The National Council of La Raza...  http://www.nclr.org/   "Private, non-profit, and non-partisan organization focused on reducing poverty and discrimination, and improving opportunities, for Hispanic Americans."

No offense, but isn't this just the NAACP for hispanics?  Doesn't the CP in NAACP stand for "colored people"?  Arent hispanics, technically, colored people?  I mean if whites, I mean caucasians, aren't colored people, doesn't that make all other people colored?  Isn't white a color?   If the CP in NAACP stands for "colored people" doesn't that make NCLR redundant?  Or does the NAACP need to change it's name to something more descriptive, like the National Association for the Advancement of African Americans.  They could be the N4xA (N 4 times A). 

Isn't it odd that there are so many organizations in this country that are supposed to focus on reducing poverty and discrmination for certain groups?  If I were to start an organization called The National Council for Advancement of Caucasians how long do you think it would take Al Sharpton to call us a bunch of racists?  I'm not calling the NAACP of NCLR racists, but racism works both ways guys.

If what the liberals tell us is true, then if someone moves up in economic standing then someone else has to move down, so if the NAACP and NCLR are trying to move blacks and hispanics foreward who's moving backwards?  Well, if blacks and hispanics are moving forewards then asians, caucasina, native-americans, jews, and pacific-islanders must all have to move backwards right?

See what I did there?  I turned the liberals argument around on them.  They say that for one person to succed in life someone else must fail in life, that it is a zero sum game.  Well, it's not a zero sum game.  Everyone can succed, it's just that some work harder and educate themselves better and therefore succed more.

If we are going to have an organization for the advancement of any thing, why the not the National Association for the Advancement of Everyone?  The NAAE would work to ensure that equality rules the day and that those who struggle to advance themselves are not hindred because of their race.

BTW, there is an organization out there that claims that they stand for the white, er I mean caucasian, man.  It's called the KKK, and honestly they are a bunch of mindless, biggotted, redneck neo-nazis.  I despise them because they fear other races because they (the KKK) lack the intelligence to better themselves.  BTW, I am a white male.  I am not going to even bother trying to make the point that I am not racist, I live it everyday, my actions speak louder than words and anyone reading this is going to form an opinon of me long before they understand the point I am trying to make.

One last thing, La Raza means "The Race".  Which one, I don't know.  The Hispanic Race?  The Human Race?  The Daytona 500?

Let's put an end to all this "race" crap shall we?  Who cares what color you areudeserve to succed as long as you follow the rules and work hard you desrve to succed.

So, it's been a while since I've blogged on here.  A lot has happened in the last few months...  Ok, so it has been " a few months". 

Let's jump right into it, shall we?

Barack and Co. passed "Health Care":  With backroom deals and a big 'ol barrel of pork and no real reform or cost reductions Barack and the Dems. passed this monster of a bill, as a result expect higher insurance consts/premiums, higher taxes, rationing, and a higher prison population. 

Wait, thats it?  Thats all they've manages to accomplish in all this time?  What the hell are they doing in Washington?

I thought I's have a lot more to say about what the Dems. have destroyed....

We all hope that next year the conservative make huge gains in the House and Senate.  We have seen it happen before, we could see it happen again.  It happened to Clinton in '94.  It happened to Reagan.  It happened to G W Bush. 

The American people tend to distrust "one party" control of the government, so they tend to elect the opposoing party to numerous Congressional seats in mid-term elections. 

To be honest though, I hope that only enough conservatives win next year to slow down the O-train, not completely stop it.  Why?  Well, back in '94 Bill Clinton was well on his way to breaking every campaign promise he ever made, raising taxes, cutting military spending, and forcing "Hilary-care" down the country's throat.  The Republicans made a huge come back and re-took the House and Senate.  They stopped Clinton and forced him to sign laws that made this country what it was during the rest of Clinton's two terms.  That was a great victory, but it resulted in a defeat in the '96 Presidential election and also cost the Republicans a few seats.

So even though we all hope that there are conservative victories in 2010, lets hope that the end result is not another victory for Barack.

http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/09/obama-oversteps.html
http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/mixed-reaction-on-li-over-obama-s-longer-school-year-proposal-1.1486435

The short version:  Barack wants schools to have extended hours so that we can "catch up to China" and the rest of the world in education.

