Opening Day: A Baseball Tradition

Today was Opening Day for major league baseball.  As much as I truly enjoy the other sports throughout the year, baseball is different.  Basketball, football and hockey each have their supporters and detractors.  Beyond that NASCAR, boxing, MMA, soccer are relegated even further into narrower niches, although their fan base is expanding.  But baseball is universal; for young and old, male and female, across the racial and ethnic barriers and back, baseball lives in our hearts.

Just in time, National Review has a new sports blog called Right Field that began today.  Here is how their opening post began,

The facts of life are conservative, and in no sphere is that truism more manifest than in the world of sport.

In the games we play, the same rules are meant to apply to all — and we are outraged at the injustice when they are not. There are winners and losers, and we don’t agonize over the self-esteem of those who do not prevail: we expect them to learn from defeat and improve. Sports train the body and mind, and channel what might otherwise be destructive energies toward an affirming purpose.

Not your normal sports blog, it will bring to mind hearing George Will expound on the virtues of the Green Monster in Fenway Park.  Perhaps you remember  the SNL sketch George Will's Sports Machine.  Funny stuff.  This might not be your cup of tea, but I like it.

As for our Opening Day in St. Louis, it was not a successful day.  Without Adam Wainwright, there is a tremendous amount of pressure to win every game Chris Carpenter starts.  Losing his first one is not promising.  The game did go into extra innings, so the fans, as they always do on Opening Day, got their money's worth.

No other team in any other sport does a home opener quite like the St. Louis Cardinals.  I can't help but imagine the jealousy of the players on the opposing team as they see how St. Louis treats its baseball royalty.  The Cardinals will never be able to outbid other teams for the services of the top players in baseball, but opening day is worth more than money in the eyes of a lot of players. 

I hope our 'el Hombre', Albert Pujols doesn't forget that as the season goes on.  The difference between $25 and $30 million a year is probably less than what he will pay his agent for his next contract.  Here, he knows where he stands with the Cardinals and with Cardinal Nation; in the unknown there, not so much.  The distance between here and there may not be worth the journey - even for a few million a year more.

To everyone else, I say find someway to participate in baseball this year.  Playing, coaching, umpiring, keeping score and even working the concession stand at the local little league field should never be jobs that go looking for someone to fill them.  There are way too many memories and moments of exhilarating joy awaiting you at the ball park.  Don't miss them.

Play ball!

Highly Public Rant #1

I'm sorry.  What you are about to read are the rantings of a perfectly sane person.  The beautiful Dawn does not feel well today, so I did not think it best to unleash this on her.  So instead it falls on you - my dear, wonderful readers - who I hope will be able to look past it and continue to read my future writings without letting today hold you back.  With that - Enjoy.

For those who do not know me personally, I spend a lot of time working on a 24/7 rotating shift.  Trying to keep to a schedule as I write this blog can be a bit difficult from time to time.  As an example, here was an outline of my basic schedule last week.

• Sunday - Church in morning, coach basketball game, dinner & meeting at church, work overnight shift
• Monday - Take a nap, work evening shift.
• Tuesday - Paperwork & blog in the morning, lunch with wife, work at Union Hall in afternoon, work evening shift.
• Wednesday- Blog in the morning,  attempt to catch up with DVR after lunch, work evening shift.
• Thursday - work day shift, coach basketball practice after work, watch NCAA games with friends.
• Friday - Labor meetings with management, work at Union Hall afternoon, send my wife & girls off to church youth trip, watch NCAA games, then work overnight shift.
• Saturday - take a nap, take Nate to a birthday party, work evening shift, come home to the return of wife & girls with a house full of teens (approx. 12), do the cool dad thing for a couple hours, run the boys off at 1am.
• Sunday - Church in the morning, coach basketball game, work evening shift.

I wish I could say that was an abnormal week, but it wasn't.  I'm sure that I managed to do a few other productive things, but it's all mostly a fog now.  Somewhere in there, I probably should have found time to work out, but I'm usually too tired when I have the chance.

I know I'm not really ranting yet.  So far all I've done is throw a pity party.  Don't worry, I'm prepared to suck it up.  Just bear with me a bit more.

As busy as I've been lately, I know it's going to get worse.  I'll be part of our union local's negotiating team during our impending contract negotiations.  Our labor contract ends on June 30th & we will be up to our elbows in it this summer.  Knowing this, I had to make a few major decisions.

First, I had to put off planning a family vacation with my family.  Normally we try to head off in July.  Short of ESP, I see no way to plan any vacation because if the contract doesn't pass, I will still be in the middle of talks.  My soon to be high school graduate was very disappointed to say the least.  Instead, I'm trying to find a way for the fam sans myself to make it to the beach next month.

