get criticized for lacking compassion.

"In the 1990s, Smiley criticized President Bill Clinton for toughening penalties for crack-cocaine possession."

How dare President Clinton toughen penalties for crackheads, where's his compassion? Sorry, but I couldn't resist.

"Blacks still have deep affection for Obama. In a recent Washington Post poll, 86% of blacks approved of Obama’s job performance. But just 54% approved of his economic policies in the Post poll, down from 77% last fall"

Remember earlier when I talked about how I can understand why the black community wants the first black president to succeed to the point where he'll be largely given a pass on his failures? This proves that to be true. He's down to a 54% approval with black Americans on his handling of the economy yet still enjoys a 86% approval in his job performance. My point being correct is the only explanation as to how this is possible.

Earlier I stated how this post is really about you and that's what I'll get into now. I recently explained how Obama deserves to be re-elected if a majority of Americans fall for his rhetoric rather than looking at his results. Washington and the politicians can't fix our country, only we can.

We need to stop looking at every damn issue as being about black and white, or left and right. Everything comes back to a fight between Democrats and Republicans. It's the same fight over the same issues every single election and it blinds us from being objective.

We are the key to saving our own future. If we don't engage in educating our kids, teaching them about the importance of a strong work ethic, and respect for other people, then how can we expect them to grow up with anything less than an attitude of greedy expectancy?

If we can't be honest, then we can't be saved. I understand why so many people aren't engaged and are therefore more easily duped by the routine promises of the political elite. As Americans we have the Constitution to remind us that we have to have a natural distrust of politicians as they will always be inclined to abuse power if we give it to them. You see this with things like the EPA.

When a politician proves to be incapable of improving our country then we have a responsibility to hold them accountable. The problem is that far too many of us refuse to hold them accountable because we don't want to feel like traitors by voting for a Democrat if we're a Republican or voting Republican if we're a Democrat.

Many minorities feel the same way about President Obama. Electing America's first black president is quite an accomplishment. However, now many minorities feel as if they are traitors if they don't support him. Turning so much of our political discussions into arguments about class warfare or racial bias blinds us from discussing what's really important. A future of freedom and success for our children.

Look, I'd rather be playing Gears of War 3 on my XBOX than spending hours researching and engaging in politics but I have a responsibility to try and help ensure that my children have a chance to live in freedom as I have. The more we ignore the wrong steps taken by our politicians and the more power we give to the elite political class under the pretext of taking care of us then the more we deny that freedom to the next generation. Which we all claim to care about regardless of party or class.

Let's be honest with ourselves first and foremost since most of the politicians aren't going to be. Let's get it right and correct the One Big Ass Mistake America (OBAMA). He had his chance and he failed. There's no shame in that, many have failed in the past and most politicians have failed to deliver on campaign promises. The presidency isn't an easy job, but when a president proves he isn't up to the task we have an obligation to not overlook bad policies for the sake of saving a political party, saving the future for our children is more important.

Gingrich/Cain 2012!....or Cain/Gingrich 2012! Doesn't matter to me. Think about it. See you next time, thanks for reading.

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The Return Of Candidate Obama

As we get ready to remember and reflect on the 9/11 attacks 10 years later it's interesting to see and be reminded of who candidate Obama was back in 2008. It's hard to believe that it's been 10 years since that tragic day. For today, I'm going to address the jobs speech and perhaps set a context up as to why, perhaps, Obama does deserve to be re-elected. I'm sure those words shock many coming from me but keep that point in mind. By the end of this story you'll understand what I mean. Let's start with the jobs speech.

One thing I've never denied President Obama is that he is a gifted, inspiring speaker, (it may be scripted off of the teleprompter but he's still effective). Those of us who've followed politics for a long time may remember when President Obama spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 when Kerry was trying to defeat President Bush. Obama gave the best speech of the convention and I recognized his ability to give a speech then and have never forgotten that.

The thing we have to analyze is whether an inspiring speech that makes you feel good is worth ignoring the results of the speaker. We as Americans are always being tested by politicians when in fact we should be the ones testing them. The problem is that far too many of us get wrapped up in supporting a party, a speech, or even the race of a politician in a way that makes us ignore results in place of belief in intentions.

President Obama talks about hard work and paying fair share, yet his ideology advocates neither. Progressive Liberals, socialists really, believe that if you don't work hard you deserve to be subsidized by the government out of compassion. Many progressive Republicans, (often referred to as neo-cons), agree. Don't forget that President Bush increased social welfare programs out of compassion.

He talks, as many liberals do, about paying a fair share, yet he's okay with 42% of Americans paying nothing. How is paying nothing a fair share? We all agree that the rich should pay more in taxes but it seems that the anti-capitalist left ignore the fact that the current system is exactly that.

President Obama and other Liberals have not problem demonizing the evil rich corporations, oil companies, and "fat cats", yet they ignore the pass given to unions and liberal organizations through lobbyists etc. They criticize Conservatives like myself as being in the tank for big business yet they are the ones who support bailing them all out.