Possible Consequences:  
[list]*Longer school hours of operation will increase the cost of operating schools which will in turn raise taxes.
*Forcing kids to attend an even longer, artificially extended school year will possibly raise the drop out rate.
*Test score may improve over the short term, but long term gains will be unachievable because the end result will only be more school days along with more "Teacher Work Days"[/list]

Better Solutions:
[list]*Reduce the power of the Teacher's Union and eliminate as many "Teacher Work Days" as possible.
*Pay teachers based on performance instead of tenure.
*School vouchers/school choice.
*If necessary reduce spending on extracurricular activities to increase spending on text books and teaching supplies.
*Re-tool our current "standardized" test system.
*Instead of increasing the length of the school day/year let's increase the quality of our schools[/list]

These are just the quick ideas I had when I decided a post on this was worth while.  I believe I make legitimate points with both the consequences and the solutions.  Let's face facts, if schools are open longer hours each day, each week, and throughout the year the costs of operating the public school system will have to increase.  We have enough kids dropping out because they are "tired of going to school,"  making the school year longer is not going to solve this problem, especially not just because Barack has asked these kids to stay in school and work hard.  

A freind of mine was home schooled for her last two years of high school but because of a minor snafu with the NC Board of Ed. she still had to get a GED to attend CFCC.  The "Adult High School/GED" class she attended was also attended by several much younger students who told her that they had dropped out because they were not learning anything new in school and figured it must be a waste of time...

Knowledge retention is one of the biggest problems children face today.  With so much going on in their formative years, especially now with the commonness of video games and the internet, school children are finding it harder and harder to retain what they learn.  I know the older I got and the more I had going on the less I was able to easily recall new concepts and information.  Not much has changed, my life has only gotten more hectic.  Just imagine the children and teenagers trying to cope with not only school, but also, extracurricular activities, a social life, a family life, and possibly a part time job so they can afford the latest fashions or the newest Wii game.  Throw into this mix the hodgepodge of Holidays and "Teacher Work Days" and we are putting our students at a serious disadvantage. By the way, guess who helps determine how many teacher work days there are and when they fall in the school calendar: the Techers' Unions...  With all the current gaps in the school year it is amazing that these kids can pass and EOG/EOC test.

Which brings me to my next idea, re-tool the "standardized" test system.  I'm not talking so much about the SATs, though that system seriously needs to be rethought slightly, but more about your average End-of_Grade or End-of-Course tests that all schools children in NC (and presumably the rest of the country) must pass.  Many schools now base their "passing" and "failing" on these tests alone, they may not always count for part of the students actual letter grade, but if they pass an EOG they get promoted to the next grade level.  My question is:  How can a child who can not pass a class pass an EOG/EOC test?  Answer: Too many teachers spend the last few days and weeks of class having their students "memorize" the tests.  You read that right.  "Memorize."  Give a student the same "test bank" tests and eventually they will come to recognize the same problems in the actual tests.  To me this is a serious issue.  Instead of relying on "standardized" tests, which teachers have access to, we should rely more on standards of learning.  Lets make sure the students are learning the material, not the answers to the test questions.

This brings us to another important issue: teacher pay.  I don't think it is fair to us, the taxpayers, or to the children, colloquially known as the "future of our country", to pay teachers based not on how well they teach, but by how long they have been teaching.  This goes hand in hand with the standardized test issue.  If students are basically given the answers for the tests, how do we know that teachers are really teaching?  They grade the tests and homework they give out, for the most part anyway.  Therefore, we can not base a teacher's performance off of classwork, homework, or test grades.  What we need is a truly standardized test system which basis it's content off of the material which should be included in a course/grade's curriculum.   We should have tests for every "course" covered in a grade year, with the exception of foreign languages and other "elective" classes.  Reading, writing, math, science, social-studies, etc.  The questions which comprise this test should be reviewed and reevaluated yearly and changed just as often.  There should be no "test bank" for teachers to pull a "practice"  EOG/EOC from.  Lest test our teachers ability to teach as much as we test the students ability to learn and pay accordingly.

