Armageddon Is Not The Government Shutdown

Armageddon Is Here? The Government Has Shut Down, or Not Armageddon is here; the government has shut down. Armageddon came on March 1 when sequestration sat in. Who’s noticed? Sequestration was not Armageddon. The President shut the White House to tours, but continued to golf at taxpayer expense. Armageddon is when President Obama cannot golf. The Harpies chirp this is Armageddon. The government shut down 17 times before. These were not Armageddon. The Republic survived. The government has shut down, or has it? The President and Congress are being paid. members of Congress and their staffers receive their ObamaCare subsidies. The National Security Agency will continue spying on Americans. The military will not stand down, unlike Benghazi. Grandma will still receive her social security check. Air traffic controllers remain on the job in airport control towers. Federal courthouses are open with judges dispensing justice. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will process mortgages. VA hospitals and clinics remain open. Medicare will continue. The Post Office will deliver the mail. Meat inspections continue. The District of Columbia remains open. Passports and visas will be issued. Prison guards remain on guard. Food lunches will be served and food stamps issued. The lights are on and the water is flowing. That is a shutdown? If politics is measured by electability, then the President is a great politician. If politics is the art of the possible, then President Obama is a near-failure. If politics is reaching a consensus, then President Barack Hussein Obama is a failure. Great politicians, such as Presidents Lyndon Baines Johnson and Ronald Reagan, and Speaker of the House Tip O’Neil, recognized the need to let the other side prevail on some issues. Leave them some dignity. Respectfully disagree with them while beating them politically. That’s not the President’s modus operandi as President. He will negotiate with Iran, Russia, and the Taliban, but not with the Republicans. It’s his way or the highway. He wants to crush the Republicans and other domestic “opponents.” He trashed the Supreme Court as the Justices had to sit quietly as he read his State of the Union Address. He invited House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan to a budget speech in April 2011, and then trashed him. He could have solved the budget problem a year and a half ago by reaching a grand bargain, including tax increases, with the Republicans. He actually reached an agreement, but then abruptly demanded additional tax increases. He knowingly made Speaker Boehner an offer he knew the Speaker could not accept. His second M.O. is to demand legislation in response to an “emergency.” He faced an emergency, an economic collapse, in his first months in office. Thus, he could demand passage of a pork laden “Stimulus” Bill. He could demand passage of a financial reform act, the Dodd Frank Bill. He also had a filibuster proof 60 Democratic Senate seats and Democratic control of the House. 2010 was a great victory nationally for the Republicans. President Clinton veered and tacked after he faced a similar result in the 1994 midterm elections. President Obama has attacked, but his apocalyptic claims of an emergency have lost credibility. We faced the fiscal cliff a year ago, followed by sequestration, and now the government shutdown. The President is like the little boy who cried fire or the wolf one too many times. The President and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid desired a government shutdown because they believe it is a political gain for the Democrats and a political loser for the Republicans. They believe they will win on the budget and then defeat the Republicans in a few weeks on the debt limit increase. They know the Republicans mishandled the budget. The GOP House should have sent to the Senate separate appropriations bills for individual agencies and branches of the government, but didn’t. The Democrats are playing raw politics with America’s future for the sake of politics. By the way, the individual mandate and the health exchanges under ObamaCare go into effect today. The Democrats are elated that the Republican “shut” down of the government stole the news coverage from ObamaCare. ObamaCare may develop in future years into an economic Armageddon for America, but this shutdown is not.