Second, I had to have a little talk with my seven year old son.  I explained that I would be unable to be the head coach for his baseball team this year.  Not that I don't want to, but once we are deep in the labor talks, I won't have the time to be at all his games much less coach them.  My son was very sad, but put on a brave face for me.  I know how much he loves when his daddy is the coach & I really hated having to tell him this.

Okay, Sam, when's the pity party gonna be over?

Just calm down.  Here comes the rant.

I spend an enormous amount of time at my job.  I've been doing my job longer than anyone else left here.  Yet I have others who think they know how the job should be done better.  I've spent the past few weeks trying to explain why they're wrong in rational language using charts, graphs, basic math & physics.  The response was "that's not how we used to do it". 

This piece of equipment is as far away from being in good shape as possible, so how in the world are we supposed to run it normal.  If my car has an oil leak, I need to fill it more often.  I can't just go by what it normally takes.  So now I'm running it the way they want & they are currently being proven wrong as production begins to slide.  Brains impervious to logic!!!!!

If I could take a vacation right now I would.  In addition to my other duties, I'm also the music coordinator at my church and Head Worship Leader.  As you looked at my schedule, you may have noticed that there wasn't a lot of available time for a music practice.  Due to scheduling issues, we been forced to have our band practice on Sunday mornings.  Unfortunately, timeliness has become an issue so I'm now forced to find time for practice during the week.  Will this be a comfortable transition?  Absolutely not, but it's just what I have to do.

Tomorrow, I have to make the drive to our corporate office to drop off my daughter's scholarship application because of a delay in some of her paperwork.  It's only a 120 mile detour out of my way, but it needs to be done.  Hopefully, the beautiful Dawn and I will have time for lunch, but I need to be back home in time to make several batches of pizza dough for the Final Four party at our home on Saturday, before I head off to work at 3pm.

It's opening day for the St. Louis Cardinals today.  As they are playing, I'm trying to listen to a static filled radio at work and follow on ESPN's gamecast.  I'd much rather be either at the game or at least home with my family.  My son made sure we DVR'd it so he wouldn't miss any of the game after school.  But he's watching without me while I'm at work.

So I say with all sincerity that I understand the need for everyone to get away from it.  Schedule a little free time from a busy schedule.  I have never before complained about any other President's schedule - Republican or Democrat.  Until now.

Here is my problem.  12 days ago, the President of the United States of America sent our troops into battle in Libya.  Japan was still in the early days of its crisis.  The nuclear issue was still unsure.  We still have no budget and the economy is beginning to drag.

Yet, immediately after committing our troops, he has a brief press conference then leaves the country on a trade mission to South America.  The pretext for the trip was to increase our jobs through exports, but the only significant item that made the news wires was an agreement to fund and purchase oil from Brazil thus increasing jobs there.  Still, even if he had landed some major deals, was this a good time for him to leave?

One year ago, he had a Far East trip planned.  Healthcare reform negotiations took longer than expected, so he delayed the trip in order to sign the new law as soon as possible.

Yet this sight seeing tour of South America was so gosh darn important that he had to leave town on schedule.  It's accepted practice for a President to address the nation from the Oval Office at such times, but no, that could wait.

Well, I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore. 

As a husband and parent, I'm mad that I have to continually disappoint the ones I love by keeping to my commitments.  Even though what I'm doing is important, it's just not fair to them - they deserve better and I wish I could provide that. 

As a taxpayer, I'm mad that our nation's top employee has trouble understanding what we hired him to do.  Last year's Congress never passed a budget & this Congress is still debating one.  If the President has free time, maybe he can help out with that one.  

As an American, I'm mad because I see a President who doesn't carry out his responsiblities.  I get mad when I see him leave a press conference early because he's late for a party.  Ask my wife how many parties I've had to miss because of work.  Even when he finally gave a speech on Libya, it wasn't a primetime speech from the White House.  He gave multiple prime time appearances for so many other issues, but not this?  Why the heck not?

For two years, I've watched this man treat the Presidency as some joyride.  His buddy, the CEO of GE, Jeffery Immelt may be allowed to spend large amounts of time on the greens in the morning and attend parties with celebrities at night.  But his stockholders aren't complaining about profits, since not only are they paying absolutely no taxes, but we, America, are actually paying them to be in business to the tune of $3.2 million.

But we are not so successful.  Our nation's deficit went from under $450 billion to $1.6 trillion under Obama.  Mandatory spending now uses all of the Federal Revenue - every bit of it.  Every dollar that is spent on defense, national parks, foreign aid and even Presidential trips, can no longer be paid up front.  It's all going on the credit card for my two daughters and son to pay later.  No other President has ever done that.

The only way out of this mess is to grow the economy, but he's too busy preaching against income disparity.  Who cares?  When the boat's a sinking and everyone's going under, does it really matter if the rich are getting in a bigger boat?  Of course not.  But while he's busy trying to rearrange the seating chart, people are drowning.

I'm mad that every single statement this President makes comes with an expiration date.  All of them.  Don't believe me?  Read this.