Many agree that private schools better educate their students than public schools.  At the same time many public schools out perform other schools in the same areas.  Not every one can afford to send their kids to private school or to move to a new school district.  That's why I think that private school vouchers and school choice in general are important ideas.  If I live in a school district where test scores are lower and class sizes are larger, but the next district over has smaller classes and better scores I think that my children deserve the opportunity to attend the better school.  The same can be said of private schools.  IF I pay my taxes and choose to send my kids to a private school then i am paying for a service (public schools) which I am not using.  Let's not get into the "cops and firefighters" argument here.  We all use them all the time, every minute of everyday.  Think I am wrong?  If your neighbor's house catches on fire and no firefighters respond your house could be next or your kid's school/daycare.  If the police fail to stop a reckless driver he could end up smashing into you two miles down the road.  Get my point?  I use the cops all the time, I know it and I am proud to say that a portion of my tax dollars go to training and paying these brave men and women who serve us all everyday.  But enough with that.  If I don't use the schools I don't sue the schools, plain and simple.  I feel like I am getting ripped off right now just knowing that somewhere in this state my tax dollars just helped fund a place where some one else's kids got another person's kid knocked-up or worse.  Why?  Because I don't have any kids in school and therefore I am paying fora service I am not using, and if I am not suing it, someone else must be... Let them pay the taxes on it.  I know, I sound "greedy" but please let's not go there...

Oh and of course I just know I'm going to hear something about the  costs...  I don't want to raise taxes, so if we must sacrifice, let's do it the right way.  Football, Marching Band, Science Olympiad, etc etc etc.  If they have to take a hit, let them.  If we must give up something I'm fine with cutting middle/high school athletics in favor of better education.  Actually the sports teams could do like many little league teams do and find a local corporate sponsor to help provide the necessary funds.  I'd be cool with that.  The kids still get to play sports and local companies get some really good advertising...

But, hey I'm just one guy, one tax payer and to be honest I'm not even a parent.  But I still care about the kids...  What do you guys think(non-gender specific here, I'm addressing the group as a whole, especially the parents our there...)?

You know, after reading the comments on certain articles here on Townhall.com I no longer have to wonder why the Republicans lost to Barack.  Seriously,  some of you people here are brain dead morons with an elephant fetish.  That's the only explination I have for some of you voting conservative, you'd be better suited for the Nazi Party.  Join the TV SS and rat out a Nip/Tuck fan today!

Brent Bozo can't seem to get it through his thick skull that some of us adults enjoy shows like South Park,  Nip/Tuck,  Rescue Me, Sons of Anarchy, etc.  He also seems to be having a problem with his V-Chip.  Dang, I thought I had it programmed for him to!  He must have figured out my super secret pass code and started watching Nip/Tuck again.  I never thought he would figure out 0000.  There is a reason FX has at least two parental warnings before each showing of Nip/Tuck or Rescue Me or Sons of Anarchy.  "The following program is for adult audiences...  Viewer Discretion is advised".  This means YOU!  All of you people who just want to complain about what's on TV.  Just leave the channel on PBS and you'll be ok.

Oh and as far as Woodstock starting the AIDS epidemic....  Oh dear lord baby Jebus read a book!  The AIDS epidemic started in the 80's, almost 20 years AFTER Woodstock.  And don;t try to hand me that "free love movement started it" line because that's just not it.  Some guy got on a plane in Africa flew to San Fransisco and either picked up a heroine neddle and then shared it or sodomized some gay guy transmitting the HIV virus to him, introducing AIDS to America.  Or worse yet, it could have been a branch of the Red Cross or another charity organization using tainted blood....  Who knows, but Woodstock.  Give me a break.  Herpes, go*orrhea, syphilis, anal warts, maybe, but not AIDS.

Some of you make me crazy.  You think that "moral" people or "conservatives" or "Christians" can't watch South Park...  Careful up there: its a long fall off of your high horse!

To paraphrase an old saying:  I may not always agree with what you say or how you say it, hell I might even flame you for it, but I will defend with my life your right to say it!

It won't let me say a certain diesase I wonder if (0(K is ok?  Nope, how about pu$$y?  Nope... um f@g?

I've got this really nice b!t(h if anyone wants her.  She's part golden retriever and part doberman.  She's free

TH your "inapporpriate language" thing is really starting to pi$$ me off!  Phuck you guys.  FREEDOM OF SPEECH RULES BIZNATCHES!

I just finished reading an excerpt from a public relations publication that goes into detail about Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals.  I got me to thinking: maybe conservatives should start using these same rules to combat Liberal Radicals...

RULE 1: "Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have." Power is derived from 2 main sources - money and people. "Have-Nots" must build power from flesh and blood. (These are two things of which there is a plentiful supply. Government and corporations always have a difficult time appealing to people, and usually do so almost exclusively with economic arguments.)

