SOCIALISM SUCKS

Over 30 years ago a satellite photo of an area in Northern Africa showed a peculiar condition. In the middle of a wide expanse of barren land was a dark patch approximately 400 square miles in area. When investigators made a visit to the area they discovered that the dark patch was a fenced in area of lush grass. The area outside the fence was virtually devoid of vegetation. Turns out the fenced in area was private property surrounded by public land. The private property was subdivided into five areas which the owners used to rotate their animal grazing. This rotation allowed the fallow areas to recover between grazing cycles. The public land was owned by everyone or no one, depending how you look at it. It was available to all herdsmen for animal grazing. This is a textbook example of what has been called the “Tragedy of the Commons” and it demonstrates a fundamental flaw of socialism; the severing of the relationship between costs and benefits. The owners of the private property had a vested interest in the stewardship of the land. While they received the benefits of grazing the land, they also bore the costs. Any temptation of the owners to over graze the land, thereby increasing their immediate benefit, was tempered by their knowledge of the unacceptable future costs of having no land suitable for grazing. Acting in their own self interest, the owners were able to sustain a viable and beneficial operation. The herdsmen who used the public land for grazing received the benefits but bore none of the costs. These guys had every incentive to increase the size of their herds to maximize their benefits and they did. I guess things would have been ok if the public land available for grazing was limitless. But it wasn’t. All resources, public and private, are limited. Eventually the pasture land could not sustain the continued grazing from an ever increasing number of cattle. Many cattle starved and then many people died. Acting in their own self interest, the herdsmen using public resources eventually hurt everyone, including themselves.

This fatal flaw of socialism should be obvious to even the most casual student of history or human behavior. Yet the elite liberals in this country keep insisting they can make this discredited theory work. It is inherent in human nature that a free individual will engage in pursuits according to his own self interests. Who among us does not want to improve their own lot in life? Normal people want to secure the best for themselves and their families. Many liberals believe that the “greedy” pursuit of individual wealth diminishes society as a whole. In his 1776 book “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, Adam Smith refutes this notion with his concept of an Invisible Hand:

“…every individual necessarily labors to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.”

The “Flower Power” wing of the liberal movement believes it is possible to change human nature. They seem to think that if we would just join hands and sing “Kumbaya” we would all be motivated to go out and bust our asses for the benefit of people we don’t even know thereby enabling us to achieve some sort of ridiculous egalitarian nirvana. The ruling elites of liberalism know this is a bunch of crap. They understand the folly of trying to change human nature. They know that only through coercion or force can they direct the actions of each individual. This is why they lust for power and will do just about anything to get it and keep it. They know that only the government can provide them with the illusion of legitimacy to wield the power necessary to usurp individual rights. They understand what George Washington was talking about when he said: “Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”

President Washington knew there would be days like these and he was trying to warn us.

BOMBS AWAY

I have always tried to avoid the gratuitous use of profanity here but I guess I’m not eloquent enough to express how I feel about the Lockerbie bomber’s release other than to say FUCK Scotland and FUCK Libya! Scotland just released Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, the only man convicted of the 1988 bombing of PanAm flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. This murderous bastard served a total of eight years in prison after he blew up a commercial airliner killing 270 people, including 189 Americans. Al Megrahi was given a life sentence but the Scots’ decided to set him free because he has cancer and they thought it was compassionate to let him die at home in Libya. Excuse my naïveté but I thought a life sentence kinda means you will die in prison! Nice message you sent to terrorists there Scotland. Evil men do not respond in kind to acts of compassion. They view it as weakness and they exploit it. The only thing evil men understand is force and they fear those willing to use it.

Al Megrahi arrived in Libya to a hero’s welcome. Big shocker! After a luxurious flight on good old Colonel Gadhafi’s private jet, he was greeted by thousands of cheering Libyans. These multitudes were obviously part of that infinitesimally small faction of Islamic extremists we are always told not to worry about. You know the ones. Like the hoards we see celebrating in the streets all across the Middle East every time an atrocity is committed against innocent U.S. citizens. They are all part of that teeny-tiny little group that has grossly miss-represented Islam, the religion of peace. Sure, whatever.

