Daily Rant Part 2 – January 31, 2009
January 31, 2009
More about Corporate Jets
Rush Limbaugh teaches his listeners about corporate America and why it’s nobody’s business whether a company chooses to buy a corporate jet or not when laying off people and closing stores, especially the government. However, those first in line to take government bailouts shouldn’t be too surprised when they are being told whether they can or can not buy their corporate jets. Here is the transcript for members from his January 27, 2009 show. Here is an excerpt:
…Now, I want to take you back to December, ladies and gentlemen. This is a teachable moment. I don’t want to build it up to be too big a deal, but I want to take you back to last December. Starbucks, the coffee bunch, had just announced layoffs of, oh, I don’t know, thousands of people, and they’re closing some stores. At the same time they were taking the delivery of a new G550 that month, $45 or $50 million corporate jet, and every corporate jet is described as plush, and I can assure you they are not all plush…
It continues… They had ordered this jet three or four years earlier, and they had decided to go ahead and accept delivery because they said the costs of selling it or refusing it made no sense. This caused an outcry. There was an outrage. There were protests all over the great Northwest. Why, how dare they? They’re closing stores and they’re laying people off, how dare they accept the corporate jet? That was the sentiment of about I’d say 99% of the people who heard the story…
…So I asked a question. What is the correct conservative response to Starbucks accepting delivery of their new plush corporate jet? Oh, by the way, to add insult to injury, the CEO flew it to Hawaii for a week over Christmas, between Christmas and New Year’s while having closed stores and laid off employees. And I said, what is the correct conservative response? And then what is the expected public response? Well, the correct conservative response is it’s none of our business. It’s none of anybody’s business. If they want to run that company that way and if it results in the company going to hell and if it results in the morale of the employees that are left going to hell, that’s their business…
But what Rush missed was this; why isn’t anyone asking GOVERNMENT why they are not giving up THEIR jets first? Lead by example! After all, if they can solve this mess, then they created this economic mess. Why should they get to use private jets when people are being laid off and stores closing? After they have mismanaged the public’s money, I think it is incumbent that they stop wasting our money and start walking everywhere! In fact, sell them, and give us tax rebates!
- FedUpEditor
Daily Rant – January 31, 2009
January 31, 2009
The more I heard about this stimulus, the less I like it. But the people pushing it are morons. I hate using insults to make my point, but what else would you call Pelosi’s explanation for supporting the pork for “family planning” (code name for abortions) but stupid!
In an interview she defended the program saying that by having less people, states would spend less on services… SAY WHAT? Certainly that doesn’t STIMULATE the economy, but the interviewer just accepted the answer without question. Clearly he doesn’t understand that babies are BIG BUSINESS! Everything from formula to diapers and handi-wipes get consumed (and quickly) when someone has a baby. And what we need right now is consumerism to boost the economy. So I hate to tell you Nancy, but your support of the plan is a LIE! What it is about is supporting abortion and hiding it in a “stimulus” package!
Rush’s Bipartiasn Stimulus Plan
What Rush Limbaugh missed when he blew off a caller with an amendment to his stimulus plan; a plan that is truly bipartisan, not the sham Democrats are calling it when Republicans cave and do what Democrats want. It was published in the Wall Street Journal as an Op-Ed and can be read here.
Anyway, the caller suggested the money be divided up by Red State/Blue State and spent as Rush outlined in his plan. Rush held firm, but the problem I see is this. If the money is divided up and both plans are implemented (liberal versus conservative) how will we show that it was the conservative plan that brought us out of this mess? So the caller had a point. If the conservative plan works and the economy is stimulated, then Democrats will take credit for their plan working and there will be no way to prove otherwise.
The Stock Market and Confidence in the Administration
So if Obama is the saviour that the world has been waiting for, why haven’t the markets responded yet? Every day the Dow dips another few points. Because the market reflects the private sector’s confidence in what the public sector is proposing… among other things. In other words, the people who REALLY make things work, the entrepeneurs and money people on wall street, have NO confidence that Obama and his buddies know what they are doing. And neither do we!
