HR 3221 has a neat little provision that (apparently Sen. Chris Dodd put in) to help the government find new money to spend. They are gonig to require any payment facilitator in the US to provide reporting to the federal government that exceeds $10,000 in a year. Sweet, so they can keep yet another database that some monkeys have access to with all of our personal financial data in? How about all of the merchants that have SSNs and EINs? They need all of this…I don’t think so. Figure out how to spend what you have and not tax the people you are supposed to be serving. The best part is that HR 3221 is little more than window dressing when it comes to trying to help homeowners and the real estate market in general. Check with the guys on Wall St. who were peddling the CDOs and work your way down.

The text of HR 3221.

Here is how you can find out who your US Representative is (in the US Congress)

Here is how you can find out who your US Senators are (you get two)

John Edwards – There is something about John Edwards that is appealing to me…he wear his heart on his sleeve. While this may not be “Presidential” to some, at least you know where he really stands on an issue. John Edwards, IMHO, really seems to give a crap about the United States and how things are done. I am certainly not a fan of most lawyers, but it seems to me that of anyone on the Dem list, he is the one that would be the best for this country’s interests.

Hillary Clinton – Panderer. What else is there to say? Why is it that people in this country seem to think that the best people for the Presidency are those that have been there before? Wake up people.

Barak Obama – Wus. I think Barak Obama seems like a smart guy, a nice guy, but I will be honest, he reminds me of John Kerry. He is not willing to call people out when he disagrees with them or thinks they are full of crap (see candidate above), either because he is afraid, he wants to partner up if he doesn’t get the nomination, or he is listening to his consultants who tell him that people don’t like confrontation.

Joe Biden – Well, this is a guy who seems to say all of the right things all of the time. I actually like a lot of what Biden has to say most of the time. The problem is that he seems to change his tune to whatever is most popular at the time. Sorry Joe.

[tags]Democrats, Candidates, Nomination[/tags]

Okay, some people shouldn’t be in certain positions in this country. Tom Tancredo has no business being President of the United States and he certainly doesn’t deserve to hold any public policy office IMHO. I just caught a glimpse of a new television ad he is running (and found it on YouTube.com). I really wish that most people in this country take some serious offense to this new ad and its attempt at scaring the hell out of people and getting them to vote for Tancredo. Joker, good luck.

Just another great ancillary benefit to having a rookie run the country.  Here is some really exciting news from Russia today about them developing a radical new missile delivery system for nuclear weapons. Thanks to GW taking the US out of the long-standing 1972 Ballistic Missle Treaty (in 2002) the Russians went ahead and developed a new nuclear missile.  Blah, blah, blah, Putin is talking about making Europe into a powder keg by looking to put a US missile defense system over there, but the fact remains, we are safer today than we were 7 years ago. Gosh I feel good.

[tags]Bush, Moron, Putin, Russia, Nuclear Missile, Star Wars, Missile Defense[/tags]

Here is what I have learned so far this week…or at the very least have been reminded of.

1. If you are not for increasing the number of troops in Iraq, you do not support the troops. Comedy.
2. Whatever George Bush did to get all of his mini-me’s to repeat everything he said, should be bottled and dropped in bomb over Bagdhad.
3. I believe more than ever that we need short term limits on every public office from Mayor to President. Don’t think so? Look at the people that have been “serving” our country for so many years. There are some real patriots, however most are in it for #1.
4. We need real citizens to run for office and everyone in this country to vote every time there is any kind of election. The United States is a Republic, which means we have a representative form of government. We need mainstream people running this country that represent the majority of the country…not the fringes. Left, right, top, or bottom, the fringes have taken control of public offices and policies. It is unfotunate that mainstream people will not run for office and when they do, they don’t have a shot at winning. Time to take back the country and bring back responsibility.
5. We seem to be getting closer and closer to a police state. I am not an alarmist or some kind of conspiracy theorist. But, I get more scared about how things are run in this country every day I read a paper, watch the news or speak to friends work in law enforcement and the law profession.
6. I almost forgot this one. IF you are a politician and you do something pretty bad; something that could potentially end your political career…go to rehab.

Politicians, Politics, Republic

Here is a pretty funny article I read this morning. It caught my eye as it was the first link on the Google News site.  It is entitled, “Dumb and Dumber.”

For all of you citizens out there who are unaware, the President will be addressing you and your fellow compatriots at 6pm PST on the channel of your choosing.

[tags]Links, News, State of the Union, President[/tags]

So, I try to read a few different online news outlets and Op-Ed pieces each day to hear what the “two sides” (since that is apparently all we are allowed to have here now) have to say and I soon realized that the Neo-Conservatives are truly crazy fanatics. Not that I did not think that they were before, but I really believe that many of them are really crazy. I was reading Frank Gaffney’s Op-Ed piece in the Washington Times just now and was pretty taken back. In his open letter to President Bush, Gaffney suggests that the President let the country and the world know that we are not engaged in a “War on Terror” against “terrorists” but, we are engaged in the “War for the Free World” against, at the moment, those adherent to “Islamofacism.”

What scares me most is that this is the group of people that are creating our policies these days and it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that they don’t want to listen to what anyone has to say. That is fine, just do it in your own little shack in the woods, ala Montana Ted, and have a day…just don’t do it when you supposedly represent the 290MM+ people in the US of A. Has anyone on this team of geinuses ever spoken to any of the people that we are supposedly helping in the muslim world? There was an interesting article about Pushtunwali in the Economist last week and I think it is something that everyone in this country should read. Basically, it talks about some of the predominant cultures in the Middle East and their heritage. Bottom line, I don’t think any of these people want to be “liberated” by the US or anyone else. They just want to live like they have been for thousands of years.

If we want to go to war to stake a claim to the world’s great oil reserves, ok. Let’s just call it what it is, I am down with that. We have the muscle and we want a piece. Just don’t make up 10 different names for something until one sticks. Bottom line, if there was no oil in Iraq, we would not be there. I am sure there are millions of other people in the world that need to be liberated as well, don’t see us running to save them.

Bush, Muslims, Neo Con, Neo Conservatives, Pushtunwali, State of the Union, USA

I am just plain tired of the trash talking.  It never seems to end, especially from the ultra-conservative side of the park.  I lean more to the conservative/libertarian side (not liberal folks) of things most of the time, but one thing that irritates me most about the super conservative types is that they always appear to be driving some kind of wedge.  I am not sure why that is, maybe because they learned as children that they could get a rise out of someone and that it made them feel good. I really don’t know. But, this commentary by Larry Kudlow this morning in the Washington Times got under my skin…I suspect that was his goal.

Kudlow jumps all over John Edwards for his percieved views on mega-disasters like the Katrina/New Orleans mess and on Iraq policy.  I think that it is pretty lame (for lack of a better, family friendly term) for someone as intelligent as Larry Kudlow to do that. Why? Pretty simple, I don’t think anyone, anywhere can say they have the goods when it comes to the end-all, fix-all of these two debacles.  If Larry Kudlow is so on top of his game, then we would all be better off by him using his vast resources (montetary, political and commercial) to promote solutions for these and other items he has all of the answers for. Instead, he chose to write an inflamatory piece in the WT.  In my mind, that is on par with the rest of the lip service that we are now accustomed to from our political “leaders”.

One thing I did find interesting was his biography on Wikipedia.  I am sure that whomever contributed/wrote that bio has their own bias, but I can’t wait until Larry decides to use the “flip-flopper” term.  He could be the King Trash Talker and King Flip Flopper.

[tags]Larry Kudlow, Lawrence Kudlow, Trash Talk, Flip Flop, Iraq, Katrina, John Edwards[/tags]