Over 2300 years ago, birth was given to a myth which in time became a powerful metaphor that has served us well through the ages when addressing seemingly impossible or intricate challenges. Halfway through the current Obama Presidency we face a moment when reaching back for an ancient Greek analogy has become self evidently appropriate.
Legend tells us that Alexander The Great fulfilled a prophecy by bringing a creative solution to the Gordian Knot – he sliced the complex knot with his sword, thereby showing himself capable of thinking outside the box. Gordian, the mythological king of the Phrygians had tied his oxcart to a palace as an offering to Zeus, and an oracle had foretold that whoever untied the knot would conquer Asia. Although he died at the young age of 31, Alexander’s conquest of a continent started with a bold decision.
History has provided ample debate on the event of Alexander’s controversial “solution,” and whether it was actually any solution at all, however, Alexander’s omen, has remained a favorite metaphor.
The present moment in history finds a society struggling with overwhelming unemployment, as well as a worrisome personal and national level of debt. Productive employment is critical to sustenance of a vibrant society, and it is through that employment that the costs of all of society’s “structural and functioning” needs get paid. A majority of Americans also understand that it is business and industry, large and small, that create employment, and the basis for all other employment. Without such employment, government doesn’t get paid. While this should be abundantly obvious, the American taxpayer is being led by an Administration that seems not to understand.
America went to the poles during the midterm elections and emphatically voiced its displeasure with the way the Administration and Congress were treating its most serious and urgent concerns. America is looking for leadership capable of making bold decisions.
This week, Obama is facing his archetypal Gordian Knot, IMHO. The current debate over the maintenance of the Bush tax cut has been worthwhile, and pushes economic discussion to the fore, which serves to educate. The solution to America’s economic woes however, does not rest with an extension of the Bush tax cut. The solution rests in the aggressive stimulation of job creation, and leadership that will-not-sleep-until unemployment numbers have been halved.
On Wednesday we were treated to novel expressions from an American President such as this one uttered by Obama to 20 CEOs in a session held yesterday with the Administration, “I want to dispel any notion we want to inhibit your success.”
The fact that his grammar is questionable matters less than the fact that he would have to say anything remotely close to an attempt at denying he has and will continue to “inhibit” the success of all businesses. His actions precede him, so his words appear to come from a distant corner of the twilight zone. It is not in his DNA to either stimulate economic growth, or care what the fat cats (his own rhetoric) of corporate America need to see from their government in Washington. He does not understand, and cannot understand.
The MSM is even posting articles about “détente” between this Administration and business. Détente? As in, “he’s at war?” Who would have thought this concept remotely possible in twenty first century America? In the middle of an extended recession, who would have expected a question posed to a sitting President such as the one asked by CNBC’s John Harwood, “Mr. President, can you repair your relationship with business?”
Pretend all he wants at “dispelling,” Obama is incapable of providing a solution to his Gordian Knot, because he does not comprehend the most significant problem facing the country over which he presides.
Crossposted from The Pacific Gate Post
A constituent of the vast baby boomer generation with a career which has been fortunate to know the ponderous corporate worlds, as well as the intimately pressurized, and invigorating entrepreneurial domains of high tech and venture capital, I have harvested my share of mistakes meandering through corridors of enterprise from Silicon Valley, to London and endless, colourful, sometimes praetorian points in between. The voyage has provided an abundance of fodder for a pen yielding to an inquisitive keyboard, a foraging mind, and a passionate spirit.
Whether political or business or social or economic or personal, is it not all political? It is a privilege to write, and an even greater privilege to be read by anyone, and sometimes with the wind at my back the writing may occasionally be legible. I do not write to invite scorn, nor to invite respect, but if I get really lucky the writing can stimulate thinking. I also write for the very selfish purpose of animating my own processes, and engaging the best of what life offers. Above all, whether biting fire or swatting shadows, I am grateful to be gifted the freedom to write and publish whatever flows down to the keyboard. To all those who enabled this freedom, and to all those standing guard to preserve it, I am indebted.
And so it shall be in the Utopia which our POTUS believes. That through the efforts of the collective shall come the salvation of the weak, the weary and the poor. Strange that it is not in the best interest of the collective to acknowledge that such souls even exist. In past times the weak, weary and poor found themselves ostracized by force . . . left to their own devices to survive or die as the evolution of society ever strives to advance. Yet today, we those who chose to advance and evolve to ever greater accomplishments are saddled with carrying and ever increasing burden of scum and distruction.
Business and industry find themselves continuously deluged with the moving target, ratcheted into impossibly achieveable realms of compliance. Regulations, codes, standards where full, 100% compliance are impossible at even the most mundane and then find themselves fined, penalized and bankrupted by enforcement processes that go beyond their wildest business expectations. Large industry, small industry to the very home office has been placed in such deep concern and doubt that is there is no rationalized reason for any attempt to continue efforts for advancement.
