tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13150396425155403472024-03-05T04:48:20.679-08:00Thoughts for ThinkersWe can think, or we can join the ranks of those who just don't care. Statistically, in the US, 83% of people don't vote. Don't be one of them.James Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12326304280459250698noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1315039642515540347.post-24867583881615906052011-05-16T12:40:00.001-07:002011-05-19T07:09:54.354-07:00Bartlett FinancialI went there for a Mutual Fund. Instead they sold (dumb ol') me a scam.<br /><br />Bartlett Financial Lexington SC<br /><br />Multi Level Marketing is sold here called UFirst. Do your research carefully and DO NOT INVEST. Please learn from my and other mistakes. I was advised to buy into a multilevel marketing scheme for $3500. How is it good advice to buy into the Bartlett multilevel 'downstream' on a credit card for $3500, in order to get out of debt? The $3500 still sits on my credit card, and makes me ANGRY everyday at these guys. They use God and military service to sell a shameful and selfish product. Shameful. You can learn more about how to avoid UFIRST at: http://www.sequenceinc.com/fraudfiles/2010/07/09/ufirst-financial-this-is-what-a-collapsing-pyramid-looks-like/ http://www.canadian-money-advisor.ca/threadview/1238.html http://www.sequenceinc.com/fraudfiles/2010/07/20/ufirst-financial-software-users-jumping-ship/James Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12326304280459250698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1315039642515540347.post-53190358107460540642010-12-22T20:55:00.000-08:002010-12-22T20:59:38.295-08:00The FIRST Thoughts for Thinkers Radio hour long show<div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; ">Finally, the first show is here!</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; "><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><br /><br /><object width="466" height="105"><br /><param name="movie" value="http://tindeck.com/player/v1/player.swf?trackid=zziq"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><br /><embed src="http://tindeck.com/player/v1/player.swf?trackid=zziq" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="466" height="105"></embed><br /></object><br /> <br /><br /><a href="http://tindeck.com/listen/zziq">Click here to listen to <b>201012 TFTR First Show.wav</b></a><br /><br /><a href="http://tindeck.com/listen/zziq"><img src="http://tindeck.com/image/zziq/stats.png"border=0></a>James Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12326304280459250698noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1315039642515540347.post-62615354941301509752010-12-22T20:10:00.000-08:002010-12-22T20:16:58.183-08:00Thoughts For Thinkers Radio<div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; ">So here is our first <a href="http://tindeck.com/listen/iuhl">Thoughts for Thinkers Radio Podcast</a>, let me know what you think!</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >You can just listen, you can download the file etc.</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Please link to our blog, share the file with friends, post it, whatever!</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><br /><br /><object width="466" height="105"><br /><param name="movie" value="http://tindeck.com/player/v1/player.swf?trackid=iuhl"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><br /><embed src="http://tindeck.com/player/v1/player.swf?trackid=iuhl" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="466" height="105"></embed><br /></object><br /> <br /><br /><a href="http://tindeck.com/listen/iuhl"><img src="http://tindeck.com/image/iuhl/stats.png"border=0></a>James Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12326304280459250698noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1315039642515540347.post-71578190524551792812010-12-09T10:22:00.001-08:002010-12-11T17:53:20.935-08:00Thoughts For Thinkers Radio<div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Exciting news folks! Thoughts for Thinkers Radio is coming! We are doing a podcast version that will be available for listening and downloading. This weekly show will cover the political stories of the week, and welcomes your calls and emails</span><span class="Apple-style-span">. </span></b></span></span></div>James Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12326304280459250698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1315039642515540347.post-58168833699953148362009-08-01T10:52:00.000-07:002010-08-17T16:14:51.385-07:00Just Letting you Know....<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzQuc8FwgwrYo1ZTFT_nihOIHVLPiL5rauNXZ7m33niwbeI6SZv1MfCKwEl63ExMMEc9Cu3lF46U5TEzMRZWLzaNrl3wcQIqlO3962ge1tpY078GRDzr6hKAorkEqdWiUi8eYRXyzST90/s1600/CHRISTIAN+MOTORCYCLE+CLUB.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 398px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzQuc8FwgwrYo1ZTFT_nihOIHVLPiL5rauNXZ7m33niwbeI6SZv1MfCKwEl63ExMMEc9Cu3lF46U5TEzMRZWLzaNrl3wcQIqlO3962ge1tpY078GRDzr6hKAorkEqdWiUi8eYRXyzST90/s400/CHRISTIAN+MOTORCYCLE+CLUB.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506521211308962626" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">....About my new blog. One of the reasons i havent written in so long is because i bought another motorcycle, finally, and I've been riding it.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Please stop by my other blog if you have time...</span><a href="http://disciplemc.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">DISCIPLE M</span>C</a></div><div><br /></div><div>DID I SAY CHRISTIAN MOTORCYCLE CLUB? MOTORCYCLE CLUB?</div><div>DISCIPLE CMC</div><div><br /></div>James Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12326304280459250698noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1315039642515540347.post-3370058913524502882009-06-08T20:36:00.000-07:002009-06-08T20:38:07.282-07:00<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Im not really going to say anything about this one, just watch the video...</span></span></b><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU</span></span></a></div>James Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12326304280459250698noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1315039642515540347.post-41027560489135857652009-06-04T17:36:00.000-07:002009-06-04T17:40:44.955-07:00Why I Don't Want a Government Car<div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In case you haven't been watching, the Obama administration has taken over GM and Chrysler with the helpful thought that these two companies should make "Greener" cars. Cars that get 39 miles a gallon, and trucks that get 30 miles a gallon. This development of technology, while quite useful, will be quite expensive for the automotive industry and you. Average of about $1100 per car more. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"> But you have the money for that right?</span><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">This plan is a quiet way to make sure that American auto companies make smaller cars. Increasing the proportion of small cars that they make is the only way that the automotive companies can hit the targets. This is why the administration is forcing Chrysler to be sold into the hands of Fiat, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">abrogating hundreds of years of standing bankruptcy law,</span> and flaunting it in the face of investors who had loaned Chrysler money against the assets that Chrysler had put up as collateral. Wouldn't it be nice if you, dear reader, could simply <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">decide that you don't want to pay your car payment anymore, but you want to keep your car.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The administration has made clear that they intend to force Americans to buy these wonderful "Greener" cars, by adding tax incentives, and subsidizing GM and Chrysler with giant amounts of your money. The administration has to use tons of your money to do this for one simple fact: Americans don't want to drive little cars. Let's review:</span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Pimps want to drive Escalade's, not escorts.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Soccer moms want to drive SUVs and minivans, not Malibu's.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Businessmen want to drive Lincoln town cars and Chrysler 300's, not Festiva's.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Families want four-door pickup trucks and station wagons, not too seated electric cars.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Let's be honest, the car is the status symbol for many people. It's a practical tool. You can't fit daddy, mommy, the two kids and a dog into a mini car. Well you can, but no one wants to, and that's the point.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Even though he was in the Senate, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Obama wasn't paying attention, </span>he was busy campaigning for president for his two years in the Senate. So he's apparently unaware that <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Congress has been forcing</span> United States automakers to make smaller more fuel-efficient cars at a loss for several years. Aware that Americans love big trucks and SUVs, Congress has put giant 25% tariffs on imported pickup trucks and SUVs, so the US auto companies can fight off competition, and make a profit on them.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">So read this, Mr. President: I don't want a mini car. </span> I'm a 6 foot four 285 pound wall, and I have a hard time getting out of a car like that. I don't want them, and neither does the rest of America, that's why we haven't been buying them. And if we do buy them we don't buy the American ones because they're poorly made. Instead of hassling the auto industry about higher fuel mileage, how about <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">cutting the ridiculous wages they have to pay</span>, that are way out of line with the rest of industry. How about doing all the things that a competent CEO would do to make a company work, lower costs and make a better product. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Seriously dude, you don't know anything about running an automotive company</span>, you have no real world experience, youve always been a politician. Your a slick politician and that's great. But don't pretend you know what you're doing when it comes to running a company, y<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">ou have no experience at that, and neither does the team that you've chosen to run the automotive industry.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Obama forcing these higher fuel mileage standards on the automotive industry now is akin to kicking somebody while they're down.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"> But after all, that's the time to kick them, when they can't defend themselves.