The government of the United States has few legitimate functions. One of them is ensuring the security of U.S. citizens. With that in mind, here is the recommended response from Society’s Ditch Peace Czar. We tell old Colonel Gadhafi the he has 24 hours to hand over Al Megrahi to the United States for immediate execution or the bombing begins. We will systematically bomb his country to hell until he produces this bastard. If we don’t get a body, he better pray to allah that Scotland has a DNA sample to verify the terrorists remains. That’s it! No more fucking around! The world needs to be put on notice that you don’t kill Americans with impunity. Screw the lefties and their constant whining about a disproportionate response. The hell with that nonsense! Just because the muslim culture and way of life has produced nothing more than expert rock throwers doesn’t mean we can only respond with sticks. Now that they have managed to buy or steal advanced technologies that give them the ability to do major damage, we cannot limit ourselves in the extent of our response.

So where is the “chosen one” in all of this? The American people were told if Obama was elected, friend and foe alike would embrace us. There would be a new beginning. Lions would lay down with lambs, the seas would recede and all that happy horseshit. So what has happened? Obama went to Europe and begged for more help in Afghanistan. Our “allies” responded with something like five troops. All of Europe! Gee, thanks! Apparently Obama sent word to Scotland that he “strongly” opposed the release of Al Megrahi. Nice job there Barack. The Scots’ told us to fuck off too! Thanks for the leadership you arrogant, narcissistic little Marxist!

The situation we find ourselves in is tenuous. Our domestic problems are obvious but we Americans must never lose sight of our singular ability to lead the world and defend freedom. Our first order of business must always be our national defense. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, without the United States all is lost.

HEALTHCARE FOR IDIOTS

Liberals love a good crisis. They are skilled at inciting panic and fabricating a need for government intervention. They do this because their very existence is predicated on the helplessness of their constituents. As Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has said, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” Because real crises are rare, liberals need to invent them. As an example, if John Edwards wasn’t a total asshole, he might be president and we would all be talking about the homeless crisis. If you’ve forgotten, Edwards was the little twit running around telling people that every culvert in America had 20 homeless guys living in it. It was a crisis! Well, he wasn’t elected so Katie Couric won’t be interviewing homeless guys for awhile. No, instead we got Obama (BHO) and the crisis du jour is health care.

BHO says we have a crisis because costs are out of control and 46 million people in this country don’t have health insurance. While both these things may be true, I think we should consider how we got to this point before we implement some massive and outrageously expensive government program to remedy these conditions.

OUT OF CONTROL COSTS

You’ve got to hand it to liberals. What they lack in integrity, they make up for in audacity. Cost are out of control so let the government take charge! What? So they can bring to health care the high quality and affordability they brought to the postal service and public schools? Gee, thanks.

BHO has said that the government needs to get involved to provide more competition in the market place. More competition? By my count there is something like 10 thousand insurance companies in this country. Not enough competition, my ass! How about the government doing away with all their stupid mandates that have created “one size fits all” insurance plans. Give insurance companies the freedom to structure plans that are actually tailored to the needs and wants of their customers. Competition will explode and costs will be driven down.

Just recently I heard BHO railing on the insurance industry and their huge profits. He seeks to blame their greed for our high costs. I’m no apologist for insurance companies. I know they are making money but those of us in the private sector are not offended by profits. We actually spend a lot of time trying to increase our own! It would be hypocritical of me to criticize the profits of another. BHO, having never made a profit in his life, has no such concern. But are insurance company profits the biggest problem? BHO has never discussed how medicare and medicaid factor into the cost equation. When a doctor charges $500 for some procedure but the government plan only allows for a $400 payment, who pays the difference? We do, of course. And what affect does that have on our insurance premiums?