They don't criticize the unions who can't afford the pensions of the workers they claim to stand up for because those unions use their money to donate millions of dollars to Democrats in the hopes that they'll then receive a government kick back to bail them out of the pension funds they'd have been able to better afford had they not given the money to politicians in the first place.

Explain this one to me, during the jobs speech President Obama talked about reforming Medicare, yet Paul Ryan was attacked for trying to do exactly that. When talking about reforming entitlements they attack Rick Perry for calling Social Security a "ponzi scheme" in order to scare senior citizens away from Republicans. Let's talk facts for a moment though.

What would you say if I asked you to give me money out of every paycheck until you're 62 years old. Then when you turn 62 I'll start to give you regular checks in your retirement. What would you say if you knew that the average life expectancy at the time was 59? Wouldn't that look like a scam? Especially if you knew that I was spending the money you were giving me anyway. That is exactly the case with Social Security. Look up the average life expectancy of the 30's for yourself and you'll see it's true regardless of what the fear mongers on the left say.

I support Newt Gingrich for president as I've said before but the heat Rick Perry is receiving for his attacks on the socialist security system are nothing more than an attempt to scare senior citizens, (which are a huge chunk of voters), away from Republicans in favor of President Obama. If our senior citizens are gullible enough to fall for that then we deserve another term of Obama. Personally, I have more faith in our seniors than that. I don't believe senior citizens are that dumb but apparently those on the left, who claim to have so much compassion, do.

He talked about making us the most innovative, educated people in the world. How do you expect to pull that off with the feeling of entitlement in so many people and an education system driven by a government bureaucracy partisan agenda rather than being driven by learning actual facts and life lessons?

President Obama talked about passing the trade agreements but this makes no sense. The trade agreements have been waiting for his signature since day one. He's let them sit there without sending them to congress for 2 1/2 years and all of a sudden he trying to make it seem like Congress is the reason it hasn't been done. Funny how I didn't see the Democrat controlled congress pushing for those deals to be signed for the 2 years they were in charge. Makes you wonder why? Especially since President Obama is now telling us that they would boost American manufacturing and help with jobs. Are we supposed to believe that that is the fault of the Republicans is congress as well?

He talked about agreeing with cutting spending and regulation and how he could say that with a straight face is impressive. All he's done since taking office is massively increase both spending and regulations. Therefore you have to ask yourself this question. Do you believe President Obama or candidate Obama? Here's one point where the two couldn't be more different. Candidate Obama, who gave the jobs speech, had to literally disagree 100% with President Obama in order to even talk about cutting spending and cutting regulation as President Obama has done nothing but massively increase spending and regulation since taking office.

Obama says he rejects the notion that stripping collective bargaining rights are necessary to compete in the global marketplace. Oh yeah, well try telling that to China. Tell that to the bankrupt postal service that can no longer afford benefits for retirees. Tell that to the bailed out unionized car companies that despite being given billions of dollars are still in trouble. Tell that to the right to work states, like Texas, that are crushing all of the progressive states on private sector job creation. He may reject stripping collective bargaining from union workers but I reject bailing out unions that donate millions to his campaign and then claim they are in financial trouble. I also reject using the power of the federal government to give an edge to unions over non-unions and it's funny how Progressive liberals constantly talk about "fairness" yet ignore this very real point.

President Obama says he'll listen to all parties and asks for people to speak up. Yet when the Democrats controlled the legislature 100% he ignored the Republicans and even ridiculed the tea-party which was an example of people doing exactly that. I say again, do you believe smooth talking candidate Obama or the real Obama you've seen leading this country for almost 3 years?

Obama doesn't want his jobs plan to pass, the plan isn't going to work but that's not what it's about. Let me give you another ludicrous point about his jobs plan. He claims that he'll give a tax credit to businesses that create new jobs or increase the pay of workers. Let me ask you something, how big would that tax credit have to be for it to be worth hiring another worker? Hiring another worker, especially a full-time worker isn't cheap.

Think of this, let's say you pay a new full-time worker a crap poverty wage of $20,000/year. Now you have to give health care coverage to that worker and we still don't even know how much that will cost under Obamacare but I think it's safe to assume it's at least a few grand. Let's say it's $4,000/year and I'm probably being nice setting it that low but let's continue with the example. Now, the cost of that worker, (who's basically making a poverty wage), is $24,000/year for the business. Do you expect Obama's tax credit per worker to be more than $24,000/year? Of course not, therefore, his tax credit for new employment sounds good in a campaign speech but doesn't match reality in the business world.

After all, the tax credit would have to be massive to entice worker employment simply for the sake of receiving the tax credit and how then would the left be able to resist criticizing the tax cuts for rich corporations? His tax cut per worker is a joke and economically unfeasible and ignorant.

He talks about our schools being in such rough shape and the need for infrastructure spending for new roads etc. Well, simple question there. What happened to the trillion dollars you got last time in stimulus that you said was paying for those very same things? We're supposed to believe that this smaller stimulus will take care of all those things when the much larger stimulus didn't? If Americans are willing to accept that nonsense then you do in fact deserve re-election President Obama.