So, what are conservatives to do with Rule 1: First of all we need to let everyone know that our power lies not withing government, but within those governed.  Obama and the Democrats are offering "economic arguments" (free this, free that, free everything for just giving up your power as constituents.)  Conservatives must dirve home two messages:  that power comes not from government but from the people and that the united states is, in fact, not a democracy, but a representative republic.  What this means is that we must push the message that no one can truly vote themselves lagress from the treasury because our form of government has filters to prevent this and to keep our nation strong ("A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury."  Alexander Tytler, unverified)

RULE 2: "Never go outside the expertise of your people." It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone. (Organizations under attack wonder why radicals don't address the "real" issues. This is why. They avoid things with which they have no knowledge.)

RULE 3: "Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy." Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty. (This happens all the time. Watch how many organizations under attack are blind-sided by seemingly irrelevant arguments that they are then forced to address.)

Barack and his team have this down to a science, which is why we keep hearing the same happy-happy-joy-joy palittudes from the Teleprompter-in-Chief.  It is time we stick to our guns and force them to recognize that thier big-goverment plans are full of waste and will lead to the downfall of our nation through bankruptcy caused by both entitlements and loans from other nations.

RULE 4: "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules." If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules. (This is a serious rule. The besieged entity's very credibility and reputation is at stake, because if activists catch it lying or not living up to its commitments, they can continue to chip away at the damage.)

Make Barack and company try to out "rule" us.   The more they they to follow these rules the more we follow these same rules.  They are already doing so, so lets make them work harder at, spend more on it, and eventually we will with draw suddenly from this "rule" combat and leave them standing alone on the field of combat for all the nation to see.  "They started, we finished it.  Your'e welcome America."

RULE 5: "Ridicule is man's most potent weapon." There is no defense. It's irrational. It's infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions. (Pretty crude, rude and mean, huh? They want to create anger and fear.)

What do they really know about you and your healthcare?  What do they really know about you and your family's needs?  What do they really know about anything?  I don't think the teleprompter had the answers to these questions, guy.

And skip straight to rule tweleve:
RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)

Let's make Barack, Pelosi, Reid and others suffer for their sins agains our nation.  They are our targets.  No mud slinging necessary, they enjoy the muck so much to sleep in it, we just need to expose them for that they really are.  Swine.  Like the pigs in "Animal Farm" these individuals only care about one thing: POWER.  They will do anything to obtain it, slander anyone to retain it, and destroy our nation to maintain it!

Let's use thier rules against them for once!

All text in blue from http://www.geocities.com/WallStreet/8925/alinsky.htm .

My boss is a liberal.  He would probably get upset that I called him a liberal because of his views on certain issues, such as abortion (which he detests).  But when you look at who he voted for (Obama), the party he belongs to (Democrat), and certain Dem led movements he supports (such as nationalized health care) you pretty much have to assume he is, in fact a liberal.  Certain people would probably say I am liberal if they only looked at certain key issues, such as legalization of marijuana and abortion (complicated, so don't ask unless you want to hear me go on and on and on for about thirty minutes), but I consider myself to be conservative, which is why I am a member here at Townhall.com.

So, my boss and I were riding in the company truck a few days ago on our way to deliver a few things and take care of business and we start discussing politics, which we often do.  He had met a man a few days before who's wife had been in the hospital.  The man said "I don't care if they call it Socialism, Communism, nationalized or whatever as long AS IT IS FREE."  His wife's hospital bills had totaled over $87,000.  She was in for some sort of heart complication, so I'm sure she was on life support for most of her ~2 week stay.  She was ~65 years old.  I thought for a minute or two and told my boss that the bill seemed reasonable, especailly if she didn't have any insurance.  He was shocked to say the least.

So he starts going on ad nauseam about GREED.  The greed of pharmecutical comapnies, the greed of doctors, the greed of big oil, greed, greed, greed, greed.  I finally lost it.  I just couldn't take it any more.

"Do they teach you about all this GREED stuff at liberal summer camp," I asked with out a hint of a smile or grin.
":No," my boss replied. "Why?"
"I was just wondering, because you sure seem to know exactly who is greedy and why that is a bad thing so I figured it must have been a lecture series at UNCW in the Political Science department." (Mike S Adams if you see this my boss did in fact graduate fron the Univeristy of North Carolina with a PolySci degree, I'm not making that up although I am parphrasing a bit.)

