LSJ Blogs: People's Politics

Joe and Tito; Bill and Barack

First it was Joe the Plumber and now Tito the Builder, better known as Tito Munoz, who recently entered the political fray.  Tito was born in Columbia and came to the US (legally) to seek a better life.  He started as a janitor and now owns his own small company; his is the real personification of the American dream.  I urge you to search YouTube to listen to some of his thoughts.  He is well worth listening to.

Both Joe and Tito have much more common sense than any of the candidates running; especially Obama and the liberals running Congress.  Both Joe and Tito are should be heard instead of attacked by the MSM.

Hope and Change

Barack Obama promises “change” to the corrupt Washington ways and “hope” to those that no longer have any.  After listening to him carefully for the past two years, and downloading a number of his speeches so that I could read them rather than being swept up in his rhetoric, I’ve concluded that the changes he will bring us are bad and that the message of hope he brings is an empty phrase.

A Stupid Question

Well, it seems we’re talking about economic stimulus plans again.  The Democrats are campaigning for one.  The Fed Chairman supports one.  The President says he’s open to it.  Congress won’t stand in the way.  They can’t resist spending money they don’t have.  They have after all been doing it for so many years.

In the past few months, we’ve bailed out Wall Street.  We’re bailing out the banks.  We’re throwing money at the automakers.  Carl Levin now wants the government to help finance a GM/Chrysler merger with some more billions.  Treasury is talking to GM about such a deal.  And, today the LSJ endorsed a GM bailout.  So much money, and so little time.  All this spending can get folks in a real tizzy.  So, it must be time for government to once again soothe the angry mob.  Let’s cut the common folks in on the deal by cutting them another check?

Why not Obama/McCain?

There are a number of reasons I won’t vote for Obama or McCain, but very few that would make me vote for either of them.  I’d like to articulate some of the more important ones.

In general, Obama has three main campaign points:  he is for hope and change; he isn’t George Bush; and he has better judgment.

McCain has two main points:  he is the Maverick and he isn’t George Bush.

Election Night Nonsense

For the past few months we have been bombarded with political blogs, political ads, political speeches, political mail, political jokes and politicians desperately promising the moon and beyond. Hopefully, it will all end, at least temporarily, on election day.  But then, as election day closes, we are treated to one more night of colossal political nonsense.

Why you should vote no on the Separate Tax Limitation Ballot Proposal

Voters in Ingham County should vote no on the Separate Tax Limitation Ballot Proposal next week. Here's why:

First of all, The Separate Tax Limitation Proposal is inaccurately titled. This proposal circumvents the protection of the Headlee Amendment and Proposal A.

Second, despite the name of the proposal, it actually INCREASES the amount that the county can tax citizens of the county WITHOUT a vote.

words

We've all heard the old saw, "sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Well, we better take a new look at that, cause they couldn't have been more wrong! The words and phrases we use to discribe things are critical, and the people who use our language the best, not only make lots of money, they get into positions to do the most harm. Certain words are used to de-humanize people, words like nazi, gook, terrorist, even the "n" word, and they're necessary for most soldiers for no matter the training,for how many can kill nice guys or the innocent? This word use has even been reversed to make a zygote or a fetus into a viable human "baby",to manipulate the feelings of certain groups of people. Most of these word experts gravitate into radio, tv, newspapers and books. Some of the better ones have found soft living as lobbyists and in the differant areas of government, but it the idea makers that are the real pro's. Working for thinktanks and other special interest groups, they have, with their special knack of puttin lipstick on the proverbial pig, sold us all a bill of goods and divided a country. There are billions of dollars going into these places,and if you think someone is not making a huge profit, I'll sell you one of michigans beautiful bridges. The first thinktank came from the idea of a supreme court justice (Lewis Powell) in 1970 when he suggested it to the national chamber of commerce as one of the ways to promote a pro-business philosophy. Aren't these the same people hollering today about judges shouldn't impose their ideals? Lets examine the situation to see if any good has come from their sage advice, well, it seems that in the economy, their empathsis, on nothing but the bottom line mattering in deals, hasn't worked too well, how about the war? I'm not gonna tell you that they were the ones touting the wmd's or the fact we had better do something quick (though I'm also not sure they weren't) but I will say this...with their huge machinery and resourses, they could have stopped it. The biggest problem the next president will have, is who he surrounds himself with, and who he listens to, because not many have the best interest of our people at heart. Maybe, if we can just give them all sticks and stones and take away their words.........

Immigration Revisited

Nativists beware!  Regardless of which candidate is elected this fall, immigration reform will be revisited in 2009, or 2010.  And neither of these guys is a fan of the nativist cause.  Yes we need to do a better job at the borders.  But, there is so much more to be done.

Now I’m gong to make the libs angry.  Free trade agreements are not only the right thing to do, economically, they are a gradual means of immigration control.  And, they are a necessary part of the whole deal.  Improving the economic status of other countries, particularly in this hemisphere, is one way of keeping people at home.  The unions may not like it, because they have trouble organizing in those countries.  And, of course, if the unions don’t like it, the Democrats don’t like it.  But, protectionism will not build the other economies in this hemisphere.  And, giving other countries tax payer dollars is counterproductive, and promotes corruption.  Free trade has to happen.

Department of Defense Imbroglio

Secretary of Defense (SecDef) Robert Gates has been hailed by republicans as a great SecDef and by the dems as a welcome change from Donald Rumsfeld, who was blamed by the dems for everything that went wrong in Washington that couldn’t be pinned on W.  Gates approved the surge and Gen Patreaus' new strategy that has been an unarguable success in Iraq, so he can’t be all bad.  However, some strange things are happening to and in the United States Air Force (USAF) that are puzzling.

Payroll "taxes"

There has been a good bit of discussion in the Presidential campaign about Obama’s plan to cut taxes for 95% of the workers in the country.  According to the IRS, a bit more than 40% of people filing income tax returns do not pay any income tax at all (while the latest figures I could find came from 2006, I don’t believe they have changed significantly for 2007); what is withheld from their paychecks is returned when they file their 1040s.  The IRS statistics make it indisputable fact; it is not my opinion.  Therefore, it is also indisputable that Obama cannot lower taxes on the 40% that don’t pay taxes; if they are to pay less taxes, in order to meet Obama’s campaign promise, there must be a transfer of wealth from actual taxpayers to those that do not pay taxes.  That is welfare or as Obama prefers to call it “sharing the wealth.”