Our new leader, the vaulted “Messiah” as he is spoken of by the hard right…I will just call him Obama.  Well, Obama has named his Treasury Security choice.  Mr. Geithner has a long history of service to this country as well as private financial corporations.  He has spent his time digging in the ditch that is our monetary policy.  It is probably safe to say, on resume’ alone, that he knows how to dig a ditch.  Not only how to dig our ditch, but he has international experience as well, so he’s pretty damn familiar with the other guy’s ditch too.

Now, can someone out in their in the big ol’ Internet cloud tell me how a man, namely Obama can tap this guy, and this guy.  How can you pick such a great ditch digger for the Treasury, but such a unqualified pick for the CIA?

I just don’t get it ladies and gentlemen I just don’t.  Reminds me of my thirteen year old.  One moment seeming so confident, so sure, so grown up…making such a great decision and executing, and the next thing…he is crying cause his Pokemon got hosed.  I just can’t understand the inconsistencies.

Now, the next comment is smaller:  So the guy wasn’t on top of paying taxes a few years ago.  Big deal.  If he hasn’t taken care of that I am sure he will.  I think the fact that has the experience necessary can be enough to say, pay the taxes dude.  By the way, it’s not really illegal to pay them late, as long as you pay them.  I would rather a Treasury Secretary with his credentials owing some chump change of taxes than a guy who has never served in the Intelligence community leading that field.

cl

Edit #1: Just wanted to add that there is a serious fire about this boy not paying his taxes on time and some clerical error with a nanny.  I can’t believe I am going to say this out loud (or more specifically type it in the open), but can we be honest here.  We are talking about not filing taxes right for a few years.  I am guilty of it, so are a lot of people.  it happens.  Should a guy that ran the NY Fed be given some slack for a normal American thing…tax trouble?  I don’t know, but does it deserve the feeding frenzy of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and probably Sean Hannity (he has come on the radio yet)?  I don’t think so.  Is it a deal killer for a nomination to a Secretary post?  I don’t think so.  No conviction is associated with the tax problems that I know.  People do let things slip.  Things do fall through the cracks.  We aren’t talking about bribes here.  Or “pay to play” politics.  We are talking about “delayed” payment of taxes.  Can we please put that in perspective.

Edit #2: The talking heads say that the new ditch digger “intentionally didn’t pay FICA taxes (read Social Security) taxes for three years.  That he was self employed and he didn’t pay them.  Now, I guess I should eat a tad bit of crow.  If it can be proven that he did it “intentionally” and was trying to avoid paying approximately $10k a year, that would show some issues.  But, I still think that if there is no criminal case against him it is all for naught.  I am not a fan of taxes and I have screwed up paying them for years.  I pay late fees + penalties for that.  I don’t consider myself a criminal.  It’s not like I have been bribed…I just screwed up and didn’t pay my taxes on time.  They got paid.  I paid a “monetary” penalty for a “monetary” screw up.  At any rate, on paper it looks like the guy is good for the job.  Distractions aside, my point still stands…Obama is inconsistent…picking one guy with a good resume for one gig and the other guy with experience for the job he’s being tapped for.

FDR - “But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.”

The interesting thing here is that we have yet another “War on ____________”.  We have too many of these.  And here we go again, well, literally again.  I have thought for sometime now that the Obama Administration was going to be FDR version 2.0, and things like this really bring it out.

We are fighting a war on this economy and we have found and fixed our enemy, as FDR did and as Karl Marx instructs.  We have found our enemy, but unlike what Pogo says, it is not us.  Well, unless you are an  American Businessman.

We are not fighting the right enemy, which is not uncommon.  I am not an economist, but the enemy is exactly as Pogo stated, it is us.  We are greedy selfish creatures.  And we have passed laws that force us to feed that selfishness.  We borrow too much.  Spend too much.  Have to little in reserve.  We have caused our current economic struggles, no one else, no single man.  And our new “War on the Economy” is not going to fix it.  You can not attack those that create wealth in this country.  You can not go to war with the very people you need to help you win.  Not that you can actually win this new war by the way.  There will not be victory.  Economies can not be conquered.  They are living, breathing, flowing entities of their own.

