Real Life Experience

TheFundamentals describes real life experience (RLE) as activity meeting the following criteria: Employment in the private sector where your paycheck is subject to termination for either no reason, market forces beyond your control or your failure and screw-up’s. It does not include any time spent on any government payroll or any time spent in any form of education. Most humans have a lot of RLE. Do our political leaders? That is the question we are trying to answer. Please observe the following compilation of the 12 current political leaders of the USGovernment. They are listed by name, birth date, current age, and TheFundamentals review of their real life experience as defined above. The RLE default was 5 years. Each person started with 5 years RLE. If you add up the RLE for these 12 current political leaders, all members of the party in power, you attain a grand total of 90 years of RLE which, when divided by the 12 individuals, averages to 7.5 years per person and that’s probably a bit high because of TheFundamentals generosity in setting the default standard.

Henry A. Waxman – 9/12/1939 - 69 y.o.; RLE – 5 years

Charles B. Rangel - 6/11/1930 - 79 y.o.; RLE – 5 years

Nancy Patricia D’Alessandro Pelosi – 3/26/1940 - 69 y.o.; RLE – 5 years

Christopher J. Dodd - 5/27/1944 - 65 y.o.; RLE – RLE – 10 years

Edward M. Kennedy - 2/22/1932 - 77 y.o.; RLE - 5 years

Richard J. Durbin - 11/21/1944 – 64 y.o.; RLE – 10 years

Harry M. Reid - 11/2/1939 – 69 y.o.; RLE - 5 years

Barnett Frank - 3/31/1940 – 69 y.o.; RLE - 5 years

Barrack H. Obama – 8/4/1961 – 48 y.o.; RLE – 12 years

Joseph R. Biden – 11/20/1942 – 66 y.o.; RLE – 13 years

Steny H. Hoyer - 6/14/1939 – 70 y.o.; RLE – 5 years

James E. Clyburn – 7/21/1940 – 70 y.o.; RLE – 10 years

On November 2, 2010, it may make some sense for taxpaying Americans to ask that the candidates seeking their vote to have a minimum of 10 years of Real Life Experience. It is not possible to make better decisions when the richness of your life experience includes all or virtually all experience in a non competitive, non market based, non performance based environment! Taxpayers have the right to insist that their candidates have RLE. This means someone who does go or has gone to work at a real job. It is up to the taxpaying voters to enforce this requirement. Unfortunately, the founding fathers assumed that citizens seeking the privilege of elected office would have real life experience from real jobs and professions.

“What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?” This is a current quote from John Conyers, whose name should be added to the above list. He chairs the House judiciary committee. Here are his statistics: Born 5/16/1929 – 80 y.o; RLE – 12 years. He has been in congress for 44 years! He doesn’t read the proposed legislation. Duh. If a novelist wrote this type of fiction, editors would reject it as begging credibility.

Slam Dunk

The basketball playing community organizer saw an opening. The lane was clear. A few quick steps, up you go, slam the ball through the hoop and strut off the court with more adulation from the always adulating fans. So, it was late in the game and he got a quick handoff/assist from one of the news regulars from his home state. He took the ball and started to the net; the opening was not going to close in time; it was a sure thing; just get up in the air and guide the ball through the hoop. Two steps, three and then a smooth jump and release and, and…oh no, what happened, down on the floor, caught up in my own two crisscrossed feet. Oh no, now what? Where’s the teleprompter.

When Lynn Sweet asked about the Gates incident at the end of Wednesday’s press conference the community organizer got an even bigger softball than the previous six or eight tossed his way. He was ready for this one. This was a no brainer. An opportunity to look good, throw a bone to the 95 plus percent of blacks who voted for him, toss in the entire Hispanic population and remind everyone of how tough it is to be a minority in the US. To paraphrase his sidekick from the Chicago Machine, "A pandering opportunity is a terrible thing to waste." Show the folk that you know what it's like to be bullied. You can relate. That's why you're on their side. Spreading the wealth. Shipping out the reparations and voter paybacks under the disguise of health care reform, stimulus payments to protected unions and municipal employees, tax and cap, green jobs and free college for everyone but the taxpaying crowd. Plant some real seeds with the bleeding hearts. This is better than being interviewed on NBC or PBS. Take it. Run with it. Dunk it.

Oh no, what happened?

Teaching moment? You bet. The only question is who is the student? A few more of these missteps and you may be in for some unplanned transparency. Better stick to the teleprompter. That'll get you a few more months with the media at least. Doubtful that it will last that long with the taxpaying public. They seem to be catching on.