I'm mad that we hired someone to do a job and he just isn't up to it.  I really wish he was, but he's not.  Listen to him speak and it's always 'I' and 'me', but look at the evidence - he's hardly ever in the room when major decisions are made.  There just isn't time in between all his peripheral activities for him to be doing that much governing.  In fact here's an official agenda from Friday, March 25th of this year.

9:30AM THE PRESIDENT receives the Presidential Daily Briefing
Oval Office
Closed Press
10:30AM THE PRESIDENT meets with senior advisors
Oval Office
Closed Press
4:35PM THE PRESIDENT hosts a reception for Greek Independence Day
East Room
Pooled Press (Pre-set 3:30PM – Final Gather 4:15PM – North Doors of the Palm Room)

That sounds like two hours of meetings and a quick reception before the NCAA games start.

I'm mad that the only time my golf clubs are used is for charity fundraisers.  I have so little free time, while just trying to run my little corner of the world, but he, the leader of the free world, is out there flaunting his abundance of recreation time while so many of my friends are without jobs, having trouble making ends meet, and his policies are trying to reshape our new green economy.  Doesn't anyone get it?  It's an anti-green economy, because there's no money in it.

Lastly, I'm mad that no matter how much worse things become under him; no matter how much more we are exposed to his inablity to lead, he will still garner at least 40% of the vote in 2012.

For the record, I hate this.  I don't usually get mad, but I expect my President to suck it up, just like everyone else and do his job.  If he doesn't want to, then I won't expect to see his name on the ballot next year.

I would rant more, but I can't; I have a job to do.  Unfortunately, it seems, I just don't have the time....

Second Place is Pretty Good Too

I just finished coaching my son's (K-2nd grade) basketball team.  We had a successful season.  We finished 2nd in the league standings after the regular season and played for the championship in a one game playoff.  The team played admirably, but came up short in that final game.  As I handed out the silver medals they had earned I told them all they could be very proud - the team we lost to that day was the only team to beat us during the season.  As I explained to my players, the other team was just better than us.

Afterwards I reflected on how valuable that last piece of information was.  Too many children grow up without ever hearing that someone is better than them.  Parents, schools and society are so quick to offer faux praise today.  But I don't like it.  When did trying to encourage a child mean lying to them?  Accentuate the positives - creatively if needed - but don't lie to them.

My wife follows the American Idol contest each year.  I don't pay much attention to it, but I will sometimes find myself on the couch next to her while its on the TV.  At the beginning of the season, thousands of potential 'Idols' will try out at staged auditions around the country.  Most of the singers have watched the show before and believe they have what it takes to be the next American Idol.  Most of them are 100% wrong.  As Simon would put it, they're "dreadful".  It's not just that they have no future in music, but some of them have no past association with it either.  It would be simply impossible to consider that dreck music.

Yet each of them have someone standing outside the audition door.  They have someone who let them go on national TV and embarrass themselves.  They have someone who refused to tell them the truth.  They're bad and no one ever told them about it.  And often it's mom and dad who stands outside the door to console their child who seems perfectly nice, but has a singing voice that sounds like phantom chains being drug across the floor.  What do mom and dad say?  "I can't imagine why they didn't take you - you're the best."  Guess what?  Mom and dad just lied to their own son or daughter on national TV.

I know, I know...we don't want to shatter their dreams.  Well, it's been shattered now and on national TV to boot.  How much time and energy have these poor deceived children wasted on a dream that will never come true?  Wouldn't they be better off finding a new dream?  Here they are at 19 or 20 years old, they've spent countless hours and dollars working toward a goal they never had a chance to attain.

Dreams are like balloons.  They can pop violently or simply develop a slow leak.  We don't need to pop them.  But we shouldn't be afraid to examine them.  My little boy is tiny.  As he gets older, I will be honest about the limitations size can have on his sports aspirations.  I won't be destroying his dreams.  I'll be giving him useful information.  Smaller players need to bring different skill sets to a sport than the larger players.  By being honest with him, he will be able to adjust and practice the skills needed to be successful.  If the hurdles prove to insurmountable, it won't come as a shock to him either.

Watch your children closely.  See where they excel and seek to complement them there.  Children aren't oblivious to reality.  They know when praise is being lavished inappropriately and this hurts their self-esteem.  A child's self-esteem is properly built when they are given praise for an actual accomplishment.  Build their self-esteem by helping them find what they are good at.  When a child finds something they do well, they will show more interest in it.  When they receive praise for their accomplishments, they will seek to improve at it and practice even more.  Well placed praise will create excellence in your child. 