I will say this, we have a habit of using the wrong strategies in our “wars”.  This one is really no different.  Attacking business, telling people how much money that they can make, telling them who to do business with and taxing them to the point where they can not make profit…not a good idea.  It didn’t work for FDR, and it won’t work well for FDR version 2.0.  You can not attack the very people create the jobs that the rest of us depend upon to pay the light bill.  They will let you when you War…they will take their money, their investments, and their businesses some where else.  They will continue to not hire new employees and will continue to hold on to their money.  You will win, but you will do so by ensuring that there is no longer an economy to fight over.

cl

Yeah, fancy that, having experience.  Seems to be the bane of everyone in this country (the USA for the international readers).  Every kid grows up fighting the experience demon.  They are told they can’t get X job because they don’t have Y experience.  We spend tens of thousands of dollars on higher education to get some vestige of experience, so they can have at least 1/3 of the Y experience necessary to sit for the interview.

But lately I have noticed that it only seems to matter for everyone but those in government.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t particularly think that there is anything “legally” wrong with a man who has never dug a ditch, giving it a good ol’ American try, but…seriously?  Honestly?  Can anyone in this country with a single brain cell still functioning honestly say that appointing a man who has never done a single bit of “Intelligence” work in their life as the Director of the CIA is a good thing?

I know, the world hates Pres. Bush.  I get it.  We elected a man to the White House simply because he wasn’t Bush.  I get it.  I am a big boy, but please, someone explain to me the logic in this.  And good luck, because there isn’t any.  To be honest in my opinion (regardless of what I think of the new President Elect) this is already a case of dereliction of duty.  This President is already making my family and my country less secure.

The bottom line is that we are in the position we are in the world because we cut the Intel budgets, and lowered the abilities of the CIA and other agencies throughout the 90’s.  Let us compound these errors of judgment (not laying blame by the way) by putting the whole kit and caboodle under the command of a man who has ZERO experience in the field of intelligence.  Thanks Mr. President Elect.  Thanks man.  You’re two little girls (precious as they can be of course) are going to be spending their time behind the walls of a secure private school and a wall of Secret Service agents at home.  Mine, not so much.  My kids will be in little ol’ America small town.  I think my kids deserve the best man for this job.  You have already failed me, my kids, and your Country.  Can’t wait for the next decision you make in my best interest.

Thank you Mr. President Elect for hiring the best ditch digger you can find.

cl

In it, Gen. McCaffrey discusses the current geo-political situation within the borders of our neighbor.  He primarily highlights the rise of narco-terrorism (read drug cartels) within the country and their growing control of the country.

I highly suggest that all Americans read this.  Gen. McCaffrey, is a stand up guy.  Yes, a retired Soldier and General who commanded the 24th Inf. Div. (mech) during Dessert Storm, but he also did a tour as the “Drug Czar” under the Clinton Administration…and yes the success of this nation’s “Drug War” and the term “Czar” can be debated, but the fact is this man has served this nation honorably both at war and at peace and he has first hand knowledge of this subject.  His views should be given weight and should be read and understood and added to the national debate of this nation.

We have spent a lot of time in this country looking at the wrong issues.  Illegal immigration and the economics of illegal labor and the socio-economics of taking care of people in a semi-welfare state who shouldn’t be here.

But I think it is clear that the problem has moved beyond illegal immigration and labor.  It is beyond La Raza movement or separatist who believe that they didn’t cross the border, but the border crossed them (silly, but good line by the way).

No, things are beyond that. Things are to a point where drug cartels which represent stateless, 4th generation entities with their own agendas, have moved to control our border, our inner cities, and as much of the Mexican government (read law enforcement and military) as they can in order to ensure their product moves from production to customer.

Solutions?  Oh, they are simple, and sadly as I tried (poorly I believe) to articulate in a previous post, everything to us is a crime.  Yet we use the term “War” in the title, we are not at war with drugs or terrorist, because we feel those to be law enforcement issues.  Not war.  War is a totally different beast.  In fact, our wars are not really wars anymore.

The solution to the growing control and influence of the drug cartels, “organized crime”, and gangs within Mexico, on the border, or in our cities is…well a real war.  It is time to treat them as the stateless enemy combatants that they are.  They only lack uniforms and charter from the UN, in all other respects they have laws, land, economies, and population.  They own entire cities in Mexico.  They own large areas of land on our border.  And they own city blocks with in our own borders.  They invade others for their territory and for economic and paramilitary control.  In all accounts they are not just crime families, cartels, or gangs, they are governments making treaties, alliances, and going to war with us and their other enemies.  It is time we go to war with them.  Real war.  Total war.

