$30 Million to Save the Saltwater Marsh Mouse

Nancy Pelosi claims there are no earmarks in H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. But, there are plenty of pet projects, including one near and dear to her heart for years.

American taxpayers are about to spend $30 million for habitat protection for the endangered Saltwater Marsh Mouse, a native of Pelosi’s San Francisco district. Yes, America, you are about to spend $30 million to save vermin or rodents. Aren’t you proud? What a country!

Now most normal people want to avoid or destroy mice, rats, and other disease-bearing rodents, especially when located near or in major metropolitan areas. Humans have learned over the eons that vermin and people should not mix. Of course, here we are dealing with a far left liberal from California so normalcy is out of the question.

So, what will the advantages of this federal largesse to Pelosi’s pet mouse be? Well, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has a long list of all the wonderful diseases that rodents like Nancy’s Saltwater Marsh Mouse may offer us in return for our tax dollars:

“Worldwide, rats and mice spread over 35 diseases. Rodent-borne diseases are spread directly to humans through bite wounds, consuming food or water that is contaminated with rodent feces, coming in contact with surface water contaminated with rodent urine, or through breathing in germs that may be present in rodent urine or droppings that have been stirred into the air (a process known as ‘aerosolization’). Diseases from rodents are also spread indirectly to humans by way of ticks, mites, and fleas that transmit the infection to humans after feeding on infected rodents. In some cases, the rodents are the reservoirs (carriers) of the diseases, while in other cases the ticks, mites, or fleas act as the disease reservoirs."

Diseases directly transmitted by rodents, including mice and rats, are plague, salmonellosis, various hemorrhagic fevers, tularemia, lymphocytic choriomenigitis, and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. Diseases indirectly transmitted include babesiosis, various tick fevers, human granulocytic anaplasmosis, cutaneous leuhmaniasis, various typhuses, various encephalitises, and rickettsialpox. (Source: http://www.cdc.gov/rodents/diseases/index.htm)

Evidently, Nancy wants to keep San Francisco hospitals full. Don’t they have enough AIDS patients already? Some of these diseases, especially plague and tularemia, are biological agents the Department of Homeland Security is trying to keep terrorists from bringing to us. Nancy again proves Pogo’s truth: “We’ve met the enemy and they are us.”

What Would I Buy for $13?

Mike Huckabee asked on his FoxNews television show last weekend what viewers would buy for the additional $13 workers will receive in their paychecks under the recently passed stimulus plan. That is the amount employees will receive weekly in 2009 due to reductions in the payroll taxes. Next year, the amount is reduced to $7.75 per week.

Now, even though I am disabled and unable to work, I decided to answer the question. I googled "buy" and "$13." I received 3.6 million hits! I found several favorites, but one was absolutely perfect.

For $12.95, I would buy "Money to Burn Fire Starters." These are wax rolls of fake $100 bills. The description reads: "Impress friends and family with your phony wealth by starting a fire with these benjamins coated in slow-burning wax so they stay lit until the firewood catches. You can also light your fine hand-rolled Cuban cigar! Because money is nothing to a high roller like you, right?"

What would be more appropriate considering that Congress is burning through our money like there is no tomorrow with this stimulus package?

Goodbye, America

America, as we know it, ended late Friday night, February 13, 2009. When the Senate passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, it plunged the knife up to the hilt into the heart of American capitalism. For all intents and purposes, our financial system and economy have been nationalized.

When President Barack Obama signs this so-called stimulus package into law on Tuesday in Denver, America will become officially a socialist or, more accurately, a fascist nation. Even if businesses remain in private ownership, the federal government will control their operations. In many cases, the government itself will take over majority ownership.

Of course, it is no surprise. Socialists and communists have mentored Obama since his teens. Nor can he bear total blame for this end of American capitalism and financial freedom. We have been on this road for a long time, since President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty and President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Republicans, too, share blame. Never in my wildest dreams [or nightmares] would I have believed that a Republican President, George W. Bush, would nationalize the banks like he did by signing the first “stimulus” package that was rushed through Congress last Fall.

All sides acknowledge, now, that package did not work. Did Congress learn from that hasty mistake? Obviously, it did not. Most Democrats and a few Republicans stubbornly believe, despite all historical evidence to the contrary, that it is possible to spend our way out of recession. They often cite the example of FDR’s New Deal, forgetting that World War II, not the New Deal, lifted this country out of the Great Depression.

Analysis of this legislation has just begun. The Act, which spends $787 billion, is 1,071 pages long. Legislators had only fifteen hours to digest it before the vote. It is safe to say not one single Congressman or Senator read this bill before voting on it. They would have to have read 71 pages per hour or just over one page per minute, without any breaks during those fifteen hours. Previously, Speaker Nancy Pelosi had promised they would have at least 48 hours between release of the bill’s text and the vote being taken. And, it was only released in printed form. Normally, bills are published digitally, which allows Congressional staffers to do computer keyword searches to evaluate the worthiness of any piece of legislation.

The devil will be in the details. Supporters claim this act will create 3.5 million new jobs. Most economists put the number lower, at 2.5 million. But, let’s give the Democrats the benefit of the doubt and go with the 3.5 million number. That means it will cost $224,857 in government spending for each one of those jobs. Let me say that again so its truth can sink in: every single new job created by this stimulus act will cost taxpayers $224,857!

The press, both left and right, is finding all kinds of funky features buried in this bill. Some are silly, like the millions to save some endangered mouse in Speaker Pelosi’s district. Although maddening, voters should not let themselves be diverted by these trifles. This bill is too dangerous at the macro-level for us to be consumed by such micro-details.

