Warren Buffet and The American Political Class - Things You Probably Did Not Know

A number of months ago we ran a post that talked about the relationship between President Obama and legendary investor Warren Buffet. At that time, Obama was riding high on his class warfare rant about the wealthy in this country not paying enough in taxes and getting public support from Buffet.

We have proven any number of times in this blog that this is a hogwash argument, only meant to divide the country and increase the voting totals for the President this November. We have showed that even if you confiscated EVERY dollar annually earned by millionaire earners in this country or you confiscated the TOTAL wealth (cars, boats, homes, cash, real estate, etc.) of the wealthy in this country, you would never make a substantial dent in the debt problems this nation faces.

What we could not understand at that time is why Buffet was in such support of this asinine position. If we were smart enough to figure out this was only a divisive election year ploy, why wasn't Buffet smart enough to figure it out?

Which is when we hypothesized why this obvious ignorance might be going on. While all of this class warfare was going on, Bank of America was dropping deeper and deeper into dire financial straits. If a major, major bank like Bank Of America was to go under financially, this would have a seriously depressing impact on the whole financial system and the economy, something that any sitting President needs to avoid in a lead up to an election year.

We hypothesized (without any facts or proof, just circumstantial evidence) that Buffet was not being ignorant and a patsy of the President, he was just  being a good business person. Our hypothesis went as follows:

- Bank Of America needed an infusion of capital to remain solvent.
- Obama needed the bank to stay solvent and help in dividing the country along class lines for his reelection.
- Buffet likes to make loads of money.
- We concluded the conspiracy went as follows:

• Obama asked Buffet to support his tax-the-rich strategy in return for arranging great terms and conditions for Buffet throwing some of his money to Bank Of America.
• Bank Of America received the infusion of cash and gave Buffet incredible terms, both short term and long term, from an interest and stock option perspective.
• Buffet returned the favor to Obama by supporting his nonsensical tax-the-rich rhetoric.
• Bank Of America at least temporarily avoided bankruptcy, helping keep the economy from taking a nose dive in an election year.

While it all made sense and all happened at around the same time, there is no media proof or other proof that this actually happened. It might have all been a coincidence. However, if you read a fascinating article by Peter Schweizer, "Warren Buffet: Baptist and Bootlegger," that appeared in the March, 20120 issue of Reason magazine, our conspiracy theory is looking a lot better. [Please note: the details of our Bank Of America theory can be found at the following address]:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/search?q=%22bank+of+america%22

It seems that this is not the first time that Mr. Buffet played the political class for his own company's benefit. He has been all over Washington for the past few years, not for the benefit of the country, but for the benefit of his company, Berkshire Hathaway. Without going into a long, detailed description of the exploits of Mr. Buffet Goes to Washington that Mr. Schweizer provides in the article, consider the following highlights:

• Mr. Schweizer correctly describes Mr. Buffet as much as a"political entrepreneur" as a "business entrepreneur"
• He points out how Mr. Buffet, through Berkshire Hathaway, "has used taxpayer money as a vehicle to even greater profits and wealth" and that "the profitability of some of his largest investments rely on government largess and coddling with taxpayer money."
• At the height of the financial crisis in 2008, Buffet invested $5 billion in Goldman Sachs who needed the cash since it was not only short of cash but over leveraged in its investments. For his investment, Buffet received incredible terms including preferred stock with a whopping 10% yield and an attractive option to buy another $5 billion shares.
• However, he only did this because he expected the Federal government and Federal political class to bail out the banks: "If I didn't think the government was going to act [with taxpayer money], I wouldn't be doing anything this week."
• Buffet also had large financial stakes in other banks including Wells Fargo and U.S. Bancorp so he really needed the Federal government and political class to get a bank bailout plan implemented.
• To help that plan come to fruition, Schweizer points out Buffet went to work in Washington to ensure that the bank bailout program, TARP, actually got implemented by our politicians.
• The first bill to implement a bank bailout program was defeated in Congress but.......
• Many sitting Congressional people had large personal investments in Buffet's company: 1) Senator Bill Nelson held between $1 and $6 million of Berkshire stock, 2) Senator Dick Durbin bought Berkshire stock four times in just a three week period in late 2008, during the bailout debate in Congress, during the vote on the bailout and after the bailout vote, 3) Senator Claire McCaskill bought $500,000 worth of Berkshire stock just days after the bailout was approved, and 4) Senator Orrin Hatch also bought the stock during this time period.
• But it gets even better: following Buffet's investment in Goldman Sachs, Congressman John Boehner, Congressman Vern Buchanan, and Senator Jeff Bingaman also bought Goldman stock during this period.
• Senator Barack Obama was an early non-supporter of the bailout but over time he also became a supporter, probably with the support of Buffet since according to Schweizer, "Buffet struck a posture of cheering on the bailout from the sidelines" and more incredibly, he actually "participated in a conference call with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other House Democrats during which he pushed them to passed the [bailout] bill."
• Schweizer claims that without the bailout bill, it would be a financial disaster for the Berkshire investments in Goldman and other banks; with the bill he would receive a financial windfall.
• All told, financial companies that Buffet had major financial stakes in received $95 billion in TARP money while many banks, without Buffet's Washington connections received no bailout money, at least according to Robert Wilmers, chairman of M&T Bank: "The pattern is clear: the bailout money and the perks are concentrated among the big banks, the ones who pay the lobbyists and make the campaign contributions, while the healthy banks pay the freight."
• It was critical that Buffet's bank investments receive help since, according to the article, 30% of Berkshire's total wealth was tied up in the banking industry. The Houston Chronicle carried an investigative article in April, 2009 which concluded that Berkshire was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the banking bailout.
• Schweizer concludes that if Goldman had not received the bailout money, Berkshire would have taken a major hit on that investment rather than reaping $2.5 billion in profit on just the Goldman investment.
• But banks are not the only area where Buffet and Berkshire intersect with Washington. The article reviews how Buffet's purchase of Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railroad and its  footprint of railroad tracks physically overlaps very nicely with his friend's/Barack Obama's  pipe dream of a high speed rail network.
• Relative to Obama's $800 billion economic stimulus program, if you go to the program's website which tracks stimulus grants and loans and search on "BNSF,"  you get about 1,800 entries returned. Dig deeper into the search results and you find that Buffet interests received tens of millions of stimulus dollars, if not more, from a wide variety of Federal departments including Homeland Security and the EPA.
• And finally, after Buffet and his companies made billions of dollars off of taxpayer wealth in a wide variety of ways, he graciously decided to host a reelection fund raiser for Obama in August, 2011 at the cost of $35,000 for each attendee. Obviously, it was the least he could do.

