Powers on Politics Issue XI

Powers on Politics

Issue XI

There are things that I believe that I shall never say, but I shall never say things that I do not believe.

New Week: New week people and not an entirely new stack of problems but you know…we’ll still talk about them. Before we do, however, I would like to issue an apology to everyone because I will not be discussing the one world currency problem as of yet…I still need to get in the mood to depress myself. Hopefully we have some fun in this issue, though, because I’m trying to choose some good things to talk about. To begin with we are going to focus on the upcoming holiday of Thanksgiving and I’m going to attempt to tell you the true story-not the crap that you learn in school about the retarded (heck yes I just said that word!) pilgrims and the thoughtful Indians who got small pox in return for their kindness (that story is so touching isn’t it? Brings a tear to my eye-and syphilis to countless numbers of Indians (that’s right I’m calling them Indians-and I’m making a parenthetical notation within a parenthetical notation-just breaking all the rules today!)). On that high note I hope you enjoy what is to come.

The Real Thanksgiving Story: Apparently everything you’ve heard in school about Thanksgiving is wrong-who’da thunk it for that price…. Let me guess you were told that the Pilgrims had nothing when they landed at Plymouth Rock and were starving because they were physically and mentally inept to help themselves so the kind and caring Indian people (whom we later diseased, and abused) brought all of their goodies over and everyone celebrated happily ever after…THE END.
WRONG! Welcome to the real story, and there’s even an economic moral to it as well (aren’t you lucky, here I’m promising to tell you a nice story and then I go in and throw politics into it…that’s just how good I am)
In 1623 the Pilgrims all sat down for a bountiful feast thanking god for bringing them out of an earlier famine and giving them an amazingly bountiful crop that year. What had caused such a drastic change, you may be asking yourself, well Governor Bradford’s diary-an elder of the Puritan colony-tells us the story.
Upon arriving the Pilgrims decided that they were going to do things completely different from what England had been instituting. They abolished private property, and decided to live in a collectivist community where rewards were drawn from the group effort. Every part of life was done as a community job, and the hope was that the result would be great prosperity and “brotherly love”. That was the last thing that came from their little experiment.
“The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the vanity of that conceit of Plato’s and other ancients applauded by some of later times; that the taking away of property and bringing of community into a commonwealth would make them happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God. For this community found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard (I’m not the only one who uses the word-see!) much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For the young men, that were most able and fit for labor and service, did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense. The strong…had no more in division victuals and clothes than he that was weak and not able to do a quarter the other could; this was thought injustice. The aged and graver men to be ranked and equalized in labors everything else, though it some indignity and disrespect unto them.
And for men’s wives to be commanded to do service for other men, as dressing their meat, washing their clothes, etc., they deemed it a kind of slavery, neither could many husbands well brook it. Upon the point all being to have alike, and all to do alike they thought themselves in the like condition, and one as good as another; and so, if it did not cut off those relation that God hath set amongst men, yet it did at least much diminish and take off the mutual respects that should be preserved amongst them…Let none object this is men’s corruption, and nothing to the course itself. I answer, seeing all men have this corruption in them, God in His wisdom saw another course fitter for them.”
For the space of two years the harvest failed to produce enough food to feed everyone in the community and many starved and died from famine. Faced with this the elders gathered and decided that if something didn’t change then they would surely die. Instead of committing themselves to disaster it was decided that all property and fields would be split up and given to each family as their own. Whatever they grew was theirs, whatever they produced was theirs, and if there was excess then they could use it to trade to their neighbors for something else.
Suddenly the sloth, envy, and resentment were replaced by Industry, effort, and joy. In fact the bounty of that year was so great that they began trading amongst the Indians in the forest. In November 1623 they held the now famous feast to celebrate their accomplishments and invited the Indians over to share in thanking God for the bounty.
So remember that we are not only celebrating the things we are thankful for but we are also celebrating industry and the triumph of capitalism and the spirit of enterprise in America!

HAPPY THANKGIVING
www.fee.org/thanksgiving
For more information or your own copy of the True Story of Thanksgiving.


Somali Pirates: Not quite the Jack Sparrows of our time the Somali Pirates have taken a Ukrainian ship 200 miles off the coast of Somalia last Thursday and only want “just money”-the self proclaimed leader Sugule Ali informed a New York Times writer by the name of Jeffery Gettleman.
If you haven’t heard this story yet then get ready for something you were probably not prepared for. After hijacking the freighter Faina they found to their huge surprise that there were arms on board (I’m going to interject here…OF COURSE IT HAD ARMS ON BOARD!) Really the plan didn’t seem too thought through when Sugule said “We just saw a big ship. So we stopped it.” (brilliant) Apparently their desire to get money is not quite unfounded with this ship because the worth of the weaponry on board is estimated at about $30 million. Apparently there is also another reason for this whole take over, maybe (if you are an enviro-hippy) “to stop illegal fishing and dumping in our waters.” OH MY GOSH! People, why are we this way, why is it so acceptable for these sorts of acts occur just because it’s in the name of “the earth”?! Currently I’m getting this information out of the New York Times website, and the article is entitled “Somali Pirates Tell Their Side: They Want Only Money” Oh, is that all? I-wow-I feel terrible…how could I just simply think that these pirates were doing wrong when in fact all they wanted was some extra cash? You know what, I’m going to take this chance to apologize to the pirates…. Give me a break people! This is wrong, it’s just like that dumb whale show on Animal Planet that follows a bunch of “whale lovers” around as they go and attack the whaling ships out in the ocean because they disagree! Why is this suddenly so acceptable? We cannot allow this to go on, it is WRONG to promote this kind of behavior and even violence against others just because we don’t agree, or believe the same things that someone else does.
Alright now that we’re past my little “come on people!” moment let’s get on to something that’s sort of funny. The pirates-as reported on www.bloomberg.com are reducing their desired ransom payment to $25 million. I believe the original answer was somewhere around $35 million. What makes me laugh about this is that the 2 million barrels of oil that are on the ships alone are worth $110 million…I don’t know if it’s just me but…they’re kinda shooting a little low aren’t they? Asking only about a quarter of what their booty is even worth? Definitely no Jack Sparrows. Oh well…I’m sure that we’ll figure this one out eventually….


All I Want for Christmas is a BIG Bailout: I believe this is the theme for American businesses for Christmas 2008. Starting in September (I believe…or was it August?) the government has become the big Sugar Daddy for American businesses. So just who has had a bailout…well there’s Wall Street, Fannie, Freddie, Banks, as of today (11/24/08) Citicorp (which includes Citibank, and Citigroup), television stations are beginning to feel like they deserve one, and then the Auto Industry. Now I don’t mean to be a downer, but what makes this worse is that the Government is feeling EXTREMELY giving. Although the Big Three have not been officially given the bailout money that they desire, yet, but that’s just because the Democrats don’t want to take the imminent fall for handing it out. In fact Nancy Pelosi told them quite sternly that they’d have to have a plan before she’d be willing to “show them the money”. Furthermore the democrats who had promised that they had an agreement with the republicans (sound familiar to anyone?) actually didn’t have any such thing so they had to cover their tracks. (Darn Republicans, making life so hard for everyone else!)
It’s getting to the point where we’re spending several million dollars every day on bailouts for this failing organization, or business, and all the while it seems that the American people are just giving up on trying to fight this. There is just the angry murmuring of those who feel like they are being slighted. I don’t know how, but someone needs to stand up to these people and tell them that we are going to let every business that is begging for a bailout to go the way of the Titanic and sink. If you don’t like the way Capitalism works-leave. Maybe for Christmas I can have my own bailout…I can think of a few books that I could buy with it.

‘Till We Meet Again: With three issues discussed and me being terribly late in releasing this particular issue (though I think a good excuse is that I wanted to bring you the story of Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving is a pretty well spun tale) it is time for me to say adieu. I promise that I will be on time next week, I’ll stop lazing over my issues and get things accomplished-this is my promise! Until next time everyone, I hope that you had an enjoyable read!


Chene’

There are things that I believe that I shall never say, but I shall never say things that I do not believe.

Howdy, Howdy, Howdy: Hello my friends (ooh, that sounded like John McCain there for a moment), hope that you are doing good. Alright as promised in the last issue-as tiny and pathetic as it was-we are going to be covering a slew of new news that has been thrown together, but is completely related (cue Twilight Zone music). I don’t believe that anyone on the news is talking about this stuff, I know the radio talk show hosts are, and so for those who aren’t able to listen-or choose not to-I want you to be able to be informed. Just as a quick note this issue WILL have a works cited column because I didn’t get much information from the links on my blog. I hope that everyone is able to read this and understand what I’m trying to say…because this stuff is kind of intense and it is confusing, but I’m going to do my best to explain it to you. It is my hope that you enjoy. So…here we go!

S’all About the Oil: It’s the truth. All of the problems we are facing affect the oil, and next to no one is telling you this. This is a complicated tangled web that is being weaved so I am going to do my best to unravel it a little bit. To begin with we have to look at the why question. Why is the price of oil falling? Is it because we are drilling, beginning to produce our own oil? Could we possibly have gone into ANWAR and into the Gulf now that the restrictions have been lifted by Congress? Yeah-no. The reason oil prices are coming down at such a consistent rate is because consumption has gone down around the world because there is a global economic crisis occurring and people can’t buy what they can’t afford. Which brings us to another question that should be asked. Who-who is in charge of all of this oil?