October I and ObamaCare Will Soon Be Us: ObamaCare is Destined to Fail

October 1 is Coming: ObamaCare Will Fail Most of ObamaCare is effective on October 1. The House Republicans are not going to be able to stop it this year. They might trim it a little. Maybe the medical devices tax will be rescinded and the individual mandate postponed a year, but the Republicans lack the political power to repeal the entire bill. ObamaCare will fail. Not today, or tomorrow; not on October 2 or within six months or a year, but it will fail. The current startup blips will not stop it, but basic economics will. Congress in 2100 pages can enact anything it wishes, and the Supreme Court can apply its imprimatur, but they cannot repeal the laws of the marketplace. The community organizer is spending billions of dollars organizing a campaign of “navigators” to sign up Americans, especially the youth, Hispanics and African Americans, but not a cent to increase the number of medical students, interns, or residents. The community organizer is even enlisting librarians in the campaign. To the contrary, the economics of ObamaCare are driving private physicians into early retirement. Many doctors are dropping Medicaid; yet the government is relying on Medicaid to provide medical care to additional millions of Americans. ObamaCare will fail because of a lack of doctors. ObamaCare will fail because the taxes cannot sustain the subsidies. The economics of ObamaCare were sold to Congress on false assumptions. Yet, as the subsidies become unsustainable, we need to remember that when countries reduce fuel or food subsidies, riots and civil disorder can break out. ObamaCare will fail once Americans discover the initial “low” premiums hide a substantial drop in coverage, substantially shrunken provider networks, and large deductibles. You may well be unable to keep the insurance and doctors you currently have. ObamaCare will fail because Congress, ignorant of economics and medical care, believes it can restructure 1/6 of the economy. The private health insurers understand the economics of ObamaCare. Aetna, Cigna, and United Healthcare are avoiding most of the health insurance exchanges for personal health insurance. The economics of ObamaCare are premised are transferring billions from the private sector through a multitude of taxes and signing up millions of young Americans who will be paying more into the funds than they will claim in benefits. The young will become the seniors who draw on health care. The shrinking work force will not be able to subsidize them. ObamaCare has a built in oxymoron. It professes to lower insurance costs, but it imposes a tax on health insurance policies. Imposing a tax on a product will not lower its cost. ObamaCare will fail because it is transforming the workplace into one of part time workers for whom an employer does not have to provide health insurance. ObamaCare will fail because employers are cutting jobs. Even the great Cleveland Clinic Foundation is laying off employees because of ObamaCare. The private economy will be unable to sustain ObamaCare. ObamaCare will fail because companies Like IBM, Time Warner, and Walgreens are dumping retirees into the health exchanges. ObamaCare will fail because it failed to learn the lessons from RomneyCare in Massachusetts. ObamaCare will fail because fraud costs, engendered by the lack of documentation of proof of need, will drive up the costs of ObamaCare, The federal government recognizes the great risk of fraud, but its primary goal is boosting enrollment. ObamaCare will fail because it does not address one of the drivers behind escalating medical costs – trial lawyers. ObamaCare has already failed in one sense. It may cover only ½ to 2/3 of the 48 million Americans who lack medical coverage.

President Obama's Munich Moment Has Arrived

Adolph Hitler coveted the Sudetenland with its 3 million Germans. He was prepared to invade Czechoslovakia on October 1, 1938. The British people were weary of war after the carnage of the Western Front in World War I. The popular Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flew to Munich to meet with the Fuhrer. An agreement was reached without the Czech government. The Sudetenland was given to Germany upon Hitler’s promise that he would seek no further territory. Prime Minister Chamberlain uttered his infamous words “I believe it is peace in our time.” Then all of Czechoslovakia followed by Poland. World War II, more tragic than WWI, was unleashed on the planet. Chamberlain’s policy is known as appeasement, or sometimes referred to as Munich. President Obama has reached his Munich moment with Iran and Syria, for they are one. The Bomb in Iran and chemical weapons in Syria are one for Iran is calling the shots for its proxy Syria’s Assad regime. President Obama does not want war in the Mideast. Nor do the American people. The Mullahs want the bomb and control of the Islamic World. President Obama does not war anywhere. But for an inadvertent verbal slip, there would be no red line in the shifting sands of the Mideast. The Mullahs are blinded by their religion. The President will enter into an agreement with the new “moderate” Iranian regime, which will continue to pursue a nuclear weapon. He will sell out Israel just as Chamberlain sold out the Czechs. He will call it a peaceful resolution in our time. He will seize the Munich moment for that is who he is. It is the culmination of a diffident foreign policy. His first mistake was to diss our steadfast allies Great Britain and Israel while kowtowing to our foes. His largest mistake is current: negotiating from ideology with petty dictators who govern from reality. His second current mistake was to delegate our foreign policy to Vladimir Putin and Russia while he golfed. His third mistake was the shifting line in the sand, a line which was a bluff. His fourth mistake was bluffing when he had no intent to carry it out. The list goes on. His FBI got to Nairobi overnight, but couldn’t find its way to Benghazi. He is increasingly negotiating from a position of weakness since he is shrinking America’s military, the only instrument of peace throughout the world. He is silent on the atrocities committed on Christians in Bangladesh, Egypt, Iraq, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria and Zanzibar just in 2013. He is silent on the growing anti-Semitism in the world. President Obama will honor his Nobel Peace Prize with his Munich Moment. The Munich Moment has arrived.

Michigan is 4-0: Really?