</span></span></span></div>James Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12326304280459250698noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1315039642515540347.post-10050409992690355872009-06-04T17:13:00.000-07:002009-06-04T17:17:19.233-07:00Sunshine Center for Implementers of Man Caused Disasters<div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In desperation to distance themselves from the "Failed Bush Policies" (many of which they still follow), our new administration has done <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">some pretty silly new stuff</span> that you need to know about. And, as per usual, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">it's more about style than substance. </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Regarding the substance bit, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">our new administration intends to follow all the Bush policies</span> in regards to the prosecution of the war on terror. For instance <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">President Obama still has the same rights to water-board detainees</span>, and use other enhanced interrogation techniques, "at the discretion of the President". Despite all the things that he says about it being torture, he can still authorize these techniques in the same manner that Bush could. He intends to continue to detain the terrorists who are housed at Guantánamo Bay, he just wants to find somewhere else to put them. He intends to continue using military tribunals, while making a big deal of the slight changes he is making to the tribunals. He intends to continue prosecuting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, just the same way, or actually even more vigorously since we intend to commit more troops.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">But, it is in the style department that our dear new beloved president intends to distinguish himself.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Consider if you will the fact that the administration will no longer be referring to "The War on Terror". Instead, those brave soldiers who are defending us from multiple attacks are involved in what the administration has turned as "Overseas Contingency Operations". Because, after all, we're not at war... or something.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Equally important is the fact that the administration will no longer refer to "Terrorism", but rather "Man Caused Disasters". And no longer shall the United States administration refer to the folks who blow stuff up in order to kill civilians as "Terrorists". These folks shall now be known, by decree of the president, as "Implementers of Man Caused Disasters"</span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Folks, I wish I was making this stuff up. But as usual, reality is stranger than fiction.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">And now, I'm going to get silly. If it is the desire of the Obama administration to cool the rhetoric around global extremism, there can be no doubt that they are succeeding. The Taliban has announced through its spokesman that it will no longer refer to the chopping off the heads of Americans captured overseas as "Beheading". Wanting to be part of the cooler heads that are prevailing, and more in line with the zeitgeist promoted by the Obama administration, "Beheading" will now be called "Redevelopment". And no longer shall they refer to the act where they beat a teenage girl mercilesslyfor the simple crime of appearing without a head scarf , while holding her down as she screams, as "Flogging". Instead this inhumane treatment shall be termed "Juvenile Assistance". And of course the Guantánamo Bay detention camp will be shut down, at the order of Obama. It will be reopened the next day as "The Sunshine Center for Implementers of Man Caused Disasters". </span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">What a lot of foolishness. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"> Obama must learn that semantics are not the point. </span> The point is that we have folks who want to kill Americans, and that means we are at war with them. That is by definition the term used when we send tens and hundreds of thousands of American soldiers to go stop evil. Leadership is not about words or smoke and mirrors. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">It's about creating positive change.</span> And that's what we're waiting for.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">I would like to give credit to the unnamed folks whose writing I had </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">plagiarized and regurgitated to write this article. I promise if I knew</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"> who you were I would give you credit. Please feel free to write in, </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">and I will do so</span>.</span></span></div>James Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12326304280459250698noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1315039642515540347.post-58518681906684373082009-06-04T16:37:00.000-07:002009-06-04T16:46:45.882-07:00The Age of the Induced Industrial Coma<div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Dear reader: in today's Wall Street Journal was an article I felt needed to be shared with you. I hope they don't sue me for posting this entire article. However for those of you who are not reading the Wall Street Journal on a regular basis (you should), I wanted you to have an opportunity to hear this interesting commentary. The original text of the article can be found at <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124407155034283023.htm">here</a>.<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> Obama's America: Too Fat to Fail</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">The a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">ge of the induced industrial coma.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> Studebaker, Nash-Kelvinator, Packard, Hudson, Stutz, Pierce-Arrow, Stanley, Checker and American Motors were once household names of the U.S. auto industry. Unlike General Motors in our time, they were not too big to fail.</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Despite mergers and rescue efforts by their owners, each was shut down.</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Their legacy lives on as classic cars, restored with erotic affection by collectors.</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">GM's end is different. In the spirit of the new age, General Motors, like Citigroup and AIG, will be kept alive in an industrial coma. One has to ask:</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Is this where the entire country is headed? Since January, it looks like it is.</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">After GM's bondholders last weekend refused to answer the bell for another round with Uncle Sam, the White House put out a statement: "As a result, the President has deemed GM's plan viable and will be making available about $30 billion of additional federal assistance to support GM's restructuring plan."</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Read that sentence again, slowly. It holds what look like the keywords of the American future: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">the president, deems, viable, making available, federal assistance, support, restructuring plan.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Last week's column in this space, "Obama vs. the Beach Boys," drew some responses from readers who thought its tone too nostalgic for a lost era of fast but inefficient cars with low mileage and high maintenance. Recognize and embrace the future, they said, which includes high-tech bikes and high-tech cars.</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">"Just pick up a copy of magazines like Euro Tuner or Import Tuner," said Thomas Alves, "and you will see many ads and articles about adding turbochargers, reprogramming engine management computers and the like to four cylinder engines. . . . California and Washington will try to kill and regulate, but the constant desire for innovation is still strong in this country, and there are more of us than there are of them."</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Mr. Alves is right that the instinct to innovate lives on in America. The question is whether the innovators going forward will have an economy and system that gives them room to breathe, or whether the government's rescue of Old GM is the new paradigm.</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">So far Mr. Obama has used his personally exciting presidency for initiatives that are spending public money on a scale not seen since ancient Egypt.</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Besides Obama Motors ($60 billion to $100 billion), there is Obama-Care for health insurance ($1.2 trillion over 10 years), the stimulus ($800 billion), a global-warming offensive called cap and trade that hopes to siphon hundreds of billions of dollars from the economy, and a fiscal year 2010 budget of $3.59 trillion. Out of these mists of federal "investment" they promise five million "green collar jobs." Only public-sector lifers could believe, or assert, anything so fantastic.</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Then there is the never-ending march of the financial-rescue armies -- TARP, TALF, PIPP, EESA. The Federal Reserve's balance sheet stands at some $2 trillion and growing. Last week Treasury floated the possibility of a single financial regulator for the entire banking system.</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">All this is the Obama government's idea of innovation.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"> It is all public sector because all any of them know is public sector.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Without exception, the Obama people with responsibility for the private economy come from a lifetime in<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"> po</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">litics, public administration or academia.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Besides Mr. Obama himself, the list includes Tim Geithner, Larry Summers, Peter Orszag, EPA's Lisa Jackson (16 years with EPA), Commerce's Gary Locke <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">(zero private experience)</span>, or Transportation's Ray LaHood (14 years in the House). The bio for Agriculture's Tom Vilsack says he "has served in the public sector at nearly every level of government." How can the private sector -- especially the world of risk capital, sweat equity and start-ups</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">-- be anything but an abstraction for this group?</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Many of Mr. Obama's supporters surely thought this young, dynamic generation of public leaders would elevate the hip, cutting edge of the U.S. economy -- nanotechnology, genomics, robotics, even health and medicine technology.