On the other hand, when lavish praise is given to them, despite evidence to the contrary, you will create spoiled and whiny children who refuse to accept reality.  Don't believe me?  Watch the first few episodes of American Idol next year and look for the hundreds of off-key singers who will continue to insist that they are the real American Idol and the millionaire celebrity judges are just jealous.  Think about how much you would hate to be that child's parent.  Then look at your son's basketball team after they just lost the championship game.  Do you make up some excuse for why they lost and tell them they should have won?  Or do you do what I did - look them in the eye, tell them how proud you are of how hard they played, but unfortunately the other team was just better.  There's no need to lie because in the end, second place is pretty good too.

What I Wish He Would Have Said

On Monday evening, President Obama spoke on the military action in Libya.  Contained in his speech are the markings of developing Obama Doctrine.  I wrote a post yesterday examining what that means. You can read it here. 

After sleeping on it, I think I have figured out what really bothered me about his speech.  It, of course, comes in the section where he outlines how he perceives American leadership.  He says,

Let me close by addressing what this action says about the use of America’s military power, and America’s broader leadership in the world, under my presidency.

  

There will be times, though, when our safety is not directly threatened, but our interests and values are. Sometimes, the course of history poses challenges that threaten our common humanity and common security – responding to natural disasters, for example; or preventing genocide and keeping the peace; ensuring regional security, and maintaining the flow of commerce. These may not be America’s problems alone, but they are important to us, and they are problems worth solving. And in these circumstances, we know that the United States, as the world’s most powerful nation, will often be called upon to help.

In such cases, we should not be afraid to act – but the burden of action should not be America’s alone. As we have in Libya, our task is instead to mobilize the international community for collective action. Because contrary to the claims of some, American leadership is not simply a matter of going it alone and bearing all of the burden ourselves. Real leadership creates the conditions and coalitions for others to step up as well; to work with allies and partners so that they bear their share of the burden and pay their share of the costs; and to see that the principles of justice and human dignity are upheld by all.

I was on my best behavior as I wrote my analysis yesterday, but the honest truth is that I absolutely detest this last paragraph.  What enemy of the United States would read or hear those words and not feel emboldened; that their actions may go unpunished.

As I said, something about the wordplay bothered me.  Today, I figured out what it was.  I dislike his wording, because it contradicts the heart of a historic address by another President. 

I never want to be known for only criticizing and not offering a helpful suggestion.  So, with that in mind, I offer this; the section of another speech I wish he would have echoed.  (Feel free to yell out when you know who is speaking)

...the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe -- the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans -- born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

This much we pledge -- and more.

To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided there is little we can do -- for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.

To those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom -- and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.

To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required -- not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

Those are the words of President John F. Kennedy at his inaugauration.  Read the whole speech here.

In his speech, he talked of the need to strengthen the UN, the need to negotiate with others and the need to always seek peace where possible.  But he made it clear to our Communist enemies where he stood.  We can fault some early missteps during his Presidency, but this speech was a highpoint.

I want our President to make it clear to the oppressors that they should no longer expect to have free reign to terrorize the citizens of the world.  That America will lead the charge toward a better world that will not abide the trampling of liberty in any its hidden corners.  We will always strive to lead the community of nations against tyranny in all its forms wherever they exist, but  America will never backdown from acting alone in the service of our own liberty and security.

That's what I wish he would have said.

The Obama Doctrine Examined

President Barack Obama finally spoke to the American people tonight after committing our nation to a military campaign in Libya 9 days ago.  It has been standard practice for Presidents to address the nation at the time they begin a war.  Obama instead, kept to his schedule and went on a South American trip to increase our exports by agreeing to fund and purchase oil from Brazil's off-shore oil fields and without visiting two nations, Panama and Colombia who have pending Free Trade Agreements that this administration has chosen to ignore.  It was an odd trade mission and an even odder moment to take it.

During the run up to this speech, critics from both ends of the spectrum were asking for greater clarification of the essential goal of the mission, his justification for bypassing Congress and what national interest Libya held for America.  On Sunday the administration sent Secretaries Clinton and Gates to several of the morning new shows to answer some of these questions.

Under questioning by Jake Tapper on ABC's This Week, Secretary Gates answer to the question of whether Libya posed an actual or imminent threat, was

"No, no...It was not — it was not a vital national interest to the United States, but it was an interest and it was an interest for all of the reasons Secretary Clinton talked about.  The engagement of the Arabs, the engagement of the Europeans, the general humanitarian question that was at stake."

Later in the interview, Tapper in asking Secretary Clinton why the administration did not go to Congress, prefaced his question by noting that both Clinton and Obama as Senators stated that President Bush would need to have Congressional authorization before acting against Iran. 

"Well, we would welcome congressional support but I don't think that this kind of internationally authorized intervention where we are one of a number of countries participating to enforce a humanitarian mission is the kind of unilateral action that either I or President Obama was speaking of several years ago.”

With the foreshadowing of an Obama Doctrine cast about on Sunday, the President stood before the American people to lay the specifics out for us.  He began by stating the steps that led to his decision to use force in Libya.  He summed up those efforts thusly,

Ruminations From the Void



Not a legal play.....