Thus, the next time you see a joint appearance by Warren Buffet and Barack Obama, think about their joint history, a portion of which is listed above.  Don't pay much attention to what they say but focus on what Mr. Buffet is getting out of the appearance. That will help put everything in perspective because if Buffet's behavior proves anything from the past few years, he is in it for the money, even if it is yours, mine, and every other taxpayer's money in the country.

As Mr. Schweizer concludes in his last paragraph: "Warren Buffet is a financial genius. But even better for his portfolio, though worse for the rest of us, he is a political genius.


We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:


http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/


The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.


The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/

Obama's Trampling Of Rights and Freedom Continues, Orwell Style

We have been very critical of the Obama administration over the past three years for many reasons:

• His fiscal policies have created unbelievable national debt levels for the American economy and taxpayers.
• His economic programs, including his $800 billion failure of a stimulus program, Cash For Clunkers, Cash For Appliances, and other programs, have failed miserably at great cost.
• He has ignored the rule of law and the Constitution at his whim such as selectively deciding what laws to enforce or  not enforce, involving us in an illegal military conflict in Libya, and bypassing the Constitutional responsibility of Congress to review and approve appointments to high level government positions.
• His foreign policy has allowed Iran and North Korea to get three years closer to becoming nuclear weapon armed nations and his State Department failed miserably in foreseeing the Arab Spring's threats and opportunities.
• His administration has failed to develop and lead the effort to address and resolve the major issues of our times including our failing public schools, our lost war on drugs, our illegal immigration/leaky borders problem, our outrageously ineffective tax code, and a government bureaucracy that wastes over $500 billions a year through inefficiencies and outright criminal fraud.
• Rather than lead and unite, he has stood passively by as his political allies have slandered and demeaned ordinary Americans who have a difference of opinion by calling them a variety of names including racists, un-American, terrorists, barbarians, a__h____s, gerbils, and Neanderthals.
• His health care reform law will likely result in tens of millions of Americans losing their current employer health care insurance coverage, will add hundreds of billions of dollars to the national debt in the first ten years, will impose almost 2,000 new government restrictions and mandates on Americans' freedom of choice, and will not work in fixing the root causes of problem of escalating health care costs in this country.

Really nasty stuff. But the above transgressions and failures are fairly obvious to anyone who looks at the results and numbers objectively. More devious, more insidious than these failures is the more subtle erosion of our rights and liberty by the many policies of this administration that short circuit our right to privacy, our right to a trial by our peers, and the right of being assumed innocent until proven guilty.

Consider the following instances in this area that may or may not have been reported by the main stream press:

- An article by Jacob Sullum in the March, 2012 issue of Reason Magazine was entitled: "Indefinite Detention - Does the President have the power to imprison anyone he says is a terrorist?" He reports on the passage of a bill that President Obama signed last December called the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). According to Mr. Sullum, this legislation gives the President the authority to keep terrorism suspects in custody for as long as the Federal government deems necessary, with or without a trial, "the NDAA explicitly affirms the legality of military detention without trial."

Now, one would have hoped that this draconian law would only apply to the foreign terrorist fighters that are not American citizens and who are fighting in the caves of Afghanistan or elsewhere around the world. Unfortunately, according to Senator Lindsey Graham, a leading supporter of the bill, it also applies to American citizens living within the United States: "The statement of authority to detain (without trial)...does apply to American citizens and it designates the world as the battlefield, including the homeland."

Very scary stuff with the potential for abuse sky high. It is not inconceivable, using Orwell''s "1984" as a blueprint, that the Federal government and those that operate it could very well use this law not only to indefinitely lock up real terrorists without trial but also to lock up political opponents indefinitely without trial under the false guise of protecting homeland security.

Mubarak in Egypt did the same thing for thirty years, other dictators around the world do the same thing every day. The U.S. Congress and the President of the United States just made the same thing possible in this country.

- Don't think the previously scenario could play out in this country? Something worst has already occurred when President Obama approved the assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen and a leading terrorist leader in Yemen in 2011. This assassination of an American citizen was carried out without any due process of law, any trial, any defense of al-Awlaki actions and intentions. For the first time ever, our government crossed a very dangerous line and officially sanctioned an assassination of an American citizen.

There is no doubt that al-Awlaki was a very bad dude that he wanted to kill as many Americans as possible. However, was it right to kill him without a trial, a right that has existed in this country since its creation? Is it right that the Obama administration has established an official "assassination panel" (Reason magazine - http://reason.com/blog/2011/10/06/a-secret-panel-put-anwar-al-aw) that will review other Americans and non-Americans for assassination in the future, trampling on the right of other citizens to have a fair trial for their alleged transgressions?

Once a line is crossed, it becomes easier to cross that same line in the future. If your government has no problem killing another American without a trial, and has established a process to do so, it will have little problem keeping any American in detention indefinitely under the NDAA provisions.

- But the Federal government does not have to hold you indefinitely or assassinate you to trample on your rights. Consider the findings in a Wall Street Journal article from October 10, 2011. The article went into detail how this administration had obtained a secret court order to force Google and another small ISP provider, Sonic.net, Inc., to turn over information from the email accounts of Wikileaks volunteer, Jacob Appelbaum.

Nowhere in the article is there any evidence that Mr.Appelbaum broke any laws. He apparently did not plot to bomb anyone or anyplace in the world. He apparently did not plot to support anyone or any organization who planned to bomb anyone or any place. He apparently was not involved in illegal drugs or illegal gun running (unlike what the Obama administration did in its Fast and Furious operation). He was a volunteer working for a non-terrorist company/operation. Nevertheless, the Obama administration through its Justice Department felt the need to go after his email records via a secret court order by a secret court.

Google and Sonic.Net both fought for two principles in this case: 1) they wanted to tell their customer, Mr. Appelbaum, that his email records had been turned over to the Feds and 2) did not want to turn over the records without a regular search warrant. Apparently, they failed on both counts, the records were turned over without Mr. Appelbaum's knowledge.

