The Democrats are nothing if not persistent. After trying to hang this dismal economy on President Bush while the Obama administration repeats every mistake from the Great Depression to create their own version, Tim Bishop says let’s go all in!
CEO
Photo by Sillgwailo
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz wrote an open letter to his fellows CEOs about the current economic situation. (Howard Schultz CEO Letter) In it he calls for action. The letter and Mr. Schultz are interesting both for what they say and what they don’t.
Presidential candidate Herman Cain stepped to the podium yesterday afternoon and addressed an enthusiastic crowd. Cain was plain spoken and engaging and immediately connected with his audience.
Tim Bishop continually bashes his opponent on the topic of outsourcing jobs. One of Mr. Bishop’s brilliant solutions, brilliant because it was conceived of in the halls of academia and Congress rather than at the helm of a company, is to raise taxes on companies foreign operations.
At the same time Mr. Bishop and his fellow travelers rail against businesses that are sitting on piles of cash rather than hiring and investing. Since he probably doesn’t know how to read a balance sheet, I will enlist the aid of John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems and Safra Catz, President of Oracle who spell it out in the Wall Street Journal.
Tomorrow is the New York State Republican Primary. We go to the polls to choose our candidates who will go up against the Democrats in November. This is an important election and an important turning point for our country. New York is a deep blue state and the Republican party seems to be part of the problem rather than part of the solution. The candidates that they often put forth are more likely to make Republicans throw up their hands and stay home on election day than turn out and vote.
We have seen the hope and change of the Obama administration and it scares the hell out of many Americans. The change we need is to turn out the “go along to get along” crowd and put in true reformers. At Tea Party meetings I encounter more and more New York conservatives who say they are tired of hiding their beliefs. They used to keep their political views to themselves because they feared repercussions from their employers, their customers, their schools, but they are tired of it. They tell me they are coming out of the closet.
We need to embrace this view. It may mean we lose some races like the special election in New York’s 23rd Congressional district, where the Republican bosses picked Dede Scozzafava, who after falling behind Doug Hoffman, the Conservative candidate, in the polls, dropped out and endorsed the Democrat. It is time to stand and be counted. Liberty’s Life Line makes the following endorsements.
New York’s First Congressional District
In New York’s First Congressional District, Liberty’s Life Line endorses Randy Altschuler. Randy came out early and often to challenge incumbent Congressman Tim Bishop and Speaker Nancy Pelosi on their reckless spending. He has articulated a conservative view on the major issues that we face and he is a free market conservative. Christopher Cox has a number of positions that are similar to Randy Altschuler, but instead of focusing on explaining how he would govern and why he is the better candidate, he chose the low road to attack his fellow Republicans in a mudslinging campaign that angered numerous voters. Mr. Cox also promotes a protectionist point of view, rather than a free market point of view and he seems confused about what the job of Congressman entails. In one of his ads he talks about putting Suffolk County taxpayers first. If he were running for County Executive, that would be fine, but a Congressman cannot put his constituents ahead of any other taxpayers. Federal tax laws should affect all Americans equally, and where they don’t they should be changed so that they do.
George Demos’ campaign is verging on the desperate. His positions on his web site are little more than platitudes and he has chosen to make the centerpiece of his campaign social issues that are not what the majority of the voters are concerned about right now. We are heading toward a debt crisis, and Mr. Demos oddly chose to run on an issue that will let the incumbent change the subject from the economy.
New York Senate versus Kirsten Gillibrand
Liberty’s Life Line endorses David Malpass for United States Senate for the seat currently held by Kirsten Gillibrand. Mr. Malpass has more experience at the federal level having worked in the Reagan administration. He also understands that New York has, for years, paid more money in taxes to Washington than New York has gotten back in government money. Yet every year Sentators Schumer and Gillibrand vote for more spending and more programs that New Yorkers will fund and others will reap the rewards. Mr. Malpass understands that the answer is not to fight for a bigger share of the pie for New York, but to shrink the pie and eliminate unnecessary programs and spending. Mr. Blakeman has relied more on imagery in his campaign and attacks on Mr. Malpass rather than focusing on how he would govern and therefore be the best choice for the Senate. Mr. DioGuardi seems to advocate the same old ways of doing business. For example, he advocates “Paygo” which was the tool Democrats invented to force tax increases as new programs were added to the economy and which the Wall Street Journal described as “kind of budget gimmick that gives gimmickry a bad name.” We need straight forward shrinking of government not better tools to monitor how badly it is being done.
