Geoausch

I’m happy!

While many investors, media members and politicians lament the defeat of the proposed $700 billion rescue plan, I celebrate this resounding defeat of socialism.  Call me naive, but I believe that as a people and as a country we will be just fine. The United States has always responded well to adversity.

I admit; the economic situation makes an Obama victory more likely. However, House Republicans have shown that they have the intestinal fortitude necessary to stand up to the agenda of socialism pushed by the Democratic Party. Obama now knows that any attempt on his part to put government where government doesn’t need to be (i.e. health care) will be met with dissent.

I’m most proud of the people of this great land. Everyday citizens, like you and me, are the reason that this bill was defeated. We called our elected officials and voiced our opposition and the response was so overwhelming that they could not ignore us. Over the next few weeks, watch as European citizens cower to their government’s financial rescue attempts. I love them, but the Brits will sit around and let their government take control, socialism’s hold is firm and growing there. The French wouldn’t stand up to the Nazis, we know they wouldn’t stand up to their own government. The Germans, the Italians and most certainly the socialists in places like Spain, Greece and Denmark will stand back and let socialism gain even more control over their economic markets. Americans saw something they did not like and spoke up!

At the same time, we’re not caving into the corporatists who have ruined our country and ruined the Republican Party.  We are standing up to community organizers, like Barrack Obama, who use intimidation to force banks to loan money to unqualified home buyers.  We are standing up to the irresponsible consumers, who in an attempt to live well above their means, fell into a pit of debt. We, as American, are standing up and shouting for our elected officials and the rest of the world to hear–we expect people to take care of themselves, that personal responsibility is the only way out of our current economic crisis. It is because of this that I am a happy man today. America has not had this bravado since the tail end of the Reagan Administration.

I first played organized football as a 7th grader at Atlanta Junior High School in the early 90′s. We were a rag-tag bunch of football players with a ton of talent but little knowledge of the nuances of the game. Even so, our coaches stressed to us the importance of two basic principles–runing the ball and stopping the run. As a wide receiver, this wasn’t much fun to me. In our veer option offense, I was a glorified blocker, but the conservative philosophy payed off.  From the time we were 7th grade through our senior year in high school, our class lost only 4 games. That’s less than one a year.

Though 20 years have almost passed since those days, I believe the same principles still apply to football, even in this pass happy age. For proof, you need look no further than the Cowboys loss to the Redskins. The Cowboys rushed the ball only 11 times and gave up a total of 161 yards rushing. 

What was Jason Garrett thinking? This is a Princeton-educated man who is supposed to be the next coaching legend for the Dallas Cowboys. Yesterday, I believe Garrett’s biggest weakness was exposed yet again–stubborness. Garrett showed last year in the playoffs that he refuses to veer from his game plan, no matter what the opposition may throw at him. Yesterday, Garrett seemed hell bent on getting Terrell Owens involved with the offense, no matter what it meant for the rhythm of the team.  On countless occassions, Romo forced bad throws into double coverage or checked down to secondary receivers in an attempt to get T.O. some touches.

All the while, one of the leagues best back, Marion Barber, was left with only 9 touches. This is a man who rushed 28 times for 148 yards last week. And what about rookie sensation Felix Jones? Why didn’t Garrett attempt to get him involved?

What can you say about the defense? The 3-4 is a horrible defensive scheme to run, especially in the NFC, but the Brian Stewart/Wade Phillips version is even worse due to the coverage scheme they use. When you give a West Coast offense 10-20 yard cushions on the pass routes, you’re playing right into their hands. I could have played quarterback for the Redskins and picked the Cowboys’ secondary apart with that type of coverage.  Once the passing game got started, our front seven were on the heels for the remainder of the game and Clinton Portis had his best game of the season.

When you add all these elements together, you can clearly see that the common theme is “bad coaching”. Bad offensive play calling, bad defensive scheme, bad preparation of part of the head coach, all across the board, the Dallas Cowboys’ coaching staff failed their team, owner and millions of fans all over the world.

In all this madness, I was able to find a positive. This type of loss, this early in the season, serves as a perfect wake up call for a team that seemed to be invincible. As Bradie James said, “I don’t want to go undefeated. I want to win the games that count.” If this loss will cause the Cowboys to realize that they aren’t invincible and inspire them to play harder, longer, then we stand a great shot of winning the games that count in January.

Today, whatever you do, be sure to take a few minutes and say a good thought for Paul Newman, who passed at the age of 83. While Newman will be remembered for a ton of movies and his philanthropy, Newman will always be Cool Hand Luke to me. In a movie filled with memorable lines and memorable moments,  there is perhaps no greater moment in movie history than when “Luke” earns his nickname playing cards, kind of personified Newman’s life.