The most alarming fact about this stimulus act is how much it raises the statutory limit on the national debt. It allows the national debt to increase from its current limit of $789 billion to $12.1 trillion. Think about it. We have never had a national debt over $1 trillion, yet the Democrats and three “Republicrats”voted for our nation’s credit line to go to a mind-boggling $12.1 trillion.

So far, the media has barely noticed this all-important detail. Yet, it is perhaps the most dangerous provision. What does it mean to allow such an increase in our national debt limit? It tells us just how much spending the Democrats are planning to do. This $787 billion must be just a down payment.

If the Democrats under Obama pass the kind of spending a $12.1 trillion national debt limit allows, it means hyperinflation. Even the U.S. with its sterling international credit rating cannot borrow that kind of money. There simply is not that much investment money in the entire world to support that kind of spending. And, some international bankers are expected to lower our nation’s bond ratings. That means higher interest rates on what we are able to borrow. If we cannot borrow the money to support our spending at reasonable rates, the government has one other option and that is to print money. It monetarizes the debt, lowering the value of the dollar so that high value dollars borrowed are repaid with lower value dollars.

This is what President Carter did in the early eighties when we had the worst recession since the Great Depression. We had double-digit inflation in a stagnant economy. If we come even close to a $12.1 trillion debt, we will have triple-digit inflation. We will be like the Germans during the Weimar Republic before Hitler. Then, it took a wheelbarrow of cash to buy a loaf of bread. That is what Americans will soon face unless the Democrats are held in check, and I am not at all optimistic that we can or will do that.

President James Madison warned, "If our nation is ever taken over, it will be taken over from within." The Socialists have taken possession of the land. Goodbye, America.

President Barack Obama Spams

On Monday, February 2, 2009 10:33 AM, I received spam from President Barack Obama. It took awhile for me to figure out how he obtained my email address. I have never emailed or registered with either the Obama campaign or the Democratic National Committee. Then, I remembered that I had sent an email message to Hillary Clinton after the last presidential primary, encouraging her to take her fight to the Democratic Convention in Denver. My best guess is that she sold or gave my address to them without my permission.

In any event, it was a shock to see email from the President in my inbox. I was incensed that he had the gall to send unsolicited email to me. Then, when I opened it, I became amused.

The silly man sent a lifelong Republican an invitation to host an “Economic Recovery House Meeting” the weekend of February 7th-8th. Its purpose would be to drum up support for the economic stimulus package. Hosts were suppose to show a video with Governor Tim Kaine “outlining the recovery plan and answering questions about what it means for your community.” I could even submit my questions regarding the plan online prior to the meeting.

Oh, I was so tempted to volunteer to host a meeting. This Republican would have had one heck of a good time explaining and reviewing this so-called stimulus package. I thoroughly reviewed the information on the host guides. They gave the suggested agenda and timeframes as well as action plans before, during, and after the meeting. I chuckled my way through the “talking points” for the economic stimulus plan.

However, I resisted the temptation to host one of these meetings. After all, volunteering would only encourage future email from Obama and the Democrats. I get enough spam, thank you, even with a spam filter.

Instead, I am filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). This piece of email violates existing anti-spam legislation in two ways. First, it was sent without invitation to someone who has no existing business relationship with the President or the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Secondly, it did not correctly identify the physical address of the sender as required. Finally, the purpose of the email was not clearly defined in the subject line.

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act), which became effective January 1, 2004, “bans false or misleading header information. Your email's 'From,' 'To,' and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email.” This email’s header showed:
From: "President Barack Obama"

However, at the bottom of the email was this information:
“Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee, www.democrats.org.
This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
Democratic National Committee, 430 S. Capitol St. SE, Washington, DC 20003”

The FTC clearly instructs that the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 requires that every commercial email “also must include your valid physical postal address.” Now, everyone knows the President’s actual physical address is 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., not 430 S. Capitol St. SE, which is where the DNC has its headquarters. Clearly this violates the F.T.C. rules.

Another proviso of the Act “prohibits deceptive subject lines. The subject line cannot mislead the recipient about the contents or subject matter of the message.” The SUBJECT LINE of this email was: “What recovery means for you.” One can legitimately debate if this was deceptive. However, the email did little to answer the question posed in the header’s subject. Instead, it primarily focused on this meeting and organizing support for passage of the stimulus package.

Each violation of these FTC rules “is subject to fines of up to $11,000.” Stay-tuned for the outcome of my complaint. If successful, it will be far more beneficial for my personal economic stimulus than anything in the President’s plan.

Southerners Snubbed?

The Associated Press reported on December 20, 2008, "The South may have inched toward Democrats in November, but that progress isn't showing in President-elect Barack Obama's Cabinet selections. Obama hasn't nominated a single Southerner among his 15 Cabinet secretaries."

A very few with Southern roots have made it onto Obama's appointment list. Former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk has been tapped for U.S. trade representative, a relatively obscure post. Lisa Jackson, Obama's choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, grew up in New Orleans. However, she has lived and worked in the Northeast for most of her life. Obama's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, is from Alabama and has worked for several Southern representatives on Capitol Hill.

Nonetheless, this is the first administration since President Dwight Eisenhower without a Southerner in a cabinet post. Southerners need not apply," said disgruntled Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga. "It's hard to believe that there wasn't anybody qualified for something from the South." It was a region Democrats held without dispute before the Reagan revolution, and they hope to return to their majority status in the South. Does snubbing Southerners make sense, then?