One weekend of March Madness left to go.  My bracket has been begging for over a week to be put out of its misery.  VCU happily obliged and finished it off.  All the fun aside, I must admit that this is probably a terrible way to determine which team is the best in the nation.  Does anyone really believe that VCU belongs in the Final Four?  Of course they don’t.  But it sure has been fun watching them get there.  NCAA football probably has the better system for deciding the best team, even though it is the most disparaged.  Despite the inherent problems of allowing 68 teams to play a one loss-you’re out tournament, I’m still a big fan of March Madness though.  It’s a three week party for both the hoops aficionados and the March-only fans.  Plus, what championship can top “One Shining Moment”?

>>  GE recently announced that they have stolen many taxpayer dollars from you and me.  The company reported profit of $14.2 billion, $5.1 of it from operations here in the US.  Any guess to how much in tax they paid?  That’s right class – a big fat goose egg.  Well, technically that’s not correct.  They actually received a ‘benefit’ of $3.2 billion.  By my simplistic math calculations, our tax dollars supplied 63% of domestic profit.  Feeling angry yet?  Remember that GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt was selected to head President Obama’s Jobs Council, which I thought was as an unpaid volunteer, but it’s hard to say now.

So how does one go about such thievery?  The New York Times explains,

an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore. G.E.’s giant tax department, led by a bow-tied former Treasury official named John Samuels, is often referred to as the world’s best tax law firm. Indeed, the company’s slogan “Imagination at Work” fits this department well. The team includes former officials not just from the Treasury, but also from the I.R.S. and virtually all the tax-writing committees in Congress.

As NRO’s Kevin Williamson writes at his Exchequer blog in a post aptly titled, Our Tax Code is Corrupt,

In spite of our having the second-highest nominal corporate-income tax rate in the developed world (Hello, Japan!), the rates actually paid by businesses vary wildly according to their political clout. Progressives look at that and see the evidence of businesses’ having undue influence on Washington; I look at that and see evidence of Washington’s undue influence on business. But it’s a two-way street, and the end product smells the same.

The truth is that when Big Business and Big Government collude together, they win and we lose.  All I can add is Flat Tax FTW!  Loopholes aren’t the problem.  The whole ballgame is fixed; or rather in need of fixing.  But if voters don’t demand it, this reform may never happen.  While I have no place in my heart for GE, this isn’t an anti-business issue – it’s a political issue.

Dude, Where's My Recovery? - Part II

Dude, Where's My Recovery - Part I

In Part I, I discussed the errors and mistakes made by the Obama administration to arrest the economic free-fall, that have hindered our recovery.  As awful as those mistakes have been, the President was simply following the time honored tradition of jumping off a bridge because your friend jumped.

In choosing to follow the Keynesian formula, Obama has taken our economies normal recovery time of 18 -24 months and extended it into the 3-5 year range.  Just as we have seen happen before from Japan's lost decade to the Great Depression under FDR, such policies are very good at prolonging the bad times and preventing a quick recovery.

I contrasted our current remedies to Reagan's policies during a similar, if not worse economic predicament.  As the evidence shows, the Reagan recovery took off immediately after the end of the recession and soared in an unprecedented fashion (Obama likes to use the term unprecedented falsely, but in this case the term fits).  Unlike the failed Keynesian model, Reagan's supply side model worked and has been emulated across the globe to great success, especially in the former soviet satellite nations.

Today, we will discuss President Obama's plans to transform our economy.  As his chief of staff Rahm Emmanuel stated, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."  President Obama has definitely used this crisis.

During the 2008 Presidential campaign, all of the candidates made one of the most ridiculous arguments I've heard.  They would all put money into creating Green jobs.  This was worse than the 2000 campaign's obsession with a "lock box".  Every campaign has it's ridiculous issue that seemed to make sense at the time and this was 2008's.  (go back and watch the speeches from previous conventions to see what I mean - Mondale '84 is a hoot)

Casual Friday Edition

Welcome to today's Casual Friday Edition of Sam's Taste of Chaos.  We had a lot happening this past week as the battle on American Idol began to heat up.  So let's jump right in to the Chaos.

>>     Newsweek polled 1000 average American citizens and gave them the U.S. Citizenship test.  The good new - 62% passed.  The bad news - 38% failed.  The worse news - realizing that nearly 40% of Americans aren't qualified to be Americans.  I'm not sure whether to laugh, cry or crawl under my bed and hide.

Newsweek's website has 20 questions from the 100 possible that are used for the U.S. Citizenship test.  (10 are chosen at random & test-takers must correctly answer 6 to pass).  Take the test and put your score in the comments section (if you dare).  [I did get 20/20, but #17 was a guess.]

Here are a few examples:

When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?

July 4, 1776.

Correct: 67%
Incorrect: 33%

What happened at the Constitutional Convention?