R.I.P. Paul Newman

I like getting political analysis from a variety of sources.  Every media outlet slants one way or the other, an unbiased media does not exist. Therefore, it is imperative to flip around to get the full story.

Personally, I felt John McCain won tonight’s debate and exposed Barack Obama as a one trick pony. Sure, Obama looked debonair, but he continues to fail to comprehend the basic principles of capitalism, either that or he disagrees with the principles of capitalism.  Indeed, Obama admitted that he felt “government regulation” was a major component to solving the ills plaguing the financial world. Though quick to point out the predatory nature of some lending institutions, Obama failed to talk about the role the irresponsible consumer and the tax-happy Federal government played in contributing to our current economic environment. Obama’s failure to understand these basic principles of capitalism prevent him from understanding the very basics of Wall Street.

Not only does he fail to understand Wall Street; he fails to understand “Main Street.”  I grew up on Main Street, literally, 202 West Main Street to be exact.  I’m not upset that Americans wealthier than me receive tax cuts. Other people’s success does not threaten me, rather it inspires me. Obama wants to cut taxes for 90% of Americans? That’s not good enough, McCain’s tax cuts extend even to wealthy Americans, which is only fair.

The one thing Obama continues to prove over and over again is that he does understand one street in the United States–Hollywood Boulevard.  Obama’s foriegn policy script could have been written by any Hollywood screen writer, Michael Moore, Barbara Streisand, or any other of the radical Leftists in Hollywood. Since we’re talking actors and directors, I feel it’s prudent to quote Shakespeare, “what’s done is done and cannont be undone.” Indeed, we may have gone into Iraq under false pretenses, but Obama and his Hollywood friends fail to acknowledge that once we entered that country, be it right or wrong, we had an obligation to finish what we started. Throughout tonight’s debate, I continued to hear this drivel spill out the mouth of Obama.

As you know, MSNBC decided to reassign their Leftist lightning rods, Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann for these debates. Matthews got stuck with the late shift following the debate tonight and I flipped it over to watch a bit of his Obama love fest. On several occasions, I was reminded of film clips of star struck female fans of Elvis and The Beatles from the 1960′s watching Matthews. He sat in a chair, arms cross his chest, as if he was trying to hug himself, his head tilted gently to the side as he stared off into the night, obviously enjoying a case of happy pants as he thought of his ultimate man crush Barrack Obama. He asked two basic questions to his guests, “Wasn’t Obama great?” and “Will  being ‘troll-like’ hurt John McCain?”

Seriously?  “Troll like?” If John McCain is “troll like,” what is Barrack Obama? Fascist like?

Chris, tell me, will being a fascist hurt Barrack Obama? Let’s hope so, because the one thing Obama does understand and embrace is fascism.

Next week, the Vice-Presidential debate: Palin v. Biden, should be a good one, but my money is on the Barracuda.

 

UPDATE: Please, feel free to post your comments. I’m not like the Daily Kos and left-wing blogs; all view points are welcomed here. If you disagree with me, I desire your comments even more.  I will never attack you. I’ll just comment on your comments. All I ask is that you come back to check for my response to your comments. Enjoy!

We’re all familiar with the story of the boy who cried wolf, after seeing the Bush administration’s presentation of the $700 billion dollar bailout, I’m convinced that George W. Bush is the President who cried wolf.  Leading up to our invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration sent out every one of their minions to convince our nation and the rest of the world that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to our way of living.  I never bought into Iraq war propaganda, but millions of Americans and many world leaders did–look at the debacle it turned into. While things have definitely turned and are headed in a positive direction in Iraq, it’s hard to believe anything that comes out of Bush’s mouth.

With that said, when George W. Bush comes out in front of the nation and says, “our entire economy is in danger,” many Americans are skeptical. Is our economy really in such dire condition that we must rely on the Federal government to spend $700 billion it doesn’t have to bail out troubled financial institutions or does George Bush have ulterior motives with the proposed bailouts, such as helping those who helped him get elected?

No wonder so many Americans are outraged!

When I launched this blog back at the end of July, I began with a post blasting the Dallas ESPN radio affiliate. Looking back, I may have been a little too harsh. I even elicited a response from one of their on-air personalities, who turned out to be a pretty good guy, just from a different generation of radio.

In that same post, I offered praise for Dallas’ other “sports talk” radio station, KTCK 1310 AM, The Ticket.

I love The Ticket; I listen it to at work pretty much all day, every day, especially during football season. I’ve never considered them a “perfect” station–the Bert & Ernie sounding morning show annoys me and you feel like you need to attend a session of Gamblers Anonymous after listening to Norm Hitzges, but for the most part they offer entertaining radio.