By that I mean EXACTLY what I say.  No courts.  No police.  No trials.  No warrants.  No tickets.  They have absolved themselves of their citizenship as either Mexicans or Americans.  They no longer carry that within them, because if they did they would not have had pledged allegiance to their cartel, “family” or gang.  They put that organization above this country or their own communities.  Or in almost all respects their real families.

No, it is time to remove them.  ICE and the Border Patrol should be removed from their post on the Mexican-American border and USNORTHCOM (United States Northern Command) should be given command of that AO (area of operation).  They should deploy a combat joint task force to that border and they should be authorized to shoot and destroy any thing and everyone crossing that border not at a legal check point with documentation authorizing said crossing.

And we should hunt down and destroy every gang, cartel, and “organized crime” member within our borders.  We have the best trained special forces operatives in the world.  We have the best trained snipers in the world.  No warrants from American courts that are more concerned with calling every action criminal behavior or from Mexican courts that have been bought and paid for or threatened (and yes, we have bought and paid for judges and law enforcement here too).

It is just beyond ridiculous that we allow the groups to control our border and our inner cities and turn a complete blind eye to it’s real purpose but we never miss an opportunity to shut down any other separatist organizations who actually “own” their own land and are not a threat to their communities (only the government) such as The Freeman Standoff, Ruby Ridge, or Waco.

I bring those incidents up, not to glorify them nor defend them, but to illustrate that when rural people in this country break the “law” and turn separatist (read put their views and laws ahead of this nations) we go in guns blazing and treat them like rebels and lay siege to their private property to return them to the fold and crush their movement.  However, by comparison, no logical American could ever say that Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) could not be viewed as a separatist organization who feels that the goals (read control and economic fortune) and laws of MS-13 supersede that of the United States.  Yet, we have not besieged them.  We have not treated them like the invaders that they are.  They are insurgents in the purist sense of the term.

I realize this is a long post.  I realize that I have a harsh view of this.  But if Gen. McCaffrey is right within the coming decade we stand a good chance of having a failed Mexican state on our border, one taken over by a paramilitary force which has already infiltrated our country and is using our own laws against us.  Our focus will have to be on our border and our own immediate national security and not on the world around us.

It is time to let loose the dogs of war.  They are trained.  They are hungry.  And they have spent the last six years doing this very work in Iraq.  We must ask our selves if our nation is worth as much American blood as Iraq or Afghanistan.  If our border should be secured as we have struggled to secure other borders.  And if our cities deserve to be liberated from the control of thugs, insurgents, and anti-government groups who terrorize our people, choke our commerce, and destroy the dreams and the rights of our communities for their goals and desires for profit and control of territory within and on our borders.

cl

Hope everyone has a good, safe, and a happy New Years.

cl

Now, that being said, I have no other option but to conclude that we have now become so enamored by our laws in this country that everyone and everything is a criminal.  We can not say that we are at War with a stateless entity bent on power and control (not religion as we are led to believe) are attacking our soft targets and bogging us down in their own back yards.  No, we have to call them Terrorist, and give them trials like they robbed someone on the street in downtown New York.  Not what they really do, attack Americans in the effort to kill and control.  Like enemy combatants.

We also have gotten ourselves into the act of taking our hammers to our own Warriors (Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, and Sailors).  This is of course not the first incident of such things, the Haditha incident comes to mind as well.  Then there is the latest Blackwater “crimes“, which is being propagated assuming that individuals contracted by the State Department are some how culpable under a recent law applicable only to those under contract with the Department of Defense.

This concept of criminalizing everything has even assaulted our national sovereignty, where we turn our own laws against those protecting our borders instead of letting them defend out country.

Those are but a few examples, there are many, many more.  There are a time for laws, and a time to understand what side of the law those defending us, either by oath or by contract, need to be on.  If we continue this absurdity, we will slide desperately to a point where we have removed our ability to defend ourselves.

Laws are great, criminals are a fact of life (man being man and all), but the very nature of crime shows that the criminal already has a disdain for the law.  He is not following it.  There is a place for law and a place for that above law.  The rule of law is the bases of our government.  And I fully support that.  But we have gotten dangerously close to calling all things crime in a attempt to further the rule of law.

