Quick Note

All,

I just wanted to let everyone know I am going to be taking a break for a week or so. I want to spend some time with the family as well as rebuild my PC and load Windows 7 (wish me luck).

I will jump on if anything big breaks, but in the meantime enjoy your loved ones and the season. Remember all that is good and do not get caught up in the commercialism of the Christmas season.

I will be back soon.

Middle Class Joe

If Baseball Were the Government

With Albert Pujols winning the MVP award today, it got me thinking. If baseball were politics would:

• Albert be penalized next season by being allowed fewer strikes with each at bat?
• opposing pitchers have a larger strike zone against Albert so it was more fair?
• Albert be forced to let the opposing team know when he was going to steal a base so they have a better chance to pick him off?
• Albert be forced to share his bonus he gets from winning the award with other teams that do not have award winners?
• other teams force the Cardinals to make Albert sit out at least 1 game per series so they have a better chance to win?

After all, Albert worked hard to become the unanimous MVP choice for the National League. It is only fair that his hard work be held against him so that opposing teams have a better chance to win when he plays.

Of course, that is not the case. In baseball, much like many sports, each team is given a set of rules that they must follow. Those rules are applied equally, no matter the team or the market size. Some sports have a salary cap, others penalize those who spend too much. At no time is success punished. In fact, those teams and individuals who work hard, are rewarded with various awards and trophies. What happens then, other players and teams work hard so they can reap similar accolades. The teams that try hard and win are rewarded by their fanbase when they purchase tickets, jerseys, etc.

When it comes to business men and women, it seems like those that achieve are penalized. The current administration and Democrats want to excessively tax those who succeed. They want to make the people who work hard and are succesful, pay for those who don't. Rather than reward those who are succesful with tax breaks which stimulate growth for the individual business but the economy, they want to burden them with more taxes and forced benefits. Throw on top of that the desire by some to force unionization, which drives up costs and lowers profit. Why would anyone want to succeed?

Maybe the government, especially the Democrats, need to take a page from professional sports and set the rules and then but out.

Does Atlas Need to Shrug?

To those that have not read Atlas Shrugged, this post may not make much sense. If you have not read the book, you can find a summary here but I recommend that you borrow or purchase a copy and read the book. It is a must have for any personal library.

I sat here this week, working on some research and watching the news. Constantly I would ask the question why? Why does the government see fit to punish the successful? Why does the government see fit to reward the lazy? Why does the government meddle in affairs that have nothing to do with them? Well, you get the point. These were questions that poured through my head as I researched our local politicians and some of their positions. This past year, it has been getting bad at an exponential rate. Then last night, I saw the Senate and how they paid off one senator to reach the necessary 60 votes.

After seeing and hearing all of this, I thought to myself, is it time for Atlas to shrug. Is it time for those with wealth to go on strike? Would the government finally get the answer if they did? Next year we have another set of elections and I look out our current candidates and wonder, is this it? Will these men and women do what is right for us, or for them? Will they do what is right to create smaller government or will they kowtow to those that will not and do not have or attempt to offer anything to business or society?

Over the past few weeks, I have taken to reading the comment sections of some articles on websites such as ABC.com, USAToday.com, NYTimes.com, etc. I have seen comments made referencing Atlas Shrugged that almost seemed like communication from one another. Maybe it is already happening, or maybe it is just people trying to make a point. I don't know. What do you think?

Give to the Troops

This is just something very quick and non-political. I stumbled across it and thought I would share.

The USO has setup a program for soldiers overseas to get pre-paid phone cards. For a small donation, you can help the USO give a soldier a 30 minute or more pre-paid phone card. This is a worthwhile cause that is well worth the money.

Please click HERE and give what you can. What better way to give thanks to those men and women overseas than let them talk with their families back home.

The Importance of the 2010 Census

A few weeks ago I wrote an entry on the 2010 Census and the importance of this census. As you are probably aware, Lacy Clay and most of the Democrats are pushing to allow illegal immigrants to be counted towards the census and how it defines representation in the United States. Senator David Vitter attempted to add an amendment which would require all respondents announce their citizenship status.

I then saw that Lacy Clay was adamant that this amendment not pass and wondered why. As I always do, I began investigating this and what I found floored me. What I am going to talk about here is a lot of educated speculation and leans on multiple sources here, so come along with me if you will.

Based upon current population models, it looks like Missouri will lose a representative. Now, this is where the state politics of this get interesting. If Missouri loses a representative in the house, the state legislature and governor will redistrict the state. If you look at the state government, you have a GOP controlled House and Senate and a Dem Governor. Historically speaking, this type of split tends to lead to favoring incumbents and keeping historical strongholds. For more information on this, I suggest you Google redistricting as there are some very interesting sites out there (As a side note, I found that there are some people whose hobby is to create formulas and create redistricting maps. This is where I was able to get a lot of my information).

