davintosh

Today is April 15, Tax Day here in the USA, and I just returned from the local Tax Day Tea Party held at Covell Lake. It was pretty inspiring to see how many people turned out for it; it was announced from the podium that there was an estimated 3,500 in attendance, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were more. I wish I’d thought to take a camera along, but…

The speaker at the podium (I have no idea who it was) said that the rally was truly a grass-roots effort, tied to no political party, and as such there were no politicians who would be speaking at the event. I had to cheer for that because as much as I loathe what is happening through the Obama Administration, the last few years with George W. Bush in office weren’t much better. Politics in America is sick, and in dire need of a cure. I hope that these Tea Parties will be the beginning of that cure.

I’m sure that President Obama is sitting on his throne in the Oval Office thinking how silly it all is, because he’s already put the fix in so the middle class gets a bigger refund and has less taken out of their checks for FICA. And besides, he’s only doing it to fix the mess that was left for him by the previous administration. I take issue with the current situation for two reasons: One, the problem isn’t with the now, it’s when the bill comes due. Congress and the President have passed this so-called “Stimulus Package” that obligates us, our children and grandchildren for money that’s to be spent right now on things that we as a country would do better without. And forecasts say that this is only the first round of such spending, and obligation, and the debt being heaped upon the backs of future Americans. The burden of that debt will increase taxes, and will make all of us less free when that debt comes due. And when you think of who it is that owns that debt, it makes you wonder.

Secondly, as one of the speakers at today’s Tea Party so aptly put it, it is “taxation without deliberation”; more accurately, it is taxation and obligation without deliberation. Obama’s “Stimulus Package” was so huge and ramrodded through the House & Senate so fast that the legislation wasn’t even read by most of the people voting on it. Obama told them all that the need was so urgent that there wasn’t time for all that; they just needed to get it passed. And with the majorities in the House & Senate in lock-step with him, it was done, and done without all that pesky debate that brings up so many unpleasant things that they’d rather not focus on.

As the Tea Parties across the country draw millions of people, the President is going to get in front of his teleprompter and lie to us once again, saying his plan is for the best and everything will be alright. He’ll pooh-pooh all who took part in the mock tea dumpings and tell us that his plan is already working to make things better for the middle-class. I have to admit that my tax return is larger this year than I expected, but that doesn’t change the fact that my employer is being hit harder by taxes and as a result has decided against adding equipment and capacity and personnel this year. And he is most assuredly not the only one in this country who has made that decision.

So there are a half-dozen or so people that might have had an opportunity at a better job at a great small business, but won’t. And there are several companies that build equipment that might have had an opportunity to sell us the equipment and services and consumables to put that new equipment to work, but won’t. And it’s all in the name of what President Obama sees as an ‘unfairness’ in the capitalistic economic system that made this country great.

I just heard on the radio that the Obama Administration plans to conduct high-level talks with the Iranians. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised; he said he’d do as much during a campaign debate. Hoping that he wasn’t serious was just a little too much to hope for I guess. Or maybe he wasn’t serious, but has since decided that he needs to stick to all his campaign promises, regardless of how ridiculous.

I’m curious though; where do you go when dealing with a regime that has made clear their desire to wipe Israel off the map, and is very likely pursuing nuclear weapons so they can do just that? I can just about hear the exchange…

Hillary: Ok, Mr. Ahmadinejad; your demand for the annihilation of the State of Israel is just too much. You’re going to have to make some compromises!
Ahmadinejad: Oh, ok… How about we just go for decimation instead of annihilation? Would your President go for that?

It’s been a while since I had a chance to tune in to the Rush Limbaugh Show over my lunch hour, but had a chance to listen in the other day. Predictably, he had a lot to say about President Obama, but instead of leading off with something like, “Obama said…”, he kept referring to things that “Obama’s teleprompter told him to say”. I had to laugh out loud at that, because it is so dead-on accurate. Lately it seems that Obama is never seen speaking in public without his teleprompter in place, probably just to keep him on script. Without it, the things he says reflect more of what he believes and what he intends to do during his term, which is more than what he and his handlers want the public to know about. He says what’s displayed for him to say, kinda like a puppet on a string. Or maybe a more like a dog on a leash.

Since the campaign that wouldn’t end, people have been saying that Obama is such a gifted politician and speaker, but that’s something I have failed to see in him. What I see is someone who can spout lines on screen pretty well, but the content that he’s spouting is pretty pedestrian, much less ‘inspiring’. Take away his scripted lines, and he ahhs… and ummms… and stutters worse than I do, which is saying something. And I can’t help but agree with Rush when he criticizes the President for failing to use his speaking ability to inspire the American people. Seems that every time he makes a nationally televised address, the Dow Jones drops a few hundred points, and people become more fearful of what the next four years will bring.

Only 3 years & 309 days left… Will the country last that long? God help us all.

Wow; what can you say about a politician whose image is that of the mild-mannered, clean-cut do-gooder who is picked for a top Cabinet slot in the Obama Administration, only to pull out because he somehow forgot to mention in his tax returns that he’d received a gift of a limo and driver from a “business partner”? That little oversight saved him from paying about $125,000 in taxes (any guesses on the dollar value of that gift?) and now that it’s come to light, pretty much ended his political career. Too bad it’s about a decade or so too late.

Daschle’s PR people somehow got it into the heads of way too many people that he’s a ‘common-sense’, ‘regular guy’ ‘consensus-builder’, reaching across the Senate aisle to make buddies with the opposition in order to get things done. All of it is a crock of you-know-what; he was a partisan hack from the get-go, and it’s just sad that it’s taken this long for the realization of how duplicitous he’s been all these years to dawn on everyone.

The black eye that Daschle is getting in the media right now is just desserts as far as I’m concerned. That nice guy driving his rusty Oldsmobile instead of being chauffeured in a limo simply never existed.

I just thought of something; what would happen if you looked up the license plate number of that Oldsmobile? AJA 853 — Was it actually registered in Daschle’s name? I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if it belonged to some low-level staffer. Not sure if you could look something like that up 20 years after the fact, but it’d be interesting to find out.

I first noticed Daschle’s duplicity back in 1992 or so; I was a registered Democrat back then, and had even voted for Daschle a time or two. But I started to pay more attention to politics about that time, and noticed that Tom’s words and actions didn’t always align very well; ditto with Bill Clinton. All of that helped me to examine more closely what the two parties really stood for, and to examine more closely the people representing both parties. When I first registered at age 18, I really didn’t know what I was doing and picked the Democrats in part because I liked the sound of ‘progressive’ and ‘liberal’ (and also because I thought Mom & Dad voted Republican), but in examining things more closely I discovered that my beliefs and convictions were more in line with the Republicans than the Democrats, and the Democrats were led by some people of pretty questionable character. The Republican leadership, while not perfect, was definitely better in my judgement, so I switched boats and have never looked back. I’ve since looked around at other parties, but for now the Republicans best represent what I hold to be true.

Color me disappointed; disappointed that it took this long for light to shine on Daschle’s true nature. But it puts me in an even deeper funk over what’s to come with the Obama Administration. God help us all.

“Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.”

James Madison
Federalist No. 10

May God have mercy on us all.