There is a place for law.  But we have allowed it to over reach.  We do not enforce the ones we have, yet we believe that more will make the law breakers that much more law abiding.

In closing, War has very little room for law.  And we currently face an enemy who does not believe laws apply at all to war.  And sadly I do not believe they have much of a place either.  I believe that the rule of law should not be applied to a combatant.  He is at war with us.  He does not have the rights of a citizen of this great land.  He should never be given those rights.  I believe that any individual, armed or not, actively at war with this nation gets two choices, stop, or die.  I also believe that anyone armed or unarmed, walking across our border is attacking this country.  I don’t care if he needs a job, a better life, to make money importing illegal substances or people, I don’t care.  He is assaulting this country.  He is an enemy combatant and should also be given two choices, turn around or die.

Harsh I know, but this country is under attacking, both overtly and covertly.  And those attacks are not crimes.  Robbing someone in LA is a crime.  Shooting at cars on the highway in Dallas is a crime.  Beating your kids or keeping them in a cage is a crime.  Flying a jet into a building is not a crime, but an act of war.  Shooting at American Jets is not a crime, but an act of war.  Setting an IED and ambushing an American convoy is not a crime, but an act of war.  And invading this country is not a crime, but an act of war.

And the fact we have turned our defenders and the invaders or enemy combatants into criminals is in itself…well, criminal.

cl

This is not a new revelation for me.  I have read it in some do-it-yourself books on Buddhism, which I might add is pretty much Buddhism in my view, the do-it-yourself 12 step program to not caring about anything around you.  And no, please, no attacks from the Buddhist, which I doubt a true Buddhist would attack me, since they don’t care.

Sorry, back on topic now.  At the heart of American political ideology is this question:  Is man good, or bad.  So far I think that it is safe to say that any ideology, or political platform, predicated on the theory that man is inherently good is a false philosophy.

Man is not good.  He is selfish.  He is cruel.  He is violent.  He is uncaring of those around him.  It is his nature to consume resources out of balance with any concern for anything but His needs.  He does not care about others.  Man is born this way.  And no amount of parenting, social reform, religious formation will change that completely.

I say all of this to say simply that to deny man’s nature and to write laws and spend government resources under the false premise that man’s behavior should not be understood is just wrong.  TBF wrong.  (email me for what TBF stands for…).

I feel that liberals (little L), democrats, and their brothers “The Socialist” feel that man can be trained.  That with help, reform, school, welfare, a job, and any number of good programs, man will be something different.  And that we should cast out his behavior as an abomination…as the zennith of abnormal constructions.  And that we should fail, no…not just fail, but turn our backs on understanding that.  There is nothing to “understand” concerning The NAZI Party and Hitler extermination 6 million Jews.  There is no sense in that behavior and that we should just walk away from it, it makes no sense and thus there is nothing to understand.

There is nothing to understand with gang warfare, or any other behavior.  Because it is all explainable.  Poverty, racial tensions, etc.  All things that can be “fixed”.

I know, this makes no sense.  This post is off the rails, off the reservation.  It lacks coherence.  There is no value to it academically.  Sure.  But the rant not-withstanding, I think the point is clear.  Man is just man.  He does what he wants.  He justifies his actions, his behavior.  And all of us are men.  We, as men, are selfish.  Violent.  Cruel.  Mean.  Envious.  We will take what we want.  It is naught but fear and a life time of social indoctrination that keeps the demons at bay for most of us.  But, you can’t stamp it out completely.  You can’t remove it.  We are what we are.

Now, as a people we can chose to recognize that and give freedoms where we can, write laws to protect the freedoms of others, enforce those laws and remove those from our group when the violate them…or we can tell ourselves that there is nothing to understand in human nature and that we are all good and we can all get along.  And when we are done, we will still be faced with the same things we are doing now…selfish, violent, uncaring humans.

Maybe in future I will do a better job of exploring this topic…maybe some research.  Some links and resources available.  Maybe something.  So, let’s call this a note…yeah, a note of something work on in the future.  In the mean time I will leave you with this, an example of man…being, well, man.