The article goes on to educate us that it is currently far easier for the Federal government to get access to our email records than our regular postal system mail since the 1986 legislation, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), was passed prior to the advent of the Web. Politicians and judges alike have identified this problem:

• An actual sponsor of the ECPA, Senator Patrick Leahy said the original law is "significantly outdated and outpaced by rapid changes in technology." He is trying to get a bill passed that would restrict unfettered access to a citizen's email activity.
• Judge Danny Boggs ruled in Federal court in 2011 that the government violated the Fourth Amendment when it seized 27,000 emails without a search warrant: "The police may not storm the post office and intercept a letter, and they are likewise forbidden from using the phone system to make a clandestine recording of a telephone call unless they get a warrant. It only stands to reason that, if government agents compel an ISP to surrender the contents of a subscriber's emails, those agents have hereby conducted a Fourth Amendment search."

Kudos to the Judge and Senator for looking out for our Fourth Amendment rights and freedoms. However, the same cannot be said of the Obama administration. A high ranking Justice department official, Associate Deputy Attorney General James Baker warned Congress "that raising the standard for obtaining information under ECPA may substantially slow criminal and national security investigations."

In other words, this administration is perfectly happy to conduct searches in violation of a citizen's Fourth Amendment rights based on very little justification and grounds. Mr. Appelbaum's harassment and violation of his rights is the perfect example of what could happen to any of us.

- Several months ago it was reported by the Associated Press that the CIA, a Federal government entity that is precluded by law from operating domestically, was actively helping the New York Police Department to set up programs to track, monitor and spy on Muslims within the jurisdiction of the NYPD. This is obviously a violation of U.S. law and thus, a violation of Constitutional and privacy rights.

Any facet of government should not be allowed to spy on and track citizen's movements and communications without probable cause. Just because you are of the Muslim faith does not mean you are a terrorist. Just because you are of the Muslim faith does not mean you give up your right to privacy as a U.S. citizen. Freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom to gather, freedom to privacy, so many violations by a government organizations that should not even be acting within our shores.

Fortunately, according to a February 26, 2012 Associated Press report, "NYPD Surveillance Of Students Called Disgusting," people may be waking up to this gross violation of Constitutional rights. According to the article:

• NYPD is not just restricting their tracking and monitoring of Muslims to New York City but is extending their surveillance to dozens of colleges both within and outside the boundaries of New York City.
• Official police documents show that the NYPD is using undercover officers and informants to infiltrate Muslim student groups.
• In one example uncovered by the Associated Press, an undercover police officer went whitewater rafting with students and reported on how many times they prayed and what they discussed.
• Police also scan college websites and blogs, compiling reports on the activities of Muslim students and academics.
• The NYPD has also built databases of where Muslims lived, worked, prayed, and where they watched sports.

Unbelievable. If this does not sound like McCarthyism, nothing does. Nowhere in the article is it stated, avowed or proven that any of these Muslim citizens had committed criminal or even suspicious activity that warranted such tracking and monitoring. The only NYPD defense reviewed in the article was that in the past, a dozen or so convicted or accused radicals had been associated with Muslim groups. However, it does not appear that this massive invasion of privacy was based on any of these dozen, or other, suspected terrorists.

Unfortunately, the local government in NYC is unlikely to stop these actions any time soon.The police commissioner is quoted as saying these types of activities will continue. And Mayor Bloomberg is even more direct in defending these freedom atrocities: "Mayor Michael Bloomberg said his police department's monitoring of Muslims — even outside the city at colleges in Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and upstate New York — was "legal," ''appropriate" and "Constitutional."

- One has to assume by the Obama administration's silence and tacit approval of allowing the CIA to help develop and establish this surveillance process that they too are comfortable with this new McCarthyism and explicit violation of many rights and liberties.

But maybe the administration is not so silent or tacit. According to an Associated Press article from February 27, 2012 reported that some of the Muslim tracking funding came directly out of the White House. Details of their complicity include the following:

• The money was used to pay for the cars that plainclothes NYPD officers used to conduct surveillance on Muslim neighborhoods.
• The funding also paid for computers that store even innocuous information about Muslim college students, mosque sermons, and social events.
• The amount of funding from the White House has been kept secret.
• When NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly was filled in on these surveillance efforts, his briefings were prepared on computers funded by the White house for the surveillance of Muslims neighborhoods.
• The Obama administration, however, has explicitly refused to endorse or repudiate the NYPD programs it helps pay for.
• The White House last week declined to comment on its grant payments.
• John Brennan, Obama's top counter terrorism adviser, last year called the NYPD's efforts "heroic" but would not elaborate.
• Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, whose department also has given funding to the NYPD, has refused in recent months to discuss the police tactics.
• Tom Perez, the Justice Department's top civil rights lawyer, has repeatedly refused to answer questions about the Muslim tracking program.

Disgraceful, Orwell and his Big Brother character from "Big Brother" would be so proud.

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said: "An injustice anywhere threatens justice everywhere." It could be over-the-top Muslim surveillance today but over-the-top Jewish surveillance tomorrow. It could be Mr. Appelbaum having his email records seized today for no valid reason but your email records being seized tomorrow for no valid reason. While it could be a national security enemy assassinated today but it could be a political enemy assassinated tomorrow.

And just to be sure, all of this is happening on Obama's watch. It is not something he can blame on Bush. He has signed the NDAA legislation that allows for unlimited detention of American citizens without a trial or hearing, he signed off on the al-Awlaki assassination. his Justice Department is seizing email records with due cause, and he has sat back while citizens are extensively tracked for no reason except their choice of religion, using funding that he controls. Despicable, disgusting, and certainly not the American way of freedom.


“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein

We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/

Waste To The Left Of Them, Waste To The Right Of Them, Into The Valley of Earmarks Rode the 535

The inspiration for today's post comes from the classic poem by Lord Alfred Tennyson, "The Charge of The Light Brigade" which glorified the bravery and leadership of the British cavalry in a long ago war, "cannons to the left of them, cannons to the right of them, etc." However, today we will not be talking about bravery. The topic is the waste, greed, personal enrichment, shallowness, and massive conflict of interest of sitting members of Congress, hardly ever a bunch that display bravery and leadership.

