A New Rant Just for You!!

So this has been a pretty busy month for me. Working on the summer production and monitoring the happenings in Austin and Washington; lots to do!! Here is the newest rant I have!

1. So this evening the federal government has come up with a deal to increase the debt ceiling that does nothing but kick the can down the road. Regardless of whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, you can’t be happy with it. I think maybe it’s time for us to get rid of the assortment of US Representatives, Senators and the President and select a whole new group who are not politicians but individuals willing to be public servants and to truly represent their constituency.

2. Here’s how to solve the state’s school budget woes? The U.S. Department of Education is due to get $71 billion this year. Since there is no credible evidence that the U.S. Department of Education does anything at all other than to support the employees of the Department of Education, lets help the students of America and do away with their budget giving the money back to the states based on school age population. That would give Texas about $5.9 billion of that money.

3. Moody’s and the S&P are threatening to lower the U.S.’s credit rating due to the poor performance of federal policies. While this worries many and could jack up interest rates, I find it ironic that the bond-rating entities that kept companies like Enron, Lehmann Brothers, and AIG at a triple “A” status up until their failures and was responsible for rating the bundles failing mortgages with a triple “A” status are the same entities threatening to lower the ratings of the United States.

4. Recently, an air-traffic controller in Denver was relieved of duty for being intoxicated on duty. FAA officials said the controller was found to be twice the legal limit of intoxication for an air-traffic controller. QUESTION: what is the FAA-approved legal limit of intoxication for an on duty air-traffic controller?

5. Lastly, in the “Yes I had to throw her in” Category; Casey Anthony is shopping her story around for $1.5 million. I just wonder if she will use any of the money to reimburse the state of Florida and Orlando for searching for her daughter – DOUBT IT.

Well that should just about take care of this newest issue of the “Rant,” Hope you all have a wonderful week and if you’re in Cameron next week stop by and enjoy the Milam County Theatre’s presentation of “Camelot” I hear the King is pretty good!

Later,
Bill

You have to get on the field to see the goalpost Mr. President!

I remember many years back when a famous coach said the problem with most people is they don’t get it. I hear the politicians debating the border security issue and it becomes maddening that no one seems to get it. Whether you agree with some sort of guest worker program, amnesty program, or if you just believe all the illegal aliens should be sent back to their home nations, you just don’t get it. The issue is not illegal immigration; the issue is securing the border to keep the criminals out of the country.

Now for you liberals, I can already hear your wheels spinning so let me explain this for you. The criminals are the people who only come across the border for illegal activities, not necessarily those coming over looking for a job or a better life. Do I believe we need a strong immigration policy? Yes; but realistically we already have solid immigration law; we just need to follow it. But without a secure border it cannot be followed.

Where we lose track of this issue is in that we need to secure the border to for the protection of the citizenry of the United States. Sound familiar, well it should. It’s only one of the primary functions of the federal government; a function that quite honestly the federal government is failing at. So when you here the President come to El Paso and claim that his administration has done more than any other administration, stop and think about that for a minute.

The southern border has seen escalating violence over the last few years to a level unmatched since before the civil war when the border was still disputed and before relations with Mexico were normalized. Drug runners, murders, terrorists, rapists, gang-bangers, and all other forms of criminality find our porous border only too easy hurdle on their way to America. But rather than understand the danger and work to secure the border to keep these criminals out, President Obama wants to play politics as usual and criticize those calling for a stricter border policy.

As usual, President Obama does what he does only all too well. He criticizes those issues he can’t overcome and demagogues those who champion those issues. Today in El Paso he glorified his administration’s “accomplishments and ignored their complete inability to understand the depths of the issue. He said his administration is meeting the challenges that exist at the border – He Is Not. He claimed the border fence is complete – Not Even Close! He then claimed that his administration has increased the Border Patrol by 3 times the officers from when he took office – Has He? Not according to those actually on the border. Then he attacked those championing the border security issue by asking how far they would move the goalposts.