Based upon some of these models, if Missouri were to lose a representative in the House, all things seem to indicate that the one to be removed would be the current 3rd district. Based upon the models that some people are coming up with, Lacy Clay and the 1st district would expand out into more of the county and south city eating up part of the 2nd and 3rd district and the 2nd district would take over the remainder of the 3rd district and possibly some of the northern areas of the 1st district near northern St. Charles county. Now, if this were to occur, these changes would not go into effect until the 2012 election, but it could potentially pit Russ Carnahan, should he retain his district against Todd Aiken. While Jefferson County and south city tend to vote Democrat, Aiken would probably win as he would retain West County, St. Charles and possibly gain part of North County. That said it would probably mean a tough fight for anyone wanting to run for the 2nd District. To get a good idea of what I am talking about, go to Swingstate.com and do a search within the site for some MO projections. This is just one of many sites that have projections like this. The lines may change but the outcome seems to be universally the same, MO loses a seat. That is....

If Missouri is able to somehow prove population growth or at least no decline, Missouri may be able to keep the 9th seat. Lines will still be adjusted for population, but for the most part things would stay the same. So how does one work to keep MO population in check and help retain a Democratic seat within the House. To that I quote Lacy Clay's biography page on his website.

Congressman Clay is the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census and National Archives, which regulates the federal government’s information and privacy standards and also oversees the operations of the Census Bureau. One of Congressman Clay’s primary goals as chairman is to work with the Census Bureau to eliminate the undercount of African Americans, Hispanics and other minorities from the upcoming national census in 2010.

Nowhere does he say legal immigrants or citizens. What Lacy Clay wants to do is to count illegals in the city and outlying areas so that it can help save a House seat. Lacy Clay is not the only one that needs illegals to save seats. You see, population is decreasing in the North, Northeast and Midwest. Even though some of the major cities of the United States are in the North and Northeast (Boston, New York, Detroit, etc.) people are moving south. Based upon some projections by groups like POLIDATA, areas that tend to Republican will pick up many of the seats that Democrat states will lose. Here is a graphic that will better explain it.

Based upon this map, the GOP would have substantial gains in the House, helping to lower the current Democratic majority. The Democrats know about it and are very worried about this. Quietly they have already been talking about it as witnessed by this article written in December of last year. So how do you keep this from happening? How can the current Democratic majority keep a new wave of potential Republicans from coming into power. They count illegals. By counting illegals as citizens in the 2010 Census, the Democrats may be able to save some seats in California, Massachusetts and New York. This may work against them in Texas and Florida, but it seems it is a risk they are willing to take. Plus counting illegals in Texas and Florida, even if redistricted to give Republicans most if not all of the new districts, will give Democrats a chance at some of these new districts since it may thin out the Republican domination in areas. Why else would the Democrats want to work with a corrupt organization like ACORN to help with the census.

Now, as I said, this is all speculation, but it is an educated guess as to what is to come. 2012 is very important to both parties. It could be a change in the balance of power in the House, which could carry over into the White House. It's something to start thinking about. What do you think?

Quick Hits and Random Thoughts

While I am looking into something that could be BIG or nothing at all, I just thought I would post some random thoughts and quick hits.

• What happened to waiting 72 hours before voting on bills. Wasn't it Nancy Pelosi who complained about rushing bills to a vote? I do not care what side of the aisle you are on, all bills should wait 72 hours before a vote. This was not a national security or wartime issue.


• So, if, and that is a big IF, healthcare gets to Obama's desk and he signs it, how long will it be before it goes before a Federal Court on the basis that it is unconstitutional? To see my opinions on this, click here.


• Do you know how your Congressman and Senator will vote if the UN Rights of the Child treaty comes up for ratification? If you are not familiar with this, you should be. Read more here. The President has already stated he is for it.


• Is Fox News and the Murdoch news empire becoming the new leader in making and leading news? Just something to think about.
  
• This is old news, but was recently brought up to me, why is it OK for the US to aide Brazil in offshore drilling in Brazil, but not assisting US companies in drilling offshore of the US?


• Will easing the creation of nuclear power plants be enough to get some Republicans to vote for Cap and Trade regulation. Just a thought, just because it gets easier does not mean environmental fascists will not file junk lawsuits to try and block the building of them.


• Have you ever noticed that the government, which is made up of a lot of lawyers and trial lawyers, does a damn good job of protecting trial lawyers? Just a thought.


• And finally, this is a sign I saw this weekend at a car wash in Hazelwood, MO off of Howdershell Rd. I am contacting the owner to see if I can do a quick interview to get his thoughts, as a small business owner, on Cap and Trade, Healthcare and Lacy Clay. If you are in Hazelwood, stop by and get your car washed and support this small business.

Allegory for Candidate Obama?

This is just a quick hit, but I would suggest that everyone take a look at watching at least the pilot episode of V on ABC. Talk about art imitating life, in this case the V or Visitors are trying to spread a message of "hope" and offer "Universal Healthcare".
To spread this message, they manipulate the media to ask questions that are only pro V.
It is eerily similar to the election last year.

At the end of the episode, one of the characters says
“They Are Arming Themselves With the Most Powerful Weapon Out There.....Devotion"

Some in the media, even in Chicago, are already calling it an allegory for last years election.

Remember, I said a couple of weeks ago, the media will only put up with so much before they revolt. It was reported back in August that the producers were doing some reshoots and touch ups. It makes you wonder if some of this is a part of it?