A recent Washington Post article did a fabulous job of documenting the unbelievable waste of taxpayer wealth that our politicians in Washington continually commit in the name of earmarks and personal/family enrichment. The article listed out some of the Federal expenditures that specific members of Congress championed, how they personally profited from each abuse of taxpayer wealth, and their defense of the waste. The details of the article can be accessed online at the following site:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/capitol-assets/public-projects-private-interests/#



As you go through the following list, keep in mind the following:

• The following list is a partial recap of what was in the Post article which I believe was just a partial list of the total amount of wasteful spending and earmarks incurred each year by the entire Congress. Thus, no matter how outraged you become by reading this post or the article, remember that the situation is worse than what is depicted. These are examples of only 29 politicians currently in Congress, it does not include the other 506 politicians that are probably just as bad.
• Conflict of interest comes in many forms as you will see. It includes unabashed advancement of a politician's own personal financial enrichment, the financial advancement of a politician's friends and family members, the financial advancement of a politician's side business ventures and holdings, and the convenience advancement of a politician's home or business location.
• What these politicians do not seem to realize is that the appearance of a conflict of interest is just as damning as an actual conflict of interest.
• These examples range across both political parties and both houses of Congress, the blatant abuse of power and wealth knows no boundaries.
• Just because your Congressional district is the recipient of earmark funding do not think you are ahead of the game. While your Congressional district may have received some Congressional funds, your earmark windfall is offset by the income taxes you pay to support the earmark windfalls in the other 434 Congressional districts and other 49 states.
• In every one of the 29 cases listed below, if you go to the Washington Post article you will see how each politician defends the respective expenditure and how each one claims it is not a conflict of interest. As a trained statistician, and making some rational assumptions, I estimate that the odds of EVERY ONE of these cases not being a conflict of interest is about 536 million to one. Not very likely.
• When you are finished reading the wasting of hundreds of millions of dollars just these 29 politicians incurred, think back to our post last Friday and the people in this country that do not even have enough money to keep themselves warm this winter.
• And finally, remember that several decades ago, when the Statue Of Liberty was in dire need of refurbishing, the entire refurbishing job was done with private and corporate donations and no Federal government tax money was involved. If Federal tax money was not used to fix the symbol of our country and our freedom, Federal tax money should not be used to create bike paths in Michigan, refurbish a beach in front of a politician's property, enhance the real estate value of a politician's home or business, etc. That is the benchmark: none of the expenditures below should warrant national money if the Statue of Liberty did not.

Without further delay, the following is your political class at work, for themselves, for their business, and for their family members, but not for you:

• Rep. Robert B. Aderholt (R - Ala.) - Since 2008, Aderholt has helped secure about $440,000 for the University of Montevallo while his wife served on the university's board of trustees.

• Rep. Todd Akin (R - Mo.) - Between 2005 and 2009, Akin helped secure $3.3 million to upgrade part of Route 141 in his district west of St. Louis. Less than a half-mile east of Route 141, Akin and his family own nine acres. Akin's family has applied to construct six homes on the land.

• Rep. Robert E. Andrews (D - N.J.) - Andrews has helped secure $3.3 million over the past decade for a scholarship program at Rutgers School of Law in Camden, N.J., where his wife is an associate dean in charge of scholarships and special legal programs.

• Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett (R - Md.) - Bartlett, since 2005, has helped secure about $4.5 million toward improving Interstate 270 and Buckeystown Pike. From there, Buckeystown Pike leads south and west to Bartlett's home, his farm and rental properties that earn the lawmaker up to $150,000 a year.

• Rep. Rob Bishop (R - Utah) - From 2007 to 2009, Bishop requested earmarks worth more than $1.5 million for Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. His son, Shule, was hired there in 2010 as a state government lobbyist.

• Rep. Sanford D. Bishop Jr. (D - Ga.) - News organizations in Georgia reported that Bishop helped secure nearly $200,000 in 2008 and 2009 for a middle school mentoring program that employed Bishop's stepdaughter and her husband.

• Rep. Corrine Brown (D - Fla.) - Between 2005 and 2010, Brown helped secure $21.9 million for six clients of a lobbying firm where her daughter works.

• Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D - NC) - Butterfield has helped obtain $817,500 over the past few years toward revitalizing buildings in Wilson, N.C. The lawmaker owns 19 properties within three-quarters of a mile of the project.

• Rep. Norm Dicks (D - Wash.) - In 2008, Dicks, as an appropriations chairman, secured a $1.82 million earmark for a Washington state environmental agency where his son worked as executive director.

• Rep. Kay Granger (R - Tex.) - Over the past decade, Granger has helped obtain $51.9 million in earmarks toward a project to makeover downtown Fort Worth and reroute the Trinity River. Until 2010, Granger co-owned a condominium building with her son about a half-mile south of the project. Her son is director of the group in charge of the project.

• Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey (D - N.Y.) - In Saugerties, a village in upstate New York, Hinchey in 2005 earmarked $960,000 to upgrade downtown streets. In 2009, he secured $800,000 to overhaul sewer lines. Hinchey is a partner in a hotel development in the heart of the village and values his interest at $250,000 to $500,000.

• Rep. Rubén Hinojosa (D - Tex.) - In 2009, Hinojosa obtained a $665,000 earmark to help widen a road next to a 3.7-acre commercial property that his family partnership was developing and near the family food processing plant in Mercedes, Tex.

• Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D - Tex.) - Jackson Lee helped secure about $5.3 million to the University of Houston in 2009 and 2010 while her husband was vice president of student affairs and vice chancellor of student affairs for the university system.

• Sen. Tim Johnson (D - S.D.) - In 2008, Johnson, along with seven other Senators, added $4 million to a Pentagon program to fund math and science education called STARBASE. Johnson's wife worked as a contract employee evaluating the program between 2005 and 2011.

• Rep. Jack Kingston (R - Ga.) - Kingston co-sponsored a $6.3 million earmark in 2008 to replenish the beach on Tybee Island, where he owns a cottage about 900 feet from the beach. "It's absurd to suggest that this benefits me," he said. No, Congressman, it's absurd to think it doesn't.

• Rep. Robert E. Latta (R - Ohio) - Latta co-sponsored $2.8 million in earmarks in 2009 and 2010 for water and wind research at Bowling Green State University at the time that his wife was a university senior vice president.

• Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D - Ill.) - Lipinski cosponsored $2.5 million in earmarks since taking office in 2005 for rail projects overseen by the Chicago Transit Authority. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the CTA is a lobbying client of his father, William Lipinski, a former congressman. The CTA has paid William Lipinski $766,330.20 in lobbying fees since 2007.

