This is the Best?

Really? Really?!?

This is the best we as a nation can do?

Joe Biden- revealing state secrets this weekend, adding to his thousand other "gaffes." But, oh, how, cute the media treats him. Chuckle, chuckle, there goes Crazy Joe. (As opposed to the rip jobs done on Palin, Quayle, etc.)

Nancy Pelosi--who told six stories in 4 minutes --and, by the way, the people who should be most outraged are the liberals who thought she was protecting their interests all these years. As for her position (her 4th, I think) that she couldn't do anything about waterboarding in 2002--hey, hasn't she been Speaker since 2006? Are you telling me, if she was really troubled by the interrogation methods, instead of on a junta-like political retribution attack, that she couldn't have put a stop to them 3 years ago? Or at least ordered hearings then?

Barney Frank.

Harry Reid.

Any of the half-dozen or so people in Obama's cabinet who didn't pay their taxes.

These are the men and women who snuck in under Obama's skirt while we allowed him to waltz into office.

Our best and brightest? Really?

Get What We Pay For

News that the co-pilot of that crashed flight out of Buffalo was earning less than what a CVS clerk with 2 years experience earns is troubling. The calls from liberal circles is for re-regulation, wage scales, etc.

The problem is, we are getting what we deserve--in so many ways, so many places.

I'm not saying those poor people on that flight deserved to die. What I am saying is that the airlines are left with no choice but to cut service, slash maintenance, hire as cheaply as they can-- resulting in, predictably, poor service, long delays when planes are taken out of service on an emergency basis, and, well, incompetent personnel.

Who is forcing them into these choices?

We are.

The American consumer.

We have gotten to the place in this country where all we care about is price. Consumers should be making informed choices taking into account a whole host of factors--price among them. But we have stopped doing that.

Our short-sightedness has lead to airlines stripping down their industry because people base their traveling decision solely on the price of the ticket-- an extra $40? No way!

We base our clothing and sundry purchases solely on price-- in a throw-away society, who cares if the shirt is well made? Probably only going to wear it a few times anyway. Do we care if our clothes are made in China by slave labor? Not if it means a dress shirt for $14. American industries close? Screw 'em. I want a $99 color TV.

Our towns are devastated in hidden ways by the Walmarts and Home Depots of the world. We lose our businesses, our community leaders, our volunteers when store after store closes. But, hey, I can get a wrench for $3 less! Will it last? Who knows? Who cares? They're so cheap, I'll buy another! Do I care that the guy running the local hardware store sponsors Little League teams and particpates at the local senior center and hires local kids to work summers and actually knows his product line? Nope.

I don't have the answer. I'd like to wrap this situation up into my theory that the Boomers, no doubt the most selfish generation in American history, have continued to rip through our culture, debasing it in every way--and that the Walmart-ing of America is just another example of their me-me-me disdain and disregard of all things, well, American.

Is government control The Answer? Any time I even start to be lulled by that siren call, I look at my TV and see Pelosi & Reid and Frank, and, for that matter, Boehner and W, and FEMA and the SEC and...well, you get the point. These people can't run what's on their plate now--how can we possibly think for a second that they could really run an entire economy. That has never worked, anywhere, ever-- and it won't save us now.

What we probably need is a cultural shift--a shift to self-respect, to self-control, to accountablilty. And what are the chances of that?

Odd Day

It was just brought to my attention that today is Odd Day-- 5/7/09--and that Odd Days, where the dates are consecutive, happen only 6 times a century (01/03/05, 03/05/07, etc.).

Reminded me of an incident with my younger daughter--one of the first that gave us fair warning of the type of individual we were growing.

She must have been, I don't know, 3 or 4-- whatever the appropriate age is for kids to count.

Me: "Hey, Ali, can you count by twos?"
Her: "Sure, Dad!"
Me: "Let me hear it."
Her: "1, 3, 5, 7, 9..."

Who in the world counts by twos using the odd numbers?

It was a sign. I should have been better prepared for what came later, and, for that matter, what continues to come.

Odd Day, indeed.

Any Openings?

One of our local Democratic County legislators was arrested today on charges he failed to report, and pay taxes on, $226,000 of secret income he allegedly received from a contractor. The same legislator has had tax problems in the past.

Figure there is a Cabinet post left for him in the Obama Administration?

Jack Kemp, RIP

My GOP is going through some tough times-- not unlike the Dems did in the 1980's when Jack Kemp helped lead the Reagan Revolution. I have always been, and always will be a huge Jack Kemp fan. A decent, good, optimistic, upbeat, can-do man--full of big ideas and an effervescent enthusiasm in the delivery of those ideas.

Our party moved away from him, to the Bush family and the Southern Christians, and hence we have the problems of today. Long before it was fashionable, Kemp preached that the GOP should be the party of the working person--and he especially fought to bring a message of hope and individual accomplishment to minorities. He felt that conservative ideas--like school choice-- benefited poor and working families better in the long run than the socialist programs of the liberals. He was truly a big-tent Republican.

Our party chose, instead, to follow Bush and Rove, and pander to narrow-minded, one-issue target groups--and thus we have lost the Northeast, and in a time when more people now live in cities than anywhere else, we have lost metropolis'. Good for W--terrible for our party.

Kemp preached a different gospel--one where we help each other, regardless of race, creed, etc., because in helping others we make America stronger. Again and again I heard him say we need everyone on the team to be prepared and play well for the team to win--against businesses from other countries.

Kemp's vision of America included low and fair taxes; empowerment zones; individual freedom; and a commitment to helping others. It was a compelling vision--and our party would do well to revisit Jack Kemp's stands as we restructure the party.

From Jack Kemp:

There are no limits to our future if we don't put limits on our people.

There really has not been a strong Republican message to either the poor or the African American community at large.

Pro football gave me a good perspective. When I entered the political arena, I had already been booed, cheered, cut, sold, traded, and hung in effigy.

When people lack jobs, opportunity, and ownership of property they have little or no stake in their communities.

There is a kind of victory in good work, no matter how humble.

Every time in this century we've lowered the tax rates across the board, on employment, on saving, investment and risk-taking in this economy, revenues went up, not down.