BHO has also never mentioned tort reform and how it might affect costs. Doctors pay huge premiums for liability insurance. In some areas, family practitioners are paying over $200,000 a year and as the amount in jury awards rises, doctor’s premiums rise. And this does not even factor in the cost of all the additional tests that doctors now require in an effort to cover their asses in the event of a lawsuit. With lawyers collecting 1/3 of the award, they are doing quite nicely. There is a reason that “ambulance chaser” is part of the American lexicon but I’ve never heard BHO bitching about lawyer profits.

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BHO talking about the free market is like me talking about soccer. He knows nothing about how it works but he instinctively dislikes it. He keeps insisting that “if you like your current plan or doctor, you can keep them.” He has no idea how the free market will adapt to his plan. The fact is, his rules will force private businesses to dump their health insurance plans to remain competitive. Private insurance companies will eventually be wiped out forcing everyone into the government system.
When BHO and his lefty comrades want to target a certain industry, they always rip on their “outrageous profits.” This is right out of Karl Marx’s playbook. Marx theorized that surplus value (profit) was accumulated by bourgeoisie pigs (capitalists) by ripping off the proletariat (employee). It is this theory that was applied to give the world those “workers paradises” in Eastern Europe, China and North Korea among others. Left unchecked, these people are going to destroy our country!

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46 MILLION UNINSURED

BHO has been pretty careful when he throws this number out there. You’ll notice he generally refers to just the “46 million uninsured” or the “46 million uninsured in America.” He never says there are 46 million uninsured AMERICANS. There is a good reason for this. Of the 46 million, 9.7 million-more than 20 percent, are not U.S. citizens! Why should hard working Americans be on the hook for them? I’m sure there are a couple billion uninsured Chinese, too. So, what!

Also included in the 46 million are five million people who qualify for medicare but don’t use it. There are also 17 million Americans living in households with annual incomes in excess of $50,000 that CHOOSE not to have health insurance. Forty percent of the uninsured are between the ages of 18 and 34. Being young and healthy, they have CHOSEN to spend their money on things other than health insurance.

Add it all up and you get about eight million people that want health insurance and can’t get it. Because America is the most benevolent country in the world, these people will be taken care of. Only liberals would think that blowing up the best health care system in the world to help three percent of the population is a good idea. But the liberal elite aren’t that stupid. Freedom loving Americans should consider what their real motivation might be.

FREE MARKET SOLUTIONS

According to some recent articles in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Democratic legislators are “stunned at the choices they face to rebalance a budget with a deficit now as high as 6.5 billion…” Stunned, they say! What, they never saw this coming? Apparently there is no minimum IQ level required to serve in the state legislature. Last year there were over 70,000 private sector jobs lost in Wisconsin. Businesses are fleeing Wisconsin and relocating to states that won’t tax them into oblivion. And legislators can’t figure out why tax collections are down nearly 800 million over the last ten months! Gov. Jim Doyle has proposed 1.7 billion in tax and fee increases with the new biannual budget. This is on top of the 1.2 billion in tax and fee increases he signed into law in February as part of his super duper budget repair package. Nearly 3 billion in NEW taxes and yet it’s still not enough! Now Democratic legislators are, gasp!, looking at the possibility of cutting spending. Not without some trepidation though. These liberal dopes are all in a tizzy over Doyle’s pathetic little plan to require state employees to take 16 days of unpaid leave over the next two years and to forgo a planned 2% pay increase. Oh, the humanity! Senate president Fred Risser of Madison (shocker) said it’s unfair to require “dedicated and loyal” state workers to take unpaid furloughs. He added that he would rather raise taxes because state workers aren’t responsible for the budget mess. Another breathtakingly stupid remark by a liberal that goes unchallenged. Who’s fault is it Fred? Private businesses and those 70,000+ people that lost their jobs last year? I don’t think so. In 2007, Wisconsin taxpayers paid 12.3% of their income in sales, property and state income taxes. This puts us at 7th on the list of highest taxing states. No Fred, I think it’s your fault. And Doyle’s. And all your liberal colleagues in the state legislature. I think government employees bear some responsibility too. How much, I don’t know but with the liberals theory of joint and several liability, it doesn’t matter.