The boo-birds are emerging from a short hibernation. Michigan decisively defeated Central Michigan 59-9 and Notre Dame, 41-30, to begin the season, and then eked out wins against Akron, 28-24, and UConn, 24-21. The boo-birds are fickle. 4-0 is not good enough for the boo-birds suffering from excessive exuberance. The boo-birds are demanding that the offensive line, QB Devin Gardner, and RB Touissant Fitzgerald be replaced, essentially by freshmen. That is not a winning combination. Expectations were high coming into the season. Michigan would play Ohio State back-to-back to determine the Big Ten Championship. Devin Gardner was a candidate for the Heisman. Brady Hoke had rebuilt the Wolverines in his image, the Power Pro Set. Not yet he hasn’t. The boo-birds forget that a W is a W. That’s what the record books show, whether or not the win is ugly, fails to meet the spread, or is due to bad officiating. A W is a W. They forget. Brady’s getting there, but Michigan’s still rebuilding. 48 freshmen and sophomores are on the team. They forget that Michigan is not yet the physical team of the 4 decades of Bo, Mo, and Lloyd. They forget that this year’s Wolverines did not lose to Central Michigan, Akron, UConn, Appalachian State or Toledo. They forget that the incredible 12-2 record two years ago was forged mostly with players originally recruited by Lloyd Carr. They forget that the Akron and UConn wins were achieved by the defense, which stopped both Akron and UConn final drives whereas the Rodriquez defenses could stop no one. They forget that Michigan’s run defense is 8th in the nation, yielding only 79 yards/game and that the defense is 27th in the nation in red zone defense. They forget that Michigan lacked a viable defensive secondary under Rodriquez. They forget that the three years of the Rodriquez defense made every opposing quarterback look like an All American. They forget that Jake Ryan is still injured. They forget that Michigan showed fortitude in coming from behind to win. They forget that the offensive line has three new starters: a redshirt walk on sophomore at left guard, a junior center will little playing time, and a redshirt freshman at right guard. They fail to understand it takes time for them to meld as a unit. They forget that the tight ends are still learning how to block. They forget that Michigan is still short in deep receivers. They forget that Devin Gardner was a running quarterback in high school and was coached by Rodriquez as a spread offense QB. They forget that he is still learning his position. He’ll be fine. They forget that Nick Saban went 7-6 in his first year rebuilding Alabama and lost the last two games his second year. They forget that Bo said the only poll that counts is the one at the end of the season. They fail to see that the Wolverines are allright.