More Hypocrisy From Lacy Clay

Lacy and his hypocrisy are at it again. On October 27th, Lacy Clay sent out a press release that,

"has asked Attorney General Eric Holder and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct a swift inquiry into an alleged incident of racial discrimination against six Washington University students at a Chicago restaurant/nightclub last week."

Of course this is in relation to an incident that occurred in a Chicago nightclub where two black students were not allowed to enter due to an issue with their low hanging pants even after they offered to correct the issue and once a white student was allowed to enter after correcting the issue. I am not here to advocate the Chicago nightclub. What they did was wrong.

My question to Lacy Clay is this. Where were you when Kenneth Gladney was beaten by SIUE members at a rally. Where was your rage when a black entrepreneur was attacked for voicing his opinion and selling his wares. In the case of the Washington University students, you said

"In this day and age, it is imperative that action be taken to rebuke those in our midst who continue discriminatory practices and policies."

Does this not hold true for Kenneth Gladney? Does Mr. Gladney not receive the same protection as a black conservative entrepreneur?

And then there is Francine Katz who is claiming that AB is discriminatory towards women. Where is Lacy Clay's rage when Ms. Katz claims discrimination in the workplace. Why isn't he calling for the Justice Department to look into discriminatory practices at a publicly traded company? Is it because Francine Katz is a white woman? Is it because AB has supported via campaing contributions to Democrats like Russ Carnahan?

Lacy cannot claim that he is not getting involved or making statements in the case of Gladney or Katz due to it being an active lawsuit/investigation since a settlement was not made until October 28th and Lacy made his statement on Oct. 27th.

This is just Lacy Clay using race to make an issue larger than necessary. These young men had everything under control and Lacy had to step in and escalate it. I guess, Lacy will only help you if he thinks you are part of his voting block.

H1N1 = Political Points?

My family and I just go over the H1N1 flu. We are all fine, but I will say that it was not fun. It was certainly not the plague that the government is making it out to be. Having lived through it and survived (note the sarcasm), I had to wonder; why is the government making such a big deal of this.

Let me start off by saying, I do not blame the media on this one. While we all know that the media is the lap dog of this administration, they are covering a story, pure and simple. In this case, the government is feeding the story to the media.

Anyway, so I have to wonder, why is this such a big deal. The H1N1 flu is similar to the standard flu types that we have all experienced. You get the muscle aches and fever. In some cases you do get some of the stomach issues. The additional thing with this strain is that in some cases you get a cough, kind of like a chest cold. If you are the type of person that is prone to bronchitis or pneumonia, then it could turn into an infection and lead to some real issues. As with any type of flu, as long as you get your rest, drink plenty of fluids, take Tylenol for the fever and aches and pains you should be fine. As always, don't just trust me, consult your medical professional as not everyone will react the same way. In our case, we were able to deal with this without the intervention of a doctor and without prescription medication.

One evening, after the kids were in bed, my wife and I were sitting on the couch recovering from the day and still recovering ourselves. We were watching the news and hearing all of these government officials talking about the Swine Flu and how this is a national emergency and how there were all of these deaths. My wife looked over at me and said, "This is such bull sh!t. It was not anything worse that any other flu I've had." I looked at her and said, "It's because the administration wants a win."

You see, here is the thing. The Obama administration does not look really good right now. The shine and luster is fading away. This man who claimed he was going to bring hope and change has not really done either. Add to that a Congress that really cannot seem to do the right thing to save their lives, and you have a very wary American public. So what do you do? You pull a page out of the movie "Wag the Dog". What the administration is doing is trying to get everyone in a panic. If you get everyone freaked out of H1N1, then you have their attention. You then get everyone from the head of Health and Human Services to Elmo, telling you how to cough into your sleeve and to wash your hands. Once you have everyone's attention, you then show all of the wonderful things the government, i.e. this administration, is doing to protect you from this "pandemic". There still has to be deaths to keep people's attention, so the government supplies those numbers as well as the number of people believed to be infected. Then, once everyone has received the vaccination and the number of infections and deaths related to this go down, we will hear how the government stepped in, rushed a vaccine, kept the public informed and saved the day.

With this, you have just built trust. Now that you have built said trust, they can then start asking for you to trust them with a "public option" or "cap and tax" or any number of things. Folks, lets get some things straight, many of the numbers they are handing out are based upon assumptions. Except for deaths, the tests that are being done to test for the flu are not testing specifically for H1N1, the are just testing for the flu since this is the dominant strain right now. The CDC admits this. Add to that, that many of the people who have died from this flu, have done so due to pre-existing conditions or due to not seeking doctor's care.

I will say right now that much like any illness, H1N1 is no laughing matter and should not be taken lightly. Anyway that gets sick from this or any type of flu should take care of themselves and see the advice of a medical professional if necessary. If you feel you need to, call or see your doctor, go to an urgent care facility or just go to your local Walgreens Take Care clinic. That said, do not let the administration turn this into something they can use for political points. Call their bluff if necessary. The blogs and the media are already talking about how this is going to be so much worse for the uninsured. Don't' believe me, just google "H1N1 uninsured".