The truth might just scare you if you do not know already. The list of who has the oil is fairly large so I’m going to narrow it down considerably. Russia, Venezuela, and countries in the Middle East. Now…wait…I don’t know maybe it’s just me but…don’t these people…uh…HATE US?! That’s right everyone, we are dealing oil with people who want to see us go down in flame. *Sigh* Sometimes I wonder about the intelligence levels in our officials. What makes this worse is the way the economy of these countries work. To explain this I’m going to focus in on one country in particular. Russia.

Russia is a country full of natural resources which include the worlds largest natural gas reserves, second largest coal reserves, and eighth largest oil reserves and because of this they are the worlds second largest exporter of oil, second largest natural gas exporter, and third largest consumer of energy in the world. Basically their economy revolves around these specific resources. In fact “ Russia’s economic growth over the past seven years has been driven primarily by energy exports, given the increase in Russian oil production and relatively high world oil prices during the period. Internally, Russia gets over half of its domestic energy needs from natural gas”

If we are in anyway confused by what is said here let me clear it up for you. It’s telling you that Russia’s economy does very good when oil prices are high. That is completely opposite of how our economy works. We do best when prices are low, which means our economy flourishes. Which is a big red flag if anyone has been paying any attention at all. What’s going on with our economy right now? How high are the oil prices? Putting the answers of both questions together creates a bit of a conundrum. Our economy is tanking yet oil prices are low…doesn’t make sense does it? Like I said earlier, however, it is because there is no reason beyond less consumption for the oil prices to be down-which means Americans aren’t driving their “gas-guzzlers” any more-or as much-because they can’t afford it, and we aren’t helping ourselves out by drilling on our own soil.

But returning to Russia…. “Russia’s economy is heavily dependent on oil and natural gas exports….According to calculations by Alfa Bank, the fuel sector accounts for about 20.5 percent of GDP, down from around 22 percent in 2000”. Just as high oil prices present a problem for us, so do low prices for Russia whose economy has been falling apart at the seams since oil began to fall. “The Russian stock market went lower than 1,400 points due to the reduction of the oil prices and the ongoing of outflow of capital, which investors currently conduct.” This from Russian reporters on a Russian website I just “happened” upon. All reported this summer. You can’t help but wonder what’s going on when stuff like this is coming straight from the Horses Mouth.

This isn’t half of the story, however, where things really begin to get interesting are in a whole other NPR article written by Jackie Northam entitled Geopolitical Alliances Shift with Rising Oil Prices. “The soaring price of oil has a profound impact on relationships between nations that have the valuable commodity and those that don't.” This statement says it all, and gives us a little insight because it was written this summer as well. What I’m trying to get you to glean from this is that clearly, as previously stated, certain nations flourish under the high prices, but when things begin to get stingy for them they hit hard times. No nation is going to simply sit there and allow themselves to go through economic turmoil without trying to fix it (unless you’re the United States then you just try to make it worse). Northam interviewed Roger Diwan a partner at the consultancy company PFC Energy who told her that the shifting of wealth (like how all the sudden Russia was bringing in TONS of revenue) is creating a new geopolitical climate because those countries with the oil are beginning to flex their muscles and spread their influence over the countries that rely on their product. In Russia who was bankrupt one decade ago it is extremely clear that Oil helped create that change for them. “It helped them restore the country and it allowed them to play regional politics, and even as an interlocutor to Europe, to sit down at the table and say, 'This is what we want and this is what we're trying to achieve and let's see how we make a deal,' " he says. "So, it gives them, obviously, a lot of leverage.” Diwan says describing Russia’s sudden involvement in world politics. Leverage, I believe is the key word here, Russia has been looking to become a player in global politics once again-a position they haven’t held since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and it is because of that leverage that they were able to do what they did when they attacked Georgia this summer.

We all know the basics of what happened in the Georgian Russian conflict. Russia walked over and started attacking South Ossetia that was annexed by Georgia a while ago and sort of said “deal with it, we’re bigger than you.” They made a bit of a display over there in Georgia and no one did anything-least of all any of Georgia’s allies in Europe. As it happens there’s a bit more to the story. Right in the middle of Georgia through South Ossetia are a couple of large oil pipelines. One is called the Baku-Supsa, and the other is the BTC. These are HUGE pumpers of oil throughout Europe and also for the US which is why Russia targeted the area. They wanted to control more oil because that would further ensure that they would be able to keep prices up-in fact it would make it so Russia could take the already $140 a barrel price and jack it up even higher. Had this actually occurred we would have been in a world of hurt that we couldn’t have been able to compare too. Luckily for us that was a Warning that Russia sent out to everyone reminding us that they were no longer weak and were going to get what they want.

They aren’t alone in holding all the right cards. Saudi Arabia is also an oil rich province who is an ally-but I suspect only to a point. They too are effected negatively by the rising oil prices because they are suppliers. Venezuela is the same, and with these three groups who are already on friendly terms with one another all having problems because of the same thing you can bet your socks that if things continue the way they are we could have a conflict on our hands that we don’t want to deal with.

I guess you can enjoy the low oil prices, I mean really I can’t help but be happy when I see them fall, but don’t forget to listen to that nagging voice in the back of your head that is warning you to watch your back.

O.P.E.C: Who wants to mess with the price of oil? OPEC does! That’s right as mentioned in the previous article there are countries who are pissed that the oil prices are falling and they are demanding that it comes to a close. What’s worse is that OPEC is listening and President Bush isn’t doing a thing about it! Here’s what happened.

In an article released October 16^th of this year written by Jad Mouawad he discusses what is going on with OPEC. Now OPEC had announced that it was to hold an emergency meeting regarding the plummeting oil prices the following week after this article was written (I’d give you the date but I’m too lazy to figure it out right now so I’ll let you do the hard work of counting seven days from the 16^th). Apparently the problem was that petrol execs and oil producers were a nervous wreck because of the declining oil prices because they believed that this sudden decrease in price-it was sitting at $70 a barrel at this point-would “undermine the stability of the energy markets.” The problem was with the price up to $147.27 a barrel in July then suddenly back down to $70 only a few months later the market in oil wasn’t exactly what one would call “safe” and no one was willing to try and invest long term. That’s where OPEC decided to step in. With it’s meeting originally planned for Nov. 18 it had to quickly reschedule when it became obvious that some higher-ups were starting to get antsy all over the world. As the Iranian oil minister, Gholamhossein Nozari, said “ "I think the low price is a real damage to the future of production."

I think the low oil prices are a damage to YOUR future Mr. Minister, because Iran is one of those country’s that I described as benefited by high oil prices. We happen to like low prices…or would like them more if we could get them because we were actually drilling! Sorry…had to again get that off my chest.

What really bothers these people is the fact that with oil prices jumping and falling as they are there has been less of a desire to use the product from people who simply could not afford it, therefore the consumption slowed…wow I feel like this is déjà vu…. Basically it’s all the OPEC people who want to make a profit in the coming years and want everyone happy getting together. Now I’m not saying that they should not receive profits, but they should not get together and stick it to us just because they are upset at what oil is doing. What may be even worse is that a HUGE crunch is predicted on the not-too-far future. With prices falling it is predicted that people will begin mass consuming and a price surge will occur. When this happens the big wigs foresee too much need for not enough production.

That isn’t even the real kicker to this story though. Watch how different stories begin to intertwine….

The drop in prices has already created problems for oil producers, who have become accustomed to high prices. Iran and Venezuela both need oil prices at $95 a barrel to balance their budgets, Russia needs $70 and Saudi Arabia needs $55 a barrel, according to Deutsche Bank estimates. The Algerian oil minister, Chakib Khelil, estimated Thursday that the "ideal" price for crude oil was between $70 and $90 a barrel.

In Russia, which is not part of OPEC, the drop in prices is threatening the country's ability to increase production. The Russian government has reportedly agreed to allocate $9 billion to its four major producers - Lukoil, Gazprom, Rosneft and TNK-BP - to help them cope with investment needs amid the credit crisis.

Weird…sounds so familiar. Sounds to me like OPEC is out to make everyone happy except the American people who most greatly benefit when prices are low. No one is really listening to us though, and I don’t think they will any time soon.

Here’s what happened at that meeting (oh, it was on the 24^th of October…just so everyone knows). The meeting convened in Vienna, Austria at the OPEC Headquarters. Once everyone was done playing nice with the new appointees in the following posts: Minister of Petroleum in Angola, and Minister of Mines and Petroleum in Ecuador; they decided to repeat the same old thing I’ve been saying throughout the article…you know…people aren’t consuming as much and that’s the problem, then they decided that it was only going to get worse. They also noted that there were probably going to be shortages (jeez, I’m halfway through this article and I could have told everyone that…oh wait…I DID…can we just move on?). Here’s where things finally come to a head. It was decided that OPEC would cut back the amounts of barrels of oil that are put out daily down from 28.808 million by 1.5 million barrels a day…that’s a BIG cut! This began on the first of November. Here’s whose getting cut and by how many barrels a day.