So what should Wisconsin do? When looking at the state budget, it is necessary to also include local government functions as well. There are myriad government programs ostensibly under local jurisdiction that are funded in large part by the state. For instance, 67% of public school costs are funded by the state. There are so many different programs, incentives and subsidies that it’s like trying to decipher a mobster’s money laundering scheme. Ultimately, everything government does is funded by the taxpayers so I include local government in this analysis.

According to the Census of Government Employment, there were 282,000 people working for state and local government in Wisconsin in 2009. If we exclude those that provide essential or legitimate government services, police and firefighters, that leaves us with 261,000 employees. The average wage of these employees is $46,200. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, the government spends 35 cents on benefits for every dollar in wages. So the actual cost to employ each of these people averages $62,370. per year. Liberal politicians are always telling us that we need to make sacrifices in tough economic times. They also prattle on incessantly about “fairness.” Then lets be fair with the sacrifice. The unemployment rate for Wisconsin in March was 9.4%. In the interest of fairness, state and local governments should immediately lay off 9.4% of the non-essential workforce. That’s 24,534 employees. This would save taxpayers 1.5 billion a year. That’s 3 billion over the course of the biannual budget. Liberals won’t like this but they won’t be able to argue the fairness aspect of it.

Now comes the really hard part. We apply free market principles to the government workforce. The lefties won’t understand this at all. The free market to a liberal is as a rubics cube in the hands of a 4 year old. They have no idea how it works or what it does. They will want to cast it aside and go back to their milk and cookies. We conservatives need to educate them. Conservatives know that the free market is really good at maximizing productivity and minimizing costs. In a word, it promotes efficiency. So, after the layoffs, government is left with 236,500 employees. I’m guessing that many of these people are going to start to realize that they are damn lucky to have a job. Here is where we inject a little free market reality. We cut all wages and benefits by 10%. This saves taxpayers another 3 billion over the two years. Budget crisis averted! But why stop? Oh sure, the government workers will scream and whine and wallow in self pity. But will they quit? I don’t know but in two years the free market will tell us if we can cut another 10%. We can continue to cut until there is no longer a surplus of applicants for these jobs. The government workers will call these actions “draconian.” Any cut in government spending is always called a draconian cut. What a bunch of crap. It’s called competition and those of us in the real world deal with it every day. I think it’s time that government workers experience the existential pleasures of market forces in the real world. They will be better people for it.

Liberals will accuse the taxpayers of greed and selfishness. I don’t think so. What is selfish (and immoral) is politicians currying favor with one segment of society by overpaying them with other peoples money.

100 FREAK'N DAYS

President Obama held a press conference last Wednesday in celebration of his first 100 days in office. The teleprompter was in good working order and he delivered his opening remarks with a style and grace befitting the smoothest of the smooth. I’m sure liberals around the country “felt a thrill going up their leg” during his presentation. Being a conservative, I was able to maintain my composure and actually listened to what he said. Of particular interest to me were his comments on enhanced interrogation or what the lefties call torture. Of course, subjecting a murderous jihadist to anything beyond polite conversation is considered torture by Obama.

The president stated: "We have rejected the false choice between our security and our ideals, by closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay and banning torture without exception."

One of the pre-approved reporters asked Obama if he thought that the previous administration sanctioned torture. His response in part:

"…waterboarding violates our ideals and values. I do believe that it is torture. And that’s why I put an end to these practices.

I am absolutely convinced that it was the right thing to do – not because there might not have been information that was yielded by these various detainees who were subjected to this treatment, but because we could have gotten this information in other ways – in ways that were consistent with our values, in ways that were consistent with who we are.

It corrodes the character of a country."