</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Instead, we've gotten the Old Economy on dialysis. General Motors has been commanded to restart aging UAW factories to output product on behalf of the administration's hybrid-car obsession. Where's the New Economy in any of this?</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Or ObamaCare. How will a build-out of Medicare (b. 1965) to cover everyone and costing $1.2 trillion over 10 years not kill innovation in medical and health technology by siphoning away growth capital and its potential financial rewards?</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">All of this seems so out of sync with the persona and promise Barack Obama conveyed in the campaign. A lot of his Web-based supporters probably thought Mr. Obama was going to be about promoting young guns with new ideas seeking risk capital for the next big thing. Instead, it looks as if the Obama years will be about managing soft landings for mature industries and old unions in the American autumn.</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Congress is talking about a "bad behavior" tax on beer and soda pop to reduce obesity and fund mega-Medicare. How about a bad-behavior tax on government? Slim as the president looks, Uncle Sam is looking like quite the fat boy.</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Write to henninger@wsj.com </span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><a href="">">Listen to Daniel Henninger's podcast.</a></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://forums.wsj.com/viewtopic.php?t=6128">Please add your comments to the Opinion Journal forum</a> </span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A13</span></div><div><br /></div>James Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12326304280459250698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1315039642515540347.post-5186849739158878402009-05-31T00:19:00.000-07:002009-05-31T00:23:35.466-07:00The Power Of Conviction<div dir="ltr" align="left"></div> <div style="text-align: right;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">In a recent post entitled "Obama's Change Can Change Quickly", I pointed out how fickle our dear new president can be. But that's to be expected, he's a politician. Forgive me for forgetting. For eight years </span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">we</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> dealt with a</span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> president</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> who took a position and stood by it. Whether or not people liked it. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">That is the power of conviction</span>.</span></span></span></div> <p style="text-align: right;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">As the poet wrote, you gotta stand for something, or you'll fall for anything. That could be the problem.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"> I understand the presidency is a figurehead position, but it shouldn't be a puppet position</span>, </span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">jerked </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">around on </span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">the </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">strings</span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> of public emotion</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">. It's interesting to see our current puppet...er, president, stand up at Notre Dame and talk about finding common ground between the pro-life and abortion camps. Especially when, truth be told, this is from a guy who consistently voted an even more militant stance</span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">, </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">killing live, breathing babies</span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> who survived an abortion,</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> than even other Democratic congressman from the state of Illinois would vote. Sounds like someone on the campaign trail to me. Someone who will say one thing when talking to the crowd in San Francisco, and the complete opposite when talking to the crowd in Iowa. I hope that being a smooth talking liar is not what Americans want from a politician. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">But I fear</span>.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">So here we go again, as <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">our beloved puppet</span> falls for anything, and signs a silly presidential resolution</span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">in his first few days, promising to close Guantánamo</span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> in a year</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">. Nice. You sure appeased all the people who listened to you on the campaign trail talk about the failed policies of your predecessor, and how wrong it is to detain people without giving them the rights we so dearly cherish. After all</span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">, (sarcastically speaking)</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> you needn't be a citizen of the United States to receive the protections of our Constitution. You don't even need to be an illegal alien who manages to have a baby in the United States. You don't even need to be a Colombian drug lord who manages to get arrested in the United States. You don't even need to be in America, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">you simply need to shoot at an American soldier </span>as he does his job defending freedom</span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> overseas</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">. Yes, (sarcastically speaking) that action alone should transport </span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">some terrorist </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">from the despot like rule</span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> they</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> grew up under</span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">, </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">into the utopia of the American Constitution</span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">, and defense lawyers</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">.</span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> And Obama wants to announce his release of terrorists and other people like that, without ANY PLAN for what to do with them. Maybe we can put them in an American prison. Yay. Good one. Genius. Turns out the Democratic lead congress cant even believe the President, and instead voted not to fund his one year program. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Pretty bad when even your friends wont help you out with your bad ideas.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span><span><span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Again and</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> again, Obama's change is changing quickly. Like any good politician, with his thumb in the wind, our<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"> puppet reacts to the pulling of the strings.</span> Well at least he does that, at least he's listening. Now all of a sudden it's not a good idea to release pictures the ACLU wants in their witch-hunt of American soldiers doing their best to obtain information from folks who were trying to kill Americans. Obama reverses himself again</span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> last week, finally admitting that his policy would cost American soldiers lives</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">. Oh, and now all of a sudden we need a plan of where to put the detainees who, by golly, are trying to kill Americans, and no other country wants to accept. Who would've guessed? Guess it takes more than a little show of signing a presidential directive doesn't it? Oh, and I guess Bush wasn't wrong on the military tribunal thing either. After all the</span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> in</span></span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">cindiary </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">things </span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Obama</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> said</span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> on the campaign trail</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">,</span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> he's</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> going to </span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">reverse himself, </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">go ahead and do the same damn thing, military tribunals to try folks who attempted to kill American soldiers</span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> (as it should be)</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">But will</span></span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"> Obama</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"> have the grace to apologize for </span></span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">his mistakes and misleading statements</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">?</span> </span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> Well, no. Apologizing is </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">something else Bush did, so it must be bad.</span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Dear reader, I guess I live in the real world. In my world, my wife, my family, my employees, and my customers all <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">e</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">xpect me to say things that I've thought out.</span> Things that make sense. Things that I believe in. They don't expect me to change my mind tomorrow, constantly, on every issue. After all, I only get so many chances to be a father to my daughter. I only get so many chances with my wife before she would lose trust in me. My employees look to me for leadership, and wouldn't respect waffling, vacillating, and thumb in the wind syndrome. And my customers, most of those I only get one shot with.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Our President needs to get off the campaign trail</span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">.</span></span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">It's time to shut up and stop the rhetoric.</span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> Less news conferences and more learning about the issues, sir.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"> C</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">harm, charisma and slick speech are not leadership.