We are destroyed and there is a multitude of gordian knots, rubicons and false prophets who daily expell us to achieve the impossible and stand at every crossroad to sabotage our effort through the collection of tolls. Trolls, beware the Trolls . . .
Remember when the head of the US Chamber of Commerce accused the Obama Administration of “an ill-advised course of government expansion, major tax increases, massive deficits and job-destroying regulations?”
All of it was true.
Now Obama was FORCED to sign an extension that keeps the Bush tax rates in place for all.
His other tax hikes,
his deficits,
his government expansions,
his new regulations
are all still in place.
But he has the nerve to say that his messaging was the problem!
Then he falsely accused the Chamber of Commerce of ”funneling foreign money to the republicans,” during the 2010 campaign.
Obama had two major ”victories” in the last two years:
his healthcare
and
his financial regulations.
Well, his healthcare has forced our business to charge 30% more per employee for their health insurance premiums.
Think that is going to encourage growth or hiring?
And his financial regulations make it almost impossible to get business loans.
How does that help?
So, I am reminded of his famously STOLEN speech from during his presidential run:
(He copied fellow dem Deval Patrick so he got a pass.)
All Obama has are WORDS, JUST WORDS.
“Don’t tell me words don’t matter,” Obama told the Wisconsin audience. “‘I have a dream’ just words. ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal’ just words. ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself’ just words. Just speeches.”
obama is a product of his crazy mother pure and simple. she hated the united states and look at who she chose for partners. i always thought it bizarre that he wrote a book about a father that abandoned him and it is questionable if he even was the father. dreams? more like nightmares! so we have a damaged man with real issues and no comprehension of who we are and how we think. there will be no detente with this jerk. get his sorry butt out the door. there is a lot of cause for it. those idiots that call themselves democrats in the house need to get some cojones and tell pelsoi to suck a pickle. it might improve her looks.
Obama was raised by Marxists, educated by Marxists, mentored by Marxists, and has had Marxists for friends. It was natural for him to assume that all he had to do was install Marxists principles to the US economy and everyone would realize his brilliance and become a Socialist; to quote the cover of Newsweek after Obama’s election, “We Are All Socialists Now”.
It was Obama’s misfortune that the country was on the precipice of an economic downturn just before he took office; otherwise, we would have further to fall before realizing that Socialism fail miserably. To paraphrase Maggie Thatcher, “Socialism works fine until you run out of other people’s money.” Americans are fast realizing the shortfalls inherent in Marxism and its limitations.
Marxism is more likely to take root and last longer with people who have nothing; for them, the promise of a chicken once a week is a bountiful life, the promises don’t work as well in reverse. According to Jose Antonio Vierra Gallo, a Chilean politician, “Socialism must arrive by bicycle.” In other words, even though you have spent decades indoctrinating children in Socialist doctrine, it is hard to expect people to give up their standard of living and their wealth for some vague and dubious concept of redistributing their wealth with the rest of the world.
Skook,
At his core, Marx was a hateful cuss. He hated the world around him. He also did not understand it, and certainly did not understand his fellow human beings.
Humans hold an inherent drive to aspire, to actuate their innermost wishes and desires, to feel free to think, say and do, and humans wish to be acknowledged. Each of us enjoys the pat on the back that says “well done, you did something well.” In that moment we stand out. Perhaps only temporarily, and perhaps its only a tweak in our own perception, but it makes a difference.
The nature of socialism, communism, Marxism, etc., is to stifle all the positive, natural, human tendencies, and repress all to the lowest common denominator.
It has puzzled me that so little analysis was made of the background of a would-be-President through ’07 and ’08. All the road signs were there, and we wrote about them, but where was the MSM? When you hire someone, regardless the task, doesn’t common sense suggest a little analysis of where that individual has been, what he or she has done, and who with? . . . Puzzling. Some of us wrote about it, but where was the most powerful media?
Poles! Poles? Why is race a facture? Or is it polls?
JR, as a university student of the 60’s, I saw the Leftist party line being instilled in young minds. If you were a Conservative, you became a business, science, or math major. The other areas were dominated by Leftists. If you challenged a Professor’s Leftist dogma, there was the chance that you would be humiliated the rest of the semester and your final scores could reflect your impertinence. In time and with the oncoming generations, the indoctrination or washing of the brains of our youth feeds upon itself so that it is an ongoing process with no end, at least until now.
The Left made a miserable gamble by backing an empty headed incompetent in one mad rush for control: luckily for us, he and his de-facto paint by the numbers Socialism couldn’t get off the ground and there wasn’t the funds to keep it afloat for four to eight years.
