OBAMA Admisistration -- just how STUPID ARE THEY?

Let me first say -- I would have voted for someone ELSE if there was a decent candidate. 

TODAY (6/10/10) the news reports say that President Obama says British Petroleum (BP)  must pay for ALL other laid off workers, even those out of work because Obama has placed a 6 month moratorium on all oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

WHAT? I can't agree that any company be forced to pay for something the Government 'decrees' like this. Should there be a moratorium? YES - until ALL of the rigs are checked thoroughly for all safety procedures, that ALL 'blow out preventers' (BOP) are fully TESTED and verified by regulators, and the same with all other things related to the drilling platforms, AND the production platforms, performing "as claimed". And that all procedures are FILED with the government, and that they meet the highest possible standards worldwide.

BTW - lawyers say that the filing requirement "as built" is NOT the same as filing the actual AS IS on the platforms. BULLSHIT. Any common sense would say that they MUST file paperwork for AS THINGS ARE, not as they "might be."

But for the GOVERNMENT to stop a company (in this case, multiple companies) from doing it's work for months, and then demand another company PAY ALL THE WORKERS -- THAT IT NUTS. It might sound OK to some radicals, but will NEVER stand up in a court.

Is BP at fault for the disaster in the Gulf? YES - 100% YES. Should they pay for cleanup, for other businesses like shrimpers, deep sea fishermen, hotels, etc, that can't work while the oil pollutes the waters? YES.

But for them to pay the workers of Anadarko, Shell, and ANY other because OBAMA said 'you can't drill here for whatever random time period I declare' will NEVER be done.

If this Administration keeps making up crap like this, BP may well declare bankruptcy and walk away from the entire thing. The Obama administration needs to GET REALISTIC about this situation.

Now that I think about it - maybe they WANT all this to fail. If they are 'in cahoots' with the oil industry, by making these demands, they are forcing the bankruptcy, and therefore the NON-payment by BP. All of this will cost about 5-10 years of profits. Few companies could ever sustain this, and none will do so willing.

MORE LIES ABOUT OBAMA - over U.S. STAMPS

Here we go again - a friend sent me a forwarded email about ‘Obama is issuing Muslim stamps’, so they wanted the stamps boycotted. It reads:

“ Now    President Obama has directed the  United States Postal  Service to REMEMBER  and  HONOR the EID MUSLIM holiday   season with a new  commemorative 42  Cent First Class  Holiday  Postage  Stamp.. “

The email goes on about how it is MUSLIMS that have attacked us in Lebanon, Saudi, NYC, etc. (Well, I guess that much is true.) and that we should not support anything having to do with them.

However, I can’t find, online, any special notices about these stamps in 2009, and if not, then it didn’t get issued “by Obama".  BUT GEORGE BUSH DID ISSUE THEM. That’s right, the USPS under Bush, THREE TIMES, in 2001 and 2007 and 2008, issued the Muslim stamp as part of a “Holiday Series” commemorating Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah.

SEE THE POSTINGS --

www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/localnews/in/in_2008_1024.htm

www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2007/sr07_041.htm

But let’s add the rest of the questionable information - the stamps are noted in USPS documents as 41 cent and not the 44 cent (42 cent pictured) claimed in the email. If they reissued them again, at 42 cents, they forgot to post the notice on their web site. Otherwise, I have to ask - did someone FAKE this issuance, because the USPS cross out the price so it can’t be printed and used that way, and in the emailed picture the price was not crossed out. (The email mentioned both 42 and 44 cents - if true, it should be ONE price)

Let’s also try to be fair about this whole ‘so-and-so issued’ thing. The USPS is a quasi-independent organization, and maybe the President can stop an issue, but the chance of that happening is near zero. Everyone is “trying to be fair” and not pointing out the bad things about each religion, only the good, and therefore will include all the main religions, and since we are “not making war against all Muslims” then of course a general holiday issue will include a Muslim stamp.

One last comment, for the person who started this crap -- if you want to fight Muslims, and the faith in general, then strap on a gun, fly your ass into the midst of them, be it Pakistan, Afghanistan, Malaysia, or any other place, and declare yourself as a fighter against all Muslims. But -- who are you going to shoot? The man on the street, the woman, the child? Who?

Capitalists Ruined Capitalism

AIG, BoA, UBS, WFG, GE, the Bush (1 and 2) administrations, Congress (both Houses), FDIC -- pretty much doesn’t matter where you look, the fault is easy to find if you are not part of the Washington insiders.

Republicans seem to make some good points about how to stimulate the economy in both good times and bad. They always make these points - ‘when the economy is running well, more goods are sold, business is booming, so we should take the “Wal-Mart approach” and lower taxes because it will reward people for doing well, and revenues will increase because of more goods are sold’. And when the economy is doing poorly, ‘we need to lower taxes so people will have more in their pockets, which they will spend in order to help the economy’.

Sounds great, right? Lower taxes, no matter what the economic situation.

Democrats seem to make some good points too. ‘We, as an advanced and prosperous society, should help people - they should have healthcare, good roads, every drug paid for or assistance to pay, etc.’

Sounds good, right? We are the “best nation on the planet” and so our citizens should have more benefits than any other nation on earth.

But there is another side to all this. To get the companies to have the freedom to expand and develop new things, Republicans act like Democrats -- ‘give them anything they want, lower barriers, remove oversight, de-regulate, ignore laws and common sense’. YES - they ignored LAWS. [Is that a treasonable offense?]

There is regulation to keep companies from running Ponzie schemes. The SEC, FDIC, and other sections of “our government” have long been assigned the task of watching over companies, examining books to look for “irregularities” and outright fraud. However, as shown recently with the Madoff rip-off, and several others, even when presented with evidence compiled by a non-government worker, the SEC refused to properly go over the books. As has been testified before Congress, some under-paid under-qualified junior auditor went in and checked some recent books and concluded nothing was wrong. When brought up again, no one was sent.

And as for “common sense” - anyone with a 50’s or 60’s high school education [our poor schools, and how / why they are so bad, are another article] knows that you can’t spend more than you make for more than a few months [and even then it is because of an emergency, not ‘we need a new couch’] and survive. Anyone [at least an honest person] with a lick of sense KNOWS that if you remove regulation, people will use GREED as their ‘moral compass’, and will do anything to make a buck.

How should Congress people / Government employees have known this? Because it is how they are living their lives right now. Just look at the recent Obama selections for high government posts. Over 50% have not paid the taxes they knew were due. You and I do that and the IRS will freeze our accounts until they make it impossible for us to pay, then they seize everything and force us into bankruptcy. But “Government Officials” are awarded high positions, and simply pay for the past with what they were supposed to pay anyway. What other evidence is there? How about Randy Cunningham of CA taking bribes, Or that Alaska member who had “friends” totally re-build his house, then claim “I thought my wife wrote them a check” [what a crock of shit].

Further - Man is not a “grazer”, taking only what he finds, moving on so as to not damage the landscape (as cattle unwittingly do) so severely that it can’t recover. Man is a “predator”, hunting, chasing, destroying, to “fill his belly”. When presented with some lax rules, he will hunt through them to find loopholes, bending and breaking rules, to claw his way on top of everyone else!

SO, what have we got? Two parties that don’t think you will ever have the gumption to stand up to them and remove them from office, because they keep “giving” us what we really want, something for nothing!

Republicans claim things will be paid for with “inflated dollars” - a $100 bill today is worth $75 dollars in a few years, so if we pay that bill, on paper 100=100, but it really hurt us less. But it never does happen, because they bump up spending, the economy doesn’t produce as much as their rosy picture, and debt increases. Then they lower tax rates again to “spur the economy”.

Democrats put in policies to raise taxes, lower taxes, and give you plenty of unpaid for services. They aren’t as quick to say that inflated dollars will fix everything, but do say that a healthier America will reduce costs.

What we need are a set of laws and rules, “set in stone”, that tell companies that they MUST follow standard accounting rules; “good will accounting” for purchases can not add more than ‘some reasonable percent’ [should be enforceable by Board of Directors’] or it will trigger a lower rating; criminal law should rule when company officials ruin a business, because they will have committed a fraud against shareholders and employees; the “rating agencies” should set realistic ratings [anything not above ‘A’ is considered bad? You start adding “A’s” and it just confuses the issue] and be accountable under law that they have actually checked the company, CDS, or whatever; the SPE [like in Enron} can not be used to foster off debt, because assigning debt to a company that can simply file for bankruptcy hides the real cost, and cost taxpayers plenty; and on and on.

And finally, there should be no more “forget about going after the ones that did this, and focus on fixing it”. First, you usually leave in place the ones that committed the ‘crime’, and you keep paying high salaries, rewarding them for ruining the business [staying in their federal job, etc]. Second, by not going after them even if removed, you are still telling them that there are no consequences to bad actions [reminder - a dog will eat the steak from the table unless taught not to; we are animals & will take what we can]. Tell me, if someone slaps you, do you say “forget it, I will try to duck next time”; a purse is stolen, you say “I’ll stop the credit cards & hold tighter next time”; will you “turn the other cheek” when someone kills your family? NO - you have them prosecuted. Same should be done to these thieves. {Gee - I just finished typing this, and Rep. Barney Frank just said on TV that we should go after them!}

SENT TO:

Washington Post 3/5/09 as Op-Ed, but not accepted, so it is MINE to do as I please