Baltimore Pepsi Plant to Close -- The Cost of Higher Taxes

Baltimore is closing it's Pepsi Plant in the Hampden section of Baltimore City. Pepsi cites Baltimore's decision to impose a two cent per bottle tax as part of the reason for leaving the plant whose sign on the eastern side of the Jones Falls Expressway has become a Baltimore landmark (often used to mark traffic backups on the JFX). More than 70 workers will become jobless.

This is a hard lesson the Democratic party which exists in its purest form in Maryland refuses to recognize. Their hostility toward business and tax-happy big spending ways directly cause economic harm. There are sandwich shops and other businesses which feed off of Pepsi workers that will be affected too. The loss of a job magnet costs far more than the loss of jobs at the facility itself. The real nature of Baltimore once again shows its ugly face.

Reference: http://www.wbal.com/absolutenm/templates/story.aspx?articleid=65460&zoneid=3

Meanwhile, Ann Arundel County should be forewarned it had better not consider following the mistakes of Baltimore City for the Coca-Cola plant was a huge triumph when attracted to the new MD-100 corridor that opened in the late 90's through Dorsey, Maryland.



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Time To Be REAL ANGRY!!!

Today is our annual day of infamy, April 15, “tax day,” the day on which Federal taxes are due and often state taxes as well. The exercise in preparing one’s tax return becomes increasingly futile as there are more and more technicalities, write-offs for the politically well-connected special interests, and tons and tons of little gotchas that can result in all kinds of hell if a person makes a mistake on the paperwork.

We still have a ways to go before the date on the calendar when we exceed the number of working days it takes to pay our taxes and we start working for ourselves. That date will surely get later and later as taxes go up and the government becomes more disconnected.

The origins of our Republic in fact began largely through violent protest about excessive taxation the government of Great Britain forced upon the colonists. The Boston Tea Party was the beginning of what would lead to all out revolution.

Thousands will gather tomorrow in Washington and at other locations to send our leaders who simply don’t appreciate what their responsibilities are and fail to understand they are wasting our money – not theirs.

Many of us support the new Tea Party movement dedicated to speaking out against big government, huge deficits, and the government assuming an ever greater roll in our day-to-day lives. If this movement is not successful, then why are those committed to big government: the Democratic Party, labor unions, the news media and special interests who leech upon society worked up in such a frenzy against the Tea Party?

They have sent out calls of desperation to their loyalists to attempt to infiltrate Tea Party demonstrations to disrupt and misrepresent them attempting to discredit regular Americans exercising their constitutional rights to protest wrongs they perceive directed against them.

You can bet your bottom dollar if someone yells, “Nigger,” at a black person, it’s probably some activist goon squad member trying to attract negative press at the movement. We’ve already reported the case of www.crashtheteaparty.org. To engage in such treachery against one’s fellow citizens shows just how immoral and depraved today’s left wing activists, the backbone of Barack Obama’s and Nancy Pelosi’s support truly are.

The battle lines are drawn. The time to fight back is now. What benefit are you or your community getting for the thousands of dollars you’re shelling out to the government?

Historic Victory in Massachusetts

This is a day for right minded Americans to savor for a long time. Scott Brown convincingly defeated Martha Coakley to win the Massachusetts Senator position held by Ted Kennedy from 1962 until his death last year.

That the state of Massachusetts, one of the most predictably loyal Democratic states would serve Brown such a significant victory speaks volumes of the nation’s dissatisfaction of the Democratic Party’s attempt to transform our constitutional democracy into the statist nightmare of Obama nation.

Any one with the slightest bit of common sense and decency cannot help but be outraged with how the Democrats’ attempt to seize control of the nation’s medical system by some of the most blatantly cynical and corrupt methods imaginable. When Nebraska gets special consideration on Medicaid and excluding its insurance giant Mutual of Omaha from fees that would be imposed on other health insurers for Ben Nelson’s vote and similar treatment is passed on to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan to reward the auto workers, an entity largely controlled by Michigan’s labor unions, and the State of Louisiana likewise gets Medicare concessions not available to other states to court Mary Landreau’s vote, how can any one consider that proper conduct. To add insult to injury adding concessions to labor unions exempting union members from taxes others with private insurance would be forced to pay puts the Democrats of the United State Senate at extreme odds with rational American thinking. Martha Coakley pledged her unconditional support for the Senate’s plan.

