President Obama formed a commission about a year ago to figure out how to solve the looming deficit problem.  They were to report back conveniently right after last weeks election.  The preliminary word is out.  We're broke.  Surprised?

Seems we've accrued an additional 4 trillion dollars in debt over the last ten years.  Coincidentally, that's the same amount that was given back to us (at least the wealthier us) from the  Bush tax cut over the past decade.  Surprise II.

The commission is going to recommend a number of cost saving cuts and tax changes that no one will like or pass into legislation.  Surprise III.

The next commission will report back in 2020.  We'll be broker then.  No surprise there. 

  I see where the uncompromising President Obama is looking to compromise...... again.  

  The President reminds me of the college professor that gives the lecture and then expects the students to promptly produce something.   

Unfortunately, using the Socratic method in the school of hard knocks and politics doesn't work because of time and power.  The professor will be gone before the students are because it is easier for the students to vote him out than to figure him out and do the work.

 

 

Only in America.  Last Tuesday's election says it all.  Across the country four people got elected.....who were already deceased.  

Of course the obvious question is why.  Personally, I'd like to think the voters preferred a corpse to a living candidate but the more likely scenario is that they hadn't taken the time to even know who was running.

When we wonder what is wrong with our government the best place to find the answer is in a mirror. 

Not Smart

Wednesday the President took the blame for the beating in the election on Tuesday.   Thursday he packed and split for Asia.  When folks tell you in an election that you aren't getting it, that's not a good time to leave town.

Not Smart II

Friday Nancy Pelosi says she wants to be minority leader.  Having helped sink the Democratic House you would think she would know better.     When your leadership ends in disaster it is not a good time to lobby for the consolation prize. 

Not Smart III?

Fortunately we have run out of Democratic leaders to be Not Smart.   Tomorrow it's the Republican's turn to be Not Smart.

 

    Are you glad the elections are over?  It's like waiting for a war to finally end.

    The Republicans won this time. 

    Tomorrow the real war starts.  The conservative right wing of the Republican Party will be warring with the real conservative Tea Party members who believe they saved the GOP.  The Republican moderates are no longer a problem because they no longer exist.  They've gone elsewhere, didn't vote or won't admit they ever existed.  This war will make the last one seem like a walk in the park.

    As for the Democrats.  It's keep the helmets on and back to the drawing board.

    What it all boils down to is nobody knows what to do to fix anything including the voters.  But if you happen to be inspired enough to have an idea or worse do something...... you are wrong.  The "Republican Party of No" says you're wrong.  The Tea Party lights torches and marches against you .  Independents are bewildered and Democrats head for a bomb shelter. 

    Then there are those who think God will save us.  They're the same ones who also warn that God is going to destroy us first.

    And the latest idea is to elect another Bush to the Presidency in 2012?

    Personally, I think the Almighty is going to sit this one out.  To much work and no return. 

Remember the folks that brought you the last Republican Recession.  "They're back" and planning to take over the government again.  Lucky us, but then it's us that are poised to put 'em in so I guess we deserve what we get.  As for the alternative, the don't ruffle any feathers  "Do-Little" Democrats, don't look to them to discover the backbone they never had to begin with.

If the past is any guide to the future it's the last recession all over again but this time on steroids.  Seeing as how we haven't fixed the problems that got us in the last one like Wall Street greed and money games, mortgages on houses for people who couldn't pay for the attached garage let alone the house, the mega money in politics and the influence of large corporations the next round of financial disasters should not come as any surprise.  

The surprise will be that we have run out of money to buy our way out and China isn't going to loan us more.  They have us where they want us.  In the long run we'll work our way out of it like we always have but it will be no thanks to the clowns that got us in to it "twice" and no help from them either.

With this 2012 thing coming (which when I was in Guatemala last year the Maya said it was a gringo invention) I decided to see what was the safest place in the country to be when whatever it is that is coming........... comes.

There is flooding in Texas and Oklahoma.  Eighty years ago it was a dustbowl.  When Florida is not on fire it needs a hurricane to fill up the swamps but so far no water and when it gets it, too much. California has fires in the mountains, but they always have fires in the mountains, then it rains and the mountains slide to the valleys.  For variety they add in earthquakes.  The deep south is still getting over Katrina and about the time they do another of her relatives will show up on their doorstep.  New England has Nor'easters which usually are the remnants of hurricanes that pummeled the Carolinas just after the blistering heat ruined every southern summer since the last ice age.  Chicago has wind and politicians and the rest of the midwest gets tornadoes. The Pacific Northwest either has volcanoes or is awaiting the next tsunami and the southwest has two climates.  Hot and hotter.  New York City is New York City.

The only safe place in the country seems to be upstate  New York.  Aside from a stray blizzard or two that builds characters the only thing they have to fear is glaciers..... and they're melting.....this week. 

 

Getting ready for the mid term elections?  Know who you're voting for?  Care?

Seems to be the year of the nuts.  Up till now at least the Democrats haven't seemed to know how to do anything without apologizing for it and saying Obama made them do it.  As for the Republicans, they haven't done anything period.

Then there is the Tea Party which seems to be the right wing of the Conservative wing of the Republican Party.  As their political position says, "They are Right on everything".   That's especially true for the things they haven't done yet, considering none of them have ever been elected and haven't done anything , which means they haven't done anything wrong which makes them safe Republicans.

The polls say that the Republican folks that put us into our last Recession are about to recapture the national legislature.  If true, based upon their rhetoric and understanding of the problems they already created once we are about to repeat history and do it one better (or worse).

 

 

The latest from the US wingnuts is the preacher from Florida that's about to burn a pile of  Korans.  Says it's because the Muslims don't see Jesus as their savior.  In his next breath he calls them terrorists.  Then he says he's negotiated a deal with the Muslims not to build a mosque near ground zero in New York City.  They don't know what he is talking about.  In the meantime he is waiting for God to tell him what to do.

Meanwhile the President has weighed in asking him not to do it.  The local Fire Department says he can't because it will create a pollution hazard and after the fact they will have him arrested.  And Christian clerics around the country are begging him to back off.  Muslims around the world meanwhile are watching to see just how goofey we can get before they become crazy too.

Believe it or not I don't invent this stuff.

As for the good reverend, let us hope he gets a call from God in the next few hours and the God that calls is the rational one.

 

 

The President's first big problem is small.  Only six inches of opening in a pipe.  The problem is the other end of the pipe is connected to an oil well a mile down in the Gulf of Mexico and British Petroleum doesn't have a cork.  The President can't do much, even if he could swim, which seems to be what the Republican's were hoping for.  BP seems to be at a loss despite 36,000 suggestions on the Internet  The Navy could nuke it, but somehow that doesn't sound like a good idea....yet.  Soooo....the oil keeps flowing...... to places we don't want it. 

BP says the two relief wells that will be drilled by the end of August may buy some relief.  What do they mean by may and some and what if they are wrong.....again. 

Some say the world will end by a Flood, some say Fire.  Me, I'm betting on Gunk.