I then went on to explain to my boss, which is funny because of our age difference, the difference between GREED and self-interest.  Greed is when a person tries to attain wealth or property for the sole purpose of attaining said wealth or property.  Self-interest is when a person tries to attain wealth or property to better serve their own interests or that of their family.  BIG difference, eh?

Then my boss says something that made me really fly off the handle.  He said "There are some people who just could not survive were it not for the government."  Seriosuly, that is how convoluted liberals think in America.  They seriously beleive that with out the goverment and its interventon into all aspects of day to day life that certain people would not be able to live any kind of life at all.  "If your aren't born into money or you don't hit the lottery then you cant ever be truly wealthy."  Another statement straight from a liberals mouth...  My reply?

"I can't believe you would even say something like that.  You belittle everyone when you say that.  This is America.  This is the lanf of opportunity.  This is the only country in the worls where someone with the will to educate and better themselves and the will to work hard can become wealthy.  There are plenty of self-motivcated people in this country who went to college, worked two jobs to pay for it while attending classes, worked for five or ten years in a dead end job then took the risk of quitting to start their own business and they made it just fine without any government help.That's what America is all about, having the freedom to work hard and make your life better, to give your children opportunities that you never had growing up and to strive for self-improvment."

That is almost word for word what I yelled at him in the company truck...

Looking back I realize that that is the dividing line for liberals and conservatives.  Liberals think that the only way America can survive is to turn over control of everything to the government.  Conservatives KNOW that government doens't have all the answers, never has and never will.

It's a scary thought, but it's more often true than not.  California seems to be the best indicator of how the country will go in all things, from elections to economics and so on.  The environmentally friendly craze started in Cali and has spread from the West coast to the East coast like a wild fired... or maybe a mud slide.  With Cali in the worst finacial shape of almost any state in the Union it makes one wonder:  Why are they in such rough shape? What about the rest of us, are we doomed as well?  What can we do to stop this madness?  How can we NOT be like California?

So I did a little digging on the internet and I found a few interesting facts and figures to look at.*

California's State Budget, approved not propssed grew from $4.0 Billion in 1965-66 to $117..3 Billion in 2005-06.

From the years 2006 t Present California has been rnaked, in order: 46th, 47th, 48th and 48th in State Business Tax Climate. Compared with: Rhode island (the worst of 2006 and 2007), New Jersy (worst of 2008 and 2009), ans Wyoming (the best State Business Tax Climate of all four years).  The US "score" for all four years is 5.00 ans typically serves as the median score according to the information I could find. **

Californais's State Indicidiaul income taxe rate (2009) varies from 1.25% for the lowest bracket to 10.55% for the highest...  Comapre that with Marylans wich vareis from 2% at the lowest bracket to 6.25% at the highest or Florida which has no state income tax at all.

California's corporate tax rate is 8.84% with a minimum tax of $800.

California's sales tax rate is 7.25% and their gas tax per gallon is $0.353.

In 2005 California was ranked 43 in states comapring federal taxes to federal spending recieved.

That is the great state of Californai all wraped up in its fiscal nutshell.  Ans what does Obama and Co propse?  More federal spending...  Which will lead to higher personal and corporate tax rates ro more borrowing from other countries like China.  Which like Cali will lead to the bankruptcy of OUR country.  Sure, let's make it even harder for comapnies to opperate in the United States, and lets take more money from our citizens to finace outrageous spending proposals, ans whicle we are at it, lets make it more expesnive to live as well.....  What a great recipie... for disater.  LETS NOT BE LIKE CALI FOR ONCE!

Don't get me wrong, I know my history and I know what I'm talking about, so all you leftitsts out there might as well pick up a history text book and start reading.  I know about Jim Crow and the Klan, I grew up in the South.  I know about MLK and Malcolm X and I know about Barack and Co.  I know all about the struggle and trust me, I would have been "down with" it.  As a matter of fact I am still "down with" it.

Equality.  That is the message that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached in his day.  Do we all know what equality is or are we just pretending?  Equality is when everyone is treated the same no matter what their skin color is, what sex they are, what religion they are, what age they are, or what thier sexual orientation.  That is true equality and thankfully the Supreme Court realized this in the Ricci case.  I litteraly cheered when I heard that the SCOTUS had overturned Sotomayor and Co.'s decision in this case, you can ask my co-worker;  I think I scared him when I yelled out "HELL YESSSSS" in my best Howard Deen impersonation.

