Obama Holds Staged Townhall Meeting

Well, the President is conducting a Townhall Meeting for some unknown reason, but coupled with the best press conference ever on Tuesday, I suspect it's just a way for him to campaign some more and shore up his falling popularity numbers. Also, the web questions are "shockingly" softball in nature compared to what the reporters asked him (with the exception of Ann Compton's pathetic question). After listening for a while it's a regurgitation of what we heard Tuesday: universal health care, new energy grid, crisis, bad republicans, crisis, regulation, blah blah blah. Maybe this guy on the campaign trail could run for President someday! Oh wait......never mind.

Geithner's Reinventing of the Wheel is Going to Hurt

Our favorite tax cheat, Tim Geithner has publicly stated that capitalism needs to be changed and he's just the man to do it. Well, too bad the boy genius doesn't seem to have a clue to the damage his plans are going to inflict on our economy in the future. He needs to go....too bad Change, Inc. seems determined to keep him there.

The "Hope" of Retribution

Read it. Memorize the figure. And either hunker down and wait it out or stand up and engage. This needs to be confronted NOW!!

Change and Hypocrisy All Rolled in One

Yesterday the Senate passed the $410 billion Omnibus Spending Bill, loaded with 9,000+ earmarks totalling nearly $15 billion worth. The President campaigned heavily on "hope and change" and promised to clean up the "usual ways in Washington." Part of that promise included vetoing any legislation filled with earmarks. Well, the first test comes with this Omnibus bill, and guess what? Hope and Change plans on signing the bill today. His reason for signing a bill filled with earmarks? It's last year's business. Wow......inspiring! Isn't "change" amazing!?

95% of Americans and the Other 5% Are Screwed

Tax hikes are coming. Be prepared. Oh! And make sure you turn everything off in the house....power bills are about to skyrocket.

Democrats Opening Pandora's Box

Well....the appetite for unwarranted vengeance among Congressional Democrats is insatiable. Here they go, wasting time and taxpayer dollars to try and punish the prior Bush administration. Well, as they say, what's good for the goose....watch for this to become the new norm: new administrations punishing prior ones for partisan and policy disagreements. Love the new Land 'O' Change.

An Accurate Portrayal of America Today...Written 200 Years Ago

Alexis De Tocqueville's Democracy in America is one of the most famous documents in history regarding the United States. Everyone ought to read it at least once. Well, The Weekly Standard magazine put a short piece from Democracy in America in its latest issue and look at how eerily similar it appears to today's land of Change, Inc.

Socialism's Wacky Side Effect? Collective Misery Abound!

If you aren't angry about the President's idea to just bailout those threatened by foreclosure, you ought to be. The plan's a lose-lose for everyone, and is just a way to spread that failure all over the country, which happens to be a key part of socialist garbage. People are starting to finally get it.

And Rick Santelli? He gets it too.

Obama: "I Won, So Americans Need to Suck Up This Stimulus"

The arrogance is now in full force. To quote President Change, in response to critics of the stimulus pushing for more tax cuts and reducing the spending: "I reject those theories, and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change."'
Wow. Guess that means we just have to eat this bill and all the pork lined within. Guess that means that the millions who voted against him don't matter, either. The ego of this man....it's really unbelievable.

Obama's First Economic Failure

So maybe you've heard of Obama's plan to stimulate the economy once he takes office. That stimulus number has grown recently to a figure somewhere around $1 trillion. That's not a misprint....that's the word "trillion" back there. How will this package work? Why, infrastructure development of course! Build roads, sidewalks, and whatever else can be paved over. Sounds great right? Jobs created, people at work, economy stimulated. But guess what? Somewhere else in this world of ours, another country tried this same tactic just 20 years ago. That country was Japan. They adopted the same concept and upon completion went into a decade-long recession. Most Americans either don't know or don't care about this critical history lesson. Guess we'll all find out the hard way why this plan is doomed to fail right from the start.

Hey, Just to be Safe, Let's Just Bailout the Whole Planet!

I watched the hearings with the CEOs of Ford, GM, and Chrysler these past two days and I tell you...it's a bunch of garbage. So we gave billions to AIG so they could go and play on the beach and at resorts, and then we gave $700 billion to Wall Street and banks without any oversight on where the money went and how it was used. And now these three are begging for $25 billion....no scratch that.....$34 billion (and rising) from the government. When did this become the norm? So now if a company is in trouble we bail them out? Whatever happened to the word 'bankruptcy?' Now states are begging for at least $100 billion in aid from President-Elect Obama. Now, imagine if you or I walked in to see Senate Majority Leader Reid, or Senator Dodd and sat down and explained:

"well, we're just strapped for cash and have a home in foreclosure. We also have credit card bills that aren't being paid because of rising utility bills and car payments. Now.....all we'd need is a small 'bridge loan' of $10,000 to get back on our feet. We have six kids and so....we're too big to fail. If you could just grant us this loan with some critical benchmarks for improvement, you won't be sorry!"

We'd be shown the door in a second with no help and a 'thanks for your support' as you were on the way out. So the American people, the people that spend money and drive the economy are allowed to fail but three car companies who have failed to keep spending in line and have been poorly managed are okay? AIG is okay? Citibank is okay? When did this happen? Why did we let this happen? Because we've become a coddling society. Because it would be so sad to see people lose their jobs. But it's critically important to realize that bankruptcy was designed for a reason. It's important to remember that while many would lose their jobs, sometimes that step is necessary to remain competitive in the world. A stagnant company with falling revenues that is given money from taxpayers to stay afloat for maybe a year is the worst investment because all it does is provide a band-aid for the problem, when what is really needed is stitches or more. I say let the companies go bankrupt. Let them restructure and become more efficient and cost-conscious. The unions can complain all they like, but if the money isn't there, they lose all leverage. Let them go back to square one and try to be competitive again. Let those companies take the risk, not the taxpayers.

And if the federal government feels sorry and gives the money to these companies, and then gives money to the state governments (who blew record surplusses over the past five years), then I know it'll only be a matter of time before small local businesses are next, and then even individuals. Finally, some allied country, that we already give money to in the form of aid, will come knocking and asking for their own bailout. And then what do we do?

My Own Identity Crisis

So before, I had mentioned that I had been going through a bit of a political identity crisis recently. As I grew up with my family, I became increasingly conservative in my political and social beliefs. Only my mother was a liberal, as far as I knew, but my aunts and uncles all leaned right, and so, I did as well. After four years in the military and the infidelity of President Clinton, I came into 2000 as an even further entrenched Republican. I felt a bit lost in college, a political minority among a sea of liberal young people and professors. And then came September 11, 2001. I was enrolled in a number of political science courses and was just beginning my pursuit of a degree in International Affairs. The events of that tragic day are burned into my consciousness and I remember how I had become almost embittered toward anyone who challenged the authority of President Bush. Liberals became something I grew to truly dislike and distrust. When I finished my studies in 2003, I went to Hawaii and began pursuit of a graduate degree in one of the most liberal states in America. I made friends with some who were liberals and learned that there were good people on the other side and maybe (after 2 years) I had learned to appreciate their differences.

At the same time I married a wonderful woman from Japan. She is a very left of center person and we acknowledge our political differences, which are often sharp. We moved back to Nevada in 2004 and soon after our marriage, my wonderful son was born. It was at that moment that the crisis truly emerged within me, although at the time I was unaware of it. If you remember, America at that time was going through a tough presidential election and America was politically divided. My wife and I had a number of political discussions that year and into 2005 and these were often coupled with arguments over our differences. In that same period I started working on my graduate studies in political science. I began to see the political world through a sharper and more focused lens and my wife began to open my worldview a bit more. And in the meantime I was beginning to be frustrated by the Republican party in general. There was just something not right in their actions and words, and I began to tune out for a while.

Then came this election cycle. I finished my Master's degree in Political Science in May 2008 and watched the election unfold with a very different mindset than I did during 2004. I was open to different ideas and watching the candidates, I never felt impressed by John McCain. His service was admirable, but he didn't express himself well and didn't seem to have a solid message. In contrast, Barack Obama seemed like the guy. He was charismatic, maintained his message, and I was unexpectedly drawn to him. And after he won, I sat down and asked myself if maybe I was truly a liberal. Maybe I had shifted so much over the years that I couldn't call myself a conservative. But the truth was, after examining the conservative ideals again, and looking over the Republican platform, I was, in fact, still a conservative. I hold those tenets to be true. And after some thinking, I realized that the Republicans in office had been the ones to turn me away. They hadn't maintained their principles and as a result, I (and many other) Republicans felt lost. Was I like that? Did I really subscribe to that party ideal? No. I subscribe to the basic Republican and conservative principles that held the party through the 80's and 90's. And because those in office had strayed from the course, it tainted the party's image across the country. The discourse didn't help either. Partisan exchanges often became heated and insulting over the past eight years and so it was difficult to truly debate the issues. Liberals were this and conservatives were that, never mind the actual issues.

Well, the crisis is at an end. I am a Republican. I am a conservative. And that doesn't mean I am hateful of liberals. It doesn't mean I support President Bush 100% of the time. But it doesn't mean I welcome the left's perspectives with open arms either. I lean right for a reason, and it's because I believe that the principles of conservatism are correct. And the most important thing for me to recognize was that conservatism doesn't equal dislike of liberalism. It just opposes it ideologically. I have liberal friends who are great people. My wife is still liberal and I love her. But at this point in my life, I can maintain my positions and have a civil discussion with those on the left and not be insulting or degrading. I can also appreciate their positions and respect them, even while disagreeing with them. Finally, I know, at this time, that being conservative doesn't make me a bad person. And holding conservative views doesn't either. Maintaining conservative views and positions is something I am not ashamed of, and now that my head has been cleared and I have grown a bit this year, I am more than ready to tackle the issues and work to fix the damage done to the party. My only question is, am I the only one that went through this?