Christmas Past - Christmas Present

When George and I were growing up at Elmcroft we used to have small Christmas trees in our rooms to entertain our cats. These little trees were decorated with small round ornaments which the cats would make quick work of. Two of the little trees were planted by the swimming pool. They are now about 50 feet tall. Click on picture to enlarge.

Doing My Part for the Economy

I finally got around to spending my stimulus payment. I decided to spend it on new granite counter tops for my kitchen. It was time for the 1980's style white ceramic tile to go with all of its problems of keeping the grout line clean. The porcelain sink had a big ding that was just about to rust through. You figure out which are the before and after photos. Click on pictures to enlarge.

California Election Results

The little red spot down south by the coast is my home county of Orange. We couldn't hold out for the capitalists against a sea of blue.

Self-ism

If you ever wondered what this nation is really all about and its place in the world, this is a must listen audio clip. This clip defines the difference between socialism and capitalism.
Bryan Suits is a radio talk show host in Los Angeles. He served as a member of the Army National Guard in Operation Desert Storm, Bosnia and Iraq. As a Lieutenant, he was decorated with a Bronze Star and awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received in combat during his last tour of duty in 2004-05. He honed his broadcast style when Tony Snow (later White House Press Secretary) called him in Iraq to describe life in the war zone on his syndicated show each week. Bryan has his history accurately placed into the present. He uses satire and humor to get his points across. Enjoy...(This audio is 31 minutes long)


Get Your Own Free Hypster.com Playlist.

This is a dangerous man

Senator Obama believes that the courts should do more to effect economic change in the country. Specificaly, to help with his plan of redistributing the wealth. This is a very dangerous and radical position that would create another legislative branch of government with the power to unilaterally impose their will.

The Fox in Charge of the Henhouse

Starting next January.
Watch this: http://www.jibjab.com/view/253615
And if you want a sampling of the electorate that will probably put the socialists in control, listen to this clip:
http://beltwayblips.com/video/howard_stern_interviews_obama_supporters/

Another Opinion on the Obama Tax Plan

The writer argues that Obama’s plan to raise taxes on households making more than $250,000 will raise taxes on most small-business profits in America.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11670.html

I Told You the Storm Troopers Were Coming

'Two federal agents arrived at Jessica Hughes' home Thursday to ask her if she said, "I will never support Obama and he will wind up dead on a hospital floor."
Hughes said her words were deliberately twisted by a volunteer who was apparently unhappy Hughes was rude during a phone conversation the two had. The Lufkin mother, a Republican, said she received a call on her cell phone Wednesday from a woman with the Obama Volunteers of Texarkana.
"She asked if I was an Obama supporter, to which I replied, 'No, I don't support him. Your guy is a socialist who voted four times in the state Senate to let little babies die in hospital closets; I think you should find something better to do with your time.' (And then) I hung up."[her husband and children overheard this conversation]
(Hughes is referring to a "born alive" Illinois bill that did not pass in the Illinois state Senate in 2005 and had previously been opposed by Obama because he said it undermined Roe v. Wade, according to FactCheck.org, a non-partisan organization. A federal version of the bill, which Obama said he would have supported, passed by unanimous consent and was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2002.)'

In an interview on a Los Angeles AM station, Hughes said the secret service agents asked her what her opinion and thoughts were on Senator Obama. Fortunately she had the prescience of mind to remind them that her thoughts on any matter were none of their business. She gave them the true facts and that is all they were entitled to.

Now, we don't know if the Obama volunteer intentionally misinterpreted the conversation or not. Nevertheless, you can be certain that socialists want to control your life and monitor your behavior. Will visits by Federal agents become more commonplace under a socialists government?

The Socialists are Coming

We are now on a path to becoming a completely socialist state. Unfortunately, the alternative is not very appealing but if you thought government was disfunctional now, wait until the socialits take over in force. If you thought medical care was expensive, wait until it is free to see how expensive it can really get.

These socialists will use any method to gain control of the government and society. You have now heard of the ulta-left group ACORN. Have you heard this from CNN?
"A subsidiary of the group was paid $800,000 by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign to register voters for the 2008 primaries, and ACORN's political wing endorsed Obama back in February. But Obama's campaign told CNN that it "is committed to protecting the integrity of the voting process," and said it has not worked with ACORN during the general election."

The storm troopers are coming. The brown coats are coming. If you are opposed to the degradation of our society you need to act and act now.

Pandering or Ignorance

In politico speak pandering means lying. It is saying one thing to one group of constituients and saying the opposite to another group. One of those has to be a lie. But, when it comes to politicians it is sometimes difficult to discern if a statement is just pure ignorance.

My Obama and Mr. Biden seem to be running against George Bush. Here are some paraphrased statements by Mr. Obama and my take on them:

"The financial debacle we are in is a verdict on eight years of failed economic policy."
No, banking and lending deregulation started in the late 70's and continues today, promoted by both political parties.

"The subprime lending meltdown is an indication that families have been under stress the last eight years"
No, it results from families being given loans that they cannot repay. Risk management in lending used to take economic cycles into consideration.

"We need 21st century regulation for 21st century conditions."
No, we need a return to basic lending principles that do not entice the poor to take on debt they cannot ever have a chance of repaying. We don't need change here, just a return to the basics of financial regulation and oversight that both political parties abandoned many years ago.

The Obama Tax Plan

Let's try to understand what the Democratic tax plan really means but cutting through the double talk that most of the electorate cannot understand.

"Middle class families will see their taxes cut – and no family making less than $250,000 will see their taxes increase."
The key phrase to interpret here is "no family." This means that single individuals and perhaps those married couples without children will see a tax increase.

"Families making more than $250,000 will pay either the same or lower tax rates than they paid in the 1990s."
The key phrase here is "tax rates." It doesn't state that these "families" will not pay more taxes, only that their tax rate will be rolled back (increased) to the pre-Bush tax cuts. This is a tax increase but you can see the slick words that can make people believe there will not be a tax increase for these families.

"Obama will ask the wealthiest 2% of families to give back a portion of the tax cuts they have received over the past eight years to ensure we are restoring fairness and returning to fiscal responsibility."
This is a classical socialist mantra - that the money you earn belongs to the government. That any tax reduction is really the government giving you money. The real truth is that the money you earn belongs to you. Keeping more of it after taxes is not a benefit that the government bestows on you.

"In fact, dividend rates would be 39 percent lower than what President Bush proposed in his 2001 tax cut. "
This is double talk for dividend rates will go up.

"...his tax relief for middle class families is larger than the revenue raised by his tax changes for families over $250,000."
In this sentence, "changes" means increase. People making over $250,000 are the most likely to reinvest in businesses that will create jobs. Obama is saying that we don't need that job creation stuff.

"Fairness" is a phrase that socialist use that means those with more should pay more. Here are some statistics from the IRS on individual tax returns from 2006:
Those with adjust gross incomes of $200,000 or more pay 53.2% of personal income taxes.
Yet these people represent only 4.4% of all tax returns filed. Yes indeed, 53.2% of the taxes are paid by only 4.4% of people.
The average tax rate for those same people is 25.9% of AGI. The average tax rate for those earing less than $200,000 is 11.8%. Yes, indeed, the Obama middle class has a tax rate is less than half of the upper class.
I don't quite understand where the fairness is in all this. Isn't that enough "fairness?" I guess I just don't understand the definition of fairness.

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."

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."

Getting the Word Out

http://www.antiquehomesmagazine.com/property.php?listing=117442
New posting on Antique Homes Magazine.

Life Vest

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.