It’s easy to make ridiculous and unsupportable statements when you are never called to explain or defend them. Obama knows that we obtained a great deal of valuable information as a result of these interrogations. Yet he flippantly states that we could have gotten this information in other ways.
Really? What ways would those be? And how much time would these unmentioned techniques take? Intelligence gathering is, by its very nature, time sensitive. Intelligence gathered after the fact isn’t intelligence. It’s history. If a bad guy says they are going to blow up some buildings in two weeks and Obama’s PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE TELLS US WHERE technique takes two weeks and a day to work, well, what’s the point?

From 2001 to 2008, the time frame we were “torturing” terrorists, there were more than 10 million abortions in this country. That’s fine and dandy with Obama. No moral implications there. No “corrosive” affect on the character of the country. But when we dump a bucket of water on three, that’s right three, murderous psychopaths and obtain information that saved countless lives, Obama gets all indignant and proclaims: "It corrodes the character of a country." Come on now. Really?

Recognizing that he has no credibility on this issue, Obama invoked the name of a true leader, Winston Churchill: "And Churchill said, 'we don’t torture,' when the entire British – all of the British people were being subjected to unimaginable risk and threat."

Leaving aside the obvious facts that Churchill and Obama would have far different definitions of torture and that if Churchill did authorize torture he wouldn’t tell the whole world, let’s assume Obama is correct. If Churchill did not authorize torture, he had at least two good reasons:

1. Both Great Britain and Germany were signatories to the
Geneva conventions. Churchill might have refrained from
torture with the idea that Germany would reciprocate. We
are not bound by an agreement that our enemy has not
signed!
2. There was probably not much that the typical German POW
could tell Churchill that he didn’t already know. In 1941,
Great Britain, with a big assist from some Polish
mathematicians, had broken the enigma code used by the
German armed forces for all sensitive communications.
This was no small thing. Many historians credit the Allies
intelligence gathering capabilities with shortening the war
by at least two years.

Obama finished up his answer with this liberal tripe: "At the same time, it takes away a critical recruitment tool that Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations have used to try to demonize the United States and justify the killing of civilians." Here is a list to consider:

September 11, 2001 - Terrorists hijack four U.S. commercial airliners taking off from various locations in the United States in a coordinated suicide attack. In separate attacks, two of the airliners crash into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, which catch fire and eventually collapse. A third airliner crashes into the Pentagon in Washington, DC, causing extensive damage. The fourth airliner, also believed to be heading towards Washington, DC, crashes outside Shanksville, PA., killing all 45 people on board. Casualty estimates from New York put the possible death toll close to 5,000, while as many as 200 people may have been lost at the Pentagon crash site.

Oct. 12, 2000 - A terrorist bomb damages the destroyer USS Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen, killing 17 sailors and injuring 39.

Aug. 7, 1998 - Terrorist bombs destroy the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. In Nairobi, 12 Americans are among the 291 killed, and over 5,000 are wounded, including 6 Americans. In Dar es Salaam, one U.S. citizen is wounded among the 10 killed and 77 injured.

June 21, 1998 - Rocket-propelled grenades explode near the U.S. embassy in Beirut.

June 25, 1996 - A bomb aboard a fuel truck explodes outside a U.S. air force installation in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. 19 U.S. military personnel are killed in the Khubar Towers housing facility, and 515 are wounded, including 240 Americans.

Nov. 13, 1995 - A car-bomb in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia kills seven people, five of them American military and civilian advisers for National Guard training. The "Tigers of the Gulf," "Islamist Movement for Change," and "Fighting Advocates of God" claim responsibility.

February 1993 - A bomb in a van explodes in the underground parking garage in New York's World Trade Center, killing six people and wounding 1,042.

Dec. 21, 1988 - A bomb destroys Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. All 259 people aboard the Boeing 747 are killed including 189 Americans, as are 11 people on the ground.

April 1986 - An explosion damages a TWA flight as it prepares to land in Athens, Greece. Four people are killed when they are sucked out of the aircraft.