Well Mr. President, you need to get out of the club house before you can even see the goalposts so congratulations for getting on the field for the first time since you’ve been president. But rather than propagandizing the issue in El Paso before heading to Austin for a $50,000.00 a couple dinner, maybe you should have gone out and walked the line with some of those Border Patrol Officers and asked them about the border situation. The political issue being bantered around maybe immigration, but the actual issue, the national security issue, is border security.

Once the border is secured then we can have a national dialogue about immigration. But until the politicians understand that, we are at risk. Until the President decides to actually contribute to national security by actually addressing the border security issue, we are at risk. We are all at risk because quite frankly, this President is all about him and his job security. I doubt he’ll ever get it, or even care about getting it.

21 more months and counting!!
Bill

GE’s Awesome Deal

This morning as I am driving to the office I hear on the radio that GE will have forecasted record earnings for 2011. My first thought is that this is nice for the investors of GE, and then you look a little closer at the numbers and the relationships. Most of the improved sales are coming from overseas and not from the United States. Well that’s fine I guess, but then I take a closer look and am reminded about what a sweet connection GE has right now with the government.

So here are the things you might not know, or maybe you did but just didn’t put it all together.

GE’s CEO is Jeff Immelt – ring a bell? Jeff Immelt is the chair of President Obama’s Counsel on Jobs and Competitiveness. Hmmmmm, Sounds official doesn’t it? Basically, Immelt is the President’s Job Czar, his right-hand-man for getting America to work. He’s the man behind the counsel whose sole job it is to find new and exciting ways to create new and sustainable jobs. Well they better not look at GE then.

If he’s looking for ways to create jobs in America then he can start with the 23,000 people he’s put out of work at GE in the last ten years as he shipped jobs overseas. Yes I know there are like 10 million people out of work in the US and 23,000 is not that many of the whole number, but it’s probably a good place to start, especially if you are one of those 23,000 people who had their jobs taken away by the “Job Czar.”

I Know, they can fix that fairly easy but they won’t because if they do fix that “problem” they wouldn’t be able to bring GE to the land of prosperity as Immelt has. After all, he did help GE to earn $14.2 billion last year. But here is the really good part, as a bonus for making money while leaving American employees in the cold; GE was awarded by not having to pay a single penny on that income. That’s right, GE as a whole made $14.2 billion; however, GE Capital (a division of GE) had losses that not only kept GE as a whole from having to pay taxes, but also garnered $3.2 billion in government benefits for the company.

That’s right; GE made a total of $14.2 billion as a company and got a payment from the U.S. Taxpayer of $3.2 billion. Nice job their Mr. Immelt.

“It’s Good to be the Jobs Czar!”

Take Care,
Bill

My Weekly Rant for March 15, 2011.

Lots of new stuff to go off on this week so let’s get started!!

1. I heard Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), former Majority Leader of the US House of Representatives, actually stand before the house this week and tell the world that continually passing Continuing Resolutions is no way to fund and run a government. Well we all agree; however, it was Hoyer, Pelosi, Obama and Reid and their lack of leadership by not passing a budget last year that has left the country in its present condition. Maybe that is why he is no longer the Majority Leader but only the Minority Bell Ringer for Nancy Pelosi. By the way, have I thanked the Democrats this week for keeping her in the house leadership – That’s Awesome.

2. Not to be outdone, last week Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) had the audacity to criticize the Republicans in Wisconsin as being the equivalent to reinstating slavery. First of all where does Charlie get off criticizing anyone unless he is doing it from the standpoint of criticizing someone for committing unethical acts in an unproductive manner from his standpoint of an expert in ethics? And how can he criticize Wisconsin’s elected leadership for trying to curtail the Wisconsin Public Workers Union’s Collective Bargaining Power. Isn’t he a Federal Congressman and isn’t it the Federal Public Workers Union that has NO Collective Bargaining Power? Good job Charlie!!!!

3. President Obama and Mexican President Calderon met and decided that American Law Enforcement Officers should not carry firearms in Mexico since, as President Obama proclaimed, Mexican law prohibits it. Gee, doesn’t American Law prohibit illegally entering the country, and isn’t it illegal for drug runners to illegally bring drugs into America, and isn’t it a little bit illegal to kill a federal officer of the law. Maybe President Obama should spend a little bit more time getting President Calderon to get the Mexicans to follow our law.