I am hopeful that this is the begining of the end of "Race Based Employment" or what we have been calling Equal Opportunity Employment or Affirmative Action.  How badly have we skewed equality as a result of these prgrams and worse yet how bad a diservice have we done our fellow man with these porgrams.

I'm not trying to put "African Americans" down by saying this, but how far back have we kept them with EEOC and Affirmative Action and Title VII and other such "racial quotas".  College admissions, jobs, etc.  How far back are they because some have been given an easier role in life because of these "equality" programs?

I have been heraring the storeis for years now of some "overprivilaedged white youth" not getting into Harvard while some "poor minority" student got in with a lower GPA and SAT score.  I have meet pleanty of managers in my various jobs who had to have been Affirmative Action promotions because they couldn't grasp simple management concepts or business concepts well enough to have earned any kind of promotion.

But as I said, I know my history.  I know there was a time when a minority worker would have been passed over for a less qualified white or a black sutdent would have been passed over for a less inteligent white.  But that is the past.  Now I fear that too many of our nation's minority youth have been indoctrinated to think that someone will always be there to give them some sort of assistance in life.

Now with true equaltiy looming, how far behind are our brothers and sisters?  How far behind is our nation's minority youth, who are as much the future of the world as thier white counterparts?  It's time we start encouraging our minority youth to do what others have never done, been affraid to do, or were not allowed to do.  It is time we start telling ALL that they truloy can be what ever it is they wish in life if they just put in the requisit effort to succede.  No matter what your sking color there are no boundaires and the Ricci case proves it, more than Barack's eletion ever will.

To all my fellow white conservatives and to all other who stumble across this blog I ask, no I demand that you take a few minutes out of your schedules this fall and volunteer some time with ANY children of ANY race or ANY social standing.  Let them know four things:  that THEY can succede in life no matter what their race, gender, etc; let them know that as long as America is a captialist country that ANY of them can become "rich" and not just by becoming the next Michale Jordan or Lil' Wayne or Bill Gates or Carlos Mencia; that everyone "deserves" fairness and nothing less: and that with a good EDUCATION and strong amibition ALL can become whatever they wish in life...

Just think, you could inspire the first conservative black president....

After reading this title I know many are sitting in their chairs wondering what exactly I am talking about. The great left conspiracy theory? WTF BBQ? :( What I mean is that over the last decade or so there has been a conspiracy to move our country further to the left, i.e. liberalism/socialism, than ever before. How? By subtly subverting our government and our economy. The left championed "Clintoncare" back in the mid-90's as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Even with similar numbers in Congress as we see today it failed to pass muster and was left by the way side as "Slick Willy"discovered that America was more conservative than he ever knew. While this was going on the Clinton Administration subtly subverted the country by passing new Housing and Urban Development (HUD) housing standards, which basically stated that there was a disparagement in home ownership across both racial and economic boundaries. In other words too many rich white peoplewere home owners and too many blacks and Hispanics were not.

How is this bad? That's an easy question to answer: Poor people do not own homes at the same rates as rich people for three reasons; they lack higher education, they lack financial savvy, or they lack gainful employment. Huh? If they lack education they are less likely to find a job that pays more than the minimum wage. If they ;lack financial savvy they are less likely to be able to manage what money they do have and investments in such a way as to lead to home ownership. If they lack gainful employment then they do not have the spare cash necessary to begin the home buying process, such as making down payments. The key word there is gainful employment. Many Americans are employed, and many of them make over the poverty level in a given year, but many are not gainfully employed, which means that at any given time their available capital for investment (whether that be stocks or real estate) is limited by which bills are currently due or past due. Basically they make just enough money to not receive welfare but not enough to spend $5000 on the down payment of a new home.

So, here comes HUD saying that more of these poor people need to be homeowners. And then groups like ACORNgot involved and started pressing banks to make these risky home loans as well. Then Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac jump in and start telling these banks that they would basically buy these risky loans as mortgage backed securities which they then sold to other financial companies. Certain members of Congress saw that these lending practices could lead to trouble and saw that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and a lot of other financial institutions could be in a lot of trouble and pushed for reform, especially with Freddie and Fannie because of their GSE (government sponsored entity) status. Certain key Democrats denounced the allegations as "unfounded"; and "unnecessary"; and a couple came very close to calling the allegations against Freddie and Fannie racist. Maxine Waters even stated that both were doing very well and that there was nothing to worry about, especially at Fannie Mae, headed by Franklin Raines.