April 5, 1986 - A bomb destroys the LaBelle discotheque in West Berlin. The disco was known to be frequented by U.S. servicemen. The attack kills one American and one German woman and wounds 150, including 44 Americans.

December 1985 - Simultaneous suicide attacks are carried out against U.S. and Israeli check-in desks at Rome and Vienna international airports. 20 people are killed in the two attacks, including four terrorists.

November 1985 - Hijackers aboard an Egyptair flight kill one American. Egyptian commandos later storm the aircraft on the isle of Malta, and 60 people are killed.

October 1985 - Palestinian terrorists hijack the cruise liner Achille Lauro (in response to the Israeli attack on PLO headquarters in Tunisia) Leon Klinghoffer, an elderly, wheelchair-bound American, is killed and thrown overboard.

August 1985 - A car bomb at a U.S. military base in Frankfurt, Germany kills two and injures 20. A U.S. soldier murdered for his identity papers is found a day after the explosion.

June 1985 - A TWA airliner is hijacked over the Mediterranean, the start of a two-week hostage ordeal. The last 39 passengers are eventually released in Damascus after being held in various locations in Beirut.

April 1985 - A bomb explodes in a restaurant near a U.S. air base in Madrid, Spain, killing 18, all Spaniards, and wounding 82, including 15 Americans.

October 1983 - A suicide car bomb attack against the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut kills 241 servicemen. A simultaneous attack on a French base kills 58 paratroopers.

April 1983 - A suicide car bombing against the U.S. embassy in Beirut kills 63, including 17 Americans.

November 4, 1979 – A group of Islamist students in Iran take over the American embassy in support of the Iranian revolution. 52 U.S. diplomats are held hostage for 444 days.

Two things all these attacks have in common:

1. They were all perpetrated by Muslims.

2. Not one of the terrorists ever said they did it
because the U.S. engaged in waterboarding.

The terrorists hate us because we support Israel and, despite what Obama says, we are a Christian nation. The terrorists hated us before it became official U.S. policy to reveal state secrets to the world and they hate us now. I’m sure now that we are fighting back this upsets them even more. So what? Obama and the left’s unwillingness to accept this reality puts us all in serious danger.

AMERICA'S ADVENTURE IN OBAMALAND

I woke up Monday morning and what did I see? Barack Obama is now running General Motors and Chrysler! Am I still in America?

Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said: “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen…
Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There

Welcome to America’s adventures in Obamaland! The president of the United States has just fired the chairman and CEO of GM and gave Chrysler 30 days to merge with Italian automaker Fiat, or else!

Only in Obamaland can a guy go from “community organizer” to president in a few short years. And now the guy who couldn’t run a lemonade stand without a government subsidy is running two of the largest auto makers in the world. Said Obama, “We cannot, and must not, and will not let our auto industry simply vanish.”

Notice he was not talking about just GM and Chrysler but the entire auto industry. Ford, which took no government money, and Honda and Toyota which don’t need it, are in his sights too. Imagine how the CEO’s of those companies must be feeling. They are now in competition with the guy that makes all the rules!

So what’s the plan? According to president and CEO Obama:

[I’m confident we can create] an auto industry that is once more out-competing the world; a 21st century auto industry that is creating new jobs, unleashing new prosperity, and manufacturing the fuel-efficient cars and trucks that will carry us towards an energy-independent future. I am absolutely committed to working with Congress and the auto companies to meet one goal: The United States of America will lead the world in building the next generation of clean cars.

In the old America, companies were in business to make a profit. They did this by providing a superior product or service at an affordable price. I see no mention of these concepts in Obama’s plan. No, the new goal of the American auto industry is to build fuel-efficient cars and trucks. Hope those market-hungry profiteers at Ford, Honda and Toyota are listening.

