a99kitten's Musings

…if only Washington was as smart (hahahahaha…I crack myself up – as if THAT would ever be true.)

I need to buy the Duck Tales series and see if Uncle Scrooge has any other good tidbits…besides swimming in his gold that is :)

It’s pretty gross that Congress takes a month off (yeah, yeah they are going to visit their constituents. Uh-huh.) The President (and God knows how big of an entourage) is going to Martha’s Vineyard. The EU leaders (as well as most workers in EU) get all of August off as well. At least the British Prime Minister acted like a leader and came back to deal with the scum-sucking, pieces of crap rioters who all should just be shot and dealt with that way.

But no. The average American is lucky to get to Disneyland for the weekend or take a few days off to spend with their kids on their summer vacations from the pathetic institution of public schools. But our leaders get to take the summer off while our markets tumble, our economy continues to falter, we have high unemployment and we continue to fight wars in Afghanistan and Libya (this has been a long few days for our troops helping the UN there.)

But right…I forgot. This is all George Bush’s fault. Or the fat cats on Wall Street. Or the private jet owners. Finger-pointing = done. Time to hit the beach….

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation.
5. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.
6. Fathom the hypocrisy of a Government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured…but not everyone must prove they are a citizen.
   

Conspiracy theorists have been saying Osama has been dead for years and the US was waiting for the right moment to use it. Now, I love a good conspiracy theory and I’m not going to say that’s impossible, because I’m sure it is possible. But I’m pretty sure Obama would have waited to closer to Nov 2012 for that for maximum approval rating.

But why was he disposed of so soon, with no pictures, etc? Islamic tradition calls for burial at sea? A religion followed by a  LOT of people in a dry desert region?  Wacky. But even if he died 5 years ago, 3 years ago or yesterday, I don’t care. He’s dead. Good.

But after reading my twitter feed, you’d think Obama actually landed there himself, shot Osama and was back in time for dinner. People – Obama didn’t catch him. Much like Bush didn’t catch Saddam. Our military and CIA did. Likely with information gathered from some good old-fashioned torture of some good old-fashioned bad guys. Yes, both Presidents gave the OK on those missions. And were kept up to date. But let’s get real here folks. Much like I won’t say Obama is entirely responsible for the current economic crisis (but yes he does have some culpability), he is not responsible for this. I was getting pretty pissed at the ignorant jack-asses on twitter, who probably actually believe, that said “Bush, his administration and the military did nothing for 8 years. Only till Obama came along to get it done.” Umm…really? Wow. And these people vote?  Yikes.

And I was happy to hear the guy was dead as he was responsible for 9/11 (unless of course you believe another conspiracy theory which was again trotted out on twitter last night…and RTed by not just one Hollywood celeb…sigh) and he was an evil SOB who I am glad is gone from the face of the Earth. BUT, Al Qaeda and terrorism wasn’t eradicated you know? I mean, do you *really* think Osama was still giving day to day orders and running the Al Qaeda missions? He was a crusty old man on dialysis living large in a suburb mansion with no phone or internet. Pretty sure he was no more than a figurehead at this point. So let’s remember we have a lot more terrorists to kill and not pat anyone on the back for erasing terrorism (yes, saw that on twitter too…seriously..these people shouldn’t be allowed out of their homes unsupervised.)

Saw tons of tweets about how the stock market would go up and oil will go back to $2.00 a gallon. Wha? Sure the stock market might get a little bounce, good time to sell any over-valued stocks in your portfolio. Because it will go right back down on a bad earnings report or bad jobs or housing starts report. Wall Street likes good news and all but is a realistic machine. And oil/gas….well last I checked Osama didn’t run any oil fields. Qaddafi dying would be a bigger deal. Or Chavez. Or the entire Saudi royal family (going out Moldavian-style like on Dynasty!) But not Osama. Not unless Al Qaeda firebombs all the oil fields. But then it goes UP you goobers – not down. We will never see $2.00 a gallon gas again IMO. Not unless Marty comes back from the future with fusion technology very soon. Keeping in mind some of that is due to our dollar being so hammered and devalued (now that we can pin some of on Obama’s administration) that $2.00 today is like $1.00 just twenty years ago.

But again, people don’t think about stuff like that. And politicians know it. They read the headlines and remember what’s out there right now. Obama released his birth certificate (finally) and then was funny at a Washington Correspondents dinner (and this made him cool which means a LOT more to young voters than experience, knowledge or anything else…sad) and then killed Public Enemy Number One. So he is Superman to a lot of people. At least for now. Until more bad jobs reports come out. Or voters run out of their 99 weeks of unemployment. Or some other thing happens to erase whatever good people think he did. The business of politics. And even more so now with social media and instant news flashing in front of your face every 2 seconds. People’s attention spans are shrinking fast. But Obama’s approval numbers were the lowest they have ever been, so I guess it was a good time for him to pull this out…assuming you believe the conspiracy that the government had Osama’s body on ice already. But again, would have been a better play closer to re-election time so that theory seems a tad unlikely.

Besides, Superman is a putz. He just renounced his US citizenship. I’ll take Jack Bauer over that jerk.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110306/pl_nm/us_usa_energy_reserves

There is no good reason to do this. The price of oil isn’t even high as it was in 2008. And a price increase is NOT an emergency. The key line in this story is:

“Higher oil prices could undermine the fragile U.S. economic recovery and politically damage President Barack Obama as he moves toward his 2012 re-election bid.”