Arnold Kills Jobs In California
Acting like a true RINO (Republican In Name Only), Governor Arnold passed sentence on the car industry by increasing fuel efficiency standards in California in order to prevent global warming… The state is already having budget problems, and if car companies had any notions of opening plants in California, they can forget it now. It makes sense that someone like Schwarzenegger, who has never built a car in his life or even studied chemistry and physics, knows more about fuel efficiency than car manufacturers. Silly us. Perhaps that guy bagging my groceries has an idea how to do it too. What a crock. It is pandering to his liberal left buddies and will only hurt the economy. But sign away, Arnold. Your time is up!
- FedUpEditor
Pork Anyone?
January 31, 2009
If you don’t get mad reading this, then you don’t have a heart or a conscience. This is where our money is going in the latest “stimulus” bill. I thought Bush’s plan was bad, but this is crimminal. Especially from someone who talked about cutting the wasteful spending! You Obama votes take note. He will sign this bill even though it doesn’t look anything like what he asked for because it is written by his Democrat buddies. – FedUpEditor
The Stimulus Shopping List: $1.17 Trillion in Pork Goodies
Newsmax, January 29, 2009 – David Patten
The $1.17 trillion stimulus bill passed by House Democrats on Wednesday bears little resemblance to the bill originally proposed by President Obama, with less than 5 percent of the funds now going to repair America’s deteriorating infrastructure.
GOP critics point out the bill is loaded with tens of billions for items ranging from Amtrak subsidies to sexually transmitted diseases to the National Endowment for the Arts — much of which won’t actually flow into the economy until long after economists expect the current economic crisis to subside.
In late November, Obama promised: “It will be a two-year, nationwide effort to jumpstart job creation in America, and lay the foundation for a strong and growing economy. We’ll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges,” modernizing schools and stimulating development of alternative forms of energy.
Even some Democrats are now objecting that the measure contains too few highway and mass transit projects. Moreover Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Economy.com, says most of the infrastructure spending in the plan won’t occur until 2010 or later.
Provisions of the bill that many legislators are questioning:
- $1 billion for Amtrak, which hasn’t earned a profit in four decades.
- $2 billion to help subsidize child care.
- $400 million for research into global warming.
- $2.4 billion for projects to demonstrate how carbon greenhouse gas can be safely removed from the atmosphere.
- $650 million for coupons to help consumers convert their TV sets from analog to digital, part of the digital TV conversion.
- $600 million to buy a new fleet of cars for federal employees and government departments.
- $75 million to fund programs to help people quit smoking.
- $21 million to re-sod the National Mall, which suffered heavy use during the Inauguration.
- $2.25 billion for national parks. This item has sparked calls for an investigation, because the chief lobbyist of the National Parks Association is the son of Rep. David R. Obey, D-Wisc. The $2,25 billion is about equal to the National Park Service’s entire annual budget. The Washington Times reports it is a threefold increase over what was originally proposed for parks in the stimulus bill. Obey is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
- $335 million for treatment and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.
- $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts. $4.19 billion to stave off foreclosures via the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. The bill allows nonprofits to compete with cities and states for $3.44 billion of the money, which means a substantial amount of it will be captured by ACORN, the controversial activist group currently under federal investigation for vote fraud. Another $750 million would be exclusively reserved for nonprofits such as ACORN – meaning cities and states are barred from receiving that money. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., charges the money could appear to be a “payoff” for the partisan political activities community groups in the last election cycle.
- $44 million to renovate the headquarters building of the Agriculture Department.
- $32 billion for a “smart electricity grid to minimize waste.
- $87 billion of Medicaid funds, to aid states.
- $53.4 billion for science facilities, high speed Internet, and miscellaneous energy and environmental programs.
- $13 billion to repair and weatherize public housing, help the homeless, repair foreclosed homes.
- $20 billion for quicker depreciation and write-offs for equipment.
- $10.3 billion for tax credits to help families defray the cost of college tuition.
- $20 billion over five years for an expanded food stamp program.
Read the rest of the article here.
Daily Rant, January 30, 2009
January 30, 2009
Obama is the Devil?