The journalists and the TV newsrooms are all products of that “Liberal” education process; they in their collective wisdom, figured it was time and Obama was their man to seal the deal. As it turned out, launching Socialism at the edge of an economic abyss or using a simple minded ideologue to implement your programs was wrong on both counts. The MSM was in on the great Socialist gamble, as a consequence they have lost their legitimacy and reputations and will now only be shadows of their once respected positions. I have no pity for their imminent demise; actually, I am gloating over their stupidity and loss of prestige. It couldn’t happen to a bunch of more deserving talentless and overpaid sycophants.
New Media will emerge as the public fully comprehends the depravity and complicity of the MSM in the Great Socialist Hoax of the 21 st Century.
Skook,
“as a university student of the 60’s, I saw the Leftist party line being instilled in young minds.” . . . I well recall. I believe that the many who remained in University/College and became professors, were never quite imbued with some of the energies that inevitably change perceptions as the realities of life outside academe hit you. As a result, their politics don’t change, and they propagate their entrenched ideologies generation after generation.
Here’s one early lesson along my journey on the realities of socialist thinking: When our new world of high tech was still in its infancy, I was building a company which included some of the brightest minds on this continent. These super talented individuals were politically ensconced in socialistic ideological concepts, deeply planted by their eminent professors in the corridors of one of the world’s most respected bastions in the education firmament. This was so to the point where even the worthwhile product of our labours should, in their minds, be “gifted” to the world. . . . That was until a new reality began to take hold – they began to grasp a new concept with both hands, . . . they could become rich from owning some of these things they discovered called “shares.” Who-had-how-many-shares, became a new game – “gifting,” not so much, . . . . and that fruit of their labours subsequently had very broad impact. Pulling their heads out of the sand had not been easy, but once they were shown what the entrepreneurial world could deliver, and the possibilities which they could be exposed to as a result of successful creativity, their lives changed, and the reach of their impact multiplied. I won’t claim it for all of them, but for the most part, a fresh crop of capitalists emerged, which had tendencies toward more socially conservative notions, than from whence they had come.
What isn’t being understood is that he’s more concerned with the situation of the common man than with the situation of the privileged.
This single factor explains both his continuing popularity, and why some people have hated him from the moment he stepped into the national spotlight.
Greg #9 You nailed it.
Greg: You may be correct about Obama being concerned for the least among us (financially speaking), but traditionally, Socialist leaders have enjoyed the wealth of being an Elite governor while the least among them and everyone else lived a more austere existence, despite the possibility of altruistic motivation in the beginning stages of their career.
Obama has gained no loyalty with his extravagant lifestyle with multiple vacations. When your business is on the rocks, you have lost your job or when you have lost your home, it is not reassuring to watch you president leading the life of a billionaire. I know there are certain perks that come with the office, but a degree of restraint during hard times displays good sense and empathy fr the people you are leading.
Unfortunately, there are only a few segments of our society enjoying a lavish lifestyle and many of them are politicians and their friends.
Re:
Hey, Skookum!
Didn’t you hear?
Michelle Obama will be the very 1st First Lady to wear a Second-Hand Dress for anything!
It will be for a Christmas concert at the National Building Museum in DC
Michelle Obama is once again setting the style world abuzz — wearing a thrift-store dress to the “Christmas in Washington” concert, which was taped Sunday and airs on TNT tonight.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/michelle_goes_old_fashion_rj0dvqEemFTOKENmlYSIPJ#ixzz18VLnHXy3
Heck, most folks don’t pay $2,500 for any outfit……much less a USED one!
But maybe, for them, that’s a sign of ”cutting back.”
LOL!
Sorry Nan G… gotta majorly disagree here. I personally love vintage shops. When, on those rare moments I’d need something (when living in LA), that’s where I’d shop first. I think designers of the prior US eras, are the cat’s meow.
I also, personally, love capitalism and the supply vs demand pricing. When you get to clothing that has been well preserved from an era, and it is rare, it commands a price. All “used” clothing is not necessarily equal. And when you find a well preserved vintage piece, it is well worth the price. One of my favorite recent viewings is when I made my mother bring out her 1940’s era satin wedding gown, replete with the tightly set buttons and embroidery, from mothballs. They simply do not do that stuff for the common woman anymore. The workmanship. The material. And how well taken care of in the interim. That, Ms. Nan, is indeed worth the price.