Algeria: 71,000
Angola: 99,000
Ecuador: 27,000
I. R. Iran: 199,000
Kuwait: 132,000
Libya: 89,000
Nigeria: 113,000
Qatar: 43,000
Saudi Arabia: 466,000
U.A.E.: 134,000
Venezuela: 129,000

This is basically the end of the article basically…well other than this will all be managed by a big committee that no one actually cares about. Personally I don’t like this, cutting the amount of oil that is available to nations is doing nothing but putting a greater squeeze on us. In the end I think this is going to do more harm than good…but we’ll see I guess. Hold on for the ride my friends!

Since this oil thing is beginning to give me a headache…so we are going to move on to something equally happy….

The Weimar Republic: I’m about to give you a history lesson that I found on the official pbs.org website with the assistance of Google (that’s right I use Google search for my research!). This information was taken from an exert written by George J. W. Goodman. This piece is meant to show you why the phrase “history repeats itself” is extremely true. See if you can find the tangents.

Before World War I began Germany was a prosperous country whose currency was backed up by gold, and was beginning to spread in the fields of science and technology. However by 1923 not hyperinflation (very high, rapid monetary inflation that is great enough to threaten a nation's economic stability) was so bad that even a wheelbarrow full of marks could not buy so much as a loaf of bread. When looking for the cause of this we have to move back to 1914 when the war was expected to be over quickly and therefore the government borrowed money to fund it. In Germany the prices jumped between the years 1914 and 1919.

Unfortunately it was to get no easier. When Germany lost the war and was pushed into the Treaty of Versailles they had to pay reparations in gold-backed marks. With the loss of Ruhr and the loss of the province of Upper Silisea the Weimar Republic was becoming politically fragile.

The capitalist tendencies were still strong, however, with people working hard and knowing that in the end things would get better. Yet prices continued to double even into 1922 with things like milk going from 7 marks to 16. People were upset and slowly an underground economy began to emerge as the citizens tried to stick it to their tax collectors. Soon it became apparent to the citizens that the mark wasn’t what was valuable anymore and they began purchasing real goods such as pianos, diamonds and safe real estate. As value of things increased with the cost of each item banks hurried to fix the problem-for some reason no one saw anything wrong with it (if this is sounding familiar…you are one of the few sane people in this country).

The reason this wasn’t put to a stop was because of how fragile the government after the assassination of Walter Rathenau the foreign minister. By now the French had also come into Ruhr to enforce the demands for their reparations further pressuring the Germans.

Finally a group of German industrial combines by the name of Krupp, Thyssen, Farben, and Stinnes decided that the best way to fix the economy was to bring down the value of the mark. To do this marks had to be printed quick and in a large amount that would cause inflation. Now that the printing press was in full swing it was suddenly very hard to stop. Soon prices were skyrocketing so fast that the menus in restaurants could not be reprinted in time. Even the presses began to fall behind with the demand of marks until individual states and cities had to issue their own money to their citizens.

Eventually those who had been trying to back their wealth up with goods searching out anything such as soap and hairpins until the country was reduced to outright thievery.

To save themselves having to carry around huge wheelbarrows full of money a new mark was invented the “Rentenmark” which was equal to one billion old marks. "I remember," said one Frau Barten of East Prussia, "the feeling of having just one Rentenmark to spend. I bought a small tin bread bin. Just to buy something that had a price tag for one Mark was so exciting."

With everyone having given up on the economy it became a simple thing for Hitler to exploit with “diabolical talent.” No one was surprised anymore by the outrageous prices, or the growing problems that were blossoming all around them. People who had worked hard their entire lives were left on the street, and widows who depended on their husband were destitute. Pearl Buck, an American author described what it was like to be in Germany in 1923.

"The cities were still there, the houses not yet bombed and in ruins, but the victims were millions of people. They had lost their fortunes, their savings; they were dazed and inflation-shocked and did not understand how it had happened to them and who the foe was who had defeated them. Yet they had lost their self-assurance, their feeling that they themselves could be the masters of their own lives if only they worked hard enough; and lost, too, were the old values of morals, of ethics, of decency."

Farewell Until Next Time: Sorry I didn’t include the final article…it will be there next time-I promise. This Issue was beginning to get long…that’s my excuse. Alright so I won’t tell you what else we’ll discuss next time, but it will be great I promise! Can’t wait, and I hope you learned something in this issue. Thanks for reading!

Chene’

Powers on Politics

There are things that I believe that I shall never say, but I shall never say things that I do not believe.

Issue VII


Barack Hussein Obama 44th President of the USA: At 10:39pm I turned my radio up hoping to hear what was happening with the Presidential race, and I heard that Obama had been elected the President of the United States. I sat in my bed for a while wondering what could be coming our way. Many things were promised to us by Obama and by Biden things that I hope never come to pass. I tossed and turned trying to fall asleep when all I could think of was that my country-the United States of America-was about to be gutted from the inside out and turned into a socialist state that would be unable to give to her people the freedom’s that they had so long valued. That time is gone, unless…. The presidential race may have been won, but there is still the House and Senate races that need to be watched. If Barack Obama has a filibuster proof senate then there is no stopping him in what he wishes to do, but if there are less than sixty democratic and left leaning seats filled then a filibuster can be called and the chance to stop bad legislation in it’s tracks-for at least a while-is still in existence. Luckily it came to my attention that the Democrats did not get all the seats that they needed in the Senate therefore we might have at least a small fighting chance in the end.
Then I listened to the radio the next morning, I listened to Glenn prepared to be depressed-as seemed to have become the norm over the past couple weeks-by his gloom-and-doom warnings that I already was too well aware of. I was ready to hear Rush tell everyone that “Okay we screwed up, I already knew that we weren’t going to win.” Then for Sean Hannity to turn on the Pity Party all day. To my surprise it wasn’t like that at all, and I came out having learned something that I would like to share with you.
We lost, well…since I have a feeling that we weren’t happily behind McCain (and were sort of hoping that maybe he’d sort of disappear and let Palin take over…that’s right I read your minds!) I’ll say that MCCAIN lost. Obama won, he is the President-elect of the United States and come January will be taking the Oath of Office and step into the Presidency. The people have spoken. Trying to imagine a more amazing statement is impossible for me. I might not agree with who the People have decided on, but they decided. It wasn’t the government, it wasn’t some magic wizard standing behind a curtain pulling strings, it was us. Which means that Barack Obama is the elected President of the United States, and what he is able to do will be the fault of those who voted for him, just as what Bush did was-in part-the responsibility of those who voted for him. No, we didn’t always agree with him, no we definitely didn’t enjoy everything he did, but he is our President. Obama will be the same, he will be OUR president. The President of the United States, and the President of the people therein. These simple facts might make you cringe, but there isn’t a thing to be done about it right now.
Now in light of his election we have to realize that Barack Hussein Obama is everyone’s president, or if you want to be more specific if you live in the United States legally he is YOUR president. He might not be the man you wanted, but he is the one who is to take over the job. Because of this we must show him the respect and support due his office no matter what you think of him. We cannot allow ourselves to act as immaturely as many did when President Bush was elected, we cannot use the “Selected not Elected” line that seems to have become the theme for the 2004 elections because we do live in a nation that allows for people to elect those who we wish to lead us. Let’s not hope that Obama fails at this job, because when Obama fails then so do we. Instead let us hope that he does the best he can, that he somehow does this country right even when we believe that he will not, and when he does something that we can agree with let us hold him up and congratulate him for it. I won’t be like one of those people who hated Bush, who would not support him, who were being un-American. I will believe that Obama may do something that I agree with and I will be ready to tell everyone that I am happy with what he is doing, but I am also going to fight against him if he tries to pass things that I do not believe in, things that are against my values. I hope that everyone can accept that Obama is going to be our 44th President of the United States and will do everything in their power to support him, if not always agree with him.
The next four years are going to be long, but I believe that we can make it through, we just have to stick together and never forget what this country really stands for.