Walding, of Groesbeck, Tex., recalled: ‘I literally grabbed my boot and put it in my crotch, then got the boot laces and tied it to my thigh, so it would not flop around. There was about two inches of meat holding my leg on.’ He put on a tourniquet, watching the blood flow out the stump to see when it was tight enough.”

All I can say to that, based purely on my own observations and those of others, that type of heart and hard core professionalism is what seperates the US Military from any other fighting force on this planet, past or present.  It is just astounding how blessed we are to have men like this serving our nation.  Just astounding.

Go read the entire account of ODA 3336 (Operational Detachment Alpha), of the 3rd Special Forces Group, US Army.

cl

No, I am not gonna get any dividends or anything, and yes, most of my friends can give me the money back in a few years.  Oh, and just to be fair and open and honest, I am gonna have to make quite a few of my friends take the money.  Seems that they are not as bad off as I want to make them sound and they don’t really need it.

But that’s not really the problem I need advice about.  See, that’s all over and done with…all the decisions have been made and I WILL go into massive amounts of debt to force money into my friends, take control of some of my friends affairs, and genearlly just blow money cause I can…almost like I am “printing” it my self in the basement.

No, what I really need advice on is that I am thinking about taking the next six months off.  Yeah, I know, it’s been a rough year and I really need a vacation so I am seriously thinking about just taking the next six months off.  And no, I won’t be getting paid.  That is the fun part.  See, normally I make about $50,000 a year give or take a thousand here or there, but I don’t think I want to take any money in to the old Household for the next six months.  And no, I don’t really have any money in savings, in the spirit of honesty (once again) I don’t have any money in the bank.  See, for the last 40 years I have been running a deficit…see…I spend more than I take in on all kinds of things year after year after year.  So I really don’t have any money, and I already owe like $400,000 for various things over the years.

So, do you think I should take the next six months off….?  I mean, what do you REALLY think?

…

…

Okay, I lied.  None of that is true…about me, but since you are probably smart, thinking, and logical, you realize I am not talking about me…I am talking about our own country.

It appears that while being knee deep in all of our other problems, that Congressman Louie Gohmert from Texas thinks that we should take the unspent $350B (billion) from the $700B (um…$850B after pork), and give every American, um, everyone that pays income tax or social security tax a tax holiday.

I know, I know, I hear you, that sounds awesome.  Lord knows I pay a good bit of taxes, they usually give me a little back cause I over pay, but at the same time taxes are one of the primary ways we bring money into the government.  I know they are bad, but we need them to pay for things that people REALLY need.  They are not the evil bad thing that people make them out to be. But I digress.

Let’s do some quick math:

Current National Debt : $10.6T (trillion)

Estimate Debt Increase from bailouts: $7T

Annual Tax Collection: $2T

Estimated deficit for 2009: $500B

That puts us in the hole for $17.6 trillion dollars.  We only take in about $2T and we habitually spend $500B more each year and that number grows.

So in a nut shell, if we use $350 billion that we are BORROWING to provide a tax holiday, that means that for about two months we will recieve no funds.  Now I do not REALLY expect that money to be spent on next years budget, instead we will spend it on something else, but what is likely is that we will not collect $350B and spend the $350B we borrowed and have a net loss of $700B.

I really hope one day we wake up and stop this nonsense.  Because apparently the idea of “not borrowing the $350B” never crossed anyone’s mind…

You could never survive life if this was how you managed your money.  Borrowing every year, spending more than you take in, making ridiculous promises like welfare and social security, spending money you don’t have to buy shares of business you can’t possibly get a return from, and then taking months off from work…yeah, you’d never make it if you ran your house like this.

And in fact, there is a lot of evidence to show that this the real problem with America, both at the personal level and the business level.  Maybe if people didn’t borrow money they couldn’t afford and buy houses with it…they wouldn’t have lost the house.  Maybe if the American auto industry didn’t make bad deals with Unions and spend more than they made they wouldn’t be bouncing on bankruptcy…

…now let’s all put our thinking caps on and try to contemplate what happens to countries that fail while they are so busy trying to keep people and businesses from failing…cause someone, sooner or later, always pays the piper.  Always.

cl

The Constitution is not a suicide pact.

Of course they were dicussing the real causes of the US Civil War.  I was only partially listening so I can’t comment on it too much, but the quote was very interesting and makes the brain think.

cl