I thought the gown Michelle chose for that particualr Christmas concert was a stunning, and well preserved. Especially with all the fragile lace that made up the gown. Truly an icon of that designer era. As a matter of fact, it reminded me of my mother’s hand me down (reluctantly) from the same era (sans the delicate lace…), that I wore in the 80s and 90s until it was threadbare, and worthy of nothing save rags to wash the car with, when I was done wearing it. And considering what that gown (Michelle’s) may cost to duplicate in today’s world and economy, it could ( I don’t know) be a bargain. A seamtress would have to start from scratch and create a complex pattern to duplicate.
All in all, very petty and even more petty… If you want to lessen the Obamas’ influence in the real world… politically or otherwise… stick to nailing the big stuff instead of this piddly crap. Gives conservatives, as a “class”… since that’s how they like to categorize us… more credibility.
Nan: A bargain is a bargain! I can’t believe how much they want for jeans and tshirts these days. You should price a pair of western boots. I can’t blame someone for shopping at the thrift store; however, there are a few things to consider.
How does a First Lady shop at a Thrift Store?
Does she pull up in the bullet proof limo and how many bodyguards escort her in the store?
Do they intimidate the poor people who really need a bargain?
Do they have a special Place for the extremely wealthy to try on a dress?
These are all important questions, when the ultra rich go shopping for bargains with the little people.
B O H I C A !!!
13M get unexpected tax bill from Obama tax credit
Another Obama Economic Illiterate Signature Moment!
What the hell are you talking about?
It is amazing that there is so little insight residing in the Obama supporter crowd. Nothing he has done evidences any real care for the “common man” (I assume the use of the term in #9 refers to average members of the middle class). Such wishful thinking doesn’t make it so. It isn’t in his make up.
. . . Nor does he care for the privileged, other than how they can finance him, which many did during his campaign.
I realize that ideology can be blinding, however, denial is simply self-deluding, and so is the belief that he continues to be popular. Even his self serving answers to softball questions are affirmation of his narcissism.
America is at a crossroad, inviting, even begging, a leader to understand the question, and boldly lead the charge to a solution.
America doesn’t need bewildered leadership, confused as to where to look for the question.
MATA, YES, I TOO LOVE TO BROWSE AT THOSE SHOP, and that is what I’m looking for
those lost treasure, and some have never been wear, brand new, I KNOW THE REAL PRICE SO
when I see a 10 or 15 dollars, on a 1ooo dollars 2 piece set untouch with a big designer name, I cant resit it and as I love clothes, but never go anywhere to whear it they stay in my cupboard where I have fun to look at it, and it cant be match onless people are willing to pay a big price,
and as an occasion arise ,i put on one of those and see the envious look toward my beautifull piece of art , I ‘M PROUDLY WEARING,
AND THE MONEY IS STILL IN MY POCKET
BYE
Ms. Bees, I’ll bet you look like a million bucks when you use those treasures, girl!
Tallgrass, #1,
Just in case there was any doubt as to California’s economic future, and anticipation for recovery, California regulators have voted to approve a comprehensive (read insanely oppressive) cap and trade plan, basically a cap on CO2, creating the biggest new boondoggle (carbon market) in the country.
California has decided that CO2 is creating global warming, and damn-it, power plants, refineries, manufacturers and all heavy industries would fall into line.
This should prove a boon to neighbour-state real estate prices and economies. Oregon is smiling.
SKOOKUM, HE IS NOT SUPPOSE TO EVEN LEAD PEOPLE, AS HE IS ELECTED TO SERVE THE AMERICANS NOT LEAD THEM, AS ANY OTHER COUNTRYS ARE LEADER THINKING THEY ARE A POWER OVER THEIR CITIZEN, but here it is the people who are the leaders, and the one should never forget who he and the whole GOVERNMENT ARE THE SERVANT OF THE CITISENS,
AND WHEN THEY ARE GOING IN SPENDING SPREE IN BILLIONS THEY ARE SPENDING THE MONEY OF THEIR MASTER.
WHO CAN DENY THIS NOW? THE CONSTITUTION FIX IT VERY WELL FOR AMERICA THE JEWEL OF THE WORLD AND LET NO ONE FORGET IT,
Skook Re. vacations Tennessean says vacation days in office 1st year Reagan 42 GHWB 40 Clinton 21
W 69
BHO 26
For me, the more vacation days “W” took the better.
Thoughts on 8 Repub. Senators including Brown voting repeal of DADT?
Wm. T. Sherman Re. BHO popularity. How bout 55%-30% vs Palin and up 7% vs Romney?Pls name one living Repub. who beats BHO heads up.
Ms Bees, I follow your point, to a degree; however, I doubt if the Obamas want to consider themselves servants. I’ve often heard the expression, at least in the past, that the president is the leader of the free world: never have I heard him referred to as the servant of the free world. With our first half Black president it becomes a slippery slope loaded with innuendo and the possibility of being perceived as a person who stereotypes and profiles unfairly. Liberals are adept at that and deserve the recognition they so justly deserve in that department. Unless you can give me justification, I will need to consider the president the leader for at least two more years and reserve the title of servant for… well, I don’t know any servants.
