Only In America Retro Post

Back in May, 2012 we did a post entitled, "Only In America." It used an old rock and roll song byJay and The Americans as its basis. But rather than celebrating the tradional good things about America, e.g., "go to sleep a pauper and wake up a millionaire," we changed the essence of the song to reflect the crazy things that American politicians do that are so inane, wasteful, and stupid that only in America could that type of behavior happen. 

We repeat the post today for two reasons:

• Over three years later, the antics, idiocy, and ineptness we documented back in 2012 is still relevant today.
• Today's retro post gets us in the spirit for tomorrow's post where we will update the list with all of the antics, idiocy, and ineptness the political class has displayed since 2012.

FRIDAY, MAY 18, 2012

Only In America

In the early 1960s, a musical group called Jay and the Americans had a big hit song called "Only In America." It was an upbeat song that extolled the virtues of our country where only in America could a poor person grow up to be President, a pauper could become a millionaire, and everyone could attain their dreams, including their dream girl:

Only in America
Can a guy from anywhere
Go to sleep a pauper and wake up a millionaire

Only in America
Can a kid without a cent
Get a break and maybe grow up to be President

Only in America
Land of opportunity, yeah
Would a classy girl like you fall for a poor boy like me

Only in America
Can a kid who's washin' cars
Take a giant step and reach right up and touch the stars
Only in America
Could a dream like this come true
Could a guy like me start with nothing and end up with you

Only in America
Land of opportunity, yeah
Would a classy girl like you fall for a poor boy like me

It was simpler time and probably a more hopeful time. Since then, the country has become nastily divided against itself as a result of self serving politicians and our freedoms and opportunities available back then seem to have become scarcer over time. More obvious, our political class has led the country down some pretty ludicrous, bewildering, wasteful, and noneffective alleys:

1. Only in America can politicians talk about the greed of the rich at a $70,000-a-plate campaign fund raising event.

2. Only in America can politicians pour more taxpayer money into education per child than any other country in the world but still severely under educate U.S. kids relative to the rest of that world.

3. Only in America can politicians talk about reducing the nation's escalating health care costs while simultaneously implementing health care reform legislation that will add hundreds of billions of dollars to the country's national debt.

4. Only in America could we have had  two of the people most responsible for our tax code — Timothy Geithner, the head of the Treasury Department and Charles Rangel who once ran the House Ways and Means Committee — turn out to be tax cheats who are in favor of higher taxes.

5. Only in America would we make people who want to legally become American citizens wait for years in their home countries and pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege while we discuss letting anyone who sneaks into the country illegally immediately become American citizens for free.

6. Only in America could the people who believe in balancing the budget and sticking by the country’s Constitution be thought of as “extremists.”

7. Only in America could you need to present a driver’s license to cash a check, buy alcohol, rent a car, or board an airplane but not to vote.

8. Only in America could politicians insist the government investigate whether oil companies are gouging the public because the price of gas went up when the financial return on equity of a major U.S. oil company (Marathon Oil) is less than half of what a company that manufactures sports shoes and apparel (Nike) makes.

9. Only in America could politicians demand the government investigate whether oil companies are gouging the public because the price of gas went up when government taxes per gallon of gas are multiple times higher than the profit per gallon of gas for the oil companies.

10. Only in America can politicians tell you that they support freedom and liberty but then try tell you not to have an abortion, not to be gay, not to smoke dope, impose their will on your religious beliefs, not to call Islamic terrorists Islamic terrorists, force you to pay into a retirement system (Social Security) that is an absolute horror show of a retirement plan, force you to pay into a retirement medical plan that (Medicare) that is rapidly going bankrupt, control who gets a student loan, and wants to control your non-retirement health insurance and health care (Obama Care).

11. Only in America could the government collect more tax dollars from its citizens than any nation in history of the world, still spend a trillion dollars more than it receives every year for total spending ($7 million PER MINUTE), and complain that it doesn’t have nearly enough money.

12. Only in America could the rich people who pay 86% of all income taxes be accused of not paying their “fair share” by 45% of the citizenry who don’t pay any income taxes at all.

13. Only in America can a supposedly free people not be free from paying all forms of government taxes until late April every year.

14. Only in America can the political class constantly try to dictate moral standards but itself be rife with adulterers, tax cheats, and liars.

15. Only in America can politicians spend trillions of dollars over the years without winning the war on drugs, without implementing a coherent national energy plan, without sealing our borders, and without repairing our crumbling infrastructure.

16. Only in America do you have to prove to the government that you have health insurance (under Obama Care rules) but not prove to that same government you are legally here in this country.