The Constitution was written, or the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution.

Correct: 35%
Incorrect: 65%

We elect a U.S. senator for how many years?

Six.

Correct: 39%
Incorrect: 61%

How about now?  Are you laughing, crying or ready to hide under the bed?

>>     For the second time in the past 18 months the White House has been caught making a $2 trillion error in its 10 year budget.  But when your budget is out of control, these type of errors will happen.  A couple different issues are at play in this most recent issue.

The CBO corrects them for $300 billion from obvious mistatements from the Obamacare legislation, another $328 in funding that has never been passed by Congress and the rest in unrealistic projections on future revenues.  As the CBO report states, "...10 years from now, CBO sees a $1.2 trillion deficit that’s almost $400 billion above White House projections."

As Ed Morrissey at Hotair.com put it,

The findings in this puncture two myths perpetrated by Barack Obama.  First, ObamaCare is not “deficit neutral” in the first ten years, let alone constitutes a savings over the decade.  That was true even before the “doctor fix,” but the suspension of reductions in payments that came later sends ObamaCare well into red ink.  Next, the White House is inflating future revenue projections in order to protect its plans for expanded federal spending.  The difference in this case comes to $400 billion in year 10 of the projections, a difference that almost equals the worst total budget deficit under George W. Bush.

I thought the original budget was bad enough - not one year had a budget deficit under $600 billion.  I'm not the only one who thinks his math is fuzzy.

>>     I'm sure some of you are still upset with my stance in support of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.  Christian Schneider has a terrific article on why Gov. Walker tackled the public union issue as he did.  Concessions on pay alone won't fix the problem.

For instance, statewide average teacher salaries increased 6% per year in the 16 years before the Hortonville strike. In the 16 years after the strike, the increase is pegged at 7% annually. Not a big difference, for sure.

But salaries are only a part of the picture. Consider that in the 16 years prior to Hortonville [teacher strike], average state per-pupil spending increased 6.7% per year. Post-strike, it jumped to 9.6% per year in the 16 years following the Hortonville clash. [50% per year increase]

Today, K-12 education funding dwarfs the next-highest state spending program by a measure of 4-to-1. In 2011, Wisconsin spent $5.3 billion on public school aids, compared to $1.3 billion on Medical Assistance.

If those numbers don't make the case, then this graph will.  Notice how the spending curve change coincides with the Wisconsin teacher strikes in the early 1970's.

>>     While we are on the topic of government employees, I can only hope that you, as a taxpayer, are completely satisfied with the job performance of 99.94% of all Federal employees.  Why do I say that?  Because 0.06% of all Federal employees received a poor performance evaluation and were denied a step increase in pay according the most recent data from 2009.

Only 737 out of more than 1.2 million GS employees — or one in every 1,698 — were denied a regularly scheduled step increase and accompanying raise in 2009 because of poor performance...

That equates to a 0.06 percent denial rate, which is far lower than any estimates given of how many poor performers exist in the work force. OPM estimated in 1999 that poor performers make up approximately 3.7 percent of the federal work force. A 2000 survey by the Merit Systems Protection Board found that 14.3 percent of federal employees were judged by co-workers to be performing below reasonably expected levels.

"These step increases are tied to performance," Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said at a March 9 hearing on federal pay.

Well, I for one am glad to know that we have such high performing employees working for the Federal government.  Not sure how those $2 trillion errors keep happening with such good employees, but maybe that's caused by the elected and appointed leaders who can't seem to audit their own bookkeeping much less handle the Federal government's.

>>     A few quick hits on our efforts is Libya.  Here is the Senator Barack Obama in an interview with the Boston Globe during his run for the Presidency. 

In what circumstances, if any, would the president have constitutional authority to bomb Iran without seeking a use-of-force authorization from Congress? (Specifically, what about the strategic bombing of suspected nuclear sites -- a situation that does not involve stopping an IMMINENT threat?)

The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.

As Commander-in-Chief, the President does have a duty to protect and defend the United States. In instances of self-defense, the President would be within his constitutional authority to act before advising Congress or seeking its consent. History has shown us time and again, however, that military action is most successful when it is authorized and supported by the Legislative branch.

First, rather than berate the man, let me say that, flip-flop or not, I appreciate his position now more than before.  But his new stance does raise some questions.  John Hawkins writing at TownHall wants to know why the left's response to our intervention in Libya has been so wildly different than it was to Iraq.  Right now, we need to support our troops and the war effort, but there should be a discussion to follow afterwards about this.

Second, Marc Thiessen raises another important issue in his article at the Washington Post.  Marc writes,

The U.N. Security Council’s stated objective is “the immediate establishment of a cease-fire and a complete end to violence.” This is entirely incompatible with President Obama’s stated objective of getting Moammar Gaddafi “to step down from power and leave.” If the violence ends, Gaddafi will not leave. To the contrary, if military intervention succeeds in achieving the United Nations’ goal of forcing a cease-fire on the warring parties, it will lock in the status quo on the ground.