The reserves are there to address a REAL emergency. Not for some bozo politician’s re-election concerns.

Today I saw a Washington DC license plate with the motto “Taxation without Representation”

I know it’s for their own Congressional voting rights or whatever. But it actually says a lot more than that. To me it says Washington DC REPRESENTS Taxation without Representation. Much like Idaho plates say Famous Potatoes because well…they grow a lot of ’em. Florida’s say The Sunshine State because well…plenty of sunshine in that state. Hawaii? Aloha State. Get it?

So see…Washington DC means TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION. Perfect. Because those unethical idiotic fools do not represent me. Especially the ones we have been repeatedly sending from this once great state of California.

This guy is in charge of the union for federal employees. The employees who our taxes pay wages and benefits for. And because they are unionized can likely never be fired for incompetence like private sector, non-union workers. The same employees who feel they are entitled to life-long (likely under-funded) pensions and benefits paid for by…hmmm….who exactly?

And what could they possibly have to go on strike about? Are the coal mines they are working in unsafe? Are they exposed to toxic chemicals or fires or armed suspects as they sit behind their desks from 9-5? Forced child labor maybe? No. Nothing like that. They marched in Washington this week to protest the proposed freeze on federal wage spending. So basically because they probably won’t get an annual pay increase and have to pay a slightly higher portion of their health insurance premium. A pretty idiotic reason to strike when the nation has a 14 TRILLION dollar deficit and almost 10% unemployment. Feel free to quit guys and gals. Pretty sure there are plenty of people who would be happy to take your place.

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

And I really hope this putz gets the same media tongue-lashing that Britney Spears got when she said “retarded” in some article. Because you know with 100% certainty that if a Republican or a company CEO said this, all of PC-hell would rain down on him and it would be ad nauseum streaming headline news on CNN and MSNBC and make the front page of the New York Times.

Unions = entitled jackasses. Union Bosses – corrupt jackasses.

I don’t have a truly informed opinion on DADT. I am not in the military and have never been, so it’s not my place to simply give my opinion other than when prefaced with “IMO” and not as anything else. Much like I believe a company’s hiring practices should be decided by the company and not the government, the decisions about the military should be decided by those who are serving. Who am I to tell them what to do? And who are you to tell me (as a private company) who to hire? But the fact is, there are laws in place telling me what I can or cannot do about hiring *in a private company* and how I can fire them even when they completely suck and take advantage of my/our generosity.

So for all the fanfare and tweets (good grief people) and news stories about DADT, I only care about your opinion if you are serving in the military, or have served, and have the knowledge to tell me what is good or not.

And when people have to be let go at my company, or when trying to find the right person to fill a position, I will try and use my (our) best judgment for what is best for us. And I don’t really care what you (the Royal You :) ) or the government think. But sadly, we don’t completely have that luxury in this land of the free.

Wow.

Democrat pollster Mark Penn appeared on MSNBC’s Hardball and said that President Clinton reconnected with his speech after the Oklahoma City bombings, and Obama needs a similar situation to do the same.

“President Clinton reconnected with Oklahoma. And the President right now he seems removed. And it wasn’t until that speech that he really clicked with the American people. Obama needs a similar kind of, yeah” said Penn.

Yes, clearly this country needs another domestic terrorist attack so that Obama can “connect” with us.

Wow.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703431604575522434188603198.html

I heard this on CNBC last week and finally searched for and found the WSJ story tonight . While  it does not surprise me in the least, what surprises me a little is that the politicians/aides don’t even seem embarrassed by it (at least put on a show of “oopsie” when asked.)  It’s more of “Yeah, so what?” attitude.

“The aides identified by the Journal say they didn’t profit by making trades based on any information gathered in the halls of Congress. Even if they had done so, it would be legal, because insider-trading laws don’t apply to Congress.”

Of course not – why should laws for the simple folk apply to the government? That would be silly.

“A few lawmakers proposed a bill that would prevent members and employees of Congress from trading securities based on nonpublic information they obtain. The legislation has languished since 2006.

“Congressional staff are often privy to inside information, and an unscrupulous person could profit off that knowledge,” says Vincent Morris, a spokesman for Rep. Louise Slaughter (D., N.Y.), a leading backer of the “Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act,” or STOCK Act. “The public should be outraged there is no law specifically banning this.” “

So all the fist-pounding, angry rhetoric by politicians about how evil Wall Street is and how billionaire corporate insiders and hedge fund managers have all the advantages and the little guy investor has no hope since he can’t get access to same the information is just more BS grandstanding by politicians (shocking I know) since they take advantage of the same type of insider information BUT it’s not technically illegal for them to do it (because they have made sure not to pass the law) so it’s OK…since the current law seems to exclude them.  Oh…OK…got it. (wth?)

If you work for someone who is voting on a piece of legislation that can effect an entire industry (or certain companies) you have absolutely no business profiting from that information. You cannot possibly tell me you think you aren’t acting on inside information.

And if you feel you’ve done nothing wrong, then you and your bosses have absolutely NO business being talking heads about the evils of corporate and Wall Street greed. Spare me.

This is what annoys/angers me the most. Not the fact that they did it. Most people, if they are being honest with themselves, would if they could…or at least have to think about it hard. But having to listen to and read all the anti-business crap spewed forth by politicians ever since the banking/mortgage melt-down (a melt down facilitated in part by politicians but they like to forget that little detail) is beyond ridiculous. And this is simply more evidence of just how deep that BS is up on the Hill.

From Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

Definition of HYPOCRITE