• Rep. Frank A. LoBiondo (R - N.J.) - Since 2008, LoBiondo has helped secure $4.68 million for beach monitoring and nourishment along the shores of Ventnor City, N.J., where he and his wife own a home about 850 feet from the beach.

• Rep. Candice S. Miller (R - Mich.) - Miller secured a $486,000 earmark in 2006 to help add a 14-foot-wide bike lane to a new bridge over the Clinton River, about 900 feet from her home. "People earmark for all kinds of things," Miller said. "I'm pretty proud of this; I think I did what my people wanted. Should I have told them, 'We can never have this bike path complete because I happen to live by one section of it.' No, Congresswoman, you should have told your "people" to pay for it themselves without Federal money.

• Rep. Gary G. Miller (R - Calif.) - Miller secured $1.28 million in earmarks in 2005 to help repave, re-landscape and install new drains along Grand Avenue in Diamond Bar, Calif. The project, previously reported by The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin of Ontario, upgraded an access road for a residential and retail development that he co-owned with a campaign donor. Miller sold the property months after securing the earmark.

• Rep. Ed Pastor (D - Ariz.) - Between 2005 and 2010, Pastor earmarked about $4 million from an Energy Department agency tasked with securing the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile to a program for at-risk teenagers at Maricopa Community Colleges. His daughter runs the program.

• Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D - Calif.) - Over the past decade, the House minority leader helped secure $50 million in earmarks toward a light-rail project that provides direct access to San Francisco's Union Square and Chinatown for neighborhoods south of Market Street. Pelosi's husband owns a four-story commercial building blocks from Union Square.

• Rep. Nick J. Rahall II (D - W.Va.) - In 2005, Rahall helped secure $20 million toward a parking garage with a bus and taxi facility in downtown Beckley. The project is about a half-mile from his son's home, less than one mile from a commercial property owned by the lawmaker, and a little more than a mile from his residence.

• Sen. Harry M. Reid (D - Nev.) -In 2004 and 2005, the Senate majority leader secured $21.5 million to build a bridge over the Colorado River, linking the gambling resort town of Laughlin, Nev., with Bullhead City, Ariz. Reid owns 160 acres of undeveloped land in Bullhead City.

• Rep. Harold Rogers (R - Ky.) - Rogers has helped earmark $7.1 million since 2002 to a project that made over a half-mile strip of College Street where Rogers has his residence. The project narrowed parts of the street to slow traffic, buried overhead utilities, rebuilt sidewalks, paved streets and installed new driveway aprons, curbs and decorative lamps.

• Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D - Md.) - Ruppersberger helped obtain $187,000 in 2008 toward a beach replenishment survey of the Ocean City shoreline. He and his wife own two condominium units there.

• Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R - Ala.) - Shelby has earmarked more than $100 million toward rebuilding downtown Tuscaloosa, Ala., where he owns an office building. The street in front of the building will be redone as part of phase two of the project.

• Rep. John F. Tierney (D - Mass.) - Since 2005, Tierney has helped secure about $3.5 million toward a 950-space parking garage and commuter rail station in Salem, Mass. The facility will be about a quarter-mile from a commercial building the Congressman co-owns.

• Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R - Fla.) - Over the past decade, Young helped secure $73 million for companies that employed his sons. One worked as a security administrator in the St. Petersburg office of Science Applications International Corp., a defense contractor; the other as an outreach specialist for the National Forensic Science Technology Center. Young's spokesman did not respond to requests for comment. Young told the Times in a 2008 story that the earmarks were based on merit, not because the programs employed his sons.

They continue to make us so not proud with their focus on themselves and the lack of focus on the problems that afflict most Americans. These national issues and problems included skyrocketing national debt, a lost war on drugs, failing public schools, an ineffective and unfair tax code, and many other issues that are far more important than bike paths and beach refurbishments in front of politicians' homes.

Step 44 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" would be a simple fix to this abuse and nonsense. Step 44 would prohibit the use of Federal tax dollars on any project that did not materially impact the lives of a significant number of citizens in at least five states. This would eliminate the use of Federal taxpayer wealth on such nonsense as Michigan bike paths and Maryland beach replenishment.

Under this principle, these types of projects do not affect citizens in at least five states and thus, under Step 44, it would be the responsibility and money of the local and state citizens to fund these local efforts. Our representatives are sent to Washington to address and resolve national problems, not to focus on their own enrichment and own reelection.

Under a United States of Purple Presidency, Step 44 would be a guiding principle in whether or not to sign any piece of legislation. No more local earmarks, just a focus on national issues. For the first time ever, the country would have a Presidency that really stopped earmark abuse, not like the current President who promised to stop the process and waste but like many of his promises, never fulfilled them. No more charging into the valley of earmarks and waste.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein







We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:


http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/


The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.


The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/

Cold In Maine; Smug, Wasteful, and Impotent In Washington - Isn't It A Shame

Fascinating and depressing article in the February 24, 2012 issue of The Week magazine called "When Cold Kills - The frigid Maine winter, says Dan Barry, can turn lethal when the fuel oil runs out." This article originally appeared in the New York Times earlier this year.

The article focuses on Robert and Wilma Hartford who had recently moved into a poorly insulated house outside of Dixfield, Maine. Robert was a former stone mason who had traveled the country applying his trade and skills. However, Robert (age 68) now has a bad shoulder and Wilma (age 71) needs a wheel chair. They survive on $1,200 a month and have received about $360 in heating assistance. Because of their financial situation, like others mentioned in the story, they are not financially able to switch to more efficient, less expensive forms of home heating, locking them into their current financial duress of increasingly expensive oil home heating.

Even though it has been a relatively mild winter across the country, it still gets pretty cold up in Maine. Unfortunately, with rising heating oil prices, a fixed income, and health issues, this has placed a severe financial hardship on the Hartfords. The story revolves about their struggle to heat their poorly insulated home and the compassionate heating oil supplier that wants to help them but has already extended over $700 worth of credit in previous oil deliveries with little hope of ever recovering that money.

The heating oil supplier wants to help, he is a decent and compassionate human being, but he also needs to run a profitable business if he wants to stay in business. The story describes how this supplier is so torn up by the problem that he is under a doctor's care for stress.

