Monday, September 29, 2008

Words to Use

Feel free to use the following words to send a message to your elected representatives in the federal government. I am sending this to my elected officials and to the leader of the house and senate.

"You incompetent politicians should get off your high horse and stop acting like you are saving the country and your constituents. You are responsible for this financial melt-down in the first place. Republican and Democrat alike, Legislative and Executive branches together decided that it would be a good thing to allow home ownership to those who could not afford it. Beginning with Jimmy Carter in 1977 and continuing in the 1990s and the early part of this century, Congress pushed mortgage lenders and Fannie/Freddie to expand subprime lending. And, the subprime lending fiasco was more than a minor relaxation of existing credit guidelines. This lending was a wholesale abandonment of reasonable lending practices in which borrowers with poor credit characteristics got mortgages they were ill-equipped to handle.
You have implemented Socialist principles into a Capitalist system and anyone could have told you that it would not work. If you want Socialism to be the core principle of this country then go for it and see how quickly you get kicked out of office. But, don’t try to mix the two.
You have failed the American people and now you act like you are saving us. The way to save us is to own up to your failings, apologize, ask for forgiveness, and resign. You should be ashamed of yourself.Let the market react as it will. Allowing incompetent politicians to spend $700 billion would be irresponsible on the part of the electorate."

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Message to Senator Dodd of Connecticut

After listening to the press conference just now on the bail out package, I sent the following message to Senator Dodd:
"You are pathetic. You stand up there thanking all your colleagues for this bail out package. I like the rest of your constituency know the real truth. Both Democrats and Republicans alike in the legislative and executive branch of the federal government brought about this mess. Liberals and conservatives alike have spoken often in the last ten years about giving home ownership to people who cannot afford it. This has been a despicable strategy for garnering votes that has now come back to bite those same voters. Instead of thanking your colleagues, you should be apologizing and admitting your failures to the electorate. You should be asking for forgiveness. The people cannot trust their elected officials."

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Can you Trust Congress?

The democratic presidential candidate seems to be blaming the republican party and the Bush administration for the present economic problems. The first thing you should know is that you cannot trust that this man has the knowledge or experience to understand that current economic situation. He recently appeared at a speech in Florida to speak on economic policy accompanied by a bevy of ex-Clinton economic advisers. Is this going to foster change in government? Aren't we done with the Clinton people yet? Third, on the weekend talk show circuit this man was asked what caused the mortgage meltdown. He response was, "many factors contributed to the current situation." "May factors?" He doesn't know. Or, he isn't willing to tell the truth. But he is willing to blame republicans. This is the definition of pandering.

Let's look at the history of deregulation. The first deregulation bill was proposed by president Jimmy Carter and passed by the Congress under his watch. The result was the Savings and Loan crisis. You can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savings_and_Loan_crisis

Then, you can read about how the democratic controlled congress failed to heed the warnings of Greenspan in 2005 and failed to pass legislation to curtail the excesses of the mortgage lenders. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aSKSoiNbnQY0 If the link goes dead, I have the full article to send to you.

But, the question is can we trust Congress? Here's my take. The Republicans want their big banking buddies to have less regulation. Conservatives and libertarians believe in this stuff and generally, less control over business by government is a good thing. However, there needs to be a balance especially when it deals with capital markets that have wide-ranging impact. The democrats believe that their low income, working class constituents should be able to enjoy home ownership even if they can't afford it. They would prefer to tax the rich and give the money to the poor to buy a home. This is the liberal philosophy. So, here we have both parties working against common sense and the result is that the economy falls into despair.

The answer is that you cannot trust Congress. You need to vote these people out of office, Democrat and republican alike. The ones who created and want to continue this level of deregulation. Now we have a Secretary of the Treasury proposing a multi billion dollar bail out of the financial services industry. This man used to be the CEO of AIG folks. Where do you think his loyalty is? In four months he will be out of a job and looking to get back into a big paying job in the very industry he is trying to bail out. He stands to make a bundle from helping his buddies. You have to assume that he doesn't give a damn for your well being. Speak with your vote.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Vice-Presidential Nominees

A certain rocket scientist that I know who happens to be my daughter asked my opinion on the Republican Party vice-presidential nominee.
My answer is; we’ll have to wait and see.
This is the second time in history that a woman has been nominated to one of the major political parties as a vice-presidential candidate. The first time was in 1984 when Democrat Walter Mondale, the vice-president under Carter, teamed up with Geraldine Ferraro to run against Ronald Reagan. Mondale/Ferraro lost in a landslide to Reagan partly because Mondale promised to raise taxes and argued that Reagan would also raise taxes while promising not to. Is history repeating itself here? Just to remind those students of history out there that did not live through this era in adulthood, the Reagan presidency ushered in the era of deficit spending and tax cuts that brought about the longest sustained period of economic growth in history and simultaneously brought the tiger of inflation under control.
So, the liberals and liberal media seem to be now on the defensive. The attacks on this woman vice-presidential nominee are endless, going to the core of gender stereotypes.
For me, I don’t care about gender or race. I look to qualifications and platform. So, one question might be; “is a governor qualified to be president?” Well, Reagan was previously a governor of California and in addition to his economic accomplishments, he was instrumental (with others including the Pope) in bringing about the end of the Cold War and the fall of communism in Russia. On the other hand, we have Jimmy Carter the former governor of Georgia, a one-term president that history mostly refers to as the most incompetent president in the modern era. However, he had one thing going against him from the start – he is a liberal democrat. He couldn’t solve the oil embargo and his military spending cuts were punctuated by a failed mission to rescue hostages in Iran – Operation Eagle Claw on April 24, 1980. It could be argued that the lack of military funding contributed to the helicopter mechanical failures of the mission which caused it to be called off. During the extradition of the forces from the rear clandestine air base in Iran, a helicopter crashed into a C-130 resulting in the death of eight American troops.
So, back to vice-presidential qualifications. Other history shows us that ultra-qualified candidates turned out to be incompetent in office while non-qualified candidates made history. Disclaimer: Don’t use anything I say to influence your vote decision. Go with your intuition.