Age of CZARs

The concept of representative democracy is that the people, in the form of qualified voters, pick representatives and senators to stand in their place in running the government. This concept is simple. The representatives and senators can be removed per the terms of the USConstitution and, of course, the people can elect a different person at the time of the next election. How do the people remove the bureaucrats that the senators and representatives hire to carry out their legislation? How do the people get the kind of working government that is accountable to them in this process? How do the people control the activities of the newly appointed CZARs? They need to depend on their elected representatives and senators. Are the CZARs accountable to anyone? Are the senators and representatives in charge of the CZARs and the bureaucrats or is it the other way around?

Mr. Obama has initiated and implemented a profoundly significant new level of bureaucracy. Here is a list of some of his CZARS and their titles:

WAR CZAR: Lt. Gen Douglas Lute (Has Obama heard of the Department of Defense?)

TARP CZAR: Herb Allison (or the Department of the Treasury?)

STIMULUS ACCOUNTABILITY CZAR: Earl Devaney (Ditto: Treasury?)

PAY CZAR: Kenneth Feinberg (Ditto: Treasury?)

HEALTH REFORM CZAR: Nancy-Ann DeParle (or the Department of Health and Human Services?)

INTELLIGENCE CZAR: Dennis Blair (What? NSA? DOD? CIA? And Hundreds more??)

CAR CZAR: Steve Rattner (Any fool who wants this job should be rejected based on the Groucho Marx test – "I won’t join a club that would have me as a member.")

U. S. BORDER CZAR: Alan Bersen (Anyone heard of the Border Patrol? ICE? The hundreds of thousands already working in the ridiculous Department of Homeland Security?)

This list could go on and on. There are CZARs for the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan, AIDS, Climate, Green Jobs (no, we are not making this up) and even a CZAR for Science and Weather. No CZARs have been appointed to reduce government bureaucracy or improve the respect and diligence of government employees when dealing with taxpayers. No CZAR to oversee the repayment of the US Debt. Why the new CZARs? This is not representative government with transparency and accountability. You can readily see that these CZARs are substitutes for various cabinet departments and other existing government bureaucracy. What on earth is the government doing creating new bureaucracies when existing bureaucracies already have the same stated responsibilities and job descriptions? The answer is transparent. Obama has concluded that the existing bureaucracies don’t work and he wants new people he can direct who are not part of existing, non working bureaucracies to get things done his way. One might even find some support for this position if he would take the obviously needed step and that is to close down the non working bureaucracies and fire all their non productive employees. Business, to remain competitive, does exactly this all the time. Nature in its very cycle of life does the same thing. It gets rid of the old and replaces it with the new (see Retirement - July 21, 2009.)

The old Soviet Union had czars and bureaucracies and state owned businesses and it all came crashing down for exactly the reasons outline above. It was inbred and did not permit a rejuvenation process. It failed because it was not responsive to change and the marketplace. Who wanted to shop in a Soviet department store or drive a Soviet car or fly in a Soviet manufactured airplane?

Government accountability must be the primary responsibility of the elected senators and representatives and the president. Accountability and transparency are simple concepts. Transparency means you can see what it going on – readily, easily, conveniently. Does anyone know what is going on in any of these CZAR FIEFDOMS? Accountability is getting the job done, on time, on budget and per specification. Does anyone know what is supposed to be accomplished and by what schedule or completion date and at what cost and what level of progress has been attained to date in any of these CZAR FIEFDOMS? The USConstitution does not empower the creation of CZAR FIEFDOMS. If Obama’s sycophants in congress and the senate will not stand up to this violation of the USConstitution, who will?

CZAR FIEFDOMS are de facto acknowledgment of existing government’s failure to do a job; on time; on budget and to an acceptable performance standard. Let’s leave the CZARS for Putin and his buddies. Obama has established his CZAR FIEFDOMS to get his program implemented. This approach will have the same outcome as occurred in the home of the original CZARS – the Soviet Union. Failure and collapse. There is no place for CZAR FIEFDOMS in America! There is NOTHING in the USConstitution that enables CZARs. Please remember this simple fact on November 2, 2010.

Retirement

The process of retirement has several motivations. One, best observed in nature, is the desire of the younger male/females to replace the older male/females. Animals tend to be a bit more direct than humans in communicating the “it’s time to go” message. This message is also a natural part of the aging process which is accompanied by a lessening of ability and interest in matters such as hunting, fishing, planting, harvesting, mining, working and procreating. So, out with the oldsters and in with the youngsters.