New York Senate versus Chuck Schumer
Liberty’s Life Line endorses Jay Townsend for United States Senator for the seat currently held by Chuck Schumer. Both Mr. Townsend and Mr. Gary Berntsen have strong national security views, are for tax reduction and reduced spending. Mr. Townsend’s positions seem to be more thoroughly developed. For example, he is for the repeal of ObamaCare and in its place he supports some common sense methods to reduce the cost of delivering health care without spending $1 trillion. Mr. Berntsen doesn’t address health care on his website. Mr. Townsend also has pledged to ban all earmarks, which are basically the way incumbents bribe their constituents to send them back to Washington. Replacing Chuck Schumer will be a tough challenge so we need to put forth the best candidate we can.
New York State Governor
Liberty’s Life Line endorses Rick Lazio for governor. Although Carl Paladino has captured the anti-incumbent energy and had energized people to come out and support him, Rick Lazio has a concrete plan on how he would attack the issues. New York State government is so broken, Life Line could see that an outsider like Mr. Paladino could just be hamstrung and stalled by a legislature that is vehemently opposed to him. Think Arnold Schwarzenegger in California, who came in on a re-call election to turn things around but ended up being the one turned around. Mr. Paladino, as a CEO, is coming from an environment where he calls the shots, in Albany he will have to work with the legislature to get things done and it will take him a little while to figure out what buttons to push. Mr. Lazio has legislative experience as a Congressman, and has thought through his plan in sufficient detail that it might actually work. Mr. Paladino has moved the debate which is a major victory and if he loses the primary Life Line hopes he will support Mr. Lazio. Likewise, if he should prevail, we all must get behind him to defeat Mr. Cuomo in November.
Dred Scott Redux
In case you didn’t believe me in my post Stay on the Plantation that liberals think all “good” blacks belong to the group labeled “blacks” and if you don’t conform, watch out. California Senator Barbara Boxer, blithely walked into a buzz saw named Harry Alford, when he called her on gratuitously trying to put him in a box with the NAACP. Watch here: Senator Boxer Accused of Race Politics
The Audacity
You see, Harry Alford, CEO of the Black Chamber of Commerce, which represents business interests, has an issue with some legislation before Senator Boxer’s committee. He had the temerity to oppose what she wanted to do. So she said she was going to enter into the record a study by the Pew Research group (okay), a resolution by the NAACP (uh-oh), and a statement by John Grant, the CEO of “100 Black Men of Atlanta,” (huh?). And Harry pounced. What do these other black groups have to do with what he’s saying? He was quite incensed that as a black man, the Senator obtained documents from other black organizations who agreed with her, despite the relevance to energy policy. It was clear, the point was to isolate Harry Alford. Clearly show that he was off the plantation and that he better get back on the plantation, or trouble was coming.
Dred Scott Redux
Blacks are supposed to belong to the Democratic Party. If a black person should be as audacious as to speak their mind and not in concert with Democratic Party orthodoxy, then send out the troops to bring them back. It doesn’t matter if what they bring to bear on the recalcitrant person is relevant; just pile it on until they are shamed into returning to the fold or fading away into obscurity.
Liberty is under attack in the vilest way.
Our once proud automobile industry
The government institutes regulations such as CAFE that force the automobile companies to build many cars they can’t sell at a profit for each car they can. The unions negotiate contracts that pay people who have been let go 90% of their salary and give retirees extremely generous packages. The automobile companies stagger under this load to the brink of bankruptcy and what happens? The CEO of GM gets booted out and the government and the unions end up owning the car companies. In the case of Chrysler the UAW will end up owning 55% of the company if the government’s plan is approved.
Had the automobile companies gone into bankruptcy before the bailout, as this author advocated, the union contracts could have been voided and a new workable deal struck. But the government said bankruptcy was bad. The government said we had to give the car companies billions of our tax dollars. The government said, if you automobiles companies don’t accept our deal, you will be forced into bankruptcy. Huh?
So tell us again, Mr. Obama, how this is not socialism.
Your Tax Dollars Hard At Work
by Bill O'Connell on March 3, 2010
The US Postal Service is contemplating increasing postage rates and eliminating Saturday delivery. Really? They lost approximately $4 billion last year. But don’t worry the CEO got a bonus. It is reported that their labor costs, heavily unionized, exceed 80% of revenues. Did you know that the only place where unionization is growing is in the public sector? Union representation in the public sector surpassed the private sector for the first time this year.
But don’t worry, President Obama has a handle on it. He appointed Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union to the board to figure out how to reduce the deficit. Do you see a problem between these two news items? Can you see a problem with the objectives of an Andy Stern and you and me?
As a side note, Rick Perry just won the Republican primary for governor of Texas and in his campaign he used no yard signs, no phone banks, and no direct mail. As one commentator said “paper is dead.”
I know this is completely anecdotal, but my local post office just completed an expansion project increasing the size of the building. I have noticed more than one post office being expanded as well. Again, this is just my limited, personal observation, not a scientific study, but with the drop in mail volume, “paper is dead”, $4 billion in losses, performance bonuses for lackluster performance, heavy unionization, am I being unreasonable in thinking the government couldn’t handle health care even if it was a good idea?