</span> False flags and red herrings only work for so long.</span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> Following the leader as he makes one mistake after another and turns around to "lead" in the opposite direction after all, well, it makes you dizzy.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">Leadership is thinking things through, making a wise decision, and standing by it. Without this, America can fa</span></span><span class="631110118-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">ll from her position of moral and economic authority</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;">. Our friends, allies and those around the world who look to us as icons, can lose respect. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">And what happens then?</span></span></span></span></p> <div><span style="font-family:Comic Sans MS;font-size:85%;color:#0000ff;"></span> </div>James Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12326304280459250698noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1315039642515540347.post-2725161114822302152009-05-27T16:03:00.000-07:002009-05-27T16:16:19.434-07:00Why You Have to Cut Your Household Budget, and the Government Doesn't.<div style="text-align: right;"><span><span class="502222018-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">If you are anything like the average American these days, you are counting your pennies.</span> The average American is taking a pay cut, their working hours have been cut, jobs have been lost. Unemployment is rampant, some counties here in South Carolina are way over the 20% unemployment mark. Foreclosures are up, people are losing their homes, their cars are being repossessed, its not pretty. The stock market tanked, 401k's are decimated, its official, we are in a recession. </span></span></span></span></div> <div style="text-align: right;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="502222018-27052009"></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: right;"><span><span class="502222018-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">So, the average folks, wise beings that they are, are reacting. They are being smart, paying off credit cards, eating out less often, and going without. Americans are buying less expensive clothes, cutting the cable bill to the cheapest service, and canceling yard care expenses. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Americans get it, times are tough, its time to spend less, and save more.</span></span></span></span></span></div> <div style="text-align: right;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="502222018-27052009"></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: right;"><span><span><span><span><span class="502222018-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Except for our do nothing, Democrat led Congress. While average Americans are taking pay cuts and cutting costs, the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Congress voted themselves a pay increase</span> for this year. Nice. I see you guys get it. </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">O</span></span><span class="502222018-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">h, and thanks for voting yourselves a <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">significant increase in the amount you are allowed to claim as "expenses".</span> Americans should not only give you a raise, but buy you lunch and limo rides more often. That's awesome. I wish I could vote myself a raise, and a bigger expense report too. Hell, I wanna limo ride too, if Im paying for you to take one.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div> <div style="text-align: right;"><span><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="502222018-27052009"></span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: right;"><span><span><span><span class="502222018-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And Obama? While he is living it up in limos and servants, does he keep it real to the street, and pay tribute to the little guy? Nope. Screw the little guy. While Americans scrimp and save to get by, Obama <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">raises the federal budget from $2 trillion to $3.6 trillion, increasing spending</span> and the deficit hugely. In other words, while most Americans don't have money to shop, Obama goes on a spending spree. While most Americans are desperate to pay of their credit, Obama is running America's credit with foreign governments up. Nice, I see you get it too.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div> <div style="text-align: right;"><span><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="502222018-27052009"></span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: right;"><span><span><span><span class="502222018-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And who gets to pay for this giant spending increase? Why of course, you, the little guy. I wish I could vote myself a nice new credit card and have you pay for it. </span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span class="502222018-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">And pay for it we will.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div> <div style="text-align: right;"><span><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="502222018-27052009"></span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: right;"><span><span><span><span class="502222018-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Why do Obama and his cronies in the Congress do this? Because they were trained to. In all the public service textbooks, only one solution is pointed to, when there is a budget shortfall. The textbooks only list one action when government spending gets higher that what the American taxpayer is providing. And what is that answer? <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Raise taxes. </span>The textbooks never say to cut spending. </span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span class="502222018-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">So YOU, dear reader, should cut spending when you make less money, in fact you HAVE to. But the government should NEVER cut spending, sarcastically speaking.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div> <div style="text-align: right;"><span><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="502222018-27052009"></span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: right;"><span><span><span><span class="502222018-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">So about Obama's plan that he learned, does raising taxes make more money for the government? If history repeats itself <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">(and I hear it does),</span> the answer is no. California raised taxes a few years back, and did that make California more money? No. Instead large numbers of businesses left California, and now California has a $40 billion budget shortfall, because as all these businesses left, all their tax revenue left too. Ditto New Jersey, read up and educate yourself on that one. The same thing happens not just to states, but to federal governments. Enter the exodus of American manufacturers, who can easily set up shop in Mexico, China or Eastern Europe. But I mean hey,<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"> if Obama and his henchmen in Congress are trying to drive more American businesses overseas, they have the right plan.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div> <div style="text-align: right;"><span><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="502222018-27052009"></span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: right;"><span><span><span><span class="502222018-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The point is that Obama simply cannot nearly double the federal budget without raising taxes. If you need a car, and you only make enough money, dear reader, to buy a $10k used Honda, you simply cannot go out and buy a $18k used Mercedes. Well you can, but there's a name for that. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Fo</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">olishness</span>.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div> <div style="text-align: right;"><span><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="502222018-27052009"></span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: right;"><span><span><span><span class="502222018-27052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And I fear that's we have in our current crop of elected leaders.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div> <div><span style="font-family:Comic Sans MS;"><span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="502222018-27052009"></span></span></span></span> </div>James Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12326304280459250698noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1315039642515540347.post-4440021301432576942009-05-08T10:50:00.000-07:002009-05-08T10:55:58.149-07:00How the Unions Screwed the Auto Companies (And Will Continue To)<div dir="ltr" align="left" style="text-align: right;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">In our brave new global manufacturing world</span>, those who travel the globe have an interesting perspective to manufacturing and the costs associated. For instance, warehouses in Mexico, China, India, Hungary and the USA all look remarkably alike. They all use the same yellow forklifts, made by the same company. They all have some form of green and orange painted steel pallet racking, where pallets of automotive parts are stacked all the way to the ceiling. The concrete floors are nearly identical, as are the steel roll up dock doors, and the trucks that are parked as they are unloaded. The folks that are driving the forklifts, and doing the work may look different, but they are much the same, and they do much the same job.</span></span></div> <p style="text-align: right;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">The massive disparity is only seen when you go outside the factory, and you see the houses in which the workers live.