We humans also seem to reach a point where we know we can no longer compete and so we take ourselves out of the game. We become spectators and observers and critics. We become bloggers. Hallelujah for blogging. Blogging is an opportunity to use our years of experience and our ability to sum up the complex with magnificent simplicity and electronically blast out our solutions that only the foolish, stupid and young could possibly not see or grasp. This latter ability is best reinforced with a good single malt scotch whisky or a several times over filtered and over priced vodka – preferably from France or Holland.

Now, every once in a while we are given front row seats on a few fellows who either don’t grasp the message of “it’s time to go” or figure that they, unlike most of us, have been given a special talent to ignore the voices saying “go.” These folks usually have a position that is somewhat, or completely, protected from outside influences. It may be an aging movie star with his own production company and his own financing. This example is illustrated with what we shall call the “Clint Syndrome.” The Clint Syndrome is best characterized by this question: How many more times can one person scowl and mumble and sputter in a 110 minute production?

Another example is the “Lifetime Coach Syndrome”. This syndrome is quite fun because it usually plays out in real time, on a TV screen, and in front of thousands of enthusiastic, well lubricated supporters a.k.a. FANS. One of TheFundamentals favorite “Lifetime Coach Syndrome” fellas had the somewhat inappropriate handle of Woody. Woody had it all. Screaming fans, presidential friends, parades, microphones, adoring subjects and, an aging central processing unit that had burned out most of its self control micro chips. So, one bright and exciting day, Woody decided to become part of the activities on the field of play instead of restricting himself to the coaching sidelines. Uh – oh. Woody departed in a bit of ignominy shortly thereafter. Woody either missed the call or didn’t get the memo that it was time to go. Nevertheless, he went.

Which brings us to the aging business leader. What is with the aging business leader? There’s a network that parades Jack Welch, Hank Greenberg and Warren Buffet out every other week or so to ask them questions like, “Oh woe be unto us. What shall we do? Please share your great wisdom with us.” Jack is writing books with his third wife. Who buys this stuff? Greenberg is the master mind behind AIG (cost to taxpayers - about $200 billion (looks like $200,000,000,000.00.) How about an interview from jail? Buffet was a big stimulus supporter and then came out recently and said that the debt of the US was too high. Now he’s saying it’s about time for a second stimulus. Hello? Short term memory problem alert!!

Give us Eastwood or Woody any day compared to these fools. C’mon Welch, Greenberg and Buffet families. They must have retirement homes somewhere that will take these guys. Don’t let ‘em know they’re going in a home; just put a mock TV camera in their room and they will be quite content.

Retirement. Embrace it boys and girls. It is one of TheFundamentals!

Community Organizing: Coming to Your Neighborhood

Here come the tax increases. This is great. We are finally going to start spreading the wealth around and it is not a minute too late. If you make a lot of dough you are going to be taxed more on your income, your health benefits and you are going to lose your deductions for almost anything that you haven’t previously lost your deductions for. This is great. The solution to America’s problems – uncompetitiveness in world economic markets, lots of protected and overpaid union workers in private and public jobs, no real manufacturing left in the country, huge imbalance between exports and imports, really big time federal debt and government ownership/control of major financial and other businesses. The solution is taxes on the higher wage earners. Makes sense to TheFundamentals. We can tax our way to competitiveness. Tax increases coupled with the current really successful spending programs which are creating jobs and big time increases in output and income and exports. This is just too much to grasp. This is really good stuff. More government spending and more taxes and more of everything for everyone.

Here is how it is going to work. If we keep taxing the higher earners then they will become lower wage earners after taxes. They will say, “Oh man. This is great. The more I work and earn the more I get to pay in taxes.” Gradually a few may even start to work and earn less. This is the good news because then the ones who already work less and earn less will start to work harder and work more. They will start to make more and pay more in taxes because they will clearly want to get into those higher tax brackets. See this is how the spreading the wealth around works. You take it from the higher income workers and discourage them because this encourages the lower income earners because they suddenly see the opportunity to move up. We all know that when you’re hanging out with your friends you really feel good about bragging about how much in taxes you are paying. These economic fundamentals and programs are well discussed and debated at places like the Chicken Shack on the south side of Chicago. These programs may come to known as Chicken Shack Economics. Don’t be surprised if the next Nobel Economic Award goes to another graduate of the Chicken Shack curriculum.