So, how is this going to work? As per their new “business plan,” GM and Chrysler will start building four-seater golf carts and selling them as the “next generation” of clean cars. The 10 or so honest and committed tree huggers in this country will get all excited and buy these cars. That won’t be enough, even for GM and Chrysler who have freed themselves from the chains of profit margins. If Ford, Honda and Toyota continue to make cars that people actually want to buy this will be a problem for the enlightened one. Obama might think profits are yucky but he’s not going to continue diverting tax money from Planned Parenthood and Acorn to prop up his new car companies. Obama noted that his sycophants in Congress have the solution:

Finally, several members of congress have proposed an even more ambitious incentive program to increase car sales while modernizing our auto fleet. And such fleet modernization programs, which provide a generous credit to consumers who turn in old, less fuel-efficient cars and purchase cleaner cars, have been successful in boosting auto sales in a number of European countries.

Oh yea! The benefits of a truly cosmopolitan president! When in doubt, look to the Euro’s! They can’t defend themselves but they are so sophisticated!

If that’s not enough, maybe he will raise the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards to a level only his car companies can meet.
Then there is his insane “Cap and Trade” legislation. Once he artificially raises the price of gas to five or six bucks a gallon, his piece of crap cars will start to sell. This has the ancillary benefit of getting brain dead Americans pissed at “Big Oil.” Then Obama can become CEO of an oil company too!

Some of you right wing extremists may call this the nationalization of the auto industry. Not to worry. Obama is an ardent capitalist and just loves the free market, “Let me be clear: The United States government has no interest in running GM. We have no intention of running GM.”

Doesn’t make sense? To understand Obama you need to study Humpty Dumpty:

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean – nothing more nor less.” The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – that’s all.”

Things in Obamaland are getting curiouser and curiouser!

TOUGH DECISIONS

According to my local fishwrap, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has decided that these tough economic times require bold action. The front page article caught my attention with the headline: “DNR DISCONTINUING LOCAL COUNTER SERVICE.” My first thought was-It’s about time! But, my naiveté belies my years. My reaction should have been-It sounds too good to be true. Well, of course, it is. It turns out that while the DNR is in fact discontinuing counter service, the jobs of the 51 state employees who provided that service are not being cut. No, they will keep their jobs with the DNR but will be “serving the public” in some, as yet undetermined, “different capacity.” The article states, in part:

Although the service centers will remain open as a base of operations
for local field staff, biologists and wardens, starting next spring people
will have to look elsewhere to obtain hunting licenses and information.
Eliminating counter service is expected to save the state $3.2 million
over the course of the next biennium.

I can see how this will inconvenience taxpayers but I don’t understand how it will save them any money. This question did not occur to the reporter who wrote the article so I am left only to contemplate the statements made by a DNR spokesman: “We are really facing an economic struggle. The state government had to make some tough decisions [because] decisions aren’t ever easy when you are facing a deficit.” Oh, really? How tough can it be when your solution is to cut customer service while maintaining a robust payroll? The truth is that the DNR and government in general have only one crucial decision to make. They have to decide where that imaginary and dangerously nebulous line in the sand is. They know they can’t cross it. It’s the one where the taxpayers finally say, “FUCK YOU! We’re not going to take this shit anymore!”

The line has been moving further and further…to the left, of course. According to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (gotta love these government bureaucracies), the state lost over 72,000 private- sector jobs last year. During this same time period, all those tough decisions being made in Madison have resulted in 900 new government jobs!

The DNR spokesman went on to say that “We will do what we can to avoid layoffs…” And what might that be? Increase production? No, they don’t produce anything. Increase customer service? Obviously not. Who knows?
Apparently the only thing we know for sure is that the consequences of a less than fully staffed DNR are too dire to contemplate. An immediate spike in global temperatures? Bands of renegade hunters decimating entire species of wild game? Maybe the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage District would start dumping millions of gallons of untreated wastewater into Lake Michigan every time it rains! Oh, that’s right, they’re doing that now. Gosh, maybe the DNR does need to hire more people. After all, they’ve got 72,000 additional people to choose from this year.