</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">For instance, in <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Mexico</span>, the government builds housing outside of the maquiladoras (factories) for the workers. In an effort to draw companies to Mexico, modern looking concrete tenements are in place outside of many of the factories, and many folks have cars and </span></span><span class="579243317-08052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">some of </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">the trappings of the Western world. </span></span><span class="579243317-08052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span><span><span><span><span class="579243317-08052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Not so in <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">China </span>where few own cars, and most take public transportation to the ghettos of corrugated aluminum housing where they live. Some are lucky enough to have dormitory like housing in the factory where they work. </span></span><span class="579243317-08052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span><span><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">India</span>, many ride bicycles to the huts constructed of mud that they call home. </span></span><span class="579243317-08052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span><span><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Hungary</span>, the wood from the discarded pallets thrown out of the back of the factory as trash, can be seen in the construction of the houses where the workers live.</span></span><span class="579243317-08052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span><span><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">South Carolina</span> where I live, the average forklift driver wage is in the $9-$12 an hour range. Folks may have older cars, and often live in single wide trailers out in the country.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">All these folks do the same job as the union autoworkers. So how do the autoworkers live? </span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Let's take Randy for an example. He's been with the union 14 years. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">His aggregate salary is $76 an hour</span>, when all benefits and perks are included. In some cases he's paid overtime after working only five hours in a single day. He lives in a 2500 ft.² brick house, has a summer cottage up north, a nice 23 foot boat, a nice motorcycle and drives an Escalade. In another 16 years, at the age of 48, he will be able to retire with nearly a full income, and full medical and dental benefits at little or no cost to him. Like most of his coworkers who have retired, he is likely to take a job to "supplement" his income. If he is caught being late repeatedly, showing up drunk or high at work, has low production, makes a lot of mistakes, his company cannot fire him. He gets raises regardless of his production or performance, </span></span><span class="422082213-07052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> and if </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">his company goes through hard times </span></span><span class="422082213-07052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> and needs to lay him </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">off, he will likely draw full benefits and wages.</span></span><span class="422082213-07052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Hard for an automaker to save costs in tough times that way. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">When it comes time for his company to negotiate new wages, he will vociferously fight to retain or even gain more compensation than he already has. He will likely cite Henry Ford as saying that the workers should be able to afford the vehicles they make. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">No matter if Henry was referring to an Escort rather than an Escalade</span>.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">All this, when Randy has a high school diploma, and no more education or ability than the workers doing the same job in other parts of the USA or the world. </span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Non-US auto companies, and manufacturers of all kinds across the USA, are paying fair wages</span> (aggregate $20-$30 an hour) to folks who are doing the same work as Randy is for $76 an hour. In Mexico the same kind of worker makes four dollars an hour. In China, four dollars a day. And Randy is campaigning and complaining about his $76 an hour.</span></span><span class="581325020-06052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="579243317-08052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span><span><span><span class="581325020-06052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In other companies competent managers push for higher productivity and increased pay to incentivize good workers. But the unions do not allow such "nonsense", instead pushing for less production for the same pay, setting limits for production during an full workday and forcing promotions for even low producing workers. In other companies employees buy into productivity, quality products and competition, in the union making it to retirement with as little work as possible is the motive, and your job pays the same if you make a quality product or not</span></span><span class="762204219-07052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, and whether you make a lot of it during your eight hours or not</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">.</span></span><span class="762204219-07052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span class="581325020-06052009"><span class="762204219-07052009"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Which brings up the issue of productivity</span>. Truck drivers to deliver to union auto plants become frustrated by the obtuse regulations that govern how slowly the UAW can do its job. At most non-union facilities, you pull your truck with him </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">into a loading dock, and a forklift driver will look at your paperwork, quickly and efficiently unload your truck and sign the paperwork. The process should take no longer than an hour, by one person. </span></span><span class="579243317-08052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span class="581325020-06052009"><span class="762204219-07052009"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">B</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">ut in the union plant there are hoops to be jumped through to ensure that all sorts of people who don't have anything to do are given a piece of the pie.</span> A truck driver will first have to find the office where the paperwork should be turned in. Usually this paperwork person is on break, so the truck driver has to wait 15 minutes to an hour just to find out what dock they should pull into. When the truck is finally in the dock, a forklift driver may not unload the truck. You see, the dock plate is hydraulic, and is operated by pushing a button. This complex task can only be accomplished by an "engineer" from the electricians union. And guess what, the "engineer" is on break. Another 15 minute to an hour wait while the "engineer" is located, and comes cruising up slowly on his three wheeled bicycle. His work is easily accomplished in 30 seconds, he pushes and holds the green button that lowers the hydraulic dock plate into place. This complex job being done he wheels away to sit in an office and do nothing until someone else needs him. </span></span><span class="579243317-08052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span class="581325020-06052009"><span class="762204219-07052009"><span><span><span><span><span class="579243317-08052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Now f</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">inally</span></span></span><span class="579243317-08052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"> after all this time a</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"> forklift driver is allowed to enter the truck</span>. But does this forklift driver move quickly? No, there is </span></span><span class="579243317-08052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">no </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">incentive for him to move quickly. The slower he goes the better off for him. I have quite literally seen forklift drivers creep at a slow crawl that enables them to stretch a one hour load into four hours. When asked why, they will honestly answer that they are paid by the hour and there is no point in going faster. Now comes the charade of the "engineer" being summoned to make the 15 minute trip from across the plant to do his thirty second job again. And of course the paperwork person who is required to sign off what the forklift driver unloaded is on break for lunch again. Four to eight hour waits are not unusual for truck drivers delivering to union auto facilities, an infuriating fact for those who are paid by the load, not by the hour, and know that an hour at most is needed.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Extrapolate this small picture of</span></span></span><span class="579243317-08052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"> UAW inefficiency </span>on</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> one truckload of materials being delivered</span></span><span class="579243317-08052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> into hundreds of trucks per day. </span></span><span class="579243317-08052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Or into t</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">housands of vehicles made on assembly lines using this slow unproductive approach by frankly lazy union workers desperate to keep and protect their job rather than to keep their company productive and profitable.</span></span><span class="579243317-08052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> How can I stretch the four hours of work I have, into the eight hours it needs to be so I can keep my job? </span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span><span class="581325020-06052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Look, the unions had a good effect on the system 75 years ag</span>o when low wages and worker abuse were the norm. No one disputes they were necessary then. There was nothing wrong with Americans leading the way to a prosperous and happy middle class. </span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span class="581325020-06052009"><span><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">So its high time now that they take a look at the reality felt across the rest of the world now.</span></span><span class="579243317-08052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">The UAW workers should understand the incredulity and anger toward the UAW that all the other Americans have </span>across the USA who do the same damn thing for a living. They should understand that there are many Americans who have little or no sympathy for this whining of the union workers who are now being forced to give "concessions" that "lower" them to a new level of employment still far above most American workers. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Really, who do these uneducated folks holding $76 an hour day labor jobs that should pay $12 an hour thing they are?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span><span class="581325020-06052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Other companies are slashing workforce, cutting salaries and benefits, and asking workers for more production in an effort to be profitable. But the UAW provides a foolish charade that they are making "concessions". What deep cuts are they taking? That overtime be paid after 40 hours a week on site, like all other Americans. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Oh, wow, like, that was really a big one, good job guys.</span> Lets see some serious cuts brought to the table, wage reductions bringing them into line with </span></span><span class="579243317-08052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> what Americans in </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">the rest of the country</span></span><span class="579243317-08052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> make</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, lets see some serious effort at incentivized pay for quality and production. Instead its more complaining about how bad they have it. Well go to India dude, and let me know how that makes you feel to see the same job done, with</span></span><span class="579243317-08052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> far </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">better quality control</span></span><span class="579243317-08052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> than you have done</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, for so much less. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">If you want to make $76 an hour, go to college and make something of yourself. Be real.</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span><span class="581325020-06052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In the Obama administrations view, the right thing to do is continue and <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">empower this disastrous UAW model by turning 50% of Chrysler and GM over </span>to the very entity that strangles it. Over the last 15 years, GM and Chrysler have been loaned over $36 Billion of cash by average Americans, and this has subsidized the losses caused by the UAW. Now the Obama administrations view is that all these people should walk away from the cash they put into Chrysler and GM, and just give it to the union workers. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">What insanity.</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: right;"><span><span class="581325020-06052009"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Until the UAW brings itself and its pay structure into line with reality, the companies it strangles will continue a slow choking death. Lets hope there is some change....</span></span></span></span></span></p> <div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color:#0000ff;"></span> </span></span></div>James Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12326304280459250698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1315039642515540347.post-55706914767381722182009-03-31T15:08:00.000-07:002009-03-31T15:11:43.922-07:00Please Stop Pointing out the Cover of People's Skin, When the Conversation Is about the Content of Their Character<p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">While many Democrats and liberals may not understand this, for a conservative who closely follows politics, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Barack Obama is a nigh</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">tmare.</span></span></span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">This is a man who stands for the killing of babies and </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">consistently refused to</span></span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></span><em style="text-decoration:inherit"><span style=" mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;font-style:normalcolor:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">support</span></span></span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">legislation that would define an infant who survives a late-term induced-labor</span></span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></span><em style="text-decoration:inherit"><span style=" mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;font-style:normalcolor:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">abortion</span></span></span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">as a human being</span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, believes in socialism and writes in his book that he sought out his Marxist professors, tries to portray the Bible in a controversial and questionable light (see his speech from Jun 28 2006), and has now appointed a judge who believes that prayers spoken before legislative sessions should not say “Jesus” or “Savior”. While these viewpoints may delight some, they are the antithesis of my beliefs, and those of many across the nation. I don't understand how any Christian or conservative could feel differently. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">However it's interesting to note that people of color are regularly suggesting that folks who do not agree with policies of Barack Obama are racist.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "> </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said it best, that we should judge a person<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I understand and empathize with the deep feelings of emotion that people of color feel when they see our first black president.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In fact I believe that it's high time our country put our money where our mouth is when it comes to race and politics.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">But as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. alluded, the color of the man's skin should not be the reason he is supported. </span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">I think that many have lost sight of this.</span></span></span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I have repeatedly heard African-Americans say that they voted for Obama because they wanted “someone that looked like them”.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Is this the right reasoning? I also repeatedly heard during the election that Obama would not win because “they aren't going to let a black man win”.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">This was clearly an absurd statement, and did not reflect the opinion of the majority of Americans, black, white or otherwise. </span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Recently my wife was discussing policy issues she does not agree with that the Obama administration holds, with a black friend.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">It wasn't very far into the discussion when the question came up “</span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">is all this about 1 man/woman or is this a racist statement about a President that happens to be a Black man</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">?” I was shocked.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">If you are a diehard conservative, you are unlikely to ever support a liberal, and vice versa. </span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">America</span></span></span></span></st1:country-region></st1:place><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"> needs to regain focus here.</span></span></span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Other than an interesting historical fact, the color of Barack Obama’s skin really doesn't matter, except perhaps to a few radical people who either love or hate him because of the narrow viewpoint.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The rest of us need to come together and understand that it is the content of his character, the things that he does, the beliefs and viewpoints that he holds that can shape the destiny of this country in a very positive or very negative way. </span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">And for God's sake, please stop pointing out the cover of people's skin, when the conversation is about the content of their character.</span></span></span><o:p></o:p></span></p>James Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12326304280459250698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1315039642515540347.post-28691114378658257892009-03-24T11:19:00.000-07:002009-03-24T11:25:25.985-07:00Obama's "Change" Can Change Quickly<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Today's world needs calm <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> leadership</span></b><span style="font-family:Arial;"> that shows a steady trusted hand. For instance, <st1:country-region st="on">Russia</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">China</st1:place></st1:country-region> are calling for the demise of the dollar, asking the IMF to create a new currency that will be the Global Standard. When it comes to a steady trusted hand, the Obama administration is letting us down. They are constantly flip flopping from one position to the other, showing that character and principle are not their guiding purpose. When the Bush administration took a stand, whether you agreed with it or not, you could be sure they were willing to ride the tide of public and global opinion to stand for their belief in what was right for <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Let’s look at how quickly our current administration drops its leadership ball:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family:Arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Nailing the Soldiers:</span></b><span style="font-family:Arial;"> Last week the administration floated a plan to save $500 million a year on the cost of veterans insurance. The idea was that if a veteran comes back from war wounded, and manages to get a job with private health insurance, that the Veterans Administration would bill the veterans private health insurance for the healthcare related to their war wounds. Now I ask you, what hiring agent would give a job to a wounded veteran, if they knew it would drive up health insurance costs for the rest of the employees of the company? Answer: none. The administration demonstrated that it could not be trusted to think out the disastrous outcome of the plan in advance of scheduling them for review with Congress. The outrage over this plan by the administration caused an immediate outcry from all angles. Powerful Democrats in the Congress came out against the plan, questioning the administration's integrity toward veterans. Showing a lack of principled integrity to his policy plans, the Obama administration came out the next day reversing this widely decried and unethical plan. To cover the wound, Obama promise to stop the controversial Stop Loss program, effectively stealing credit from Robert Gates, who for six months has been suggesting an end to the program. Or did someone think that overnight the administration could create their own plan that had been six months in the making?