The story goes on to describe how some Maine residents are keeping warm. Some sit in their idling cars with the car heater at full blast to warm up and then rush into their bedrooms and get under the bed covers. They buy portable, and more dangerous kerosene heaters, and hope they can afford kerosene. They look to their family and churches for help.

The Hartfords now have to heat their home by turning on the electric stove and burners and hope to spread what little heat they can get from that source throughout the house with a small fan. They ran their clothes dryer hose back into the basement to utilize the heat coming out of the dryer to keep their basement pipes from freezing. This obviously begs the question that if they do not have the money today to pay for home heating oil, will they have the money next month to pay for what is likely to be a very high electric bill from running the stove and clothes dryer to generate heat.

And in the most heartbreaking part of the story, Rober Hartford shows up at the heating oil supplier's business and offers to trade the title to the family car for a delivery of heating oil.

Part of the problem, according to the article, is that the Obama administration and Congress have cut the government subsidy for its energy assistance program. They have made it harder to qualify for Federal energy help and they reduced the amount of help available, on average by about 40%, from $804 to $483. This 40% drop is more impactful when you consider that the average price of heating oil is up $.40 or about 12% over the past year.

Now, I have never been a fan of large government bureaucracies, mostly because they are wasteful, inefficient, and ineffective. They tend to be corrupted from day one and never deliver on their promise. However, that does not mean there is not a place for a program to help Americans in need of a little help. And certainly, keeping people warm is such a program.

It has always been our theory that if government and the political class stopped doing a lot of things very badly and focused on just a few major things, and did those few things well, we as Americans would be way ahead of where we are now. We are the wealthiest country in the world, we should be able to do a much better job of feeding the hungry and warming the cold. Isn't it a shame that we do not?

Isn't it a shame that the Obama administration spent well over a billion dollars on an unnecessary and un-Constitutional military excursion in Libya? Think about how many Americans like the Hartfords might be a little warmer today of Obama had obeyed the Constitutional and our laws and not inserted us into the Libyan conflict.

Isn't it as shame that politicians like Obama continue to host campaign fund raising dinners that cost anywhere from $35,000 to $70,000 per person to attend in these hard economic times? Think about how many Americans like the Hartfords might be a little warmer today if our priorities were changed so that we spent $35,000 on home heating assistance rather than on one lame dinner with one lame politician?

Isn't it a shame that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives and employees received millions of dollars in government salary bonuses for operating two of the most dysfunctional enterprises in the history of America? Think about how many Americans like the Hartfords might be a little warmer today if those unnecessary bonus payouts were put back into the energy assistance program.

Isn't it a shame that the U.S. Navy spent over $300 million to build two ships, the USNS Benjamin Isherwood and the USNS Henry Eckford, that it never used, simply built them and than junked them? Think about how many Americans like the Hartfords might be a little warmer today if the military did not waste hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars on unnecessary armaments?

(http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2011/07/us-navy-ships-for-sale-cheap-never-used.html)

Isn't it a shame that the Obama administration and Washington political class allow anywhere between $60 and $90 billion a year of Medicare resources to be lost to waste and criminal fraud activities? Think about how many Americans like the Hartfords might be a little warmer today if the Federal government knew how to run an efficient, effective, and less expensive Medicare program.

Isn't it a shame that the Obama administration and the Washington political class allow anywhere between $30 and $40 billion a year of Medicaid resources to be lost to waste and criminal fraud activities? Think about how many Americans like the Hartfords might be a little warmer today if the Federal government knew how to run an efficient, effective, and less expensive Medicaid program.

Isn't it a shame that the Obama administration and the Washington class allow about $70 billion a year of Social Security resources to be lost to waste and criminal fraud activities? Think about how many Americans like the Hartfords might be a little warmer today if the Federal government knew how to run an efficient and effective Social Security program.

Isn't a shame that the Obama administration, the IRS, and the Washington political class fail to collect over $300 billion worth of taxes a year from tax evaders? Think about how many Americans like the Hartfordss might be a little warmer today if the IRS actually collected the taxes it is supposed to collect.

Isn't it a shame that the Obama administration and its cronyism pals has wasted at least hundreds of millions of  dollars in failed alternative energy investments in companies such as Solyndra, Everygreen, Spectra, Beacon, Tesla, Fisker, and other companies who had strong ties to major Obama election campaign fund raisers? Think about how many Americans might be a little warmer today if the Federal government stopped wasting taxpayer money in markets it has no clue about.

Isn't it a shame that the Federal government wasted well over $400,000 in a NYC fly over three years ago to take a picture of the Statue Of Liberty, a picture that could have more easily and much more cheaply been created using Photoshop? Think about how many Americans might be a little warmer today if that $400,000 could be diverted to heating assistance.

Isn't it a shame that billions of taxpayer dollars will likely never be recovered because of the unnecessary financial bailout of General Motors and Chrysler? Think about how many Americans might be a little warmer today if that unnecessary bailout had not occurred and the auto companies went through the regular bankruptcy proceedings?

Isn't it a shame that Nevada Senator Harry Reid gets Federal funding for the annual Nevada Cowboy Poetry contest? Think about how many Americans might be a little warmer today if that funding went to helping out truly needy Americans rather than a poetry contest?

Isn't it a shame that audits of the Housing and Urban Development Federal organization show that it wastes or mishandles about $4.5 billion a year? Think about how many Americans might be a little warmer today if HUD actually knew how to operate efficiently.

Isn't it shame that Federal politicians divert about $16 billion a year to their campaign fund raisers and political campaign conributors under the guise of "earmarks," that serve no purpose except to help incumbent politicians remain in office? Think about how many Americans might be a little warmer today if those earmarks refreshed government energy assistance programs rather than refreshing another term in office for a politician.

Okay, you get the idea, we could go on and on about similiar situaiotns of waste. We have allowed our politicians to skew and distort our nation's priorities, feeding taxpayer wealth into this cesspool of waste, criminal fraud, personal political gain, and inefficiency while people like the Hartfords try to barter the family car for a little heating oil. Disgraceful.

Again, I have never been a fan of large, ineffective government programs. However, that does not mean I am so uncompassionate that I do not realize there is a need to help those less fortunate within our society. The premise for our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" was that we needed government and politicians to focus on a much smaller but better set of higher priorities than what they do now: they currently focus on nothing but try to execute a much wider set of low priorities.