So, we have to hand it to the community organizer for his wisdom and foresight to realize that the answer to creating jobs and making America more competitive in the world marketplace is to raise taxes on the higher earners who tend to be the job creators because they tend to own the smaller and mid size businesses that tend to be wealth creators and, therefore, job creators. Nowhere but in the rare and magnificent combination of community organizing and machine politics can you find this combination of good Chicken Shack economic policy, focused and value based government spending, competitive wage and benefit and pension programs and the really insightful leadership of academics and unemployed former politicians in cushy advisor jobs and running councils and committees and czarships. The czarships are something new. Boy have they ever produced spectacular results. Czarships are proven to be so beneficial that TheFundamentals may have to do a special czarship essay. Can’t wait to cover all the good news from those geniuses.

We are so grateful for everything, Mr. Organizer. Please sir, may we have another.

Feet of Clay on the Hudson and Potomac

PNoonan has been writing essays for the WSJ for some time. She also shows up on the cable and Sunday shows that are frequented by an inbred group who like to pat themselves on the back with their sense of being on the inside of matters that matter. They bestow themselves with the world view, the well read view, the big perspective, the ability to grasp what the common folk are either not up to or are just too busy with their mundane daily lives to embrace. Some of them, a small minority with their noses pressed against the window of the party in powers candy store, actually claim to be either libertarians or conservatives or both. The Noonan may be in this group. They are part of the self anointed who do little, talk a lot and hang out with each other and tell each other how insightful the last book or article or speech was. The Noonan does want to stay in this group.

So, she joined the childless Dowd and her sidekick Rich and did a chop job on SPalin. This act is intended to keep her group membership credentials in good order. By the way Noonan, how many children have your raised; how many challenged children have you nurtured; how many elected offices have you run for and held; how many personal attacks and non issue based criticisms have you responded to while trying to do your job and raise your family; how many times have you had to defend you under age children against attacks from the fools you pander to and fawn over in NYC and DC?

Here’s a recent Noonan quote on the dangers ahead and why Palin is not up to the job:

“Here are a few examples of what we may face in the next 10 years: a profound and prolonged American crash, with the admission of bankruptcy and the spread of deep social unrest; one or more American cities getting hit with weapons of mass destruction from an unknown source; faint glimmers of actual secessionist movements as Americans for various reasons and in various areas decide the burdens and assumptions of the federal government are no longer attractive or legitimate.”

Let’s examine her fears. The crash was produced by the elected/appointed people she fawns over and the silly do nothing bureaucrats they employ. Admission of bankruptcy. What does that mean? The group she supports now has thwarted the bankruptcy process for political payoff purposes. The acceptance of bankruptcy would actually permit a healing process to proceed. Social unrest? Would you prefer endless deficits and debt? Let’s hope that someone throws some politicians out of office and unemploys a bunch of federal, state and local bureaucrats. That is social unrest that would also provide healing and a strong foundation for future growth. Weapons of mass destruction. Lady, you and Cheney. Let’s all stay inside. The sky is falling. Oh woe be unto us. Only more bureaucrats with guns will save us. Secessionist movements? How about a little respect for the 10th amendment? You may call that secessionist. Some might call it the law of the land. Some states are competing and growing. Is yours? Is your beloved DC? NY?

If we try to find logic in this woman’s words, we would never make a change. Each time the incumbents got us into a mess we would need to seek their level of familiarity with the problems they created in order to deal with them. This is the logic of the insane. Keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting, hoping, for a different result. This woman has sold out for a few cocktail party invitations.

Obama had one thing right last fall. The US desperately needs change. What we are getting is a steroid version of the lack of fundamentals that marked eight years of GWBush. There is no way to keep spending and promising and giving things to people who neither sacrifice nor contribute. The answer is quite simple and Noonan’s NY/DC friends would at least recognize the authors – “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country” and “I’d rather be governed by the first 100 names in the Boston phone directory than the Harvard faculty.” Just as Buckley noted the problems of an inbred faculty, there are similar problems with Noonan’s search for leadership on the banks of the Potomac and Hudson. Open minds may also look to the banks of the Kuskokwim and elsewhere.

Judgment Day - addendum

One additional question that a reader suggests should be posed to Sotomayor (TheFundamentals, July 14, 2009.) “Judge, given your high opinion of Latina’s, what would you do if I, a white male, were to appear in front of you in litigation with a Latina? Would you recuse yourself based on your obvious and stated bias? Or, would I have to seek an impartial jurist on my own?”