Then we have the housing bubble collapse. Everyone, Republicans included, rushed to "save the economy" by passing the TARP bailout Everyone was rushing around trying to look like they were the one's who were doing it all to save it all. If McCain has stuck by his "not going to campaign til this is fixed" gun he might be in the White House today instead of Barack. But he didn't and look what it has gotten us: back door socialism... The government has fired the CEO of General Motors, they are forcing Chrysler to merge with Fiat, and they are imposing massive taxes on AIG bonus recipients. And they want more. They want to control compensation across the board in the financial sector.

Let me spell it out for some of you who are not as quick on the uptake as the rest of us are.
     1) Clinton era HUD standards caused banks to start making risky home loans to "poor minorities" in an effort to have :"equality."
     2) Uncontrolled sub-prime lending, backed by Fannie, Freddie and ACORN led to the "housing bubble"
     3) The government now has or is gaining control over two major sectors of our economy: the financial sector and the automotive                    sector.
     4) Socialism.

Can you follow that sequence from beginning to end or is that to convoluted for you? There's more in part two, coming at you later this week. I'll leave you now with a quote.

"The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."-Norman Thomas, former six time Socialist Party of America Presidential Candidate

    Last year AIG made legally binding contracts with many of it's executives to give them substantial retention bonuses for their continued employment in its various branches. Months later AIG is given billions from the federal government to stay afloat. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was one of, if not the, architect of the first AIG bailout. Then Senator Barack H. Obama gets elected President of the United States. Chris Dodd puts a stipulation into the bailout bill that allows bosnuses before a certain February Date. Months later AIG is given even more money and a week or so after that Barack and company are “outraged” that AIG would fulfill it's contractual obligations to it's employees.

     Here's the funny part. These bonuses are the second set of bonuses that AIG has paid out to its executives. The first set went to those executives who worked in one of it's failing divisions... you know, the one which caused it to need a bailout in the first place. These current bonuses, which the Congress is trying to tax into non-existence, are going to those who work in the divisions which have helped, along with our (the taxpayers') money, to keep the company afloat as long as it has. What odes this tell us (the taxpayers) and the rest of the world? Success is bad and contractual obligations do not matter anymore because Barack and the Democrats control the government. Scary, right?

     No, what is scary is that this is all part of Barack and company's plan to take the United States from a free market economy to Socialism. That's right. It is a conspiracy. I know, I sound like one of those crazy people who say that JFK was killed by the CIA. But I'm not and this isn't crazy, its scary. Really scary. Crazy scary.

     Barack picked “Turbo Tax Cheat” Timothy Geithner to be SecTres, Geithner knew way back in October that AIG was going to hand out bonuses and Barack and others have known for sometime now that AIG would be getting those bonuses. All of this “outrage” by the Democrats is all feigned and the Republicans that are following suit are doing just that. So, Barack knew and now he has the Congress taxing all of that money back into the Federal coffers, not back to the taxpayers.

     Now Barack wants a new federal over site committee or some such thing to work with the banks. What he really wants if for them to fail at it so he can nationalize as many industries as possible. This is his plan for Socialism. Try everything else, but make it fail and then use that failure as an excuse to push forward with his goals to socialize our great nation. That's Barack's Socialism Plan. I HOPE HE FAILS! There now the left can persecute Rush and I to help mask their true intentions

I would say that we should start calling Barack FOTUS instead of POTUS but FOTUS is to close to FLOTUS and that we be demeaning to such great First Ladies as Martha Washington, Jackie Kennedy and Nancy Regan.

Barack cant decide what he means/meant anymore.  Back during the election John McCain said that the fundamental of our economy were still strong and Barack flammed him for it.  Now Barack says that the fundamentals of our economy are strong....  Flip-flopp.... flip-flopp.....

Now it's an every-other-day thing.  One day the fiscal situation is as bad or worse than the Great Depression.  The next there is "hope". 

This is change? 