LEGO Is Now a Four Letter Word To Me

We discovered LEGO and BRIO decades ago when our sons were young. They had replaced the Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, and A. C. Gilbert Erectro Sets of my generation eventhough those are still on the market. The boys were losing interest in LEGOs and Brios so we gave them away when we moved to California in 1996. I rediscovered LEGOs two years ago with the Architecture Series of prominent buildings – some of the most famous in the world, such as London Bridge, Big Ben, Falling Waters, the White House, Space Needle, Rockefeller Center, the Guggenheim and the Brandenburg Gate. Alas, I was too late to acquire the Taj Mahal. LEGO was in a near death experience a decade ago, losing money in three of the five years through 2004. It survived under revamped management, and then thrived. It is now the second largest toy manufacturer in the world with $4.09 billion in 2012 sales, exceeded only by Mattel, but its valuation exceeds Mattel’s. The company was founded in 1932 to build wooden toys and introduced interlocking brick blocks in 1949. The modern brick came in 1958, Duplos in 1969, mini figures in 1978, and video games in 1997. It operates 48 retail stores and owns an interest in 6 amusement parks. The tie-ins with movie studios, such as Star Wars, are extremely profitable. LEGO constantly changes its product line. LEGO sold 45.7 billion bricks last year, reaping a gross profit margin of 71%. The plastic bricks are profitable than Apple’s IPhone. LEGO has brickbuilders, but also bean counters. LEGO can engage in excessively avaricious moves that reek of bean counters. LEGO just released a large version of the famous Sydney Opera House, 2989 pieces compared to the 270 brick smaller version. LEGO included a 10% off coupon in its latest mail order catalog. I went to one of the two LEGO stores in Orange County to buy the kit and save 10% on a LEGO unavailable at an independent retailer. The ebullient, warm, friendly LEGO clerk (even more chirpier than Disneyland workers) checked with a supervisor and said the coupon could not be used at the store. He explained that he manager decided a month ago that the store would not honor these coupons on “exclusives.” I unsuccessfully objected to the clerk, who started acting like a friendly, programmed robot. However, I figured nothing would be gained by making a scene, arguing false advertising in front of a crowd of young LEGO buyers. I could easily afford the extra $32 dollars. Instead, I emailed LEGO with a complaint. The essence of my complaint was “The store clerk refused to honor the 10% off coupon, explaining store policy (apparently decided a month earlier) is not to accept coupons on “store exclusives.” This is unsatisfactory. If that is the policy of the store, the store manager should be fired. If that is corporate policy, and is not disclosed in the fine print on the coupon, then LEGO may have a legal problem.” I should have added that goodwill is easily lost, and lost goodwill is not easily regained. It’s corporate policy. I received this email response 8 days later from Jessica in LEGO Service: “I can certainly understand your frustration with the new policy regarding the 10% coupon and our exclusive sets. Understandably, this was upsetting for you so please accept my sincerest apology. We would never want to do anything to upset anyone in any way, intentionally or unintentionally. This is one of our newer policies and was effective immediately. The LEGO® Group is dedicated to providing a consistent price and experience with our most exclusive items. Therefore, these items can no longer be discounted. The coupon does state that the LEGO store has the right to exclude other items.” Now comes the boilerplate, probably straight from the word processer: “Listening to what LEGO fans and their families have to say helps us get better and better so I am going to pass your comments to the team in charge of these policies. In closing, we appreciate your input as your feedback will help us improve our product experience for all customers.” Jessica then asked me to complete a four question survey. Why? The coupon’s fine print should have said the coupon is not good for “store exclusives” and then denote the “store exclusives” in the cataog. I don’t partake in other people’s boycotts. If we did, we would find little to eat, wear, drink, buy our gas, bank, fly. In short, so many sponsored boycotts exist, that we could not live if we observed them all. I simply personally stop doing business with companies I’ve had issues with, such as consistently poor service, misrepresentations, or a sense of being ripped off. Few businesses are on my list, but LEGO is now on the small, exclusive list. LEGO is free to charge whatever it wants for its products. It is free to put some on sale and to exclude others from sales, as well as deciding to whom it will wholesale its products. LEGO is not free to engage in seemingly deceptive marketing, intentionally or unintentionally. The store practice, as a matter of corporate policy, does not comport with the marketing. We live in a litigious society in the United States. Every company doing business in the United States needs to understand that reality. If LEGO wishes to exclude a product, or product line, from what seems to be a general discount, it should clearly spell out the restriction. Anything short of that disclosure is an invitation for a trial lawyer in one of our states to bring a class action suit for consumer fraud or misrepresentation. That lawyer will not be me. I will simply no longer purchase any LEGO products for myself or as presents to others. Could a trial lawyer win the lawsuit against LEGO? Perhaps, but the costs of litigation for LEGO will probably exceed the 10% savings LEGO has achieved.

Justice De Layed for Tom Delay is Justice Denied

The American people reacted to the excesses of the first two years of the Clinton Administration with a Republican sweep of the House and Senate in 1994. The four decades monopoly of power by the Democrats in the House of Representatives was shattered. The new Republican leaders of the House were Newt Gingrich as Speaker, Dick Armey as Majority Leader, and Tom Delay as Majority Whip. Congressman Delay served as Majority Leader from 2003-2005. Congressmen Armey and Delay were from Texas, where politics is hardball, as exemplified by “Landslide” Lyndon Johnson. Congressman Delay was one of the most effective whips in Congressional history. He enforced party discipline on major issues so effectively he was nicknamed “The Hammer.” Democrats started filing ethical grievances against The Hammer with the House Ethics Committee. Ronnie Earle served as District Attorney of Travis County, Texas for two decades, having been elected in 1997. The highly partisan Democrat acquired a reputation for prosecuting political corruption. His reputation was half deserved. The prosecutions against Democrats or Republicans were almost always against political opponents. DA Earle was politically corrupt. Among those he unsuccessfully prosecuted were popular Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and House Majority Leader Tom Delay. District Attorney Earle investigated Republican campaign practices in the 1992 elections through 8 grand juries. The Republicans gained control of the Texas House of Representatives in 1992, allowing them to redistrict Texas in 1994. An indictment was issued against Congressman Delay on September 28, 2005. This indictment was tossed by the courts. The DA tried again with a new grand jury, but it returned a “no Bill;” that is, no bill of indictment. The partisan Earle sought an indictment yet again, this time by the 11th grand jury, which returned an indictment for money laundering on September 29, 2007. Texas law prohibits corporate contributions to state elections. The Congressman collected $190,000 from donors and forwarded it to the National Republican Committee with instructions to the RNC to distribute the $190,000 to seven candidates for the Texas State House of Representatives in 2002. Congressman Delay had to step aside as Majority Leader in 2005 because of the indictment. He resigned from Congress in 2006. Congressman Delay clearly funneled corporate money to the state races, in violation of the spirit, but not the letter of Texas law. The DA claimed that the indirect funneling of corporate funds constituted money laundering. The Democrats in 2006 ran against the Republican Culture of Corruption, focusing on Congressmen Duke Cunningham of San Diego and Bill Ney of Ohio, lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and Tom Delay, as well as the misdeeds of Congressman Mark Foley of Florida. The jury in liberal Austin criminally convicted him in 2010. He was sentenced to three years in prison, which was stayed pending appeal. The Texas 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the conviction on Thursday. The majority opinion held the evidence was legally insufficient to sustain a conviction and ordered an acquittal for the Congressman. No money laundering existed because the state could not show the funds raised were tainted. Money laundering is the cleansing of dirty money, not clean money. The Delay prosecutions raise a troubling issue for our democracy – the rise of prosecutorial misconduct to crush political opponents. The Justice Department more recently engaged in prosecutorial misconduct in the political prosecution of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens. Senator Stevens was convicted, but also had the sentence reversed on appeal because of the tainted evidence the government presented. He lost reelection by 3,000 votes, giving the Democrats the 60 votes they needed in the Senate to block filibusters. Few individuals can stand u to a full court prosecution by the federal government. Congressman Delay claims to have raised and spent almost $12 million in his legal defense since 1995. The extent to which the Obama Administration Internal Revenue Service singled out conservative political groups for persecution is becoming clear. We now know why Lois Lerner has taken the Fifth Amendment. The democracy is imperiled where politicians use the prosecutorial powers of the state against political opponents because of their political views rather than for actual crimes committed. 11 Grand Juries, $12 million legal fees, abusive prosecutors, where is the justice?

