PoliticalChatter

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. I hope everyone has a safe, happy holiday. Go out and make someone smile today or visit a lonely person and enjoy the season.

There really is not much going on in the political world, because of the holidays. I for one love this time of year. First, the politicians are off the television (ha ha ha), but second because Christmas is truly a wonderful time of the year.  

If people take a few moments to step back, the magic of the moment is easily absorbed. It is a time to embrace one’s family, engulf the magic of children and feel the joy of people smiling, laughing and putting aside their differences, even in war.  

I once heard a story from WWII where a group of American soldiers were lost in the haze of the
Battle of the Bulge. They stumbled across a small country home, where the residents took them in. A few hours late some German soldiers also lost, were welcomed into the home. Although enemies and trained to kill each other, the group of soldiers put their difference away for at least one night. Together they sat and enjoyed a Christmas Eve night. The next day they went their separate ways and back to battle.  

This is the wonders of Christmas, a time when even adversaries of war can lay down their weapons, if only for a few hours.  

Happy Holidays everyone.

So Caroline Kennedy wants to be the next Senator from
New York. Okay let me get this straight. Sarah Palin wasn’t qualified or ready to be vice president, but Caroline Kennedy is qualified to be a senator or Palin was qualified to be vice president, but Kennedy is not qualified to be a senator. The argument goes around and around as the people of
New York wait for someone to be appointed. For the Democrats Kennedy gives them a guaranteed seat for however long Kennedy wishes to remain. For Chuck Schumer, he again becomes the most powerful Senator from
New York, without having Hillary lurking over him.  

Speaking of Hillary, I heard they had something like 200,000 foreign donors to their library, most coming from Saudia Arabia. But, wait again I am confused as I thought George W. Bush was the oil puppet president. Seems we now have an idea as to why Hillary took the Secretary of State job; she has a lot of promises to fill, after all when those donations were given most thought she would be the next president, until Barack Obama spoiled the party.  

Oh the life of politics, seeing the games played and the millions upon millions at risk, it is no wonder they all desire the end of Blago; he could have ruined it for everyone.

A shoe attack is the headline; big day for the political news. As the world sits and waits for Barack Obama to take office, we are left with a shoe attacker and President Bush. Really, it is very funny, come on, a shoe? Oh well, guess some people have different ways of expressing themselves.  

Talking about expressing, the Blaco skit on SNL was classic. Fortunately I was able to see it live and found it very funny. The entire situation is a SNL skit come to life, really a governor selling the Senate seat vacated by the president-elect…A script writer could only dream of drawing this one up.  

Other than that, not much going on folks, just a lot sitting and waiting.

George Bush and the Republican Senate just wiped out the Democrats once again in a legislation fight. Think about what happen in this auto bailout plan. First the plan was to provide them with piece of them banking bailout (something both Bush and the automakers wanted), then it became something much more. The liberals drooled on each other with the possibility of government owned auto industry. Barney Frank and the UAW were having dreams of a union owned business, filling their utopian fantasy.  

But, then something happened. The bill grew so to insult the capitalistic values of even the average American. There was talk of an auto czar, the government owning 20 percent of the industries, environmental standards and on and on and on. Just as it seemed the move would be made and Atlas would in fact shrug, the white knights, the Republican Senators swooped in, slain the dragon, saving capitalism as the plan was dead in an instant. 

Think this out. Bush’s people quickly realized the feeding frenzy ongoing in D.C., so they tossed in more chum before going for the kill. The idea was to make the bill so outrageous that it would never pass, they knew it and that was their goal. Yes, Bush was battered, but so what he is gone in a month, more importantly the Republicans who will remain behind to fight the battle, look like heroes to their conservative base. They prevented the most blatant socialistic move in perhaps this nation’s history. On the flip side, Bush will simply hand out a portion of the already passed banking bill, the automakers will get their piece of the pie (with few or no government regulations, Bush will not be tagged with one more failure and the Republicans Senators can pound their drums of victory…Yes, Dems you were roped-a-doped one last time by the guy you call the worse President in the history of this nation.

How interesting is this entire situation going to get? That is a question that can’t be answered, but yesterday I posted it was likely to be contained to the governor. Now, with the revolation that candidate number five is JJ Jr, it could be getting very interesting.