What does this mean?  If the United States of America wishes to remove Gaddafi by force with anything other than air power, we can't.  And if Gaddafi stops fighting, we're done.  In signing on to the resolution, we have signed away our choice in the matter - unless you believe President Obama will defy a UN resolution.  Perhaps even worse, it ties our hands in aiding the rebels.

Once a cease-fire is in place, the terms set by the Security Council will have been met, and military action by either side would violate international law. This means that if the rebels attempt to remove Gaddafi by force, they could be the ones violating the mandate of the United Nations. The U.N. resolution could end up protecting Gaddafi and guaranteeing the survival of his regime.

The resolution also reaffirms the U.N. arms embargo, which most of the world interprets as barring the transfer of arms to both government and rebel forces.

Whether it's a rookie mistake or part of the plan remains to be seen.

NUTS

>  Hugo Cavez is as big a nut as they make.  Here he is explaining what may have happened to life on Mars. [h/t HOTAIR]

"I have always said, heard, that it would not be strange that there had been civilization on Mars, but maybe capitalism arrived there, imperialism arrived and finished off the planet," Chavez said in speech to mark World Water Day.

"Careful! Here on planet Earth where hundreds of years ago or less there were great forests, now there are deserts. Where there were rivers, there are deserts," Chavez said, sipping from a glass of water.

For the record, here is the truth on our forest lands in America,

About 30 percent of the 2.3 billion acres of land area (745 million acres) in the U.S. is forest today as compared to about one-half in 1630 (1.0 billion acres). Some 300 million acres of forest land have been converted to other uses since 1630, predominantly because of agricultural uses in the East.

The forest resources of the U.S. have continued improving in general condition and quality, as measured by increased average size and volume of trees. This trend has been evident since the 1960s and before. The total forestland acreage has remained stable since 1900.

Two significant changes have helped stabilize our forestland.  One, Teddy Roosevelt began the modern Conservation movement and two, we moved away from using wood as an energy source.  What replaced it?  Coal and oil.  Who has a lot of oil?  Venezuela.  You'd think the President of Venezuela might know about this oil stuff...

>>  War by committee.  Apparently France believes the Libyan war should be fought under the direction of a steering committee.

France objected to NATO being in command of the war operations on a day-to-day basis and has now proposed a new "political steering committee," made up of foreign ministers from the United States, European, and Arab states, to oversee the war.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé announced on Tuesday that the British are in agreement with the proposal but the French government has not said anything about the position of the Obama administration.

If you've ever worked with a steering committee, God help you in getting anything accomplished quickly.  I can only hope that we are not on board with this idea.

>>  President Obama ran off to Brazil to create jobs back here at home.  Which makes this a little hard to swallow.  From Reuters, [h/t Gateway Pundit]

The United States seeks to be “a strategic energy partner” to Brazil, which recently discovered major new offshore oil reserves. Obama said the United States wants to be one of Brazil’s “best customers” when the oil starts flowing.

In addition, we will loan Brazil money to get the drilling started.  On a side note, thousands of American oil workers are still out of work waiting for the Obama administration to allow the Gulf rigs to operate. 

As Big Government put it, "To be fair, President Obama is in favor of drilling…but just not in the United States."  Sad, but true.

>>  Anthony Wiener, New York Representative, can often be seen on Fox, CNN, MSNBC yapping away like, well a little dog.  Here he is taking two sides on Obamacare in two different stories.  Here, he says,

"If lightning strikes, and it turns out that as many of us believe, the Supreme Court turns out to be a third political branch of government and they strike down the mandate -- big deal,"

"The solution, if the mandate is struck down, is not that the bill falls like the house of cards ... the solution is going to be offering something everyone agrees is constitutional and that's the public option in the exchange."

As he contemplates running for mayor of New York City, he has a different take,

"If you have better ideas that can accomplish the same thing, go for it,’” said Weiner. “I’m in the process now of trying to see if we can take [President Barack Obama] up on it in the city of New York, … and I’m taking a look at all of the money we spend in Medicaid and Medicare and maybe New York City can come up with a better plan."

Funny how these legislators do one thing in Congress, but it's suddenly all different out in the real world.  Let's not forget that the entire state of Maine has received a waiver from core provisions of Obamacare, so it should be a cinch to waiver NYC.

Mitt Romney has suggested giving a waiver to all 50 states.  Wouldn't it be easier to just repeal the stupid thing?

>>  NBC's Andrea Mitchell took up the task of defining the Obama Doctrine since the White House won't.  Here is Allahpundits view at Hotair.

it’s simple as can be. If (1) there’s a preventable humanitarian crisis looming and (2) the benefits of intervention outweigh the costs and (3) there’s international support for intervening, then “go for it.” Question: What if (1) and (2) are satisfied but not (3)? Just … let ‘em die, then?