Monday, September 15, 2008

More Pandering on the Right

Here are the promises of Senator McCain in his acceptance speech and my comments that you have all been waiting for. Well, there were more like beliefs than promises. Probably a safe strategy since I, like most of the electorate don’t believe in any politician promises.

“We’re going to change that [instead of freeing ourselves from a dangerous dependence on foreign oil, both parties and Senator Obama passed another corporate welfare bill for oil companies]”
Sounds like a good idea but I am not hopeful that any politician can break the oil cartel. Carter couldn’t do it.

“We believe in low taxes; spending discipline, and open markets.”
Something John Kennedy believed in also.

“We believe in a strong defense, work, faith, service, a culture of life, personal responsibility, the rule of law, and judges who dispense justice impartially and don’t legislate from the bench.”
Here’s one that is completely opposite to what the liberals in control of the Democratic Party believe.

“We believe in a government that unleashes the creativity and initiative of Americans. Government that doesn’t make your choices for you, but works to make sure you have more choices to make for yourself.”
Definition of a Republican. Democrats don’t believe this.

“I will keep taxes low and cut them where I can. My opponent will raise them. I will open new markets to our goods and services. My opponent will close them. I will cut government spending. He will increase it.”
Ok, I’m for that. Studies and experience has shown that when capital gains tax rates are raised, tax revenues go down. When Senator Obama was presented with that information when he was asked about his plan to raise capital gains taxes, he response was that raising capital gains rates was only fair. This is a clear indication that he is not interested in raising government revenues, but only in redistributing the wealth.

“Doubling the child tax exemption from $3500 to $7000…”
Let’s hope this doesn’t cause more illegal alien anchor babies.

“We need to shake up failed school bureaucracies with competition…”
I don’t see this happening. Schools are controlled by liberals and their unions.

“We are going to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don’t like us very much…”
Not much chance of this happening either.

“Senator Obama thinks we can achieve energy independence without more drilling and without more nuclear power.”
Yea, I’ve been wondering about that also. He and Pelosi have their heads in the sand if they really believe we can become free of foreign oil in ten years.

There is a resounding void in his speech on anything to do with immigration. Yet, we know that McCain believes in amnesty. He joined with that ultra-liberal Ted Kennedy to sponsor an amnesty bill. Fortunately, it was defeated by an up swell of public outcry. This is something to watch out for no matter who gets elected.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Elmcroft Website is Up

www.elmcroft.info
I created this website for linking from various advertisements I plan to post on Craigslist and Antique Homes Magazine. Yes, it is rather crude but I think it will get the job done.

Monday, September 08, 2008

More Democrat Lies

On the Sunday talk circuit Senator Biden claimed that this is the only time we have instituted tax cuts during a war. I guess Joe is not a student of history. In 1964 the Kennedy tax cuts passed by Congress created the largest percentage tax cut in the history of the nation. Does anybody know what else was going on in 1964?
By the way, does anybody else get the feeling that these democrat liberals are going down in flames? They seem to be on the defensive now and Obama seems to be running against George Bush. Somebody needs to remind Obama that Bush is termed out.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

Summer Closing Down

Well, in Woodbridge anyway. Last evening was the last concert on North Lake in Woodbridge, ending in a traditional Southern California style with a Beach Boys tribute band. Then it was on to the new Orange County Great Park just a few miles down the road still in Irvine to see a great performance by Eileen Ivers and Immigrant Soul, the nine-time all-Ireland fiddle champion and her all-Irish band. Did I mention that all of these concerts are free? Not even a charge for parking. And you can bring your own picnic food including alcohol and seating. The Orange County Great Park concerts continue through September 27. Check out the schedule.
The Orange County Great Park is being built on the old El Toro Marine Corps Air Station which has a rich history in the defense of our nation dating back to 1942. We attended some spectacular air shows at the base during the 1990's which drew an attendance of about 300,000 except for the last one in 1997 during which 2 million people attended. We were there in 1993 to see the pride of the air force F-118 roll out onto the runway and awe the crowd with spectacular aerial maneuvers. It was also that year that we witnessed the crash of the F-86 Sabre Jet.

Monday, September 01, 2008

Lack of Experience

One more big error from the Obama acceptance speach. I'm not suggesting that Senator Obama made this error. His error was in hiring advisors that lack knowledge and experience in fiscal matters.

"I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow."

Now, I would estimate that about 0% of all small businesses and start-ups are subject to capital gains tax. Capital gains tax is a tax on the gain or loss from the sale of capital assets held for more than one year. So, what is a capital asset? Well, real estate (land and improvements), machinery and equipment, furnishings, and stocks or bonds of other corporations. Would you think that any start-up business would be looking to make capital gains on these types of assets? Just to clarify; any business that buys and sells such items as its primary business is not engaged in capital assets. They are selling inventory. So, if your business is developing land into residential homesites, you are selling inventory, not capital assets. The profit from such activity would be ordinary income, not capital gain.

Is Senator Obama the kind of person you want to be running the executive branch of the US Government? Perhaps we should wait until he has a better grasp for fiscal matters.