Well, the American people voted for change and they got it! Obama is moving to the left faster than anyone expected. Instead of taking it in small, palatable chunks, he and Democrats in Congress are trying to get the whole thing all at once. That is why I think it will be unpopular and could mean an unsuccessful run for a second term. Too much too fast… plus it will NOT work.
Albert Brooks had a great line in the movie, “Broadcast News”, where his character said, “What do you think the Devil is going to look like if he’s around? Nobody is going to be taken in if he has a long, red, pointy tail. No. I’m semi-serious here. He will look attractive and he will be nice and helpful and he will get a job where he influences a great God-fearing nation and he will never do an evil thing…he will just bit by little bit lower standards where they are important. Just coax along flash over substance…”
Now I am not saying that Obama or the Democrats and some Republicans are the Devil, but think about it. Isn’t this how they are pushing their liberal agenda along? Flash over substance? Getting us to lower our standers little by little? What do we think political correctness is? Lowering the standards so that everyone gets a medal whether they win or not.
And now it is about the “stimulus” bill. If Republicans don’t support it they are being partisan… What? How about it’s just a bad pork-laden bill that hasn’t got a single chance to stimulate the economy?
Why Politicians Win By Playing the Class Envy Card
This is something that Republicans need to change if they ever want to win. There are more poor people who vote than rich people. And even many of the rich people are voting Democrat out of “fairness”. Many of the super-rich think they should pay more taxes to help the poor people. What’s stopping them? Send the government a check if you feel that way! Stop spending MY money.
It is the “common” folk who vote people into office in this country. There are more “have-nots” than there are “haves”, at least that is the way they see it. I think there are a lot of “have-nots” who are really “haves” and for some reason just don’t see it. But that’s for another rant.
Anyway, these are not the people who create jobs or create capital in the markets. Therefore, the ones who are voting for people who promise to raise taxes on the rich are really shooting themselves in the foot. Who is going to give them a job? That guy standing out by the freeway with a cup in his hand? I don’t think so.
We have to educate people to look beyond the first blush and keep asking “what happens after that?” For example, a politician says, “We need to tax the rich and give tax cuts to the poor and middle class.”
What happens after that? The poor and middle class are paying little to no taxes already. Is that $500 stimulus check going to make them rich? No, but it’s $500 more than I would have had.
What happens after that? The rich are getting taxed on both income and capital gains. So they have to cut back somewhere. What is the most expensive part of running a business? Employees. So if they can figure out a way to do the same amount of business with fewer people they will do so. Afterall, isn’t that how the industrial revolution took off? Automation replaced many workers and provided goods faster and cheaper than they had by manual labor. Besides, their employer contributions to all the employees’ government benefits go up because of increased taxes, so it makes sense to hire less people.
What happens after that? Joe Common gets a pink slip and makes the evening news as an unemployment statistic. Then he sits at home on welfare or unemployment bitching about how the evil corporations are taking it to him and he votes for the politician who is going to “tax the rich and give tax cuts to the poor and middle class.”
I studied economics, and I know what I am talking about. It’s a vicious cycle that’s why the stock market is reacting negatively to the news about the stimulus package. They know it will only hurt America and keep us in this recession longer. Businessmen know that you can’t continue to spend your way out of debt! Politicians don’t seem to get the concept.
Look at any state that has Democrats or liberal Republicans in control of the purse strings. They are all in trouble, yet they keep getting re-elected. Michigan and California are two prime examples. Yet the dufus public continue to vote for the people that are ruining their state. Remember the definition of insanity???
Ask Heritage.org
Rush keeps talking about www.askheritage.org on his radio show. There is a lot of good information on their website that supports the free market concepts and conservative vaules.
Our Economy
Our stock markets are off. I thought we were promised that if Obama won there would be all this confidence in the economy and all would be sweetness and light. Not so, apparently. In fact, Obama and his advisers are staying it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Then why are we talking about this pork package?