This seems to leave a fairly large hole in the logic.  My local police department, sheriff's department and the Missouri State Highway Patrol may find working together on a big bust to be beneficial, but they don't need each other's approval to stop a crime in progress.  Neither should the United States of America.

Use the United Nations for whatever good we can, but we should never allow them to hold the leash on our military.

Well, that's my time.  You've been great.  I'll leave you with this last image of the new Wonder Woman for TV.  Please add your thoughts on the redesigned heroine's costume.

God Bless.

Dude, Where's My Recovery? - Part I

Dude, Where's My Recovery? - Part II

After committing our military to fight a (air only) war in Bosnia...no, uhm, Somalia....uh....Libya (sorry, I was looking through the Congressional minutes for the authorization to use force, but I can't seem to find it), President Obama went on a Job Creation Jaunt to South America, where he samba'd, kicked a few soccer balls and agreed to fund and purchase oil from Brazil's newly discovered off-shore oil fields (I could of swore he meant create domestic jobs, but I must have read that memo incorrectly).  Except for a few snapshots in Rio with the landmark Christ the Redeemer statue, not sure why he didn't just take a trip to Miami & New Orleans.

Here in North America, spring has begun.  With the arrival of the warm air and sun, the new housing numbers came in.  New home sales in February were the worst ever for a single month in the 48 years these numbers have been tracked.  I remember hearing alot about Recovery Spring, then Recovery Summer last year as Washington tried to inspire a recovery, all to no avail.  But I've heard nothing but crickets about a Recovery Spring this year. Seems no one in Washington wants to talk about the economy.  So you may ask, "Dude, where's my recovery?"

While we are no longer in recession, the economy can't regain lost ground without going into overdrive.  Simply resuming normal economic activity will not create jobs to replace those that were lost.   President Obama has made the claim over and over that he acted to stop the fall, but stopping a falling economy is only half the battle.

Time to Ground AIRCLAIRE

Once upon a time Claire McCaskill was the State Auditor for Missouri.  Then she became a U.S. Senator.  Now she has decided to write campaign ads for the GOP candidates who will run against her next year.

Claire and her husband own a plane.  They formed a company for this plane.  Then Claire paid tax dollars to this company for her use of her own plane to fly back and forth to Missouri.  This would be like you or I using our own vehicle on company business, but billing the company the going rate of a car rental.  Federal law provides an allowable use rate for personal vehicles, but doesn't specify a policy for use of personal aircraft.  It's hard to believe that the $76,000 Claire has charged taxpayers since 2007 would be an acceptable allowance if such a policy existed.

 

Since being "caught", AirClaire has agreed to reimburse the U.S. Taxpayers in the amount of $88,000 although she claims the charges were legal.  She's right - they were technically legal.  But it's very hard to claim they were ethical.

McCaskill spokesman, Maria Speiser said, "Sen. McCaskill has been very careful flying on taxpayer dollars."  Apparently not careful enough seeing that she has now been caught.

Ruminations From the Void

Double standards - noun - any code or set of principles containing different provisions for one group of people than for another...

Hypocrisy - noun - the practice of professing standards, beliefs, etc, contrary to one's real character or actual behaviour

Double standards exist when two groups are held to differing standards due to an inherent difference between the groups.  People often have different standards for men and women given the many differences between the groups.  It is somewhat less acceptable to regard groups of different ethnic or religious cultures differently, but it happens.  With the exception of a few fringe groups, the standards for humans and animals are wisely very different.

Hypocrisy on the other hand is when a person exhibits a standard for others and refuses to hold themselves to that same standard.

A double standard says "some for this one, but not for that one" and hypocrisy says "some for me, but none for thee".  Got it?  Of course there is always a situation where one simply has no guiding principles and improvises standards all willy-nilly. 

Beyond that, some use an immutable guiding principle for their words and actions.  See if you can spot which approach is being used in each story of today's Ruminations.  Don't be afraid to call me out too.

#1 - Here is President Obama in remarks made Friday, March 18th 2011,

Now, here's why this matters to us. Left unchecked, we have every reason to believe that Qadhafi would commit atrocities against his people. Many thousands could die. A humanitarian crisis would ensue.  The entire region could be destabilized, endangering many of our allies and partners.  The calls of the Libyan people for help would go unanswered. The democratic values that we stand for would be overrun.  Moreover, the words of the international community would be rendered hollow.

And that's why the United States has worked with our allies and partners to shape a strong international response at he United Nations. Our focus has been clear: protecting innocent civilians within Libya and holding the Qadhafi regime accountable.

Our decisions have been driven by Qadhafi's refusal to respect the rights of his people and the potential for mass murder of innocent civilians.

In 2007, an interview with Senator Obama began with this lede,

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday the United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn't a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there.