4. And when is our President going to become our Commander and Chief and stop being the White House’s version of the accidental tourist? We have troops in two active war zones, the Libyans are fighting a civil war, Iranians are transiting the Suez canal, North Korea is rattling their sabers, Mexico is fighting a drug induced border war on our border, and one of our closest strategic ally’s and economic partners is suffering from one of the worst natural disasters in recorded history. Where is our Commander in chief? He’s giving his Saturday address in which he ignores the gravity of all these issues, then he’s out on the golf course, then it’s off to Brazil with Tom and Giselle, or filling out his tournament brackets for the NCAA. Well, I guess he is a busy man!!

Well that’s it for this week. Hope everyone enjoys their week. I would ask everyone to say a prayer for the Japanese and send a little money if you can. I spent a lot of time in Japan while I was in the Navy and there are some good folks over there that are in some dire conditions. Please help how you can.

Thanks,
Bill

What Happened to Habeas Corpus for Guantanamo Terrorists?

During the election of 2008, many liberals kept preaching about how wrong it was for the Bush administration to keep the detention center at Guantanamo Bay open or how appalling it was to hold captured terrorists and try them in a military tribunal. President Obama even campaigned on this issue and demonized the Republicans for not only allowing this to happen but for supporting this.

So there was little surprise when within hours of being sworn in President Obama signed an executive order to shut down the detention center in Guantanamo in the first year of his administration. There was also little surprise when the naive Obama Justice Department announced they would pursue conviction of these terrorists in a courtroom in New York City. To liberals these both seemed like positive moves by the Obama Administration; however, neither of these moves was very popular when it came to the implementation.

Many liberals wanted Guantanamo closed and many wanted the terrorists tried in a civilian courtroom, but no one wanted those terrorists housed in their state nor did too many people look forward to having those trials take place in their courts. It’s sort of the Dog that caught the car syndrome, once people had what they were chasing or working for, they had no idea what to do with it.

So where would we conduct these trials and house these terrorists? Well enter some true congressional bi-partisanship as congressmen of both parties voted to defund the transfer of the prisoners last year and then this year to defund the President’s Czar in charge of closing Guantanamo Bay.

NOW, THIS WEEK, the President announced that the military tribunals would start back up at Guantanamo while side-stepping the entire question on closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. So after Attorney General Eric Holder has towed the President’s line on civilian trials for these terrorists, he was summarily thrown under the bus by President Obama when the President made his statement about resuming Military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay.

Well don’t sweat it too much Mr. Attorney General. You’re in good company. There are many other people who have been thrown under the bus that is the Obama Express. There’s his Grandmother who he threw under the bus for thinking like an elderly white lady, you know…about race and all (no I actually don’t know but it would be nice to have that explanation).

There was former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak who was welcomed to the white house as an ally to help make peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, but was thrown under the bus when Egyptians revolted last month.

There’s Jim Johnson who was one of his one of Obama’s primary economic advisors during the campaign and headed his VP search team for a while, but was thrown under the bus when his history at Fannie Mae became an unfavorable issue.

Poor old Reverend Wright preached the gospel to the Obama’s for nearly twenty years, but when the Reverend’s anti-American rhetoric was discovered he was slowly helped under the bus over the course of a couple of weeks.

I could keep going with the names of people living under that bus, but I’ll save that for another time. This blog is about the Democrat’s Habeas Corpus Cry and the 180 degree turn the Obama Administration has taken on this issue. I applaud the President for making a tough choice to proceed with the military tribunals and leave Guantanamo open; I just find it funny and honestly hypocritical of the Democrats and the liberal media for pretending to not notice something that they spent so many years denigrating the Bush Administration for. But then again, what can we expect from our liberal friends?

Wait till the bus makes a complete top before exiting!!
Bill

Weekly Rant (kind of weekly) – February 23, 2011

Yeah I know it’s not really a weekly rant so I’m sorry but I have been busy. Here you go:

1. OK, so some Democrat congressman said something stupid in Massachusetts yesterday like getting out there and getting bloody. Then someone else says something stupid and then someone else. Yes I know President Obama said we need to ratchet down the rhetoric and we should, but you know what, sometimes people say something stupid and then ten minutes later they think to themselves, “What was I thinking?” Maybe we all just need to take a deep breath and not be so split-second in our judgment of someone making an unscripted mistake. I think we have all done this before. I know I have, I was there, I heard me do it…“What was I thinking?”