Thoughts About The 60’s
I lived through the 60’s. Sex, drugs and rock and roll. Freedom, that’s what it was all about. So how do old hippies become liberal Democrats? Because they believe basically in socialism? Maybe. For me, the last thing I wanted was big government. Remember the slogans against “Big Brother”? And “Question Authority”? What about that? So why wouldn’t an old sixties radical embrace the Republican mantra of “less government, lower taxes, more freedom”? You’ll have to show up at 6:00 on Friday evening on the corner of Blithedale and Camino Alto in Mill Valley and ask one!
- FedUpPEditor
No Wonder Illegals Vote Democrat!
January 29, 2009
This is the last straw. The stimulus bill, besides being loaded up with pork, has a section that would give money to illegal aliens!
Newmax reports, 1/29/2009:
WASHINGTON – The $800 billion-plus economic stimulus measure making its way through Congress could steer government checks to illegal immigrants, a top Republican congressional official asserted Thursday.
The legislation, which would send tax credits of $500 per worker and $1,000 per couple, expressly disqualifies nonresident aliens, but it would allow people who don’t have Social Security numbers to be eligible for the checks.
Undocumented immigrants who are not eligible for a Social Security number can file tax returns with an alternative number. A House-passed version of the economic recovery bill and one making its way through the Senate would allow anyone with such a number, called an individual taxpayer identification number, to qualify for the tax credits.
A revolt among GOP conservatives to similar provisions of a 2008 economic stimulus bill, which sent rebate checks to most wage earners, forced Democratic congressional leaders to add stricter eligibility requirements. That legislation, enacted in February 2008, required that people have valid Social Security numbers in order to get checks.
Read the entire article here.
Is it any wonder that the party who gives them money and benefits time after time gets the majority of their votes… even though they are not supposed to be able to vote? It’s maddening and it MUST stop. We can not afford this any longer, and someone has to stand up to these evil Democrat dictators because it sure isn’t Republicans thinking up this crap! – FedUpEditor
Daily Rant Part 2 – January 29, 2009
January 29, 2009
I’m back. Just too many things bouncing around in my head after listening to radio and television news. Let’s take up where I left off yesterday.
Dealing with the Devil
Remember what I said about taking money from the government and then you’re in business with them? Here’s what Obama said today about bonuses paid to employees of financial institutions that recently received government bailout money:
President Barack Obama had one reaction to the story today about bonuses for banking executives benefiting from the $700-billion federal bailout already in progress.
“Outrageous” – that’s the word from White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.
“Shameful” — that’s the word from Obama himself.
My question is this. Whose business is it anyway? Certainly NOT the President of the United States. Doesn’t he have some more villages in Pakistan to bomb? Or something more important to do?
Olympia Snowe of Maine
This RINO needs to be defeated and replaced with either a conservative Republican or, at least, a Democrat. That’s what she really is. She is giving Republicans and conservatives a bad name. Any ideas on what we can do to get her out of office? Anyone have any dirty pictures of her? Scandals? Anyone?
Bush’s War Crimes
If legal charges are brought against President Bush for war crimes, then I think it is only fair that ALL congressmen and senators that voted for the Iraq war resolution should also be brought up on charges. I wonder how that would play with the liberal media? The would lose all those Democrats in the House and Senate!
Call Your Representatives
If you were against the stimulus then you might want to think about contacting the representatives who votes against the pork-laden bill, including the Democrats. Their names are Allen Boyd (FL 2), Bobby Bright (AL 2), Jim Cooper (TN 5), Brad Ellsworth (IN 8), Parker Griffith (AL 5), Paul Kanjorski (PA 11), Frank Kratovil (MD 1), Walt Minnick (ID 1), Collin Peterson (MN 7), Heath Shuler (NC 11), and Gene Taylor (MS 4). All the Republicans voted against it as they should have.
Government to Create Jobs?
I keep hearing about this new plan for government to create jobs. Where? At the Post Office? The government should not be the primary source of creating jobs. Leave that to the private sector. What needs to happen is government create the environment for job creation by lowering taxes and reducing regulations!
- FedUpEditor
T. Boone Pickens Asks For Your Help… We Say NO!
January 29, 2009
Disclaimer from FedUpEditor: We do not support special interest spending, no matter what it is for. If the industry is viable as they claim wind power is, then it should be able to make it on its own merit. After all, HP was started in a garage without government money! So let’s just say “NO” to Boone. – FedUpEditor
From the desk of T. Boone Pickens
The U.S. House of Representatives is going to vote on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (which we all know as the “Stimulus Package”) next week. Probably Wednesday.