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family:Arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">War with <st1:country-region st="on">Mexico</st1:country-region></span></b><span style="font-family:Arial;">: this month, the administration abrogated the NAFTA treaty, ignoring the requirements in it by canceling the Mexican Trucking Pilot Program, prompting <st1:country-region st="on">Mexico</st1:country-region> to raise tariffs on $2.4 billion of <st1:country-region st="on">US</st1:country-region> goods bound for <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Mexico</st1:country-region></st1:place>, one of the four largest importers of American goods. This program showed real revenue savings for American companies who no longer had to pay extra fees at the border for good to be transferred from one truck to another, and allowed the Mexican or American truck to deliver the goods from the shipper to the consignee without interruption. Yo at u can read more about that <a href="http://http//online.wsj.com/article/SB123716220589235727.html">HERE</a>. Bowing to pressure from the Teamsters Union, the administration moved to hurt the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region>, make business more expensive for American companies, and broached the integrity of American signatories to the NAFTA treaty, citing safety concerns. But this was an outright malfeasance that the administration tried to hide, burying it in the $400 billion omnibus spending bill, and making liars of themselves when it comes to being open and accountable. If there were safety concerns, why not address them through the mediation program set up for NAFTA, that has been openly and accountably negotiated for years? <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The truth was there were no safety concerns. The Mexican truck program shown by the data compiled by the US Department of Transportation that the Mexican trucks coming into the US were safer, less likely to have accidents, better maintained, and met far more stringent safety requirements than the US trucks headed south of the border. Indeed the Mexican trucks had a safety rating as high as or higher than any trucking company operating in the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>. But the administration is showing that it doesn't care about facts, saving American businesses money, or the accountability that comes from the democratic process of open debate, opting instead to hide their decisions by burying them in unrelated bills hundreds of pages long, and sent to Congress. And now, due to the immediate trade war with <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Mexico</st1:place></st1:country-region> it started, it turns out that the administration will create a new Mexican trucking program. This is yet another example of Obama bowing to special interest group pressure, making choices that are bad for the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>, acting on them before thinking about them, and then having to reverse himself after the fact. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family:Arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Let us Hope that the administration can Change</span></b><span style="font-family:Arial;">, and will begin to carefully weigh policy initiatives prior to making them, so that the end result can be stated policy that makes sense for America, and doesn't require an immediate backpedaling from the president. American global leadership does not start with breaking international trade treaties, and reversing our policy initiatives constantly.<o:p></o:p></span></p>James Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12326304280459250698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1315039642515540347.post-74486029059203593422008-11-26T21:45:00.000-08:002008-11-26T23:43:57.922-08:00Carolina Culture Shock<p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:18.0pt;">It sure is culture shock</span></b><span style="font-family:Arial;"> moving from <st1:state st="on">Michigan</st1:state> to <st1:place st="on"><st1:state st="on">South Carolina</st1:state></st1:place>. One of the biggest shocks is the blatant racism that I've noticed. In <st1:state st="on"><st1:place st="on">Michigan</st1:place></st1:state> racism is something that is there, but more muted perhaps. Here it punches one in the face. Some examples: </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:18.0pt;">The sales lady</span></b><span style="font-family:Arial;"> I first had to deal with here came to see me in my office often. Tall, white, gray haired distinguished old lady type. As we trade the usual sales call chit chat, she asks where Im going to buy a home. When I answer that Im moving to <st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on">Lexington</st1:placename> <st1:placetype st="on">County</st1:placetype></st1:place> she tells me something odd. “Oh good, there’s not a lot of THIS there” and she points to the white skin on the back of her left hand knowingly. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span style="font-family:Arial;">I was shocked. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Arial;">“Do you mean skin cancer?” I said, pretending ignorance, and hoping she would get the point. “On no, the OTHER” she replies, “You know, undesirables”. Because her hand is a milky white, not a nasty black. And that makes her better than, oh, just a hell of a lot of folks, mostly starting blacks, probably Mexicans, and certainly Jews (who she also complained about to me). </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Now what the hell was she thinking? Im a Yankee and she is a salesperson, shouldn’t her better sense tell her better? Shouldn’t she be more careful, professional and have Southern Charm? Guess it’s so prevalent that she just never considered that I as a white person would be disgusted by her. Guess that type of ugly racism must raise her net sales, so she just assumed I was 'down with the sickness'. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span style="font-family:Arial;">I was so surprised I never challenged her, and I wish I would have. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Instead I bought a framed Martin Luther King Jr poster the next day and hung it behind my desk. I noticed a lot of sales people doing the same thing I do when I sell, looking around my office for clues to who I am. And many noticed old Martin on the wall, some commented, and all of them understood what that meant. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:18.0pt;">But the painting crew</span></b><span style="font-family:Arial;"> didn’t see my office, so as they were painting our warehouse, I happened to hear one of them yelling to his coworker about the “whores and n******” that he was mad at. I stopped him, almost in a rage, and asked him his name and who he worked for. He told me with perfect confidence what company he was from and his name, then I told him to please put down what he was doing and leave. He was stunned, the very thought that another white man would suggest that what he had said was wrong was clearly perplexing to him. He started to argue with me, I raised my voice, set my jaw and told him to get out. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Turns out he worked for his father, a very country man in a hunting camouflaged baseball cap who arrived not long after, and fired him, apologizing to me the whole time. But I still got the feeling that the only issue was that I had complained. Later, in talking to my black employees about the situation they made it clear that it was no big deal. It had been happening before I saw it, and they had raised no complaint. “That’s just how they were raised,” said one, “I don’t pay them no attention.” I would be hard put to imagine any of my black union worker friends in <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Detroit</st1:place></st1:city> saying that. But then some blacks here have confessed privately to me that northern blacks are uppity, and they don’t pay them no attention either. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span style="font-family:Arial;">But they know what restaurants not to eat at. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:18.0pt;">Not at Malice’s BBQ:</span></b><span style="font-family:Arial;"> I have changed the name because I don’t want this guy suing me, but if you are from <st1:place st="on"><st1:state st="on">South Carolina</st1:state></st1:place> you will know the chain immediatly. There is a restaurant chain here that specializes in BBQ. I ate there once and was kinda surprised that here in SC, a 50/50 white and black state, there weren’t any black folks in the restaurant or in the kitchen. Guess they aren’t big on the brothers. That was weird, until I started noticing the pictures on the wall. Like a General Lee (may his beard perpetually grow long or whatever, please don’t lynch me) picture with an inscription about how the South would have won if Lee had been at one battle or another. And the table of racist crap by the door, with books about the South and Confederacy in general. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span style="font-family:Arial;">As an avid military history enthusiast, I can understand the interest in the “War of Northern Aggression” and all, but racist hiring practices, and muted hostility that makes all the black folks I know here not want to go to that restaurant…well I guess it’s the South. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Blacks here get to deal with all sorts of reminders, daily. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:18.0pt;">Rebel flag:</span></b><span style="font-family:Arial;"> Here in <st1:place st="on"><st1:state st="on">South Carolina</st1:state></st1:place>, the rebel flag hangs prominently in front of the state capitol. My first day researching <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Columbia</st1:city> <st1:state st="on">South Carolina</st1:state></st1:place> with my wife, we arrived at the state house for a peaceful Sunday afternoon walk. To my amusement we happened to park behind a camouflaged pickup truck with Sons of the Confederacy license plates. I pointed it out to my wife with a grin and we had a good joke. It so happened that we ran into the owner later, as we were questioning different folks about the area. Rather than giving us meaningful information, the guy gave us details of where not to move so as not to encounter the “n******”. This while stroking his Nathan Bedford Forrest beard (may it also perpetually grow long, or whatever). </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span style="font-family:Arial;">As an avid military history enthusiast who grew up in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Georgia</st1:place></st1:country-region>, I completely understand the feeling the stars and bars inspire in the hearts of white folks. In fact, when I was 14, I had a jean jacket with a big rebel flag on the back of it, and I loved it. For me it stood for standing up against the man, the government, taxes, and being rebellious in general. But as I matured, I had black friends, and came to understand that it also stood for a hateful oppression, a cruel indicator or wrongs that should belong in another century, akin to the swastika. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span style="font-family:Arial;">There is some sort of controversy about the NCAA not allowing certain college sports events until the flag comes down, but fly it still does. Because it is necessary to piss off and piss on the black folks who see it so commonly. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:18.0pt;">Then there are the hiring practices.</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:Arial;"> </span></b><span style="font-family:Arial;">Listen oh ye temporary agencies, and hear. When I tell you to send me warehouse employees, I do not solely mean black men. You really can mix it up a bit, even throw some women in there. And when I ask for office employees, I don’t need just white women. I’ve tried hard to overcome that, as a hiring manager, but it takes constant work compared to the hiring practices in <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Detroit</st1:place></st1:city>. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:18.0pt;">That brings up the whole SIR thing:</span></b><span style="font-family:Arial;"> I mean everyone says sir and ma'am to some degree here, but with some of the folks that work for me it’s almost ubiquitous. “Oh yes sir, Mr James” I must hear 15 times a day, despite my protest that Im just James. “Oh yes Mr James, whatever you say!” and a little polite laugh. In <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Detroit</st1:place></st1:city> I think many of my black friends would choke before they would pay me such obsequiousness (and you guys are reading this, correct me if Im wrong). Darn sure the white folks here rarely say such things to me. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:18.0pt;">But with the Plantations still here,</span></b><span style="font-family:Arial;"> it’s not hard to understand. It’s not something that can really be understood up north I think. It took a lot of aimless driving through the country down here, and a lot of interviews collecting information from prospective employees and their resumes before I began to understand the reality out in the <st1:state st="on"><st1:place st="on">South Carolina</st1:place></st1:state> countryside. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Plantations still exist here. Old giant white country houses with big white pillars, surrounded by fields of cotton, or groves of walnuts. The same white families still live in many of them that did 200 years ago, having been passed down through the ages since time immemorial. The towns built up around them still have mainly poor minority residents whose families still mostly live there in that same town, and can trace their heritage back a handful of generations to when they were slaves. And they still work on those same plantations, now called farms, and they still make pitiful tiny wages. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Oh I can hear the cynic saying let them find some gainful employment. And how will they find this gainful employment when the primary employment is agricultural, and the illegal immigrants will work for half the minimum wage? And there just aren’t factories in the <st1:state st="on"><st1:place st="on">South Carolina</st1:place></st1:state> countryside. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span style="font-family:Arial;">So the cynic says let them get a job in the city! With what transportation? There isn’t any public transportation when you are an hour away from a city. Then let them buy a car! With what money? Certainly not a car whose reliability and gas efficiency is such that it doesn’t break down and lose you your job for no call no show, and cost you an arm and a leg just to fuel once a week. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span style="font-family:Arial;">I have seen one after the other of their resumes, they were trying to buy a car, got a job in town, the car broke down, they lost the job and are back to square one. They work part time half the year on the plantation farm for pitiful wages and no health care, and seem to never get ahead. It gets piled on them from birth that they are never going to be able to leave the plantation, never going to be able to succeed, and if you hear it enough it becomes true, and tiresome. And somehow it doesn’t change, generation after generation. When I drive through those country miles I see how little it’s changed since 200 years ago. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:18.0pt;">As I shine a light on it</span></b><span style="font-family:Arial;"> I see how complicated it all is. There is no way to change generations of feelings overnight, but as we all become aware hopefully we can begin our own personal changes. Did you know a black guy was dragged behind a pickup truck not so long ago, making national news? Or that South Carolina State Troopers yell things like <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color:black;">"You better run, n-----, because I'm fixing to kill you," (go to YouTube to see it if you don’t believe me) because even though they are on camera they aren’t thinking, just reacting naturally. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:24px;"> </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span class="apple-style-span"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:18.0pt;color:black;">Therefore, let us all search our hearts</span></b></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:18.0pt;color:black;">.</span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:black;"> Answers lie within, if truth has not been extinguished. A candle will not burn where there is no fresh air. Many other Yankees are moving here from the Rust Belt, and confess to me that they never understood racism claims in the Northern progressive towns they lived in where affirmative action and interracial marriages were common. But they are seeing it clearly down here, an unwelcome education. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span class="apple-style-span"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:18.0pt;color:black;">Perhaps this new influx</span></b></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:black;"> of thoughts will provide the fresh air that will make the candle burn anew.</span></span><span style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>James Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12326304280459250698noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1315039642515540347.post-63388641937691357972008-11-24T19:55:00.001-08:002008-11-27T11:26:15.369-08:00The Crazy White Woman<div style="text-align: right;"><p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:black;">I was shamed at church by the Crazy White Woman last night. Sitting in my cozy seat with my cozy wife and kid, wearing our cozy jackets, bellies full, listening to the plight of starving children. Not around the other side of the world, or on some TV commercial where I give .29c a day to adopt a kid, but right around the corner here in my cozy hometown.<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:black;">There she stood, microphone in hand, tears streaming down her face while she described the things I drive past every day, and yet never see, or choose to never see. How does it happen that I have become so comfortable, to glibly walk past those who are hurting, and never see the pain in their eyes. <span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:black;">She laid it all out so calmly. The 55% of children here in my hometown that are on the public school Free Breakfast and Lunch, not just reduced price. How they often fold their sandwich up at lunch and carefully keep it, because there is no other meal for them, Friday to Monday. The toddler children of the prostitute mother, forced out until late hours to roam the street because mommy has "company", if you know what I mean.<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:black;">It’s easy for me to walk past some homeless guy and respond that I don’t have any cash. I don’t, its all plastic for me, and if he can take plastic, well, he doesn’t need my help. <span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:black;">But children?<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:black;">She goes on. The child with the ear infection that she took to the doctor, the mother just didn’t care. Only it wasn’t an ear infection, it was roaches. This happens in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>? Or does it not matter because it’s so easy to ignore, if I want to.<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:black;">When did I stop asking my inner voice what to do, when I see the homeless guy? When did I lose my shock, sometime between now and when my parents used to rush me by and tell me not to stare? I don’t even consult my conscience to see if maybe something about THIS guy is different and I can hope and believe he will use my dollar and change for food not fire water?<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:black;">Or does it not matter because these children don’t look like mine? After all, they are of all cultural origins, dirty, unkempt, misbehaving, certainly we shouldn’t have to take pity on them! Far easier it is to sit back and take potshots, decrying the parenting and lack of structure in their family. And right we would be, but unkind, unhelpful, missing the point.<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:black;">For these are children.<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:black;">I cannot sleep; my thoughts are ever with the Crazy White Woman and her crusade, as many of the black residents of our town have taken to calling her. Perhaps she really is crazy too. Isn’t it crazy to take your paycheck and buy food, rent a hall every other weekend, and feed the hungry children who make their way there, every other Saturday night? Isn’t it crazy to take concern over little ones not your own, and take not just concern, but action? Isn’t it crazy to play with the four children out late in the park, until mommy's "company" is gone, so they can be safe until they return to their beds?<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:black;">So I am taking a stand with her, if she will have me. Too long I have been oblivious to the world around. Too long it has been someone else’s problem. Too long I have been blind, because they were poor, or look different, or are from the other side of the tracks. It is time I start taking responsibility for my community, and all of its members.<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:black;">Starting with its most helpless, the children.</span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black;"><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div>James Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12326304280459250698noreply@blogger.com1