2. Stupid spending of the week; I know it’s small but the Department of Defense spending $7,000,000.00 on sponsoring a NASCAR driver is STUPID. Like I said I know $7,000,000.00 is small when you’re talking about a $1,600,000,000,000.00 deficit this year but every little bit counts. That could help and reduce the deficit to $1,599,993,000,000.00. I’ll work on this some more for next week.

3. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), spends valuable floor time complaining about congressmen saving money by sleeping in their office. REALLY, with everything else going on with our federal government Senator Boxer felt she needed to take time out of the Senate’s day to call attention to this. Maybe this is why she doesn’t get it. People like this frugalness and this is the sort of money saving measure that won’t save much but goes a long way with the voters. Oh yeah make sure you call her Senator, she’s earned it!!

4. Once again Columbia University shows why $50,000.00 plus a year (or whatever it costs) and an Ivy League pedigree is no protection from classlessness. After inviting Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak on campus among others in the past, last week the fine professors and students at this university booed off stage one of their fellow students while he spoke in favor of welcoming the ROTC back to campus. OH YEAH, he is also a former staff sergeant in the Army who was shot 11 times, lost his leg, and spent two years in Walter Reed Medical Center recovering from his injuries. Nice job you bunch of Columbia Patriots.

5. Reducing government spending in Texas; With Commissioners Michael Williams and Elizabeth Ames Jones both leaving the Railroad Commission soon to run for the US Senate, we can now retract the number of commissioners to one and be like the rest of the State Agencies. If we only have one Commissioner we could reduce the size of the staff by 2/3’s and reduces spending there. I’ll try to come up with some more next week. Believe me; it would be better to do this than take money from our schools.

Well there’s a rant for this week. Let me know what you think, not that it’ll mean much because this is only my rant but I would like to hear from you. No really, I do!!

Good Night Milano,
Bill

Rant for the third week of 2011

Thanks for all the nice emails. I am glad someone out there is reading this as I thought I was writing with no readers. Kind of begs the question; if you write it and no one reads it is it really a blog?

Here we go!!!

1. China’s President Hu has come for a visit this week and has been attacked by President Obama, Hillary and Harry. Be careful my liberal friends, I mean after all, our Chinese friends could have come over here to foreclose on us.

2. About one year ago, 219 house members voted for Obamacare. Today 245 voted to repeal it. And yesterday House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said on MSNBC that the reason there was so much negativity towards Obamacare was because it did not go far enough – HUH? Yeah, that’s it Nancy.

3. Late last week Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that she is stopping the construction of the “Virtual Fence” on the Mexican Border. Two years ago she proclaimed the virtual fence the end all beat all in border security. So what could she have up her sleeve that will trump the virtual fence? Wait for it…….She has a plan that will address the concerns for each region of the border and provide a “new path forward” for border security; however, she had no details, None, Nothing, Nada…..Oh I feel safer already!!!!

4. More new jobs have been created in Texas than in any other state in the union in the last few years. As a matter of fact, more jobs have been created in Texas than in all the other states combined. So rather than being proud of job creation in the Lone Star State, our Democrat friends are only too eager to pounce on the fact that a majority of these are minimum wage jobs. So let me get this straight, Democrats would prefer to have people jobless and on welfare rather than being paid the minimum wage they set at $7.25 an hour.

5. How about the next time there is an opening on the Supreme Court we put an English scholar on the high court. Since everyone seems to have such a difficult time understanding the 230 year-old document, maybe having an expert in English on the court instead of having lawyers on the court would lead to an easier time understanding the true meaning. After all, nothing says a member of the Supreme Court has to be a lawyer.

Well I think that takes care of this week’s Rant. Hope you all enjoyed it and it makes you think a little. Wonder how much a used border security camera is going for on eBay?

Until next time, stay safe!!
Bill