The Bill has a great deal of the Pickens Plan in it. It’s not everything we need, but it’s a strong start in the area of wind energy. Wind energy has been one of the few winners over the past 12 months and it was a record year for installations and for new jobs. The Stimulus Package will build on this success and keep moving wind energy forward in the face of this economic crisis.
The Stimulus Package has to get over the finish line – which means the U.S. Senate must pass a bill and both the House and the Senate have to work out any differences.
I need you to call your Member of Congress, as well as the Leadership in the U.S. House, to tell them this is a good first step, but more needs to be done. Implementing wind and solar aspects of the Pickens Plan will provide significant environmental benefits long term, but if we are to seriously reduce our dependence on foreign oil (and the national and economic threats it poses), then we have to get serious about replacing foreign oil, gasoline and diesel with domestic fuels, particularly natural gas.
We need incentives to promote natural gas trucks if we are to make a real dent in our foreign oil imports. We’ll keep working with them and I need you to tell them how much the New Energy Army supports what they’re doing and hopes they’ll keep doing more.
Please call Congress today. Visit your District Group page to coordinate with others in your Congressional District and to let us know about your efforts to contact your Member of Congress about this important piece of legislation.
-Boone
Daily Rant – January 29, 2009
January 29, 2009
After Congressional Republicans and 11 Democrats voted against the pork-filled “stimulus” bill it gave me some hope. Not much, but some. Although most of the politicians were voting to save their jobs, not because it’s what they believe in, at least they did the right thing for America.
We have had recessions before and have never had to solve them by the massive government spending Democrats are proposing. So why would it help now? And it drives me nuts that the public just doesn’t pay attention. They get their 10 minutes of news at night on world affairs from a biased press corps. And most of the time, the controversial stuff isn’t even mentioned. But at least we know how Tom and Katie are doing.
Global Climate Change
We used to call it weather. In fact we’re thinking about offering another bumper sticker:
Global Climate Change is called WEATHER!
Don’t put it on your Mercedez though. You could get keyed, especially in California, center for FREE SPEECH! You know how touchy those open-minded liberal lefties are in San Francisco.
Now we are being taxed and regluated by people on the premise that we can actually control the WEATHER!!! Scientists don’t even UNDERSTAND how weather works, let along know how to control it!
So what’s the real reason? Zero growth is one. Getting rid of oil is another. Now if you asked those people, “If you found out tomorrow that oil is reproduced by gravity and it actually doesnt pollute, would you support it?” No would be the answer. It’s them being against something because they are against it. They are for electric vehicles even though the windmills kill thousands of birds every year.
Consensus is not science. Many years ago, there was a consensus that the world was flat. There was also a consensus that the earth was the center of the universe. There was also a consensus that blacks were not really people and so it was okay to make them slaves. In Nazi Germany there was a consensus that Jews were the cause of all their problems and thus were exterminated by the millions. If anything, consensus is BAD and STUPID!
I’m kind of all over the place this morning, but I wanted to continue my rant. Tomorrow will be more coherent, I promise.
- FedUpEditor
Congressional Republicans and 11 Democrats Vote NO!
January 29, 2009
Although most of the Democrats voted NO on the stimulus package in the House because they want to get re-elected, not because they have any convictions that this is right or wrong, but we have to give them credit for doing the right thing!