Do Our Voices Matter?: On the fourth of November another big fight was going on in a couple states, but specifically in California. This is a story I’m sure you’ve heard about, Proposition 8, the law that said that marriage is between a man and a woman and no one else. To truly understand what happened in California, and what exactly the vote that made Proposition 8 pass really meant I have to back up.
In 2004 the big debate was if Gay Marriage should be legal, and with the Presidential election there would also be a law passed in California that would decide the argument of that question. On election day the people of California went to the ballot box, and when the votes were tallied it was decided. Marriage should be between a Man and a Woman. Of course there were a lot of offended individuals-you know the ones who believed that their very freedom was being taken away because they were the ones who were being affected by the law. With extreme haughtiness these people ran to the government in California and cried foul. “This isn’t fair, our freedom is being taken away!” Apparently someone cared because the issue went to court, and then to the California Supreme Court where it was decided that it was unconstitutional for marriage to be declared solely between a man and a woman. (I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t recall seeing in the Bill of Rights that we have the right to be Gay, but maybe I’m just not looking hard enough).
This obviously didn’t sit well with those who voted for the ban of gay marriage, because…you know…suddenly it seemed as though they’re voices were being completely ignored. Not to be shut-up on the matter they came back in 2008 with Proposition 8, essentially the same law that was passed then ruled out in 2004. This time the people voted-or should I say Again?-and to everyone’s shock and surprise the law again passed. That’s right, if you don’t like it four years earlier apparently your view doesn’t change after four years of being called a hated bigot…who’da thunk it? This isn’t where this story ends, however, and this is probably a good place for you to begin looking for some tape for your head…. The California Supreme Court along with all of those people who are to be effected by this vote are again rallying to shoot down the votes of many Californians. But wait, there’s more….
Earlier this very year in New York the current mayor (Bloomberg) decided that instead of being reelected and going through voting process he decided that it was better if he just stayed where he was. Bloomberg took his idea to the court system in New York and basically made the argument that “so much is going on right now, we can’t possibly deal with training a new mayor…so I should just stay mayor.” I don’t know about you but this is the shakiest argument that could possibly exist, it wouldn’t make sense to agree with this man in any way…right? Wrong. The courts didn’t give the people-who called in a resounding “NO!”-the chance to make this decision and instead gave the mayor the “all clear” and now there will be no mayor elections in New York…at least not for a while.
My question to all of you is this. How long can this go on before someone begins to get disenfranchised by believing that their vote doesn’t count. Once people begin to believe that their voices don’t matter they begin to try to figure out how to get their points across, and that can get dangerous. Pay attention, these aren’t going to be the only examples of stealing the voice of the people from them by taking it through the courts.


I Apologize: Sorry everyone for the uncharacteristically tiny issue, but that’s because I’m trying to gather my thoughts. What we will be discussing in the next issue will be quite the task to tackle. First and foremost we are going to be going through the oil prices, and why they might end up causing problems rather then being a saving grace-though let’s not get me wrong…the lower oil prices are nice. After that I shall discuss what is going on with OPEC (this will kill you!) Then we are going to learn about something called the Weimar Republic, a group in Germany that came about around the same time that the Nazi Party was rising through power. Finally I will make sure that we talk about what could be a World Currency. In light of this prepare yourselves for a potential information overload, and maybe even a good time-I don’t know…it could be a bumpy ride.

In closing I’d like to remind everyone that I would love to hear some more things that you would like me to talk about. Oh, and special thanks to Mary Furse who has been sending me all sorts of information. I promise Mary I will get into some of those things soon, I just have to get these off my mind first! Thanks again to everyone for reading!

Chene’

Powers on Politics Issue VI

Powers on Politics

It’s a New Week: First day of the new week, it’s October 20th and we are totally ready to get this issue going. Last week I procrastinated so that by the time I finished I was a day late. I assure you, however, that I will be right on time with this issue because I care about these topics more than I do about what Obama and McCain are going to do to screw us over. To clear up any discrepancies I don’t like either and I still don’t know how I’m going to vote therefore the information enclosed in the last two issues was as unbiased as I could make it without the addition of my own commentary with it. On a different note we are officially back to what I was doing before this whole Candidate thing started. Therefore without further ado I present…the issues!

Hola Chicos y Chicas!: That’s right the first story that I’m starting out with is this because…I can! The theme is Spanish, and the great argument that is going on all across the country. Should the U.S make its official language English? In order to forewarn everyone we all know that I’m a racist and blah, blah, blah so it shall come as no surprise to anyone that my resounding answer to this simple conundrum is YES! Absafreakinlutely (woohoo a new word!) we should have it as the official language of America!
Basically it breaks down like this. Once upon a time you went to France, and you thought to yourself this should be nothing I’m sure that there are plenty of people around here that speak English, I’ll have no problems. Come to find out that once you start to try to ask for directions, however, you are greeted with a whole lotta French. You get kinda bugged about this mostly because you had decided that you wanted to live there, so you think that they should start putting English on everything and start speaking English because it is convenient for you. Unfortunately for you, my friend, French is their official language and just because you wanna make a fuss about it doesn’t mean that that is changing any time soon.
What I’m trying to get at (through my cute little story) is that a country speaks a certain way because the majority of its population is, or was of that certain background. French aren’t going to drop their language for English just because some immigrant wants them too, so why does America have to ignore English as OUR official language just because some immigrants who came to US don’t want to speak English. I’ll tell you what if you done come over to my side of the fence y’all best be speakin’ the same language as me or I’ll haul ya back over from whence you came!
For a moment let me be extremely clear. I want English to be the official language in the U.S, but I am not objecting to students learning other languages. Why not, it promotes the ability to work with other people over seas, but that doesn’t mean that we bend over backwards as a country to accommodate these immigrants with their own language on EVERYTHING! If you come over OUR border you best be speakin’ OUR language or be prepared to learn. We should not be pandering to these people, they need to deal with themselves and get an Spanish to English dictionary or go home because otherwise they ain’t going to know whether they are coming or going. Welcome to America, now learn to speak English.

The Good, The Bad, The Union: Alright so to be absolutely truthful I am very new to this whole Union debate. I understand what they were created for-to protect workers from terrible conditions, too many work hours, and bad payment, but what I am not sure of yet is what the argument against them is. Due to this undeniable fact you get to follow me on a journey of discovery. Together we shall look into these unions and find out if they are really all they’re cracked up to be, or if there are some things that need to be addressed.
In the 19th century during the Industrial Revolution workers were being treated like scum. They were forced to work in terrible conditions, long excruciating hours were all too common, low pay, health risks, and other worker rights were all being thrown out the window by businesses so that they could turn a better profit. Many workers didn’t like this and they would go on “strike”, at this point it was a terribly ineffective way of trying to make a point. The business owners were probably annoyed about the strike, but during this time it wasn’t hard to find someone else who was willing to do the job. Because of this many workers were being “let go”. If an employer didn’t want to fire his workers, however, there was always another option. Intimidation. Many employers opted for groups like the Pinkerton Detective Agency, a group that were basically police for hire, though they didn’t fall within the jurisdiction of the city; they were privately owned. Though all of the riots, strikes, and conflicts that came from this time period weren’t something that many wanted to allow to continue. This is where Unions originally came in.
A labor union is an organization of workers dedicated to protecting the interests, wages, and conditions for workers. There are multiple types of Unions that support different workers such as mechanics, teachers, actors, police officers, pilots, janitors, doctors, and even writers are some of the groups that have their own unions. It is legal for employers to try and convince their workers not to unionize, but you’re breaking the law if you are an employer that refuses to allow your workers to unionize. At the same time it is illegal for unions to threaten workers to join a union. Further an employer must bargain with a union, but must not agree to particular terms. If an agreement is reached then a CBA is signed that details an agreement between the employer and the union that will ensure wages, vacations, and benefits. These CBA’s don’t last forever, in fact they have a set time limit on them and will eventually expire. In the case that the Unions believe that the employer isn’t holding up their end of the bargain they can file a complaint that will ultimately be resolved through a process called arbitration.
Alright this next bit is where I begin to grow a bit concerned. To enforce labor union laws two groups were formed the NLRA and the NLRB. The NLRA is the act that was written to “encourage a healthy relationship between private-sector workers and their employers”. While the NLRB is an organization created by the NLRA to enforce the laws created by it. The reason I’m a little iffy on this is because it seems to me that the same organization that was created to protect unions made an enforcement group of unions to make sure the rules were followed. Looks like a bit one-sided to me, it’s like me walking into a business and saying “I’m going to set up some rules for myself that are different from your rules”, the business says “okay, go ahead we promote individuality”, but while I now have my own set of rules I get the ability to say “if you don’t follow my rules consequences are coming.” Instead of having an outside group watch both myself and the business to ensure that the rules are upheld I get to enforce my rules and determine if both sides are following the rules I set up. Doesn’t really make sense.
The last thing I want to add about this is that in one of the largest group labor unions (basically a bunch of labor unions put together under one name) called the Teamsters their one time leader was James R. “Jimmy” Hoffa. Uhm…what? Yeah, that’s right a famous mafia member was a union leader! How does that make sense to anyone? I certainly don’t get it. Now his son is the President of the Teamsters, now I have nothing against his son-I don’t know anything about him-but it’s the father Jimmy Hoffa that disturbs me greatly! It seems kind of hard to trust a group who was headed by a known mafia member-a BIG TIME mafia member!
Alright with this information I am going to come to this conclusion. It is all nice and happy that workers are getting rights like proper wages, some benefits, a safe working environment, etc. However the fact that the Unions themselves seem explicitly capable of setting the rules (yeah I know both sides have to agree), or at least enforcing them there is too much space for abusing the power without being checked. It is also apparent that it the unions don’t care who is in charge so long as they are big, and in the case of Jimmy Hoffa-intimidating. I’d love to hear what you think, it might help me learn some more.

Freedom of Speech…Maybe: What a provocative title, I am sure this is what you are thinking, what could she possibly mean by this? What I mean is a bill that is known as the Fairness Doctrine. The Fairness doctrine was originally written up to encourage discussion within the public of key issues that face us on a daily basis. To accomplish this the idea was that both sides of the issue received equal “air time”. However there is an immediate problem that arises. The other side-or for those of you who aren’t Conservative-the liberal side doesn’t get great ratings on radio specifically. This fact is mostly due to the fact that they like to do nothing but angrily spew their opinions in everyone’s faces while demeaning their callers, and other individuals who don’t agree with them. Most normal people don’t like hearing that sort of stuff on three hour stretch of time, and therefore these shows don’t last. This explanation of why leftist radio doesn’t generally cut it leads us to the first problem that comes forward with the Doctrine. Though there would also be a Conservative radio show it wouldn’t be enough (or at least this is what many station owners believe) profits from this show to cover for the great lack of profits that would arise from a liberal show. Because of this most stations would just cut out the issue by eliminating both shows. Worse if a station doesn’t agree to airing both sides then it can have its license revoked-and no one wants to go through that.
Since I like them so much I’m going to give you a little story about why this just wouldn’t work. The Pitkin County airport features various celebs reading those ubiquitous airport announcements visitors and reciting various safety-related provisos. (You know, please remove your belt, your shoes, your remaining dignity, etc.) Among those reading the announcements was John McCain. spokeswoman Bingham told the Los Angeles Times, "I was at a party, and he was there," she said. "And I thought, 'Oh, cool a senator.' It had nothing to do with my political feelings."
That was a year ago. Recently, according to Bingham and the Times:
"We had one complaint from a guy, who thought maybe it would tip the scale of the election or something."
True, Colorado is considered a likely swing state in the general election. But would McCain's warning that the federal regulations restrict certain items from being carried aboard airplanes sway many votes?
Regardless, said Bingham, "We didn't want to offend anyone." So the McCain recording got mothballed.
She ruefully added: "Had I been forward thinking, I should have gotten Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to do one. Then it would have been equal time."
This is an excellent example of what would happen to the talk radio as well as the television shows such as the Glenn Beck Program, and Hannity and Colmes. There isn’t space for most people for opposition, so when the possibility to send these opposing views out the window many politicians and even news media groups are more than happy to see it go down the toilet.
In the end the only thing that will result from the Fairness doctrine is the snuffing out of alternative opinions that people deserve to hear. No longer will you be able to see the other side, or voice your own opinion publicly save that there is someone on the other side fighting you with every word you speak. Don’t listen to what those trying to pass this will say to you (because it will come up again), “we have to be fair”, “don’t you want to hear all sides?” There is nothing in the book of fair, people, and we already hear both sides of the story, watch the news and compare it to what you hear on talk radio…they are totally opposite.

Biden Predicts the Future: This story broke last Monday so the…19th of October and it was all about Biden for the next week. What happened is that Biden was out stumping in some city (sorry I don’t think that detail really matters) and he got up in front of the crowd and what came out brought nothing but shock from the crowd. Basically (no I don’t have the exact quote, couldn’t find it, but I heard it every day at least twice a day for a week so I think I have a good handle on it) Biden said that if Obama is elected president he can “guarantee” that an international incident will occur to test him. Then he told everyone there that they would have to “trust us” because “at first you won’t think our actions will be the right ones.” I-uh-don’t know…does this…frighten anyone? Or are you thinking “where’s his crystal ball?” I was wondering the same thing. Come to find out that Presidential and VP candidates have already begun getting briefed by the FBI and the President on current issues around the world, this is usually done after the elections but in this case there is just too much information that they couldn’t possibly wait. Keep in mind that this information that they are receiving is classified…which could actually mean that Biden just let the cat out of the bag.
My next question that I have for you is this “do you want to elect a president that will invite an international incident?” Oh, but wait- “Chene’ Biden corrected himself later that same week!” That’s right, I forgot, after all the publicity that the radio talk show hosts were giving it Joe wouldn’t want to just leave it at that-no-that would be stupid. (Not that opening his mouth in the first place was overly brilliant). “What I meant by that comment was that both Presidential candidates will be tested-it’s what happens with every new President.” Joe just continues to impress me every time he opens his mouth. *Sigh* Alright Joe, here’s the scoop, each President does go through something that no other President does-that’s what happens over the space of four to eight years-change (Ick…I just used the “C” word!). However where you are wrong is that not every President endures an international crisis during their presidency! You kill me Joe-kill me! In fact, returning to the two candidates we are currently stuck with, if McCain gets into the Presidency we won’t get attacked because everyone knows that if you mess with McCain he’ll come after your sorry hind-end! That’s because McCain isn’t an inexperienced “let’s sit down and chat with out enemies” actually I’ve already chilled with terrorists candidate-he knows how to conduct a fight, and how to win! Joe, thank you for alerting all of us to the impending doom we face if we elect Obama, at least we know the consequences. I hope this gives everyone a little help in deciding who they will vote for in this election.

Period-The End: I think I’ll draw this issue to a close here. It seems like a pretty good place to call it to a momentary halt-since I’m two days late in posting this issue (I know I’m terrible!). Hopefully I’ll do better next time. Just so everyone knows I’m sort of lacking some ideas for what to write next time…so seriously if there is ANYTHING you wish to discuss-tell me! Hope y’all enjoyed yourselves! Talk to you next time!


Chene’

Powers on Politics Issue V

Powers on Politics

Hi Everyone: Whaz Up? I decided after finishing the last issue that despite all of my other political thoughts and things I wanted to focus on it would be wrong of me not to immediately address John McCain’s positions on the issues. Though it pains me greatly not to be able to just move on and rid myself of having to think of how badly I don’t want to vote for either candidate, I suppose I started something so I might as well finish it.
Because of that we are going to be talking strictly about John McCain. We will cover-in the same order-all of the things that we covered with Obama including the his position on illegal immigration. Just so everyone knows I already know that I’m a racist hate-mongering bigot who clings to my guns (though I sadly admit that I don’t actually have one…my dad has a bunch though maybe I can take out a loan on one), and God (true-dat!) with the strict agenda of spreading hatred to everyone who reads my little newsletter. I know. I think I just proved it. Now that that is out of the way shall we get down to business?

McCain Taxes: McCain is a little more reliable in comparison to Obama when it comes to taxes. He believes that the tax rates need to be kept low, just as Bush did when he entered into office. To do this he will keep the top tax rate down at 35%, and then maintain the 15% tax rate on “dividends and capital gains”. While he does this he will attempt to completely remove the Alternative Minimum-Tax. He seems to realize that higher taxes on businesses will in turn translate to less taxing on the workers and on the buyers. Next he wants to further drop the corporate tax rate (a tax on the earnings of corporations). McCain wants to create the opportunity for American workers to produce products and have them sold overseas.
McCain also believes that to achieve the ability for our workers to be able to compete with their products across the globe they will need the finest in technology. Now I don’t mean to be a party-pooper (as it were) but I have a bit of a problem here. Where does McCain believe this money is coming from? I mean…seriously we are OUT OF MONEY!!!! I would love for us to have the best of the best, but we can’t exactly hope for them…you remember Hope for Change…just so you know McCain that never get’s you anything. Talk to Obama.
Next he hopes to establish a tax credit that will equal 10% of the wages created from research and development. “A permanent credit will provide an incentive to innovate and remove uncertainty. At a time when our companies need to be more competitive, we need to provide a permanent incentive to innovate, and remove the uncertainty now hanging over businesses as they make R&D investment decisions.” Is the direct quote from his site.
He also has a plan for the internet, sort of weird in my humble opinion, but he wishes to abolish all internet tax. He believes that this will encourage “economic growth and posterity”. I don’t really see where this will change anything, actually it sounds like some empty words to me, but you know…whatever. Then along this same line of thought he wants to take away all New Cell Phone taxes in the understanding that the companies that will tax al e-mails will most likely tax every text message including as he says “911 calls”. I suppose that this is okay…but again it seems like a fairly empty promise, I mean…who cares?
Homeownership: John McCain seems to understand this as little as Obama does. First he wants to make it possible for everyone to remain in their homes no matter if they cannot pay for the mortgages or not. McCain will solve that little problem without hesitation with his McCain Resurgence Plan. This plan will make it possible for those who can’t make their payments on their house to have it re-structured so that they can begin making more manageable payments now. But in order to accomplish this he wishes to BUY mortgages from “homeowners and mortgage services”. What? To me that seems like a step in the wrong direction. That is increasing the size of government and putting it right into the mortgages now! We don’t want the government in to our homes! What is McCain thinking, this is a very wrong turn to take. Beside that, why should those individuals who bought way out of their means (oh that’s right, banks told them they could-learn to use a calculator people!) be able to continue to be rewarded for being stupid? No, they should be kicked out of their house, and then they can be introduced to a rental house. Renting isn’t that bad, it’s something that happens. Let’s learn from our mistakes, get into a rental, and work until you can afford a house for yourself. Seems like the right thing to do to me.


Education: Now I think this might be something that I can agree with McCain on (shocking as that is). He believes that schools need to be available for parents to CHOOSE where their child gets their education. Each school must prove that it is capable of teaching the children who attend well, and report to the community the progress being made. McCain believes that a student should have access to all schools of “demonstrated excellence, including their own homes”. He also believes that schools should “ compete to be the most innovative, flexible and student-centered - not safe havens for the uninspired and unaccountable.” This doesn’t just include schools, but also the teachers in each school, and he believes that teachers who do their job well should be rewarded for doing so, and if the schools will not change a student should be able to change schools always seeking a better education. Basically if the parent isn’t pleased with what is being taught in the classroom then the parent can easily choose to change which school their child is to attend without the constraints of location.
In the case of Higher education McCain wants to make grants, and other financial aid easier to understand so that more families that qualify for assistance know that they can get it. He also wants to reform the private student lending programs so that they are “simpler and more effective.”

The War: McCain believes that it is immoral for us to leave before the Iraq government is capable of sustaining itself and safeguarding its people. McCain also believes that the US needs to support Iraq in the upcoming elections within its government by ensuring that American troops with the help of brave Iraqis with as much freedom and security as possible. Another way to keep Iraq moving forward is to ensure that it can sustain its economy. McCain believes that if a portion of the budget surplus is used it can be implemented in the hiring of citizens in infrastructure projects.
McCain also believes that the truth needs to be known to the American people. “I know the pain war causes. I understand the frustration caused by our mistakes in this war. And I regret sincerely the additional sacrifices imposed on the brave Americans who defend us. But I also know the toll a lost war takes on an army and on our country's security. By giving General Petraeus and the men and women he has the honor to command the time and support necessary to succeed in Iraq we have before us a hard road. But it is the right road. It is necessary and just. Those who disregard the unmistakable progress we have made in the last year and the terrible consequences that would ensue were we to abandon our responsibilities in Iraq have chosen another road. It may appear to be the easier course of action, but it is a much more reckless one, and it does them no credit even if it gives them an advantage in the next election.” –John McCain
Here’s the truth of the matter, McCain just got to it. He’s right, war sucks, it isn’t fun. We didn’t start it though, we weren’t the ones who just randomly decided to jump into a war, it was brought upon us. Those smear the efforts of our troops that are fighting for us should be ashamed of themselves. Freedom isn’t free, people, I learned that in a song I sang in the fourth grade. We need to finish what we started otherwise we cannot morally continue to have our men and women fight when there is no one behind them cheering them on.
Immigration: For everyone who has been terribly disappointed in me throughout this issue, due to the fact that so far I haven’t had much to say-I’m sorry. Whilst I don’t agree with McCain on much the topics that were covered with Obama, I mostly agree with McCain on. I gave you the facts, with a little bit of my own opinion thrown in…sorry that it wasn’t full of all-caps words and the like, but lucky for you I don’t agree with McCain on Immigration at all…so it shouldn’t take me very long before I’m back to my normal self again.
Here are McCain’s steps to Border Security:
Setting clear guidelines and objectives for securing the border through physical and virtual barriers.

Ensuring that adequate funding is provided for resources on the ground, but also training facilities, support staff and the deployment of technologies.

Dedicating funding to US Attorney’s offices in border states.

Implementing sound policies for contracting Department of Homeland Security software and infrastructure.

Deploy Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and other aircraft where needed and appropriate in the border region.
Alright so here’s what I think. Most of what I just read was empty junk that should already be being done. Its nothing but a bunch of “No DUH!” stuff that really only makes me roll my eyes. He is saying what should be done, but what I don’t hear much of is HOW it will be done. It’s like when my little brothers ask me for something they like to use the word “want” for instance “I want a piece of bread please!” That’s nice, I want a piece of bread too, but that isn’t really asking. That’s stating that you desire something. I desire secure borders McCain, but you aren’t telling me how you are going to do it, you are just saying that we should.
Next McCain wants to implement an interactive system in each and every workplace that should verify the documents a worker submits to the employer to assure them that they are a citizen. This system will filter through Homeland Security and should protect employees from having things done to their information. To me this seems like an extravagant waste of time and money. One how much does this thing cost, two you want to put it in EVERY business? Three why don’t we go about this my way? I think we should fine businesses that are willing to employ illegal workers. Or at least start with a sufficient fine, if they don’t cut the crap then the employer can just go to jail, some good prison time should cure businesses of wanting to allow illegal immigrants to work for them. “Oh but Chene’ illegal’s are doing work that Americans just won’t do!” (Yeah that’s right I’m covering the entire topic and all it’s branches in this piece) I’m calling a big BS on that statement. Illegal immigrants are willing to do jobs for LESS than what Americans will work for. You want to know why, because they are just trying to survive over here without getting caught and employers are more than willing to play this game. They get the same amount of work for less money, to them it’s a win win situation. McCain doesn’t seem to understand this because he wants to implement a temporary worker program that will “reflect the US in both high and low skilled sectors” all this while he somehow protects the employment opportunities for our own citizens. To ensure this he is going to do a lot about green cards, and ensuring that the influx of immigrants matches the jobs needed, and again he won’t short-change our own workers here in the US. Somehow I’m not feeling overly confident in this, especially because if we’re letting in a constant flow of immigrants who do we not allow them to get into the jobs that Americans are trying to get into at the same time. I can’t see the regulations that will prevent this.
The next step to his great plan is making all illegal immigrants legal by making them learn English, pass the citizenship test, pay back taxes and fines, and make them wait in the back of the line after all of those who have come here legally. Alright I’m not totally against this part…just some evil part of me keeps jumping up and down yelling “deport them, deport them!” I am well aware that it would be impossible to shove all of the illegal immigrants into a giant truck and ship them back over the border, but there’s just no way you can FORCE people to do all of those things listed above without locating them all first, and then having a constant supervision over them. I would be fine with shoving them to the back of the line, if they really want to be here for good then they won’t mind it too much either. The learning English thing makes me smile a little on the inside, though, I can’t be against forcing our language on someone who wants to enter the country. McCain also thinks that he will be able to find all of the criminals that are sneaking across the border, fix the social security number mess that they’ve created by stealing or making up their own identities, but I don’t think that’s entirely plausible. I’m sure there are at least a few of these people who’ve come across that aren’t stupid enough to get caught. And finally McCain wants to reunite families. So everyone and their uncle are welcome to come on over…we’re going to be Mexican in a month (I’m sorry was that racist?).

Now That That’s Over: This wasn’t pleasant people. This wasn’t a happy stroll through the posies, this sucked. Neither of these candidates are offering much-if anything-that I want. We are going to be in trouble one way or another, everyone, but I think that depending on who gets in we’ll be in trouble faster than if we elect the other. I hope this has at least helped a little in showing you who your candidates are. Sorry McCain’s is so short, again it’s because 1-the man isn’t big on details, 2-I’m having to filter what little he has, and 3-I don’t have much to say, just a lot to shake my head over. Please don’t mistake it for being partisan, I really don’t care I’m just trying to get the facts out directly from both websites.
Next time we will get back to the issues. I’m not sure which ones, I think we’ll talk about Unions somewhere because I want to learn about them. Then-who knows-maybe someone will send me an idea about something and I’ll write about it. Until then y’all this is Powers on Politics and I’m outta here!

Chene’

Powers on Politics Issue IV

Greetings: Hi everyone, it’s a new week with a bunch of new stuff to report. I’m going to try and make this an all Obama issue so that you can better get to know our Democratic Presidential candidate. Not to worry, we’ll be checking out McCain with equal depth next week-I aim to be totally fair. So I encourage you to send this to all of your friends who are going to vote for him, because I think this might change some minds. In this issue we will be examining-from his own Blueprint For Change off of his own website-what exactly he wants to do to this country, and why. I hope that the next two issues will be informative and give you some extra information on the candidates we are about to elect. Enjoy.

Obama Tax: Often a very important portion of voting for a candidate for any major office is where they stand on taxes. Bush wanted tax cuts, and implemented them drastically lowering the tax rate for all Americans including big business. The cut for the big businesses (according to Obama) was 160 times greater than that of the regular folk-you know you and me. This as far as all the economics that I know is actually a really good thing. Because according to the trickle-down theory when businesses get cuts then the money saved by them means they don’t have to charge the consumer extra for products and the prices are lowered. Obama sees this a little differently. According to his Blueprint he will raise taxes on big business as well as individuals making over $250,000 dollars a year…strangely enough that is a rather large chunk of Americans. He claims that up to 95% of Americans are below that $250,000 line, but in reality there’s a much greater portion of us sitting right above it.

What he likes to maintain, however, is that just big businesses are going to be taxed until they cannot see straight. The only problem is that many small businesses also make up to that much money a year, all of those Mom-and Pop businesses that inhabit American towns all across this country. Now I don’t know about you but for those of us who are sitting beneath this line on the American Dream (that’s right Obama is for the American Dream up to a certain dollar total-those of you who are there…he says screw you!) does that motivate us to continue to try and better ourselves? Does this make you want to go out and try to work to get a better income when you are promised by Barack Obama that you will get taxed harder than everyone beneath you once you get there. Yeah, I’d love that!

Whatsmore is the naivety that those companies and businesses who get taxed are going to throw up the white flag and willingly just take the tax like beaten dogs is preposterous. Guess what everyone businesses have to make a profit-you know so they can pay for their products and loans, and other necessities if they can’t turn a profit? They can’t! These companies and businesses are going to turn around and raise prices on their products, or basically they are going to stick it to us. We will be paying that tax, not them, we will be doing it. Trust me even you under achievers won’t be off the hook because these businesses aren’t about to go down without a fight. Think about what Obama is trying to get by you, then look at it from a logical standpoint. Remember if it sounds too good to be true-it is.

Obama Free Mortgage: Straight news from Obama’s Blueprint For Change is his mortgage plans. Before we begin I just want everyone to know I have just begun wrapping duct tape around my head. Alright to continue…: First thing that Obama wants to do is create a Universal Mortgage Credit (are you pulling out your duct tape too?). You know what I’m just going to give you the direct thing…it might better impact you…so straight out of his Blueprint here’s what Obama wants to do:

Create a Universal Mortgage Credit: Obama will create a 10 percent universal mortgage credit to provide

tax relief to homeowners who do not itemize. This credit will provide an average of $500 to 10 million

homeowners, the majority of whom earn less than $50,000 per year.

So basically it seems to me that for those individuals who should have been responsible in listing all the deductibles in their income and didn’t are going to get some mortgage credit that will allow them to dig into a HUGE chunk of money so that they can receive money. Uh…NO! Because guess who is going to be paying for this-it won’t be Obama! It will be us, the people, we responsible Americans that did what we had to by playing by the rules! But wait there’s more…. He’s going to go ahead and put even MORE pressure on subprime mortgage lenders who-if you will reminisce with me for but a moment-were a HUGE cause of the economic crisis we are currently going through! Why would we further pressure these people when doing that made it possible for up to 5 million illegal immigrants to get homes without ID or proof of income! The entire reason these banks were shoving out loans for subprime mortgages is because they were told that if they don’t they were racist and were going to be run out of town! He’ll do this by putting up a STOP FRAUD Act, don’t trust this people, he’s doing this so that more of what killed us in the first place can further shove us into debt.

Next Obama is out to prevent all foreclosures blaming it completely on the banks. He will create a fund that will “help people refinance their mortgages” and SOME of this fund will be payed for by those evil banks and lending companies that were mentioned earlier. Nice, I like this, you know if you were dumb and got into a house you can’t pay for and end up having to foreclose-oh wait you won’t have to-you get to dig into a fund that will save you from yourself. Brought to you by the responsible taxpayers of America…do I sense a pattern here?

Finally I must quote this final BIG idea that Obama wishes to implement as far as mortgages go:

Close Bankruptcy Loophole for Mortgage Companies: Obama will work to eliminate the provision that

prevents bankruptcy courts from modifying an individual’s mortgage payments. Obama believes that the

subprime mortgage industry, which has engaged in dangerous and sometimes unscrupulous business practices,

should not be shielded by outdated federal law.

Oh…was that my brain exploding or yours?

Retirement: Moving right along everyone we go to something that will really make you feel good about yourself. Obama is all about Retirement for everyone. I know that everyone wants retirement as well, I’m not exactly pulling down that and Social Security (which is a HUGE mess in itself), but what is really bothering me is what just happened in the Bill that was passed that was meant to save the economy. I am sure that I mentioned this last time, but if not let me remind you. In the bill that was passed there was legislation allowing the Secretary of Treasury to put his hands all in Retirement and Social Security and pull out money whenever and for whatever he wants…oh and as a total unrelated note Barack Obama voted to PASS this bill…okay that’s all I wanted to say. Getting into the meat of this.

First of all (on Social Security) Obama is completely against privatizing Social Security, I mean who isn’t? I certainly don’t want someone other than the government doing capitalism with something so important. Instead Obama wants to keep this in the government (we all know how well that always turns out) noting that the current $97,500 that a worker makes is not effective. He wants to raise the “maximum amount of earnings covered by Social Security”. He’ll do this through Congress, of course, so that the American people can choose between payroll tax reform packages that should keep Social Security good for-oh not forever-but at least a half century. I’m so relieved, we’ll be fine for another fifty years if he’s elected, then we’ll have to do this all over again! You are welcome future generations.

Here’s what he says about retirement-yeah we’re going straight from the horse’s proverbial mouth again:

Reform Corporate Bankruptcy Laws to Protect Workers and Retirees: Current bankruptcy laws protect

banks before workers. Obama will protect pensions by putting promises to workers higher on the list of

debts that companies cannot shed; ensuring that the bankruptcy courts do not demand more sacrifice from

workers than executives; telling companies that they cannot issue executive bonuses while cutting worker

pensions; increasing the amount of unpaid wages and benefits workers can claim in court; and limiting the

circumstances under which retiree benefits can be reduced.

Again we are just going ahead and protecting those workers who have greater debts and credit problems instead of making sure that those who lived the right way are taken care of. We wouldn’t want to punish people for their bad choices, that would make them responsible! People I don’t know if I can keep this insanity up!

Next we’ve got another one of Obama’s American Dream’s to a point. Obama wishes to eliminate income tax on seniors making less than $50,000. If you make 50,000 dollars…I guess it will suck to be you. Let’s go ahead and again note that no one is going to want to continue to improve so that they can retire with more than $50 thousand if they are promised something more than what those who don’t receive.

Yet if this all made you cringe or want to empty your stomach than this should put a nice warm fuzzy feeling in your heart. Obama is going to protect seniors from age discrimination. Hallelujah! Praise the One on high! It’s what we’ve all been waiting for!

What Obama Sees in the Schools: The song “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” comes to mind when I read this portion of his Blueprint that focuses on free college. I mean, seriously who wouldn’t want to go to college for free when they stare at the insane costs of getting into these institutions? I know, it makes my mouth water just thinking about it. Yet there’s just one little problem that I see in all of this. Personally I could never accept free college from any government institution because I too firmly believe that there is no way to respect the education and privileges that you receive if you don’t work for them. If just anyone can get into college then colleges won’t be producing elite students, they will be producing no better than what High schools are producing right now. Not only that but if it’s free the college professors can kiss their salaries goodbye. Besides this I don’t believe that it is right for the taxpayers of America to be stuck paying for my education. I am more than capable of working for my education and any one who believes that they have the right to freely receive a college education are nothing but socialists. Work for what you want so that you might find greater respect for the things you are capable of achieving.

Moving backwards to younger school age children Obama believes that Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act is a good idea, but he thinks that it utterly failed. Though it makes me feel so dirty I may leave for a time to go shower, I actually agree with Obama in a small, small way. I agree that the No Child Left Behind Act is a sad failure but not for the same reasons that Obama does. I see it as a failure because the tests that are implemented in order for students to move on are so important that teachers are no longer teaching students the subjects, but rather how to pass the questions presented on a subject within the test. How are students expected to compete in a world of students trained hard in so many fields of study when they aren’t studying the subjects but the test. It doesn’t even make sense!

Obama doesn’t stop here, however, he goes even far enough to start targeting children from the ages zero to five years. Before I tell you what he’s suggesting here let me get this out…WHY ARE WE EVEN SUGGESTING EDUCATING A CHILD WHO HASN’T EVEN REACHED THEIR FIRST YEAR! Granted a child can learn within their first year, but that’s not what I’m talking about, what I’m trying to say is where do we get off trying to move such young kids out into schools or programs? Keep your kids at home people, you are a MUCH better teacher than any hired individual! Returning to what Obama wants to do for these extremely young children is give them universal pre-school. He’ll set up Zero to Five grants to the toddlers and their parents so that the parents can send their kids off to some school for free. Of course it’s voluntary-like that will last when you get quotes like “I will force you to participate in your country”, that’s right if you get Obama you’ll be FORCED to participate in schools, colleges, all sorts of things that you would much rather do voluntarily. I can’t wait can you?

The War in Iraq: Perhaps one of the most important parts of the race for presidency is the War. Here’s what Obama says about that.

Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades

each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months. Obama will make it clear that

we will not build any permanent bases in Iraq. He will keep some troops in Iraq to protect our embassy and

diplomats; if al Qaeda attempts to build a base within Iraq, he will keep troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the

region to carry out targeted strikes on al Qaeda.

Now for those who have been paying attention to even half of what Obama has been saying lately this should really hit a nerve. Obama has recently said that he won’t be dropping out of the war as fast as he can. However, according to his Blueprint I think he may be lying to us. That’s right I called him out, I called him a liar! If you all don’t like it you all can deal with it. I’m sick of listening to people tip-toeing around it, especially McCain! He is disappointing me and seriously upsetting me right now, so because he won’t call Obama out on his lies I‘ll do it for him. Obama you are a bloody liar! Figure this out Obama, we aren’t stupid we know that you don’t plan on staying for long no matter how much you deny it. Oh, but wait, I’m just kidding. What I just said totally disregard it. Because he then mentions at the end of his “I will immediately withdraw troops” spiel goes on and says “except if there’s this, this, and this” I’m sorry I thought he was a liar. I was wrong-that’s right I know how to admit I’m wrong-he’s not a liar he’s stupid. You can’t do two at once there buddy, because the whole reason we’re sitting over there right now is because we’re fighting Al Qaeda and other such terrorist organizations. Let me get this straight you’ll pull out, but if there’s terrorists there you’ll keep troops there to take care of it…riiiiiight (sorry Mr. Glenn Beck, I keep stealing your line but it works so well! If you ever read this…don’t’ sue me-PLEASE!)