If this is the case and the governor felt he could get $1 million dollars from candidate five there are many questions to be asked. First, did JJ make the offer to buy the seat. Second, who was involved in the process and finally is JJ the candidate of choice of Barack Obama? Sadly, it is very likely these the questions will never be answered and one has to ask why didn’t the Special Prosecutor clip one of the players and attempt to  flip he/she if as he noted yesterday this corruption is emmense?

I guess the point is now I must watch this scandal closely as it is becoming very possible this fire is spreading.

Shock, stunned, sadden; all are being used to explain the arrest of Illinois Governor Blagojevich for selling the senate seat, may I ask why?  

Come on people this type of stuff happens all the time, except it is normally done under the cover of party loyalty etc etc. This one just happened to be a bizarre in-your-face action by Blagojevich, leaving one to question the mental state of this guy. This is the

stunning part of it. The shock comes from the simple stupidity of this guy, who apparently thought he could push around the president-elect.  

Now the conspiracy buffs will start rolling, trying to link Barack Obama to this entire situation. Of course Obama had his eyes on a specific person, but think folks, for a lack of better words, Obama is the victim. He is the one Blagojevich was hoping to receive something and that’s it.

Senator Christopher Dodd has called for GM CEO Rick Wagoner to resign. Yes, the same Sen. Dodd that was overseeing the housing loan program that, oh yeah collapse a few months ago sending the nation in to a recession. Of course Dodd’s intentions were good and filled with virtue, meaning the means is always justified by the intention. On the flip side Wagoner is an evil, money hungry executive who thinks of only the bottom line. I wonder when the UAW may feel some political pressure.  

Rush Limbaugh has set the policy for all conservatives and others concerned about the auto bailout to follow. We support the workers; we are just opposed to the
Union. This is a brilliant standing and as liberals have shown more than acceptable.  

Other than the auto front, not much is taking in D.C these days as the city anxiously awaits the arrival of the savior, Barack Obama. Until then I will search for something to write about, perhaps focusing on my favorite time of the year; Christmas.

Saxby Chambliss stopped the Democrat slaughter winning the running off in
Georgia. People are making a big issue over how the Republicans still hold the filibuster power in the Senate; no they don’t. Does anyone really believe the likes of Olivia Snowe and even John McCain are going to be willing to filibuster any important piece of the legislation? No, they won’t. What they will be doing is taking their normal moderate stance and looking for a compromise. The other drama is the Minnesota Senate race that just keeps going. Norm Coleman is trying to hold of Al Franken, who appears headed to the Senate. Something must be done about these election counts that just keep going and going and going. Any recount that has virtually no deadline is ripe for corruption and you can bet this one has plenty of it. Set a date, hold it firm and get the process over, period.  

Now onto better things; the continued fight over the auto industry bailout. The process continues to move forward and eventually they will get the deal. Proponents have declared that the auto industry is crucial to the economy; really? 

 If two stores open on the corner and each get 100 shoppers a day, they hold equal importance to the corner’s economy. If over time one store offers a better, cheaper product and increases their market share of the corner economy by 100 more shoppers a day, that store has a growing importance to the economy. While the other store, once important, is becoming less so simply because their customer base, thus revenue are in decline.  

That is the
United States auto industry, yes they hold a market share but it is declining, thus they are in economic trouble. In other words their importance to the economy is growing smaller by the day if it weren’t there would be no talk of a bailout. Bankruptcy and consequently, realignment would make them stronger in the long run and bring the American auto industry back to life, but that would mean cuts for the UAW, which is in essence the purpose of the bailout, to save the UAW at the cost of the free market and eventually the auto industry.  

New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burris is facing a 3 year prison term for carrying a handgun; 3 years. The guy shot himself in the leg, harmed nobody and now could go away for 3 years. Does anyone else see the idiocy in this law? This is another prime example of a law having unintended consequences with freedom as the victim.  

Is anyone else beginning to wonder if Hillary Clinton actually won the presidency? I am stunned at the number of former
Clinton people being appointed to Barack Obama’s administration; I thought the President-Elect promised change? Perhaps he meant change back to the way it once was. It is interesting how Obama is going about the process. Unlike Bush who awarded loyalty, Obama seems to be going with experience. Let’s hope these former Clintonites are the ones that made the right decisions, making Bill a very successful president.  

The economy is officially in recession, which means we are actually 4-6 months into it and should be coming out in about 5 months. If you are an investor start looking for alternative news sources, to get a jump on the deals on Wall Street.