According to US News And World Report, 1/29/2009:
By: Michael Barone
The House voted almost entirely on partisan lines to pass the stimulus package that, slightly amended, came out of the House Appropriations Committee. It passed without a single Republican vote and with 11 Democratic votes against, from Allen Boyd (FL 2), Bobby Bright (AL 2), Jim Cooper (TN 5), Brad Ellsworth (IN 8), Parker Griffith (AL 5), Paul Kanjorski (PA 11), Frank Kratovil (MD 1), Walt Minnick (ID 1), Collin Peterson (MN 7), Heath Shuler (NC 11), and Gene Taylor (MS 4). They break into several categories. Boyd and Cooper are “blue dogs” by conviction who represent state capital districts (Tallahassee, Nashville) that wouldn’t have minded pro-stimulus votes. Bright, Griffith, Kratovil, and Minnick won their seats in 2008 in Republican-leaning districts. Ellsworth and Shuler won their seats in 2006 in Republican-leaning districts. Kanjorski is an old-timer who was pressed in the 2008 election. Taylor is a temperamental Jacksonian maverick elected in the Gulf Coast Mississippi district who mostly votes like a Republican but wears no man’s collar. Peterson is a committee chairman (Agriculture) who represents a rural district that, despite historic DFL roots, has recently been the most Republican district in Minnesota in presidential elections. It took some guts, in my view, for Boyd, Cooper, and Peterson to cast these votes.
House Republican Whip Eric Cantor makes the point in this pre-roll call interview with Marc Ambinder that the stimulus package should include more tax cuts and less government spending. He seems to have public opinion on his side. Pollster Scott Rasmussen reports that 53 percent of Americans believe that it’s always better to cut taxes than to increase government spending, while only 24 percent disagree.
But Barone can not let it go. He goes on to pump up Obama’s image by saying the defeat was really a win for the President… How does he justify it??? :
Was this a failure of President Obama’s professed desire for bipartisanship? On the surface, yes. But I think you have to give Obama some credit for journeying to Capitol Hill to talk with House Republicans. He listened respectfully, and although he didn’t press the House Democratic leaders for more than one or two small concessions—they dropped funding for contraceptives, an item that was clearly a source of political embarrassment—he did at least listen.
…and then continues by bashing Bush’s administration. He sounds like a child, “That’s more than Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson did in the first days when he was trying to get the $700 billion TARP package passed.” Is this reporting or is it editorial and opinion??? Barone seems to be a useful idiot for liberals.
ACU Worries About Nationalized Healthcare… So Should You
January 28, 2009
Your tax dollars at work? – FedUpEditor
 Now that the Pelosi machine has rammed through the House of Representatives a huge expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) funded by a tax increases, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to have the Senate follow suit this week. The Senate bill has the same bad provisions of the House bill, but, unlike the House, the Senate is expected to allow amendments that would remove some of those provisions.
TAKE ACTION RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW TO STOP THIS MASSIVE EXPANSION OF ANOTHER GOVERNMENT RUN HEALTH CARE PROGRAM PUTTING POOR CHILDREN LAST: This program was designed to help poor children not eligible for Medicaid to access health care, but congressional liberals have distorted the program to expand government-run health care. Many states used these funds for adults and families with incomes from $60,000 to $80,000 per year. Poor children were left uncovered when the funds ran out. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told the states that before covering other population groups they must certify that 95% of eligible poor children are covered under the program. This directive is repealed by the SCHIP expansion bill. A TAX ON THE WORKING POOR: The SCHIP expansion bill also includes a 156 percent increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco. Liberals in Congress claim they only want to tax the “rich.” Instead this bill raises what the Congressional Research Service called “one of the most regressive taxes – a tax that falls more heavily on lower income individuals.” In fact, 55 percent of smokers are working poor. During the presidential debate on October 7, President-Elect Obama said this: “If you make less than a quarter of a million dollars a year, you will not see a single dime of your taxes go up.” The passage of this bill will be the first violation of that pledge. The bill also forces businesses to pay certain taxes earlier than they do now, surely the worst possible idea during a recession.
KIDS FIRST ACT: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Whip John Kyl will try to amend the bill to restore its original purpose, covering poor children first, and doing it with no tax increases. You can help pass this amendment by acting now. ELIMINATING THE IMMIGRATION WAITING PERIOD: This bill goes even further than the bill vetoed by President Bush. Since 1996, there has been a five year waiting period for legal immigrants to be eligible for these types of government programs. Unlike the vetoed bill, this legislation eliminates that waiting period. We at the American Conservative Union thank you for all you do to advance conservative free-market principles. Sincerely,
 Larry Hart
Director of Government Relations
American Conservative Union
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