You know what-sorry to everyone who does read this-I need to get this totally off my chest so I’m just going to go ahead and rant for a while. Obama you are so ignorant about goings on in the Middle East you wish to meet with people like the dictator in Iran without preconditions! What the heck are you thinking? Oh wait that’s right it’s no big deal because Iran is “a tiny country” we don’t need to worry about them building up nuclear weapons or anything, and definitely their ties to Russia and Venezuela are no big deal either.. Stupid-I’m just going to say it the man is just…he’s got nothing between those ears if he thinks we are going to sit there cross eyed and drooling nodding our heads like zombies saying “yes Obama, whatever you say Obama” to be absolutely frank-MY FUZZY WHITE BUTT-you won’t see me doing that, and I know that there are a whole chunk of Americans who are smart enough to see how naïve and ignorant you are. I’m sorry everyone (again who is actually reading this) but the man is killing me. I’m Mormon, I’m eighteen, I live in Utah, and he’s making me feel like taking up drinking. Maybe becoming an alcoholic will take the edge off of the fact that we are even CONSIDERING this guy let alone having him so close to being the actual PRESIDENT!

To continue I’m reading through this freakin’ Blueprint and I have just come across a line I have heard Obama use before. “Obama is the only major candidate who had the judgment to oppose the Iraq War from the beginning.”

Excuse me? What? I believe my “he thinks we’re stupid” senses are tingling. The only MAJOR candidate? Uh…Obama I hate to be the bearer of bad news but you weren’t even in the SENATE let alone a major office when that vote took place! How can you possibly maintain that? Major my (I should really come up with a better saying but I so like this one) FUZZY WHITE BUTT! (Does that make anyone else giggle or am I just grossing you people out? I mean I could try to make it sound better by like saying “okay my butt isn’t fuzzy” but I think that may be going too far…what do you think?) Anyway getting away from my butt…the man doesn’t seem to realize that there is such thing as the INTERNET! Wow, if people want to see what he actually voted for in the Senate, or even WHEN he was actually in the Senate they can! Sir, you were nowhere near the senate when that vote took place so you just shut-up. But wait there’s more. I’m continuing to read and I have found this: Obama will turn the page on the Bush-Cheney diplomacy of not talking to countries that we don’t like.

I don’t think anyone realizes quite how much duct tape I have applied to my head right now. Let’s just say I have had to poke holes for my eyes, nostrils, and mouth…I’m still considering my ears…do I want to ever hear Obama talk again (or McCain for that matter) and therefore sacrifice hearing my favorite radio talk show hosts…or can I just give it all up? I’ll get back to you.

Now Obama let me get this straight, you say that under the Bush-Cheney policies we didn’t have little chats with countries we didn’t like? I mean that is your quote is it not? I’d like to take this chance to point out one flaw in your lie (other than the obvious fact that it’s a lie). Bush has been quoted as saying something to the effect of after looking into Vladimir Putin’s eyes he didn’t see any evil. Uh…well last time I checked the U.S has been very tentative in it’s relationship with Russia. We aren’t by any means what I’d call friends. We might invite them over to BBQ but that doesn’t mean we trust them not to stab us in the back with the fork. We have also been over to North Korea, another one of those countries that I KNOW doesn’t like us. They have shut us out of their country for criminey’s sake! You listening to the reports about their nuclear programs Obama? Oh right, they’re closed they haven’t been doing anything. Yeah shooting off a missile heading in our direction that landed in the Pacific wasn’t anything that would suggest we weren’t great buddies! You know my dad has a question for us kids when we say something a little wacky, he likes to ask “what color is the sky in your world” well Obama now that I’ve called you a liar I’d like to ask “what color is the sky in YOUR world?” I mean really, no seriously tell me, I’m so confused as to how you could possibly think the way you do it makes me dizzy just trying to muddle it out. Just enlighten me-I dare you.

I need to stop here on this particular topic, there’s a lot more but I think it would be of greater worth if I sent you this PDF file. It’ll be sent in the e-mails (or at least the link to it) and linked on the blog. I beg of you to read this yourself it’s important that you actually see these things with your own eyes.

Just a Few Things: I have no intention of saying that Obama is not a patriot or that he hates America. What I am going to bring to light are some other things that he’s said in speeches about America. I nearly left this issue without mentioning this because I was tired, as you’ll note in a “Next Time” column that precedes this one. Yet as I sit here going over all of this I feel it is my responsibility to at least let you hear what your Democratic candidate for President has to say about this country. Some people might think that catching a man at his word is not important, but I strongly believe that you hear what an individual truly thinks when they don’t believe you are paying attention. I’m paying attention, and I am certain that you are as well. Just in case you missed it, however, here are some quotes from Obama’s speeches.

“I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we've struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.”

This is the first quote from Obama’s speech in Berlin. I can only say that he is correct in one tiny aspect of this statement. We are not perfect. That’s true, but we have done everything including shed the blood of our own people to ensure the promise of liberty and equality. The country has not struggled with that. People in the country have struggled with that. As for our actions around the world, our intentions have always come at a price. We strive to free people from destructive tyranny, and when we do it we do it with everything we have. If that isn’t something that Obama sees as living up to our best intentions then I don’t think he knows much about what we do as a country for others around the world.

“You said that we were going to be greeted as liberators. You were wrong.”

This was a response to something that McCain said about the war in Iraq. The quote itself is from the first Presidential debate. You know what Obama is wrong. This country “we” were greeted as liberators by the people of Afghanistan. You hear soldiers telling stories of children and people chasing their vehicles and shouting and waving happily as they pass through because the people know that we have come to get them out of the clutches of terrorist organizations. You know who didn’t greet us as liberators Barack? The terrorists themselves.

“So I would send two to three additional brigades to Afghanistan. Now, keep in mind that we have four times the number of troops in Iraq, where nobody had anything to do with 9/11 before we went in, where, in fact, there was no al Qaeda before we went in, but we have four times more troops there than we do in Afghanistan.

Sneaky. Look how he just shoved that in there. Right into the sentence structure so that unless you are paying attention you would never catch it. Like I said you can tell what a person really thinks about something when they don’t believe you can hear them say it. Alright so Obama what you’re saying is that BECAUSE of us-the US-terrorists went into Iraq. We brought the battle to ourselves, that it’s our fault? Correct me if I’m wrong anyone, please, I would love to think that the man didn’t actually say this, but it seems fairly obvious to me that he believes that it’s OUR fault that we are fighting in Iraq. That we are the ones who brought terrorism there. Just brood on that while I find the next quote. (We’re still in the 1^st debate-just so you know).

“I believe, engage in tough direct diplomacy with Iran and this is a major difference I have with Senator McCain, this notion by not talking to people we are punishing them has not worked. It has not worked in Iran, it has not worked in North Korea. In each instance, our efforts of isolation have actually accelerated their efforts to get nuclear weapons. That will change when I'm president of the United States.”

Let me see if I can wrap my brain around this one. Because the United States has decided that it will NOT do business with countries like Iran and North Korea who seriously don’t like us in the first place, and are terrible dictatorships we have caused them to accelerate their nuclear programs. It’s OUR fault that they are producing nuclear weapons? I really hope that I’m not the only one who catches these during the debates, because if I am I fear we are going to have Obama as the President come January. To finish this little piece off I have given you what-four-instances where Barack Obama talked the United States down. Is that the kind of President you want? A guy who can accuse your country of things like bringing terrorists into a country or causing a different country to start arming themselves with nuclear weapons? I don’t what about you?

To Conclude: Initially I was going to go into all of the things about Obama and William Ayers (yes I have officially learned how to spell his name), Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and some of his other acquaintances and friends of choice. What I have realized is that I’m sure you probably already know all about this, that you’ve heard the recordings of Obama’s reverend of 20 years yelling terrible things about America, or that Ayers who is now an English professor in a Chicago University (forgive me for not really caring what the title of the college is) once blew up a portion of the pentagon and has encouraged teenagers to “rise up and kill their parents”. If you haven’t heard any of this and think that it would in fact be a good idea for me to delve into this whole mess then you can tell me yourself through comments, e-mails, or even on the telephone. But for now I will allow this issue to draw near its conclusion with Obama’s stance on some key issues alone.

Next Time: As I mentioned at the beginning of this issue the next issue will focus solely on John McCain where I will dig into his own views on the key issues. I will look into the same ones we have discussed here as well as-I’m sure-others that have caught my eye. For those who are now thinking that I’m a racist because I don’t agree with Obama and certainly don’t want to bow down and praise him as the Messiah I would prefer it if you would grow up. I don’t agree with McCain about hardly anything, in fact in the next issue I personally promise to disagree with him at least ninety percent of the time. At LEAST. Plus I’ll cover where he stands on illegal immigration…oh I’ll rip someone’s head off when we get there let me tell you. McCain Kennedy legislature from a while back…oh that ticked me off. So prepare to indulge in some equal treatment for the two of them, and I hope that you enjoy every minute of it.

Alright well it’s what 11:12pm on Saturday and I must be getting up early in the morning to get ready for church and then re-go-over the lesson for my Sunbeams, therefore I am going to bed. Hope you had fun reading. Or at least learned something.

p.s-all duct tape credit goes to Glenn Beck…he’s constantly encouraging it’s use. I’m just constantly using.

Chene’