This approach to governing has gotten us into the mess we have today. And this is also why no American, rich or poor, should see any increase in their current level of taxation. The political class in this country does not deserve access to any more of our wealth, they already have too much access and waste far too much of it on behavior and programs like those listed above.

A famous line from the movie "Animal House" goes like this: "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son." For the President and those sitting in Congress, I would revise the line to read: "Smug, wasteful and impotent is no way to run a country." Not when you waste hundreds of billions of dollars a year while some Americans cannot get warm.

Please investigate our campaign for the Presidency at the United States of Purple website listed below including a way to help us impose term limits on the smug, wasteful and impotent political class in Washington. I guarantee you that taxes will not be raised but people will be warmer under our plan for the rewiring of the nation's political mess.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein

We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment
 

A President Should Never Scare Any American, Unlike The President We Have Today

Yesterday, we reviewed President Obama's checklist of  "accomplishments" three years into his term in office. It was not a good report card, most of his "accomplishments" have been detrimental our our economic well being and our personal liberty. This checklist post was  congruent with one of our most popular post ever, from January 11, 2012, where we listed out the 88 reasons why Obama was not worthy of a second term in office:

  http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/01/88-reasons-why-president-obama-is.html

Both of these pieces were heavy on research, data, and root cause analyses to provide as quantitative approach possible to develop a comprehensive view of this administration's many failures. We tried to stay as logical as possible in order to be able to defend the multitude of failures we documented as a result of our work.

However, today's post is light on logic, data, and analysis and is much more emotional. The following words have been circulating on the Net for a while and are attributed to Lou Pritchett, who is a former executive with Proctor and Gamble. Snopes confirms that Mr. Pritchett is the author of this piece.

I think Mr. Pritchett documents and captures the gut feeling of uneasiness and fear that many Americans have with this President and this administration. While he may not have put as much quantitative analysis into this piece as we did with our two posts, he does a fine job capturing the emotional angst that many honest, non-racist Americans have with this President.

Rather than try to explain what Mr. Pritchett was trying to communicate, why not let his actual words do it for us:

***********************

Dear President Obama:

You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.

You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.

You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.

You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.

You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.

You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don't understand it at its core.

You scare me because you lack humility and 'class', always blaming others.

You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.

You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the 'blame America' crowd and deliver this message abroad.

You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.

You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.

You scare me because you prefer 'wind mills' to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.

You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.

You scare me because you have begun to use 'extortion' tactics against certain banks and corporations.

You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.

You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.

You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.

You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.


You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O'Reillys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.


You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.


Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.


Lou Pritchett

**************************************


I have to agree with Mr. Pritchett.

I find this President condescending to those that have an honest difference of opinion with him, implying that no one could never be as smart as him.

I find his silence deafening when he allows members of his own party to demean and slander honest Americans who voice an honest difference of opinion with him.

I find his leadership non-existent when any controversial issue of problem arises, I prefer dealing with more forthright and honest politicians who step out and take the heat for stating an opinion and a position while this President hides in the shadows of non-commitment.

I find his words constantly dishonest such as when he falsely implies that all high earning Americans pay a smaller percentage of their income in taxes than their respective secretaries or when he implies all of our fiscal problems could be solved by just taxing the wealthy more, problems that can't be solved, or come close to being solved, in this manner.

I find his anti-Constitution actions despicable, the Constitution is a far greater document than he is President.

I find his problem solving skills either non-existent or very short term and tactical besides almost always ending in failure.

I find his interest in anything but himself to be narcissistic.

And worse of all, as Mr. Pritchett says, I am very scared that if Obama is reelected, having opinions like those expressed above could be very dangerous to my health, my freedom, and my well being going forward.

Any American President that scares a large group of Americans, is not a good American President.

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein

We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.


Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/

President Obama's Checklist Of Accomplishments To Date - Making Jimmy Carter Proud

About a week ago, a Facebook friend posted a short Facebook blurb that listed out the accomplishments of the Obama administration. It was meant to be complimentary of the administration but it had two major faults. First, it was not a very long list, comprising only about a half dozen points or accomplishments. Second, while this Facebook friend listed some of this administration's actions as successes, many Americans would consider these same activities as failures.

For example, this short list of successes included the passage of Obama Care. However, we would view this is an abject failure rather than a success to be proud of since:

1. Obama Care will likely cause tens of millions of Americans to lose their company health care insurance coverage since the legislation was written so poorly that it made it less expensive for companies to pay a relatively small Obama Care fine than continue health care insurance for their employees and retirees, the exact opposite of what the law was supposed to do.
2. Obama Care will add numerous new taxes to the economy, further depressing the economic recovery from the Great Recession.
3. Obama Care will implement almost 2,000 new Federal government guidelines and restrictions on Americans, further reducing our already shrinking freedoms and liberty.
4. The head actuary for Medicare and Medicaid has recently estimated that Obama Care will add over $300 billion to our already disgusting national debt over the next ten years, the exact opposite it was supposed to do.
5. The legislation will never solve the problem of ever escalating health care costs because it never took the time to understand the root causes of the increasing costs.
6. The legislation will have major, difficult, and unnecessary impacts on Americans' life choices including retirement, marriage, and careers.

One person's perception of accomplishment is another's perception of complete failure. Interesting political times we live in. 

Thus, as a rebuttal to my friend's meager six or so Obama administration accomplishments, and to expand on the above list of six Obama Care failures, allow me to present a much longer checklist of administration failures, a list so long it evokes the sour and failure memories of the Carter administration:

• Implement the largest failed economic stimulus program in the history of the country, costing over $800 billion and delivering very little economic growth. Check.
• Implement a series of failed economic tactics including Cash For Clunkers, Cash For Appliances, and Cash for Caulkers. Check.
• Campaign on a promise to close the terrorist prison at Guantanamo and then fail to actually close the facility. Check.
• Campaign on a promise to not place former lobbyists in high positions in this administration and then proceed to install former lobbyists in high level positions in this administration. Check.
• Campaign on a promise to significantly reduce the number of earmarks in the Federal government and then proceed to allow billions of dollars a year to be diverted into political earmarks. Check.
• Randomly blame bush. Check.
• Promise to quickly extract U.S. troops out of Iraq and then proceed to use the extended Bush exit plan. Check.
• Renew the freedom destroying Patriot Act with virtually no changes from the Bush administration version and continue not to staff the civil liberty oversight panel required by the law. Check.
• Randomly blame Bush. Check.
• Oversee an incredibly botched and illegal gun running sting operation called Fast and Furious that allowed thousands of military grade weapons to fall into the hands of violent Mexican drug cartels, weapons that have led to the death of an American immigration agent and dozens of innocent Mexicans, weapons that have further destabilized the central Mexican government, and weapons whose sale violated both U.S. law and international treaties. Check.
• Fail to have an effective contingency plan and operations plan in place, reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina, when the Gulf of Mexico oil rig accident happened, resulting in widespread ecological damage and economic damage. Check.
• While oil leaked into the Gulf waters from the leaking oil rig, embark on at least two vacations, take two cross country trips for political fund raising, and play numerous rounds of golf. Check.
• Oversee the average cost of a gallon of gasoline go from $1.79 at inauguration to $3.40 in January, a 90% increase (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics). Check.
• Establish a record for average February gasoline prices at $3.53 a gallon. Experts quoted in an Associated Press article forecast the average price will hit $4.50 by April. Check. 
• Oversee the average price of a gallon of fuel oil go from $2.51 a gallon at inauguration to $3.70 in January, a 47% increase. Check.
• Oversee the cost of a pound of ground beef go from $2.97 at inauguration to $3.29 in January, an 11% increase. Check.
• Preside over the first ever downgrade of the United States government credit rating. Check.
• Add TRILLIONS of dollars to the national debt, more than every other President from Washington through Clinton added COMBINED. Check.
• Randomly blame Bush. Check.
• Give out hundreds of millions of dollars to political friends' alternative energy endeavors (Solyndra, Ener1, Beacon, Evergreen, Spectra) and watch them all go bankrupt, taking taxpayer wealth down the drain with them. Check.
• Set records for the most Americans ever on food stamp rolls. Check.
• Endorse and sign legislation to reform the financial services industry, legislation that promptly fell on its face by not foreseeing the 8th largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, the collapse of financial services firm MF Global and the possible criminal destruction of over $1 billion in client assets, the exact type of behavior the legislation was supposed to prevent. Check.
• Break the oath of the Presidency taken at inauguration by not enforcing the laws of the land such as DOMA. Check.
• Break the oath of the Presidency taken at inauguration by blatantly ignoring judicial rulings such as the Gulf oil moratorium judicial ruling. Check.
• Randomly blame Bush.
• Break a campaign oath by trampling on the checks and balances tenets of the Constitution by making high level government appointments without Congressional oversight and approval. Check.
• Trample on freedom of speech and freedom of religion rights by forcing religious organizations to forego their religious beliefs in light of secular government mandates. Check.
• Support the repeal of the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy only after a national Republican organization successfully fought for the repeal through the court system. Check.
• Randomly blame Bush.
• Preside over the worse economic recovery from a recession since the Depression. Check.
• Allow Iran to get three years closer to having nuclear weapons. Check.
• Allow North Korea to get three years closer to having nuclear weapons. Check.
• Fail to foresee or be prepared for the Arab spring and the opportunities and risks inherent in the movement for freedom in the Middle East. Check.
• Trample on the Constitution and the War Powers Act by illegally  involving the U.S. in military in significant military action in Libya without Congressional approval. Check.
• Hold dozens of photo ops with professional and amateur athletic teams, including the Texas Christian University rifle team, but hold few, if any photo ops with inspirational teachers, brave policemen and women, or heroic war veterans. Check.
• Do not develop a workable and coherent national energy policy and strategy that helps the economy and reduces our dependence on foreign energy sources. Check.
• Do not develop a workable and coherent education reform strategy and policy so that we can start educating our kids as well as the rest of the world educates theirs. Check.
• Do not develop a workable, coherent, and compassionate illegal immigration policy that protects and seals our borders and fairly  leverages the contributions of existing illegal immigrants within the country. Check.
• Do not develop a workable and compassionate alternative to our lost war on drugs, threatening to shut down existing marijuana clinics that provide pain relief to untold number of Americans suffering from highly painful diseases and maladies. Check.
• Remain silent and do not try to unite a divided country when political allies slander ordinary Americans having a difference of opinion, allowing these American citizens to be called racists, Ku Klux Klan members, knuckle dragging Neanderthals, a__h___s, terrorists, barbarians, gerbils, and un-American. Check.
• Randomly blame Bush, the Japanese tsunami, ATM machines, and a host of other factors for many of the above failures. Check.
• Manipulate the calculation of the unemployment rate to falsely make it look like the unemployment situation is improving. Check.
• Allow over $500 billion of taxpayer wealth a year to continue to be lost annually to waste, inefficiencies ands criminal activity in major and minor government programs including, but not limited to, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and unemployment insurance. Check.
• Wage class warfare of rich Americans against poorer Americans by falsely implying that Warren Buffet's Federal income tax rate is typical of those Americans earning over $100,000 a year. Check.
• Ignore the pending financial meltdown of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid in order to not alienate a few voters in November. Check.
• Fail to write the regulations and guidelines needed to implement legislation that was passed in 2008 that cracked down on food stamp fraud.
• Fail to come up with a reorganization plan or termination plan for the dysfunctional and expensive Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA entities. Check.
• Approve the first ever, government sanctioned assassination of an American citizen without due process and institute an official government committee to review and recommend subsequent assassinations of Americans without due process.

I may be wrong but I do not remember Carter coming anywhere close to this number of failures during his entire four years as President. I do not think he set anywhere near the number of records that the Obama administration has set as far as the weakest economic recovery ever, the most failed economic programs, the most Americans ever on food stamps, etc.

I do not think Carter had nearly as many firsts as Obama such as the first government sanctioned American citizen assassination, the first ever U.S. credit downgrade, the first ever TRILLION dollar annual government deficit, etc.

I do not think Carter had nearly as much disdain for individual Constitutional rights, Constitutional tenets. or the rule of law. 

So, no disrespect to my Facebook friend who thinks that her list of a half dozen Obama accomplishments is noteworthy. My above list of over four dozen reasons why the Obama accomplishment checklist of failure trumps that list in my mind. When a President's accomplishment checklist falls below the accomplishment checklist of Jimmy Carter, it is about time to try another President.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein
We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment