Obama's Education Reform... What would he say about this?...

Rahm Emanuel describes the President-elect's agenda for education reform here at about 2:05 minutes into the video...

But I wonder what the President-elect's reaction would be to the following video of a teacher quizzing her 3-4th grade students about the then upcoming election...

Education reform?...

Pelosi: "Draining the Swamp" or "Circling the Wagons" ?...

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Remember back after the 2006 elections when the Democratic party took control of congress and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said they were going to "drain the swamp" of corruption in D.C.?

Still pending is the looming trial on federal bribery charges of one Democratic Party Representative William Jefferson, Louisiana.

You remember Jefferson. He is the guy who got caught with $80,000 cash in his freezer at home that was associated with him taking bribes regarding business deals in Nigeria, Ghana and other nations...

Of course the Democratic Representative has not yet been convicted at this time but why has it taken so long for this case to come to trial as compared to how quickly the conviction took place of Stevens from Alaska? Stevens was guilty and convicted and many people from the Republican Party called for Stevens to step down before and after the recent election...

But yet there is no call for Democratic Representative Jefferson to step down or allow another Democratic candidate to take his place. In fact it seems he has much support from the Democratic Party:

"Since his June 2007 indictment, Mr. Jefferson has raised more than a quarter-million dollars in political donations to retain the House seat he's held since 1990.
The money includes tens of thousands of dollars from political action committees controlled by other members of Congress. He's also gotten help from labor union PACs."

"Still, Mr. Jefferson's fundraising success contrasts with how politicians reacted after the indictment of Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens in August. Several Republican senators, including defeated presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, announced at the time that contributions received from Mr. Stevens would go to charity."

"By contrast, members of Congress have been coming to Mr. Jefferson's aid. He has received at least $14,000 from Secure PAC, the leadership committee headed by Mississippi Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson. Mr. Thompson also gave $2,300 through his separate re-election campaign fund."

And let us not forget the actions of the Democratic Representative William Jefferson back during the aftermath of the Katrina hurricane and during rescue operations...

"Rep. William Jefferson commandeered a National Guard detachment on September 2, during the height of the Katrina rescue operations, to go check on his own home and retrieve his belongings. Ultimately, several soldiers, a helicopter, and at least two large trucks were involved in the operation."

Imagine what the "belongings" might have been?...

So let us wait until after the trial and final result...

If the result is guilty and there is a conviction of the Democratic Representative,

Will Pelosi and the Democratic Party in fact "Drain the Swamp"

or

"Circle the Wagons"?...

"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste"?...

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"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste"...

"What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before"...

President-elect Obama's Chief of staff Rahm Emanuel made this statement in the above video clip and went on to describe the "opportunity" to make things right as he sees it...

He went on to describe several "opportunities" that it seems both he and his Obama are planning to implement plans to correct as they see fit. It almost seems that they are happy to see these "opportunities" as being in crisis to provide more lattitude in their proposed actions...

It will be interesting to see what the Obama team does with these "Crisis" situations and what kind of lattitude they take...

Saturday Night Live has even done a sketch about Emanuel and his statements but it is listed as "Unaired" by the site Breitbart but they have it here...

The "Double Tap"...

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The Double-Tap...

I have missed Jack Bauer's form of diplomacy...

Practice that 2nd Amendment Right...

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Today was the day to spend some time with friends at the shooting range and hone shooting skills. The range was busy and numerous weapons could be seen, tested, and discussed along with the discussion turning to current events and the new administration. Conversation soon turned to a local news story in the NewsLeader that described the increase in gun\ammo sales just before and since the election of President-elect Obama...

Gun\ammo sales have increased across the United States. With the increased demand a rise in price and value will be sure to follow. (It's the result of supply and demand, something that people in Washington politics still have a problem grasping). In fact it was reported in the story: "Andy Coffman, owner of the Gun Shack on Laurel Hill Road in Verona, said his sales started to boom about a month before the presidential election, and said he's already been warned by distributors that prices for assault rifles will probably increase 30 percent to 50 percent when orders are placed. Customers, he said, point to Obama as the reason for their gun purchases".

Be sure to note the comments at 3:00 minutes into the video for the description of numerous Obama supporters flocking to gun stores to purchase weapons they feel Obama will outlaw...

Charles Spence, Thinks Obama Is Anti-Gun - "I really live by the philosophy that when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns. And the only thing that stops criminals from coming in my house tonight, is he doesn't know what awaits him on the other side."

During the lead up to the Presidential election my Virginia Senator, Jim Webb, appeared on numerous radio campaign ads advising me that he, along with Obama, are supporters of the 2nd amendment and Obama would not do anything to take my gun(s) away...

Should I now believe my Virginia Senator?...

Informed Electorate?...

I saw this over at Yankee Phil and it shows that the media services who serve and favor the Democratic Party did in fact do their fair share during this past election...

"Bailout" for who?...

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Pelosi and gang are working hard to deliver a "bailout" to the Top-3 Auto worker Unions that helped deliver them a victory last Tuesdays on election day. In fact President-elect Obama is now calling for a $50 BILLION bailout to the Top-3 automakers in Detroit as seen here...

"Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, are pushing for legislation to help the automakers. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for congressional action, saying failure by one or more of the big U.S. automakers would have a ``devastating impact'' on the U.S. economy. Assistance must be conditioned on ``rigorous independent oversight'' of carmakers and restrictions on executive compensation, she said in a statement."

We see that Pelosi calls for "rigorous independent oversight" but it seems targeted at the evil "executive compensation" side of the problem. The article states that there should be the appointment of a "Auto-czar" but there is no mention of restructuring the Labor side of this equation. As stated in the prior post on this subject, the Top-3 automakers made very poor labor deals in the past and these too must be dealt with if the Top-3 are to survive. Otherwise we will just be dumping Billions of taxpayer money into a industry destined to fail...

Underwater Pumpkin Carving Contest...

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The team over at the Point Pleasant (NJ) Rescue Scuba Dive Squad had their annual Underwater Pumpkin Carving contest... Several local First Aid and Fire department teams attended and additional info will appear at the Point Pleasant Rescue site...

What to do with the Auto Industry?...

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The U.S. Auto industry, or should I say the "Top Three" automakers, are in trouble. Both GM and Ford are reporting massives loses and doubt that they will be able to continue operations if they do not receive additional "bail-out" money from the Federal government (Taxpayers)...

Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is doing her best to bring more of this taxpayer aid to save the Big-3 automakers and the jobs they represent. Possibly her actions are to secure additional “bail-out” money so to prevent the Big-3 auto manufacturers from having to go into bankruptcy courts where many of the negotiated Union Auto-workers would be subject to cancellation or change. Unions are a very large voting bloc for the Democratic Party and this may be a significant reason for Pelosi’s actions… Do you Think!!!…

As analyzed by Harbour-Felax, labor costs the Detroit Three substantially more per vehicle than it does the Japanese

Health care is the biggest chunk. GM (Charts), for instance spends $1,635 per vehicle on health care for active and retired workers in the U.S. Toyota (Charts) pays nothing for retired workers - it has very few - and only $215 for active ones

Other labor costs add to the bill. Contract issues like work rules, line relief and holiday pay amount to $630 per vehicle - costs that the Japanese don’t have. And paying UAW members for not working when plants are shut costs another $350 per vehicle.

For those of you keeping score at home, that’s approximately $2,615 in costs per vehicle manufactured which GM has to pay (and thus pass on to its customers) that foreign automakers don’t. But that’s just the beginning. Labor work requirements, which state that workers can’t be laid off even when the auto company has no work for them, cost the auto industry even more:

"If an assembly plant with 3,000 workers has no dealer orders, it has two options. One is to close the plant for a week and not build any cars. Then the company still has to give the idled workers 95 percent of their take-home pay plus all benefits for not working. So a one-week shutdown costs $7.7 million or $1,545 for each vehicle it didn’t make"

"If the company decides to go ahead and run the plant for a week without any dealer orders, it will have distressed merchandise on its hands. Then it has to sell the vehicles to daily rental companies like Hertz or Avis at discounts of $3,000 to $5,000 per vehicle, which creates a flood of used cars in three to six months and damages resale value. Or it can put the vehicles into storage and pay dealers up to $1,250 apiece to take them off its hands"

Management for the auto manufacturers are also very much responsible for the state and condition of the American owned industry for they have negotiated and signed off on the contracts that have led to where they are now… But should the Federal government once again “bail-out” an industry that has gotten itself into trouble by their own “greed” (both Mgmt and Unions) and actions?

In the past I have bought American made vehicles such as Chrysler, Chevrolet, and General Motors products, to support the American worker. I do not wish to see harm to those retired workers who put their time in and are looking to get their promised benefits. But with these bad deals that were made by BOTH sides resulting in an additional $2,615 tacked onto a GM price tag, should the government bail these guys out with our tax money? And with Honda and other auto manufacturers operating plants in Texas, the Carolina’s, and other states, should I not buy a auto that was made by American workers in these plants?…

Lessons from the campaigns...

Spank that Donk has a great post-election piece about the Gilmore campaign that many in the business need to take a look at...

The Democratic President-elect spent more then $600 million on his campaign, Hillary must have spent at least $200 million, McCain $200-300(?) million, then add in all of the other campaigns out there. Just running a campaign has become big business and one that is only short term for some of those involved so setting up for the next "gig" is always in play. Look at the noise coming from "staffers" who are now attacking Palin. These people need to be identified and if they have facts, dirt, or info they wish to present they need to stand in the sunlight and do so...

Campaigns also need to get back to basic campaigning and get to the voters themselves. Sure you need to do the T.V. thing, the internet thing, the fundraising thing, enough with the robocall thing(!), and get back to talking with the people...

This political season found that the local person at a parade was willing to talk politics with somebody who was willing to listen and debate where needed. It's nice to see the float and the candidate running by waving and shaking your hand, but evidence from the local parades here in the Valley showed that the people wanted to talk about the issues...