Nina Davulari - Miss India America: Welcome to America 2013

Nina Davuluri: Miss India America – That’s America Nina Davuluri is a typical American. She was born in Syracuse, New York, raised in Oklahoma and Michigan, and then returned to the Syracuse area after college. The 24 year old has experienced the American Dream, The daughter of immigrants yesterday won the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City, the dream of millions of young American women. She has also suffered from some of the ailments of many young women in America. She has talked about her personal bouts with bulimia and having lost 50 pounds. Her story would not be of international significance except her parents are from the city of Vijaywada in the Southern India state of Andhra Pradesh. She is the first Miss America of Indian ancestry. She is Indian American, which raised some instant racist, vitriol. She was called an Arab, not a real American, a Muslim, and perhaps Al Qaeda. Someone even called her Miss 7-11, perhaps remembering Senator Joe Biden’s comments while campaigning for President in a 7-11. The number of negative comments was small compared to the overwhelming support for her. Her selection as Miss America reflects the recognition of America’s diversity by the Pageant, and of American acceptance of diversity. The Republican governors of Louisiana and South Carolina are of Indian ancestry. The two governors (Piyush “Bobby Jindal and Nimrata “Nikki” Haley) and Nina are dark skinned. Several southern states voted for Barack Obama for President. Color is not always a defining issue in America.America is changing. Caucasians now comprise less than half of California's population, a precursor to future America. One of the most famous American doctors, Sanjay Gupta, is Indian American. Nina’s father and grandfather are doctors, as are other members of her family. She combines brains and beauty. She wishes to become a cardiologist. She was an honor student at the University of Michigan with a major in brain behavior and cognitive science. Indian is becoming a part of the American culture. Indian restaurants, reflecting the regional differences of India, are sprouting up throughout America. Mindy is a popular TV show. Other Indian Americans are pillars of American society. For example, Indra Nooyi, born in India, has been the Chair and CEO of PepsiCo (Pepsi and Frit-Lay) since 2006. Over 3.4 million Americans are from Southeast Asia. 80% are from India with the remainder from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. America has always been a land of immigrants. We are all the sons and daughters of immigrants, unless we personally came to America. Even the Native Americans are descended from immigrants. America has assimilated all immigrants into the unique American culture – the land of opportunity is a melting pot of races, ethnicities, and religions. We may be African Americans, Chinese Americans, German Americans, Greek Americans, Italian Americans, Irish Americans, Jewish Americans, Japanese Americans, Mexican Americans, Persian Americans, Polish Americans, Swedish Americans, or Vietnamese Americans, but we are Americans first. Nina, a thoroughly American name, said it best when informed of some of the racist tweets: “I have to rise above that. I always viewed myself as first and foremost American.” America has gone through phases of xenophobia, but is America because of the huddled masses coming to America. We celebrate diversity in America. The Miss America Pageant has previously crowned African Americans and a Filipino American. Nina Davulari represents the best of Miss America: a role model for Americans.