If the country falls into the abyss of economic chaos within the next two years, that possibility is within sight in my humble opinion, shall we say that Obama served the country into destruction or will we say he led us into economic destruction?
JR, why would any manufacturing business choose California to set up with the mind numbing process of Carbon credits hampering and causing extra expense at every corner?
Why would a manufacturing plant stay in California if they can relocate?
This seems to be a suicidal attempt to show an affection for Green or to set a precedent; for whatever the reason, legislating control measures in a down economy makes as much sense as taxing an economy out of a depression. You are the real businessman, I’ve just kept myself employed all my life, a business man by definition only. What is the real skinny? Give it to us straight down the middle.
O is at 40% approval, Wheeler. Two years to go until the 2012 election.
Two years is a long time in politics. Time for O to continue diminishing himself, time for a field of Republican contenders to develop. It’s typical to have no idea who the serious contenders are going to be until fairly late in the game. Polling against individuals now doesn’t really mean much of anything. The Republican candidate may well end up being somebody you haven’t thought of.
I don’t believe most conservatives want a big name, old-boy-club Republican to run. They want new blood, not retreads.
SKOOKUM ,YES THERE IS 2 WAYS TO LOOK AT IT,; I WAS REFERING AT THE REAL MEANING OF THE CONSTITUTION LIKE I HEARD SO MANY TIMES THE AMERICANS SAY THEY HAVE THE POWER NOT THE GOVERNMENT, SO MY UNDERSTANDING IS EASY, AS LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD TO MY MIND HE IS NOT BUT THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA HE REPRESENT ARE,
AND HE ALONE IS NOT BY HIMSELF UNLESS HE MENTION THE AMERICA HE IS REPRESENTING,
AS FOR MAKING THOSE SOCIALIST LAWS BY MANY EXECUTIVES ORDERS THAT THE AMERICANS REJECT,THIS HIM ALONE PUSHING HIS PERSONAL AGENDA AND HE IS NOT FOLLOWING THE RULES OF THE NATION, SO THAT MAKE HIM A STRANGER WITH A JOB
HE CANNOT COMPREHEND,
We have a time-sensitive printing business in CA.
But I do think this carbon scheme will price us out of business.
Hubby was ready to hang it up anyway.
He basically was keeping the doors open because so many good people had no place to go if he quit.
When businesses that waited til the last minute as a habit realize what CA will force us to charge they simply can learn how to PLAN ahead.
And when enough of them do that we are history.
If all you need is generic printing you can go out of state or even out of country.
Our best customers were the news media, the So Cal Edison, Vons and Ralphs, and all of the casinos.
Except for the newspapers whose updated newsrack fronts we printed, everyone else can plan far enough ahead to make us close our doors.
Then it is to Alaska for us.
A bit sooner than planned, but our place is 80% ready up there.
The mental process of a do-gooder politician is worthy of study. Actually doing some good has nothing to do with it. They learn that if they say certain words they will be rewarded with candy. Therefore, these must be good words – bcause they bring candy. Don’t be direspectful of The Words That Bring Candy.
Nan,that will be a big change in weather, if you are use to CALIFORNIA, would you mind that?
bye
SKOOKUM BESIDE ,WITH THE UN, THEY ARE ALL LEADERS OF THE FREE WORLD IN THERE,
AND NO ONE CAN NAME ONE AS A LEADER OF ALL ANYMORE,
DONT YOU AGREE?
Rich, vacation days may or may not include local golf days, I don’t know and really don’t care. Some presidents in the past relaxed at Camp David and perhaps those were leisurely working days. It must be a nice place because some of the other presidents spent a lot of time there.
If the country wasn’t struggling, and many of us are very nervous, a larger percentage of the citizenry would be following the president’s vacations with thoughts of maybe trying the same location some day; unfortunately, for many of us vacations are the last thing we are concerned with and that is the rub. If we were doing well without worries and the wars were wrapping up with victories just ahead, the vacations wouldn’t leave a bitter taste in the mouth, so to speak.
In the days of Clinton, I watched the news with disbelief on some days, but the economy was booming and I was doing well, who was I to complain. I kept my feelings to myself, in those days before blogging.
If we felt the country being pulled in a different direction and saw that there was prosperity in the land, there would not be this animosity and discontent. In two years it would be a lot more difficult to beat BHO, if he continues to alienate people with his over the top lifestyle, he may not carry the primary.