I would say this is madness but I'm affraid Tim Geitner or Rahm Emmaunel are going to jump out and scream "THIS IS WASHINGTON!"

http://scaredmonkeys.com/2009/03/16/hypocrisy-barack-obama-economic-advisor-dr-christina-romer-fundamentals-of-the-us-economy-are-sound/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/15/mccain-fundamentals-of-th_n_126445.html
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080915232011.rxlcnsp5&show_article=1

Funny story.  I'm at work the other day riding around in the company truck listening to the radio.  It's a week day and its after six but weel before nine so, no "great" conservative talk radio on my local stations.  So im channel surfing and I come across one of the local rap startions.  The rap station is Coast 97.3 which is broadcast out of Wilmington, NC.  As I was about to hit the seek button I hear "African American?  What do you know about Africa?  We are all Americans..." and so on.  It was a black guy saying that.... not some red neck who called in to spout off hate speech, but a black guy and it was a promo for something, some kind of black film festival, which is possible because IIRC it is the time of year for Black Film Noir.

Just got me thinking... thats all....

Tomorrow America celebrates the election of its first black (ok, partially black) President.  Tomorrow I celebrate the fact that the Obama Administration only has 100 days until it must start to take responsibility for their actions during the previous administration. The failure to reign in GSEs such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which rests not only with Democrats but with Republicans as well, being one of them. The Housing Bubble has burst, just like the S&L bubble and the dot-com bubble.  But, unlike these previous economic slow-downs, turn-downs, recessions or whatever you want to call it, there has been no quick rebound, such as the one seen after the dot-com bubble burst or after 911.  Why?  Not pointing any fingers, but certain political groups do not want the economy to make a comeback unless they can be seen as the driving force behind such a recovery.  How do they do this?  By allowing fear and panic to remain in the public's mind as long as possible, by telling everyone that it will not get better unless they do something drastic, like spending billions of dollars.  What's worse is that some of those who are now our "saviors" are directly or indirectly responsible for the current economic situation.

Please, for a moment, set aside political idealism and party affiliation and look at the facts.  The economy did quite well under President Clinton.  Much praise for Clinton has been branded about by certain people as of late (no one on this forum, my boss loved Clinton), but the fact that for six of his eight years in office the Congress was controlled my a majority of Republicans seems to elude some.  George W Bush had large shoes to fill after beating (or cheating, who cares) Al Gore.  He came into office with an economy that was slumping due to various factors and eventually lost a great deal of momentum after 911.  But, the economy rebounded and did quite well for some time afterward, it did not climb to Regan-esque or Clintonian levels, but it wasn't slumping as bad as it was right after 911.  Then, the midterm elections came about and many Republicans were voted out of office in favor of Democrats.  And now after six years of a majority Democrat Congress we are at the brink, if you believe the hype, of another Great Depression.  And What can save us?

Only two things Regan-esque economic decisions or another World War.  FDR didn't save us with the New Deal, WWII is what pulled the US out of the Great Depression.  And Jimmy Carter's horrific fiscal polices were only rectified by a Reganomics.

You have 100 days Mr. President.  You have 100 days Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid. You have 100 days Team Obama.  Make them count, enjoy them, because in 101 days you must all stand up and take responsibility for what you, and some of your fellow Congressmen/women  and Senators from across the aisle have done to this country and our economic future.

Ok, it's been a while since I last posted.... a lot has been going on.  Mostly it was the Holidays.  Thanksgiving, Christmas, and soon to come New Years Eve/Day...  Oh what fun it is to ride 300 miles to visit family.... or something like that.

So, I keep hearing certain relatives of mine referring to Bush as if they were hardcore leftists.  Here I though I came from more conservative stock....  Shocking.... No?  On one hand I have my grandpa talking about how the New Deal made things worse and yet he hopes that Barack and Co. will some how get it right......  Hmmmm.  Interesting. A Great Uncle and Uncle and I were all talking politics and one of them says that he voted for Barack... because he couldnt vote for McBush the Third.... not because Barack is the best man for the job, no, because hes not a Republican.... and then, it gets better, he says that Barack made all his money while living overseas.... and that Barack grew up a poor black child.

Thats when it hits me square in the face... my family only watches the MSM and, unlike me, never tune into conservative talk radio...  I just couldnt let the "poor black boy" thing slide, after all Barack isnt exactly Steve Martin (if you get it you do, if not, you dont).  My Great Uncle and Uncle were shcoked to find out that Barack was raise more as a rich white kid than poor black boy.... I wonder what else they missed out on?  Tony Rezkp, Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers?  (If I spelled someones name wrong, please dont thinks its because I'm not educated, its because I dont care about them or repsect them enough to spell it right.)

Thnak GOD the Holidays are almost over.... I dont think I can take much more...