I do find it very ironic; however, that Program Director, Jeff Catlin, and Hardline replacement, Corby Davidson, spent so much time building up an on-air characters that defied the stereotypes of the Dallas douchebag, yet now both of them pander to the douche-iest of the Douche Bags, doing spots for Audi and BMW. You can’t really be a rebel and drive an Audi or BMW, yet you can be a douche.  Further proof they need a Greggo-like character back on their show.

Don’t get me wrong, I won’t be switching the dial over to ESPN 1033.3 anytime soon, but I felt it was time to come back and offer a little more balanced view of The Ticket, so here it is, great concept for a radio station–”guy talk”, that for the most part is entertaining. However, in the end, they are commercial driven radio and the end it’s about the almighty dollar and even the most hard core on-air character can turn into a Philistine in the blink of an eye.

When the country Somalia is brought up in casual conversation, it is usually in the context of our short lived military jaunt there in 1990′s. However, over the past two years, Somalia has crept back into cocktail chatter all over the nation. 

In 2006, I published Islami Fascists I and Islami Fascists II on my blog. It never generated much of a response and I got tired of bringing the issue up when people would just ignore it. However, today I had a friend bring up the current events in Somalia. In typical Leftist fashion, he made the Islami-fascists out to be the victims of United States’ exceptionalism.  I told him that if you were to take the Islami-fascist agenda and add the names “Jesus” and “Hashem”, the Left would go crazy and demand military action. Since it’s all done in the name of Mohammed, we must all stand by and praise the direction Somalia is headed. Evidently, sharia law is something we all need to experience.

I thought I would raise the issue once again on my blog and see if we could start a discussion this time. Check out the previous posts on the issue, Islami Fascists I and Islami Fascists II.

 Our current problem is the result of both the irresponsible consumer and the irresponsible investor. You can’t put all the blame on corporate America, nor can you put all the blame on consumers. The Federal government is at fault because when debt hits, they still expect their share of our hard earned money and their share of corporate America’s money. In short, the consumer wants money from the investor, the investor wants a return from the consumer and the Federal government wants everybody’s money. In that equation, there is always going to be a short fall. The one institution that doesn’t need the money is the Federal government.

 

Someone once said, “anyone in their 20′s who is not a liberal has not heart; anyone over the age of 30 who is not a conservative has no brain.” If you need any further proof to the last part of this maxim, look no further than James Andrew Jeppe. In addition to vandalizing the cars of high school students and other Southlake residents, the 72-year old Mr. Jeppe also admitted to being part of Green Peace, the Sierra Club and other fringe, environmental extremist organizations.

While I have no love loss with the residents of Southlake, I clearly see the actions of Mr. Jeppe as those of a hippie who never grew up.  Grown ups don’t act like this, only spoiled idealogues who never learned the meaning of personal responsibility. 

Left uncheck, this could lead to greater acts of eco-terrorism. Our neighbors in the Western U.S. know far too well how far these nut jobs are willing to go to advance their agenda. Hopefully, prosecutors will use Mr. Jeppe as an example to teach would be eco-terrorists that in Texas, eco-terrorism will not be tolerated.

Allow me to preface this post with the following: I’m no economic genius. Finance bores me to no end. In college, I avoided classes in economics and business on purpose. I love debating politics, especially foreign policy, con. law, and social issues, but I often shy from debating finances. I simply describe myself as “social liberal” and “fiscal conservative” and move on to debate a subject more comfortable to me.

With that said, I know enough about the “free markets”, capitalism and laissez-faire economics to know that the Bush administration’s $700 billion “rescue plan” and the $85 billion Federal Reserve bail out of AIG represent a slippery slope for government expansion and intervention in not only our financial markets, but our lives as well.

Where I come from, if a person accrues debt, living above their means, they don’t expect their parents to bail them out of their situation. Their parents more than likely will add words of wisdom and moral support, but in an attempt to teach responsibility, the debtor must pay the debts himself.

Why should corporations be treated any differently?

In essence, this is the situation we are facing. AIG, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch and even Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to a certain extent represent the “irresponsible debtor,” living well above their means, buying things on credit, hoping to turn a huge profit. Now that years of superfluous spending has gotten them in trouble, they run to their “rich daddy”–the Federal government–and expect some sort of financial assistance. Indeed, these irresponsible debtors expect you and me to pay for their mistakes.

At the risk of sounding naive, I propose we let these “irresponsible debtors,” sort through their debts on their own. If not, we can only expect these problems to occur again.

I realize that the markets have responded well to the bail outs, but this is the equivalent of a diet of candy and sodas. At first, there is a sugar high, but it will be soon followed by a hard crash due to a lack of sustenance.

While I’m not knowledgeable enough on economic issues to declare it the perfect solution, I do think John McCain’s response has been the best of any prominent politician thus far.