Now before you tell us about your righteous indignation, think about the president putting forth a better image for the public. If I were one of his advisors, I would encourage him to appear overworked and to appear to be working to the point that the public is asking him to take time off. That would secure him a percentage of the electorate, I doubt that he has secured even a hundred votes with his vacation schedule. There is no prejudicial opinion here Rich, just my opinion from the heart. I wouldn’t care if it were Ronnie himself in the Oval office, there are times to relax and times to get down to work.
I love bundling up in furs and velours and ”cuddleduds” and so forth.
You can’t really do that here without getting spray painted by a JERK!
Hubby is from there, big part native Alaskan.
He missed it so much we bought a place up there for retirement years ago.
Every now and again we spend a week or three.
A couple months ago we spent a week hunting and fixing it up.
So, yeah, we’re ready.
But it will be a big change as far as the weather is concerned.
We will keep our condo on the beach here and probably come back when we ”need” to.
LOL!
WTS Actually it’s 44.7%-48.4% real clear politics average today.Two years is a long time and I’m looking forward to the Repub. primaries as the “old boy Repubs” Romney,Gingrich,Huckabee et. al. battle the Tea Party Girls Palin, Bachman and friends. Great Sport.Bloodbath.
Skook,
. . . Do you absolutely have to ask a question that has no answer?
. . . Do you have to force peering into the California electorate psyche which believed wholeheartedly that Humans are causing Global Warming, and voted overwhelmingly to defeat a ballot measure that would have suspended California’s efforts to address climate change indefinitely?
. . . Do you revel in the humour oozing from the fact that 73 percent of Californians agree that California can reduce greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming and expand jobs and economic prosperity at the same time.
. . . Do you enjoy embarrassing most Californians, . . . other than California Air Resources Board member Fresno Doctor John Telles who called the plan a regressive tax and voted against it?
. . . Do you really enjoy pointing to the fallacy that California predicted this cap-and-trade program would prove to have no economic impact?
. . . Do you enjoy laughing at the fact that a majority of Californians are convinced that the “tax” collected by the sale of permits and credits will enable them to continue their out-of-control profligate ways?
. . . Are you quietly inferring that costs of goods and products will absolutely have to go up, just as California will be sliding a little further down the recession hole, Californians will be vacating their foreclosed-on homes?
. . . Yes? I thought so. 😉
Everyone wants to see cleaner rivers, cleaner air, and a cleaner environment, however the Climate Change fervour has panicked too many voters to support a very aggressive plan at a time when companies are already straining economically under the weight of an uncertain political climate.
Nan, you might start to do like our CANADIANS SNOWBIRDS ,PICK THE COLDEST TIME TO FIX YOUR VACATIONS, ACCORDING TO THE DARK WINTER, SO YOU COME BACK FOR
GETTING THE ‘LIGHT’ AND SUN,
YES THE FUR IS BEST FOR WARMT, I have an old otter long fur coat, that is old but no gray,and I wear it to go in my kennel withe the dogs and just a night gown under and it’s incredibly
warm, it was given to me by my sister who had it from her sister in law who bought it from,
a previous wife of a QUEBEC PRIME MINISTER ,SO IT’S QUITE A COAT
WITH MINK WIDE COLLAR, AND THESES LAST YEARS I HAVE TO SOW SOME PELTS ABIT EVERY YEAR THAT LET GO ,ON SOME SMALL OPENING, I WAS JUST DOING THAT LAST WEEK, BUT I CANNOT GET RID OF IT BECAUSE OF HIS WARMT,AND BEAUTY AND MY RESPECT FOR THOSE ANIMALS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO MY COMMFORT,STILL AFTER THAT COAT SURVIVE AT LEAST 40 YEARS, BYE
Wheeler — Obama approval/disapproval rating:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll
Shows approval flooring at 45% – I was off by 5. But then, there are those other metrics in there…
The Obama victory was 48/52, remember?
The Democrat bloodbath of recrimination has only begun. O will continue to flounder. He will be primaried. Endangered Democrats in Congress looking at the end of their careers will continue to look for cover, any cover.
You aren’t going to claim that losing 63 seats in the House was part of their master plan, are you?
Skooks Understand your response and your concerns.Wondering if it’s un Christian, as Repub leadership suggests, for House and Senate to actually work next week.BHO will be in D.C. as long as Congress is in session.
Bill When you get a Repub that can actually out poll BHO please let me know.
63 loss drubbing in House and 5 loss in Senate(CK. my predictions in A. C.’S post) told Obama country is looking for Repubs and Dems to work together in coming session.
Obama won’t get a primary challenge.Hillary is waiting to take down Sarah in 2016.
Rich, if they were this serious all the time, they’d probably only work eight months a year.