It's on us as Americans now to stop treating politics like some American Idol contest. There are real problems facing our country and the truth is that it's our fault. We allow ourselves to ignore history in place of feeling better about ourselves. We make excuse after excuse for our party, ourselves, and our children. We're told not to discipline our kids because we don't want to hurt there self esteem but then wonder why they are turning into disrespectful, entitlement driven asses.

We are afraid to reform the government entitlement programs out of fear of being labelled as lacking compassion. It's time to grow a pair and make a stand for the truth. I applaud Rick Perry for being honest about socialist security being a scam. If the elderly fall for the rhetoric of the dishonest groups like Moveon.org and ignore the problems the system faces even though it's the children, (you know, the children that the progressive left always claim to care about), that will suffer when the system does collapse due to our inaction on the necessary reforms needed to the government entitlement programs.

You may recall in a recent post I talked about the Reagan tax plan and his thoughts of social security. It's funny how the disingenuous folks on the left love to quote Reagan about saving socialist security in 1983, (which he in fact did), but they fail to inform people of what he said was in store for the long term future of the program. I've used this quote before but it's relevant and worth repeating. Hey MSNBC, take a break from calling people like me morons and listen up, you might learn something true for once.

From a letter from Ronald Reagan to Mr. Austin Trimmer Jr. dated July 24, 1981.

"If I may, let me explain the situation and what it is we're trying to do with Social Security. I have reneged no pledge. I said during the campaign that we would do nothing to hurt those presently dependent on Social Security checks-that we would not pull the rug out from under those people so dependent. I did say that I would try to restore the integrity to the program. As it is now, the program without change will run out of money for paying benefits to the present recipients sometime late in 1982. Beyond that, however, there is a long-range actuarial imbalance which means that down the road in the next century, but within the lifetime of younger workers today, the program will be several trillions of dollars out of balance.

Our proposal was intended to resolve both the short-term problem and that long-range imbalance. We did not, in any way, affect the benefits of those presently dependent on the program."

Are you still convinced that those of us who advocate reforming the Social Security program wouldn't have the support of Ronald Reagan? He warned us this was coming and he understood that people already dependent on the program have to continue receiving benefits. This is exactly the position all of us who see and admit the need for reforming the system advocate. The media can keep insisting that we'd be too far to the right for Reagan but his own words prove otherwise.

It's on each of us now to stand up for the truth and if that means I have to be criticized for lacking compassion by those desperate to save the Obama presidency for another term then so be it. If seniors are scared off by the lies being launched by those who would stand by and do nothing to reform the socialist security system then they are free to make the same mistakes other special interest liberal groups keep making.

It's time for the rest of us to grow a pair and stand up to our ignorant critics. One other point I found interesting after the Republican Debate. This is a little off topic but important. Fake Rev. Al Sharpton was talking to Herman Cain after the debate and he was of course confused as to how a black man could dare to be a Republican. Sharpton likes to reference the 3/5 clause in the Constitution where slaves were counted as 3/5 of a person for the census. He uses that to make the bogus claim that Tea party advocates and those of us who want a return to the principles of the Constitution want to return to slavery.

What ignorant Al fails to understand, or else flat out lies about, is that the 3/5 clause gave LESS representation to slave states then they otherwise would have had and therefore Fake Rev. Al's speaking out against the 3/5 clause is in fact a statement to the effect that he wishes the pro-slave states had more power and influence in Washington. He takes that position while calling Conservatives like me morons, I can't help but laugh and at the same time feel bad for his ignorance.

Even Frederick Douglas, who I'm sure Rev Al would claim to support originally thought the Constitution was a pro-slavery document.....until he read it. He then pointed out that it was an anti-slavery document. It's a shame Rev Al is so smart because apparently if he was a moron like he would say I am then he'd realize that.

It's time to make a real choice America. Either endorse the lies and fall for the celebrity charm of President Obama and his lying supporters, or make a stand for the truth and fight to save America from a future of Socialist government dependency and failure. It's a choice for each one of us as individuals, screw all of that collective talk. Will you prove you actually care about the children and teach the truth? Or will you doom them to a life of dependency and debt out of compassion? I've made my choice. In 2012, you will make yours.

Perhaps this 9/11 you can remember why America is worth saving. On 9/11 we united in tragedy, perhaps in 2012 we can provide real hope for our children. It takes more than using the word hope in a smooth speech. Candidate Obama will sound inspiring but we now know that President Obama is depressing. We will find out next year if we care more about smooth speeches that sound good, or necessary action that sounds tough. This is our country and this will once again be your choice. You know where the ideologues stand, now it's time to decide where you stand. You can choose to be in a group of sheeple and be told what you should believe, or you can look at the reality all around you and make a stand for what you believe.

We all know President Obama's going to blame Bush and the Republicans in congress for all of his problems and we all know the Republicans will do the same. Given the results of the last few years you have a pretty simple question to ask yourself. Does President Obama deserve another term or not? Just remember that a campaign is when politicians tell you who they want you to think they are. The actions they take while in office tell you who they really are.

You have more than a year to think about it but on Sunday think about how much your life can change in one day. Think about how much the world can change in 10 years. Think about the path you want to follow in the next 10 years, and think about whether or not that is truly the path you are on. Take care and never forget.

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