While Coakley certainly made her share of idiotic mistakes from not knowing who a major Red Sox star was and called him a Yankees fan to campaigning for special interest lobbyist money in Washington DC days before the election, her arrogance and detachment from the electorate in the Bay State was astounding.

Make no mistake, however, that this election was more about Barack Obama and the behavior of Harry Reid’s majority of sixty Democrats than anything else. The Obama administration has dropped the ball on one issue after another from not taking responsibility for the near miss of a terrorist catastrophe over the skies of Detroit and its inexplicable ignorance on the Fort Hood massacre to radical environmental policies like “cap and trade.” The mantra of hope and change with a spirit of openness in government that voters thought they were embracing in voting for Obama proved an illusion. Right from the get-go from the earliest appointments, how they were handled, and how the President first began his taking the reigns of power, the Obama administration proved itself dependent on filthy Chicago style machine politics trading favor and selling out to special interests the total opposite of the promise to, as one for instance, have negotiations for “health care reform” broadcast on CSPAN.

An important threshold was crossed. With but 41 votes, the Republicans can now sustain filibusters and block the most onerous Democratic legislation.

Momentum has shift since November when voters in Virginia and New Jersey turned their statehouses to Republican leading to a huge triumph on this date. Hard work remains as there must be more turnover in both the house and senate to restore the nation’s Capitol to the people’s house.

Let us savor this victory as we prepare for greater battles ahead.

Business as Usual on Capitol Hill

So what's the rush? At 11:00 pm the final version of the so-called stimulus bill was completed bringing together the house and senate versions. How fast was this whole measure created? What's the rush? At over 1,100 pages, our fine elected leaders on Crapitol Hill are being forced to commit to quick passage.

Should we not be terrified that our Senators and Congressmen see fit to commit to a cursory rush job on something that will cost our society well over a trillion dollars including the expediture, interest, and most other costs this bill will cause.

Something this thorough, as wrong as it is, demands critical investigation before passage. The very nature of our economic system is being permanently revised by this fiasco.

How much worse can it get? Remember, this law started in the house largely a product of Nancy Pelosi.

Michigan Metal

Retro-styling or hard reality? Which car best represents the future of the United States automotive industry?



I saw a new Mustang GT convertible on the parking lot today. What a beautiful car, its styling sleek and stylish. One could think of the original Mustang of 1964 and its descendents until the Mustang mystique was squeezed into a Pinto body as the Mustang II in 1974. Although it still looked like a Mustang in many respects, everything about it was a jazzed up Pinto, and folks have said something about putting lipstick on a pig?

Michigan’s unemployment rate is over 10%. Things aren’t much better in Indiana and Ohio, two states with a heavy interest in the automotive industry. Through out the country, automotive factories have closed down. Here in Baltimore, the Chevy plant died when GM discontinued the Astro van, but the writing was on the wall when they stopped making the midsized cars of yesteryear when beautiful Malibu’s, GTO’s, Cutlass’s, and Buick Century’s rolled off the assembly line.

Your writer was born in 1953. I was a very little boy when I was first blown away by Michigan Metal, our neighbor had just purchased a white 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 convertible with a red interior. They said it had a Thunderbird engine. A few years later the doctor who lived across the street got a giant Chrysler 300 convertible then a 1963 Corvette Stringray, the one with the split rear window. By the time I was in 6th grade, I loved building car models. My model building started with the 1964 automotive year and continued through 1968. In ’66 to ’67, I built every single model that AMT and another supplier had that represented everything from a Ford Falcon to Chrysler Imperial. I subscribed to both Motor Trend and Hot Rod going crazy over the sneak previews of the next year’s autos. Each summer, I went to Pontiac, Michigan where my grandparents lived. How I loved the trips to the Pontiac plant where they build both full-sized and mid-sized Pontiacs, such beautiful cars in the mid 60’s and Dearborn where Ford assembled the Mustang and Cougar. If we were out there too late for that model year, the plants would be closed, but we’d see the haulers out on the Ohio and Pennsylvania turnpike rolling the new cars for the next fall east. Though they tried to cover them with tarps, we could get glimpses of the front and rear styling and occasionally the side sheet metal. A lesson in Michigan geography was a lesson in the General Motors product line. Flint was the home of Buick and some Chevrolets. Lansing was the home of Oldsmobile. Detroit built Cadillac’s and Chevrolets. Guess what they built in Pontiac? Well, they also built some GMC trucks and buses. Dearborn was synonymous with Ford. There was also the city with in the city, Hamtramck, where Chryslers were built by a largely Polish ethnic community.

Latee ach September, my father and I would start off a Saturday morning at the start of the big north Baltimore commercial drag, York Road, work our way down into Towson stopping at every dealer. We had them all except Cadillac which only had two dealerships in the Baltimore area. My dad would scold me not to get too excited at the Chevy dealer, but it was okay to drool over the Corvette. He was a Ford man through and through. He only bought two cars that weren’t Fords or Mercury’s my whole life, a Morris Minor as the family’s first second car. Lots of people were getting Volkswagen’s but he’d have no part of that. Briefly, he had a 1966 Oldsmobile Jetstar 88’s, a beautiful car, that replaced the Morris Minor while mom was driving the second of two Ford Country Squire’s the deluxe mommy mobile of the era. The 1964 Squire was briefly my first car. I could fit the whole gang in it, and for a buck’s contribution from some of the passengers we could drive forever with gas at $ .27 a gallon even though that big steel machine got around 14 mpg. From cars around 1955 to the early 1970’s, there were so many classics. Is there any young man even today who can’t recognize an original Thurnderbird or 57 Chevy?

In 1971, Chevrolet introduced the Vega and Ford introduced the Pinto. How could we have ever known that these stinking little “subcompacts” were the first signs of the decline of the American automotive industry? They were priced to obliterate the Volkswagen Beetle and there were a few little Toyotas and Datsuns starting to show up around town. The midsized cars were becoming the most interesting cars. Meanwhile, the full-sized cars were getting so large and bloated and the revision of the “pony cars” lost the simple beauty of the originals. Gas mileage didn’t matter when gas was below $.30 a gallon.

Washington started to have its say in the late 60’s but most of the original regulations made sense. The 1965 Corvair was a lovely looking little compact car, but Ralph Nader came out with “Unsafe at Any Speed” showing what the news media failed to cover. They were bombs on wheels with the gas tank in front of the passenger where there was no protection given it was a rear engine car. Likewise, cars had no pollution controls and those who can remember driving along the major expressways in urban areas particularly in the industrial parts of down, the air pollution was choking even smarting the eyes.

Nobody saw it coming unless traveling in the Middle East, but the unthinkable happened in 1974 when the surrounding Arab states invaded Israel only to be defeated horribly with Israel taking territory from the surrounding countries in response to create a little safety zone, but the Arabs realized the power they had was their oil. They could punish Western nations who supported Israel but cutting off the oil supply. Over night, gas prices skyrocketed, and gas was in short supply. Gas lines extended for blocks on every major street in America. Some states rationed gas and began lowering speed limits. The Feds responded by lowering the national speed limit to a measly 55 mph, a measure few citizens obeyed and eventually common sense would set in and the law was revoked. The government started setting mileage standards for the auto industry. Detroit responded by bringing out new smaller cars and downsizing existing models. Suddenly, the Pinto and Vega were in high demand, but as more people drove them, the obvious was clear, they were terrible cars in every respect. Vega engines had an awkward problem of blowing up, but worse, Pintos would explode when rear-ended. In 1977, General Motors downsized its full-sized cars for the first time. All of a sudden, everything from a Chevrolet Impala or Caprice to Buick LeSabre were shorter and narrower than their midsized counterparts. Even the elegant Cadillac DeVille got shortened. GM then downsized its midsized fleet. What was the hottest selling car in Detroit, the Olds Cutlass Supreme, was miniaturized into a faint shadow of its former self. From Malibu’s to Century’s the code word was BORING, but they were also cheap, shoddy pieces of junk. Not to be outdone, Ford responded with the introduction of the Ford Fairmont and Mercury Zephyr, and downsizing the LTD, Mercury Marquis, and all Lincolns. Their midsized line became totally ambiguous as familiar lines vanished and failed to stabilize until Ford finally got it right for many years with the awkward looking, bar of soap cars, the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable.

Almost overnight in the mid-70’s, Datsuns, Toyotas, and Hondas were every where. The ultimate of cheap, but a very high quality cheap, was the Honda Civic. Quickly, Toyota Corollas, Honda Accords, and Datsun 510’s were everywhere. One of the sexiest cars on the market was the Datsun 240Z. As model confusion and crappy quality dogged the mainstream domestic midsized market, the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord became the most popular cars in the country.

Somehow, despite all that happened. Detroit never got the message. Chrysler was mortally wounded but somehow sprung back with Federal loans and Lee Iacocca’s vision. Ford seemed to stay a little ahead of the curve in the late 80’s and early 90’s. It would be hard to notice due to their largesse, but General Motors was perhaps the most self-destructive of all. Can anyone remember the second round of downsizing of the Cadillac Deville? How sad. They had almost none of the traditional Cadillac elegance, but by 1991 they were able to cosmetically restore it to something that was worthy of the Cadillac crest. Many cars had wretch paint jobs that would start to oxidize after months. Quality issues and design defects by all three automakers were so widespread that almost any American car buyer could expect at least one or two recall notices. American Motors quickly folded and became part of Chrysler, but they had one product that would be a huge influence on Detroit’s future, the Cherokee.

Somehow, despite gas going as high as around $1.50 in 1979, the 80’s, 90’s and into the new millennium saws relatively cheap gas with only minor spikes in fuel costs such as during the first Gulf War. In 1991, Ford saw the potential of the Jeep Cherokee ditching its small sized Bronco II and introducing the Ford Explorer. Soon the Mini-Van, Detroit’s economical answer to replacing the mommy-mobile station wagons were obsolete as the mid-sized SUV took off like gangbusters. Eventually, even Lincoln and Cadillac would be in the SUV market with models based on their company’s Ford and Chevy large SUV’s based on the fullp-sized pickup chassis. Meanwhile, all of a sudden, even yuppies needed full-sized pickup trucks.

The Detroit cash registers were starting to ring again, but General Motors and Chrysler were still failing. The Japanese automakers continued to encroach on market share while the Korean Hyundai became mainstream and soon the KIA would follow.

Surprisingly, by the late 90’s, Ford and General Motors were actually building darned good cars. Their quality rivaled their Japanese counterparts, but car buyers had lost interest. Many baby boomers hit car buying age right as the downsizing fiasco started in the 1970’s and became accustomed to Japanese cars right away. Boomers didn’t feel the prejudice against Japanese cars as those manufacturers had built the weapons of war that killed thousands of American soldiers in the Pacific in World War II.

However, the glow of Michigan Metal had other factors causing it to rust away into dust. Through out the 60’s and 70’s, times were good. An auto industry strike against one of the big three could cost vital market share against its competition. Detroit had no sense of what the future could or would bring never realizing that even if everything continued rosy, they were building a model that was unsustainable in legacy costs. Auto workers were given incredible pension and benefits for life. The obligation on such costs were enormous and would escalate as the employees from the “Great” generation retired and the baby boomers settled in, but what would happen when the boomers started to retire?

Detroit’s workforce has contracted enormously since the 1970’s. Entire cities in the rust belt are essentially ghost towns in 2009. Flint, Michigan as one example, is a virtual wasteland. Here in Chesapeake country once proud factories in Baltimore, the famous “Chevy” plant, and Norfolk, the venerable Ford “F” series pickup are gone.

Nothing points to the changing face of the auto manufacturing landscape better than looking at NASCAR’s Sprint Cup. The body styles featured are the Ford Fusion, Chevrolet Impala, Dodge Charger, and Toyota Camry. Once the rules were American only, but they first had to bend a little when Dodge became a product of Daimler-Chrysler, then a German company. How could they keep Toyota’s fat bankroll out of the sport? Lots of good old boys were now driving Toyota pickups, and gulp, even full sized pickups as Toyota introduced its Tundra. Here’s the stark revelation. Look at where the cars are built. The Ford Fusion is built in Mexico, down in the land of drug lords and civil chaos. The Chevrolet Impala and Dodge Charger are built on the north shore of Lake Ontario near Toronto in Canada. The most American of all, the Toyota Campy built in Kentucky and Indiana!

The recent upsurge in fuel costs doomed Detroit’s remaining cash cow, the SUV and pickup truck market. Look at how much Ford depended on that market as most of their automobiles seem destined to fleet sales, company cars and the rental industry. Ford still builds the Crown Victoria but none are available to everyday consumers. They are built exclusively for fleet sales, mostly as police cruisers. What’s the small town sheriff department to do that maybe only has one to five cars?

The legacy cost of each American car is huge, a differential Detroit has to overcome to compete head on with the Japanese and Korean vehicles. How unfair can it be for those already retired who counted on a stable pension as part of their career compensation who never gave a though of having to save for retirement given the promise of steady income now wondering what will happen if any of the big three should fold or the workers of today sellout their processors to hold on to their existing jobs. Almost certainly, they would get some support from the government, but not at the level they were promised.

Today, most parking lots are full of virtually indistinguishable cars as a Mercedes doesn’t look that different from a Hyundai, and Ford, Toyota, Chrysler, Honda, General Motors, Nissan, Volkswagen, and Kia vehicles all look so similar. How is it that so many cars now are painted shades of gray and what few colors are still available, red, blue, and green are such dark muted colors? BORING! Only the retro VW Beetle and a few other small cars dare to be colorful even to the point of late 60’s tackiness.

The days of September excitement are gone as cars change so little over the years and almost none of them have any flare for style. Give Chrysler credit for pretty bold styling for its newest incarnation of the Chrysler 300. Perhaps its huge grill is supposed to be a “retro” touch to the big Chryslers of old.

How perfect the new Mustangs look. They are cars of the new millennium in almost every respect, but so recognizable as Mustangs of old. They are beautiful cars. Dodge responded with its retro Challenger which is likewise so faithful to the original. Soon Chevrolet will do the same with the reintroduction of the Camaro which goes back to the original design, mostly after the first body’s initial revision. All of these cars are so damned gorgeous, but all of them are essentially one or two passenger cars so as much as they fill a niche, they’re not the staple that cars like Impalas, Taurus’s, Malibu’s, Camry’s and Accord’s represent. The newest Camry is just plain ugly!

Are the new “pony” cars a glimpse of the potential the future could bring or just a little baby boomer sentimentality? Given what’s happened in Washington the last few months, one has to wonder as millions of taxpayer dollars have gone to General Motors and Chrysler just to meet their current expenses. So far, Ford avoided taking the dip, but all is not rosy in the land of the blue oval.

Government assistance means more government control, and given the recent energy price surge brought on demand for more fuel efficient standards and the current regime, the Democratic party, will surely seek pollution standards that will darn near demand emission perfection, Detroit’s ability to build quality, appealing cars will be further challenged while Toyota and Honda seem able to adjust at the snap of a finger.

It’s so easy to love the full-sized pickups and the pony cars, but is doing so living in the past? Given a camel is supposedly a horse designed by a government committee, we hate to think what Washington’s role in forging Michigan Metal could create. Given our seemingly irreversible march to socialism, the retro pony car could soon become a Trabant.

After Just Two Weeks: The Failed Obama Presidency (Yes We Mean It!)

As expected, the lack of any real managerial experience and his naïve idealism coupled with far-left sympathies have played out as expected as the Obama administration is off to an embarrassing and awkward start despite the “slobbering” media, as veteran reporter Bernard Goldberg describes it, trying to paint pictures which indicate otherwise with all their human interest focus on the President,

First, despite promises of ending business as usual in Washington, and that traditional Washington insiders would have no part in his administration, Barack Obama is facing tremendous problems with some of his key appointments and nominations, many of whom are traditional DC power moguls. Whether for corruption or failure to pay taxes, here is a partial list of the problem appointments so far.

Bill Richardson, Governor of Arizona, nominated for Secretary of Commerce. Withdrew nomination because of grand jury investigation into corruption charges.

Tom Daschle, Former South Dakota Senator and Senate Minority Leader. Nominated for Secretary of Health & Human Services, Withdrew nomination for failure to pay taxes and conflict of interest charges.

Tim Geithner, Former President, Federal Reserve, New York, CONFIRMED as Treasury Secretary despite failure to pay taxes.

Nancy Killefer, senior director at McKinsey and Co. and former Assistant Secretary for Management,Treasury Department, appointed to Performance Officer, withdrawn for failure to pay taxes.

Hilda Solis, US House of Representatives, California. Nominated for Labor Secretary. Conflict of interest lobbying for American Rights to Work, a radical pro-labor organization while serving as a member of the House.

Eric Holder, former Deputy Attorney General, Clinton Administration, CONFIRMED as Attorney General. Instrumental in orchestrating Mark Rich and Puerto Rican terrorists pardons.

Leon Panetta, former Clinton Chief of Staff and member of the House of Representatives. Nominated for CIA Director. First, Panetta has no serious intelligence experience. His background is that of a political insider. Second, he faces conflict of interest issues having made much money from companies involved in contracts with the intelligence services making money from bailout companies like Wachovia and "BIG OIL" BP. Here's the ultimate Washington wheeler-dealer who Obama swore would have no place in his administration. This is the man who can keep tabs on Bin Ladin's whereabouts?

Second, despite promises of an immediate “stimulus” bill to help citizens facing hardships brought on by the current recession, rather than showing leadership by crafting a bipartisan bill with input from the appropriate economic experts, writing the bill was left in the hands of Nancy Pelosi and her designees who created a huge package full of massive spending measures for a wide range of long sought after exotic left wing causes including $246 million in tax breaks to Hollywood film makers, $650 million in coupons for digital TV converters, $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees (what’s the potential fuel savings?), $150 million in Smithsonian upgrades, $75 million in smoking cessation programs, $1 billion additional funding for the 2010 census, $2 billion for FutureGen, a program withdrawn for inefficiency previously as a zero emissions power generation station, $1.2 billion for youth activities, plus billions on new and upgraded Federal buildings, training programs, and equipment.
Though supposed to help create jobs and ease financial burdens, what little return to the economy these programs would have are ones that would take years to flow back into the economy failing to provide immediate relief. Some might be justified, but most of these smack of being a victory celebration for the Democratic Party’s new lock on power. As such every single Republican and eleven Democrats voted against this financial disaster.

Unless the Senate can radically reshape this barrel of pork and earmarks, this represents a huge failure in wasteful spending but also demonstrates Obama’s failure to exert leadership in pushing high priority legislation through the house.

Besides these two huge messes, President Obama has also announced plans to close the terrorist prison at Guantanamo without having any clear plan what to do with the worst of the worst terrorists captured so far including 9/11 mastermind, and Bin Ladin right hand man, Sheik Mohammed. He continues to vote support for a provision which reflects a total cave-in to labor union goon tactics, the Card Check program, which bears the name of the Employee Free Choice Act, removes the requirement that votes to determine a work force’s desire to unionize no longer be conducted by secret ballot but instead by having organizers have workers simply check off their intention on ballot cards. This would open the door to all kinds of corruption and intimidation of workers who oppose unionization.

Meanwhile, overseas, it is frightening to note that Iran has launched its first satellite into orbit demonstrating they have the technology to deliver long range warheads. Further, surveillance shows that North Korea could be preparing more strategic missile launchings.

While the press “slobbers” over their perceptions of Barack Obama’s personal charms and communication style, his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, has looked as embattled and helpless as Scott McClelland who almost single handedly destroyed the Bush administration’s day-to-day credibility with his weak and fuzzy delivery versus a hostile White House Press Corp. It hasn’t deteriorated to that extreme yet, but given the “main stream” media’s obvious pro-Obama feelings, the extent to which Gibbs has been shown up as unprepared and contradictory shows tremendous weakness in the new administration’s PR campaign, something they did so brilliantly by avoiding the press while he Obama ran for office.

We are not supporters of the Obama Administration and have expressed serious concerns about Obama’s character, background, and values from the beginning. While we oppose his positions on most policies and hope the GOP can begin a dramatic turnaround with the next election, for the good of the country, we have to hope Team Obama meets with some success in keeping our country safe from terrorists and can take some appropriate measures to help stabilize the economy.

If what we have discussed today is any indication of the next four years, our dire warnings that Barack Obama could make Jimmy Carter look strong by comparison are well on their way to becoming true. We could care less whether or not Obama is perceived as a loser, but in his losses, we also realize the comfort and fortune of the American people hang in the balance. The challenges are tremendous. Only our attention and diligence can save us from Obama-Nation.

YEOW!!! WE'RE BACK

EMF has been a wee bit under the weather this week, but we're back with a vengeance! We were following the economic mess. Trying to make sense out of this mess and have something articulate to say abaout it is a daunting task. Our hunch is that lawmakers and the corporate big shots still don't know the extent of the problem. The fingerpointing is outrageous. The Congressional "bail out" became all important as no one would dare be accused of doing nothing or wanting to get a better read on the situation. Generally, on most issues where the extreme left and extreme right are opposed to the same measure, it must be a good thing. Still, when we see the finished product of the bill loaded with pork to gain support from wavering idiots on the hill, how shameful can it get. What's this about money to help build NASCAR tracks and the arrows for Boy Scouts? Business as usual. Then there's Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank, how partisan and out there on the lunatic fringe can two folks be?

Perhaps one of the most lucid comments on the whole situation was in the Palin/Biden debate where she appealed to everyone for a greater sense of personal responsibility. Amen to that.

How about all the upsets in the NCAA and even to some extent for the NFL?

We'll have more to say about the baseball play offs

The Presidential campaign leaves us frustrated and angry wondering just how ignorant the population is given Obama's surge in the polls. It's hard to blame the public when their source of information is a corrupt and biased news media. Old Johnny needs to be more aggressive especially countering the obvious lies and explicitly socialistic positions coming from the Obama camp. How could anyone knowing the issues not have been outraged by how Joe Biden rattled off one lie and distortion after another in the debates?

The Numbers Crunch

A Very SIMPLISTIC Look at the Current Economic Mess

Disclaimer: These are just a few basic calculations based on what's reported in today's headlines and RMF's humble feelings on the subject. There's much more to it than what we're capable of reporting, but it should help all of us accept on more personal terms what's at store right now.

The Bush Administration has asked for $700 BILLION to buy up troubled mortgages in its initial draft to help stop the escalating out-of-control economic disaster. Using the government's US Population Clock, our population is currently 305,208,350 and growing. Do the math. That equates to 2,293.52 per every "documented" man, woman, and child, rich, poor, young, old, of every race in our country. As such, the debt ceiling would have to be raised to 11.3 TRILLION dollars which works out to 37,023.89 which the government owes each one of us.

Dear Uncle Sam,

Sir, I am experiencing some financial difficulties. It's time for you to settle up your debt you owe me. Please make a check in the amount of $37,023.89 payable to.......... as quickly as possible.

GET THE PICTURE!!!

Now listen to the politicians twist the numbers and assign blame. They go no further than the nearest bathroom and look in the mirror.

It's time for official Washington to go into rehab for their chronic addiction to abusing OPM (Other Peoples' Money).

There's plenty of responsibility to be assigned to irresponsible corporate executives and boards too. Their job is to make money not squander it and have the government come to the rescue. Again, so much of it comes back to Washington, DC for all the rules and red tape they've created that increasingly makes it harder and harder for Corporate America to do business in a straight foward manner. Thanks to their selfish pollitical interests, some businesses are in a stranglehold while others get away with murder.

Business is responsible for producing the best products and services possible at a competative price while creating value for its stakeholders. Government's job is to ensure that business functions on an equitable playing field. Somehow, these basic missions have been forgotten as corporations have gotten deeper and deeper in speculative ventures and government creates special privileges for some while making doing business in America impossible for others.

Life is good for the lawyers, accountants, and consultants who are tasked with untangling the mess. The result, right off the top the government owes every person in this country around $40,ooo a person because they've maxed out their line of credit and its time to pay up.

I want mine. How about you?

BIDEN:The Rich Paying More Taxes Is Patriotic? Sir: We Question That Patriotism!!

"It's time to be patriotic ... time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut." Joe Biden on why the “rich” should pay more taxes as stated in an interview on Good Morning America, Thursday, September, 18, 2008.

Paying more taxes is the “patriotic” thing to do, really?

This is from the man we recently documented gave so little to charity over the past ten years, a miserly pittance of his annual income, never more than $400 a year while earning between $200-$300 thousand a year. The patriotic thing to do is pay more taxes. Excuse us, Mr. Biden, "For everyone to whom much is given, of him shall much be required." -- Luke 12:48 However, it is each person’s responsibility to live up to his or her own personal responsibilities. Right Minded Fellow documented earlier this week Mr. Biden’s niggardly contributions to charity.

This issue goes right to the heart of the cynical depravity of the prominent liberals of today’s political scene. Patriotism is something a person feels within himself or herself. Patriotism is a part of a person’s character. Patriotism requires an individual makes choices and acts upon those choices. Patriotism is not just being quiet and smiling while the government fleeces an individual regardless of wealth of more of his or her capital.

Walk through any major hospital and see the names of wings in that hospital bearing the name of some “rich” person in the community who provided substantial funding for its construction -- THAT’S PATRIOTISM.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra plays in Meyerhoff Hall, financed largely be the contributions of the Meyerhoff family. THAT’S PATRIOTIC.

Having an idea or a dream, following it through starting a business, and creating jobs for others, THAT’S PATRIOTIC.

Investing in America wisely, its businesses, its charities, its public and private institutions of learning and health care. THAT’S PATRIOTIC

Shut up and let the government take more of your money, that’s BULLSHIT not PATRIOTISM.

The conservative free-enterprise position is that the government should provide the fair playing field where more people can invest more of their money in enterprises that benefit others and put more money in everyone’s pocket. It’s not the government’s job to decide who has to much, STEAL it and give it to whomever it feels according to its political ideology most deserves it. That’s not just BULLSHIT that SOCIALISM.

As the current financial crisis filters down to the primary causes and whose actions helped cause it, it will be revealed that politicians were looking out for their self-interests and not keeping the playing field clean so these kinds of financial atrocities are not possible.

How much will the press notice that the second largest recipient of funds from the troubled Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae was Barack Obama himself (second to Chris Dodd who is in the bovine fecal matter up to his chin in mortgage crisis favors)? While Barack Obama rants and raves about how horrible it is that John McCain’s staff has employed many (former) lobbyists, he’d better take a good look at his own house and where’s his money coming from like Tony Rezko for instance.

When it comes to fixing up the economy, the Obama solution is to push the United States to the kind of socialism that all but destroyed the British economy until Maggie Thatcher liberated it. What a bitter irony! Increasingly, London not Wall Street is becoming the IPO center of the world as the American economy, high taxes on business, and over-regulation is forcing world class corporations to conduct their highest priority business anywhere but here.

Look at it this way, corporate America seeks to find the most intelligent and articulate talent available to represent its case in Washington through the lobbyists it hires. In a regulation-happy Capitol Hill where measures like Sarbanes-Oxley seek to prevent corporate corruption but instead burying companies in wasted productivity, higher overhead and costs, complying with the picayune details of this overreaching legislation, surely it is part of every public company’s responsibility to educate our elected leaders the real cost of their actions on the nation’s bottom line. Drive up the cost of doing business, companies are less profitable with less money to compensate workers, less profit to add value to their stock which is the backbone of pensions and 401K’s and in part helps contribute to the mess the economy has become today.

If John McCain wants a strong administration with top talent, who has the better pool of talent those who’ve survived corporate America or a federation of lawyers, “activists,” union officials, and other special interest advocates who comprise the Obama/Biden effort.

Sarah Palin put it nicely in her remarks about how politicians are addicted to OPM (yeah, read aloud it sounds like Opium), Other People’s Money. In Mr. Biden’s shameful interview, he continued to address the need of the governments need to “take” more money. Take more money.

There’s another fallacy of the Liberal Lie. Tax revenue is the people’s money, all the people’s money, to be spent prudently on that which benefits all the people.

While the Obama/Biden ticket and the Democratic leaders scream about oil company profits, they forbid those same companies from putting their money where it will benefit the American people the most, producing American oil, drilling off-shore, in Alaska, and other areas they have put off-limits. Contrast this to how Sarah Palin’s administration dealt with oil company profits in Alaska. In exchange for the state’s support to facilitate the industry functioning profitably in that state, the taxes levied against the oil companies go directly as rebates to Alaska’s citizens. The citizens share in the wealth generated by business in that state.