Serious business is serious business. Christmas eve and Christmas day should be enough time off. Our troops in the ME will be conducting serious business on those days.
May G-d Bless and look over our troops.
Nan G., sorry to hear of your situation, which as it is for too many other businesses in California, being aggravated with impunity by Sacramento. Best of luck with it. The process will no doubt require much perseverance and creativity on your part.
Cap and Trade is being implemented in such an accelerated manner, that it will add to the costs of all businesses, and that cost will be felt by all taxpayers. Many businesses will close when their rising prices will not endure market pressure.
Those who can, will move. If they can service their California market from across the state line, they will do so, and make the move. Others will move offshore.
Imposing and enforcing radical measures on corporations is not the way to make friends. The process should be tempered with attention to realities, and with a modicum of common sense. The California manufacturing sector is already one of the cleanest and most efficient, and efforts should be made to ATTRACT foreign interests to use California facilities, instead of provoking and harassing them.
It’s annoying to watch the hypocrisy surrounding the “sale” of these measures to Californians.
The winners on this will be Goldman Sachs types who will build “trading” engines on top of their existing systems, to handle their piece of the cap and “trade.” Other winners will be those who suck the oxygen out of real research and development government funding coffers, by extracting “subsidy” deals through their political connections.
We can point, as example, to the failed Windmill farms which have led the taxpayer cash drain procession. We will also see many such beguiling flimflams which will be established to TRADE their CREDITS for cash from companies which will be forced by law to cough up that cash in atonement for their newly discredited and loathsome CO2 producing ways.
James Raider, i like your POST very interesting story, that tell me that sometimes
It’s easy to solve a problem as long as we think a little bit more outside or around the problem,
bye
Thanks Ms. Bees. I found the Gordian Knot allegory particularly appropriate because the complexity of the knot made it such that the “problem” itself was not obvious.
The knot had been created by Gordian by possibly “wetting” the rope and creating the knot in such a way that the ends of the chord were hidden.
This made the “problem” more difficult to discern, and therefore made the solution that much more difficult to fathom.
It all starts with understanding the problem – then you explore outside the box, as you say.
SKOOKUM: HI, ON 39, YOU HAVE THE RIGHT WAY TO CALCULATE WORKING TIME FOR
the GOVERNMENT,BY COMPARING TO THE MILITARYS AT WAR,
I THINK IT’S THE MOST ACCUATE CALCULATION; THEY ARE THE ONE THAT DID NOT BUT SHOULD HAVE MENTIONNED IT, IT’S JUST AS IF THEY FORGET WE ARE FIGHTING A WAR
IN THERE. BYE
@richie wheelz #21:
We have been over this area before. W’s “vacation days” in Crawford, TX were working days. He had a full staff and all the connectivity the US President needs. Getting out of the bubble of DC is good, on occasion.
But it doesn’t matter if Obama took 150 vacation days in his first two years, you would defend him no matter what.
Answer this:
What program, policy or law has Obama created that has made the United States a better place?
Just one, that is all you have to name. Be specific and be ready and able to back it up with numbers and be able to cite references. Please make the references be credible sources, BTW.
I’ll wait, take your time.
——————–
Also, on those polls for Obama vs. various possible GOP candidates in ’12 – where is the source? What was the methodology? Sampling?
@ W T Sherman, #15:
Polarization is extreme. What people conclude about Obama’s popularity or unpopularity seems to depend on which media outlets they’re most attentive to.
‘Polarization is extreme. What people conclude about Obama’s popularity or unpopularity seems to depend on which media outlets they’re most attentive to.’
I guess the same would apply to President Bush, eh?
Humbly I submit that polls, especially based on actual knowledge of the POTUS, Congress, SCOTUS and generally all things political are unreliable and pure BS. I totally believe that it does not matter what race, gender or even if these people were CYBORGS . . . there would be strongly supported and perhaps even hard evidence that 40% of the people (even more, if the organizations were say Klingons) that they were LIKED and APPROVED. I believe that just as Jay Leno has shown on TV 40% or even more of the people don’t know the difference between WASHINGTON STATE and WASHINGTON DC., can’t sing the National Anthem, it is astonishing . . . yet it is a fact about humans . . . that we generally seek the best, expect it for ourselves and do want the best for our fellow human. In the 1920’s & 1930’s when the WPA was created, most of the YOUNG people who joined the WPA were “happy campers” . . . clearly depicted on all the government produced propoganda films. They camped out, they built things and they sang songs around the campfire at night . . . while eating wonderful food and sleeping on sheets and actually got to wear shoes!!!
There are people who generically identify themselves as Republicans and Democrats . . . thus in the coming election of 2012, I accept that Obama will get 40% of the vote and the Republicans could run a Borg Collective and yes, still get 40% of the vote . . . note that numbers, actually counted votes does NOT matter . . . yes millions of people WILL vote . . . but equal millions WILL NOT vote . . . it simply does not matter how many vote. Ok, Ok, the controversy created by this POTUS may result in a New Record number of voters turning out, but it probably does not matter any way .. . because even those NEW voters are going to be split along the lines of 40/40 . . . maybe it should be called the 40/40 rule . . . heck I am only a casual observer and not a learned, college educated poltical scientist . . . just an engineer that watches the mechanical way things happen.
But there is a 20% of the vote remaining . . . those are the group that is “IN TUNE” . . . they have their ears and eyes tuned in are listening, watching and “building an experiece”. Human beings do not “have an experience” . . . we “build an experience”.
Thus 20% will control what happens . . . right now . . . I think that the 20% and the direction that 20% will go is clear and I don’t think I have to say what is going to happen WE all know.
There are things that the “collective” does KNOW!!!
Tallgrass: hi, you are such a WISE MAN, what you say, is understood s well,
yes you observe and we believe what you analyse, because you are credible,
and that is what many people need to lean on, that is a fact.
thank you
Bees;
Thank you very much for the nice comment. There are many wise people here on FA and we are sharing perspectives and observations and ultimately developing an experience that each in their own right has the happiness to enjoy and be further motivated to exercise. I do indeed respect and analyze each posting on FA, whether the posting is a single sentence or a dissertation.
The wind blows and the grass does lean
We watch the breeze, the tornados stream
confused by the swirl of a breeze
or chaos of the storm in the trees.
Some willed to run
Some willed to cling
Some willed to action
Some willed to dream
@ Greg
#9 –
Greg, I just do not understand this. Who is this “common man” you speak of? I joined the Air Force when I was 17. I had an appointment to the AF Academy, but I was told I wouldn’t be able to fly fighters for medical reasons, so I just enlisted. Probably the worst mistake I made in my life. Even so, I spent 10 years in the Air Force and the only reason I left was because George HW Bush was caving to the democrats left and right. If you were in the military in the late 80’s you may remember the talk of military dependents having to pay their own dental and make co-payments for medical. That was it for me, I didn’t think Bush had the spine to stand up to them. I joined the civilian work force, consistently working my way up. I’m now 48, I have a nice house (which is now worth about half of what I paid for it), and a comfortable income. Am I no longer the “common man?” Did I lose my status once I reached a certain income level? I worked my butt off to get to where I am and buy the house I wanted. At the same time I was doing that, people were getting crazy mortages for houses they could never afford, and in the process, driving the value of my house into the dirt. Should I feel sorry for those “common men?”
I hear people tell me that I was just lucky. Lucky?? America is about opportunity. Every time I saw an opportunity, I took it. When overtime was offered, I saw people turn it down so they could play in a golf tournament, or a cousin’s birthday party to attend. I took the overtime. Every time there was a chance to take a class to build on my knowledge, I took it. I listened to other people say they didn’t have time. So while they were watching COPS on TV, I was studying. Today, I hear some of my young technicians ask how they can do what I did. I tell them, and they walk away with a glazed look in their eyes. The opportunity is there. That is what America offers.
I would be willing to help anyone, anyone achieve a better standard of living. But they have to put in the work. There are no shortcuts.
arocks Poll cited NBC/WSJ conducted by phone 12/9-12/13/2010 1000 questioned margin of error +or- 3%.Correction Obama 55% Palin 33% sorry.My pick for nom John Thune currently down 20%. Romney closest at -7%.It all begins in Iowa.Can’t wait.I submit the U.S. in my lifetime from FDR—BHO has been the greatest country on earth in which to live.Presidents will come and go.The greatness of our country is derived from the people.
MATA Gotta agree knocking Michelle’s vintage dress shopping seems trivial in the big picture.
Tallgrass Totally agree it’s the middle 20% that will decide.Keep in mind the dynamics of the electoral college.10-12 swing states decide the presidency.
Greg Polorization is extreme.A good start would be dropping Olberman AND pretty boy Sean from pundits viewed.
Skooks May God Bless and look after our troops. Roger That
Semper Fi RJW
Aqua,
Agreed, . . . wholeheartedly. Putting in the work and not expecting shortcuts is a line in the sand. There are too many who don’t think that this is true.
I believe that you’ll find many fiscally-liberal-with-other-people’s-money who are quite prepared to kill the human spirit and self actualization, by providing for all their needs. On a big scale, Africa provides ample examples of misguided “help,” and in North America, there area many communities which cannot get traction because the nature of the help over the long term, stifles fruition of energy in the individual.