Only in American did we used to aspire to hope, freedom, and the chance to attain a better life for ourselves and our family. Today, in America we are subjected to self serving, ill-equipped, and ill-performing politicians, that squash hope, restrict freedom, and who make it ever more difficult to attain a better life for ourselves and our family. 

To get back to the Jay and the Americans sense of country, we need to start the process of implementing Step 39 from "Love my Country, Loathe My Government." Step 39 would implement term limits for every Federal politician so that they would be "one and done." The vast majority of current people in Congress have been there for ten, twenty, thirty or more years. Since they are obviously not part of the solution, they then must be part of the problem. Eliminate them, starting by signing the petition at: 

www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com

and make America "the land of opportunity" again.

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:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Part 2, Why There Is Hope To Better Educate Our Kids, Something That The Political Class Never Provided, Hope and Good Educations

It is no secret to anyone in the know that we are doing a terrible job of educating our kids in this country. On international achievement tests, there are usually kids from dozens of countries who score better on all different types of tests than American kids. It is truly a national disgrace.

A national disgrace especially when you consider that we have spend more and more on public education in this country over the years and have seen no improvement of positive return on that spending. This embarrassment was captured by the following graph from the Cato Institute, using California as an exmaple:



It is not as if the American political class has not tried to fix the problem, they have just proven they do not know how to fix the problem, as witnessed by the graph above. Their solution always involves spending more money which in turn has gotten us nothing. Their latest attempt, via the so-called Common Core effort, has also proven to be a disaster. Where Common Core has been instituted, in states like Massachusetts and Maryland, the results have been a disaster. 

At one time, Massachusetts turned out the smartest kids in the country. Under common Core, they have slipped to seventh place. Several years after Common Core was established in Maryland, test scores have plummeted:


Step 27 proposed a solution to this problem that did not include any input from the American political class. Over the past several decades they have proven themselves incapable of not injecting politics, greed, and their lack of knowledge of education principles and strategies. As a result we have wasted hundreds of billions of dollars funding the Federal Department of Education and lord knows how many billions of dollars developing Common Core, of which both investments have failed horribly and disgracefully.

But that does not mean that we cannot heal our education processes and start turning out smart kids again. In fact, there are success stories in this field all across the country, a few of which we will shall over the next two days. One of the common themes underlying these success stories is that the political class has been cut out of the education process, resulting in tremendous successes without tremendous costs.

1) Yesterday we showed two examples where it is possible to give our kids a high level of quality education without excessive or with no input from politicians. We discussed the high school in Watts in Los Angeles where the entire senior class from this all boys schools were accepted into college, a record that very few schools anywhere in the country can match.We also discussed an article from the website, www.sfbayview.com, from a few years ago that showed how ten African-American kids were thriving academically in so many artistic and academic fields. 

Let’s start today’s continuing examination of kids in America getting a good education with an article from the Heritage Foundation that was written by Lindsey Burke. The article, “How Charter Schools Spend Less Than Public Schools But Achieve Better Results,” examined recent research on how charter schools, the bane of teacher unions and the politicians that depend on those unions for their perpetual electioneering, are outperforming public education processes at a lower price.

Details and research from the article include the following:

• In America, there are about 2.5 million kids enrolled in 6,500 charter schools in the U.S.
• Enrollment rose almost 100% from 2001 through 2011.
• Burke assumes that this incredible growth rate is because “may be due to the schools’ productivity and ability to improve learning outcomes on a more limited budget than traditional public schools enjoy."
• Burke backs up this assertion by quoting recent research on charter schools: “…the public charter school sector delivers a weighted average of an additional 17 [National Assessment of Educational Progress] NAEP points per $1,000 invested in math, representing a productivity advantage of 40 percent for charters. In reading, the public charter sector delivers an additional 16 NAEP points per $1,000 invested, representing a productivity advantage of 41 percent for charters.”
• The research also dispelled the myth that charter schools perform better because they get smarter and more motivated kids to begin with: “Any claim that the higher productivity of charters relative to [traditional public schools] TPS is because charters serve a more advantaged population would be undermined by these findings, as all charter sectors outperform their [traditional public schools] TPS on productivity measures even though half of the charter sectors enroll a more low-income population of students than their TPS.”
• Although counter intuitive, the researchers conclude that charter schools are more efficient because they have LESS financial support and budgets: “It appears to be likely that much of the basis for the higher productivity of public charter schools rests on the fact that they receive less funding and therefore are highly disciplined in their use of those education dollars.” 
• A Stanford University researcher, Caroline Hosby, found that going to a charter school from kindergarten through eighth grade brings lower socio-economic kids’ academic performance up to the level of affluent suburban schools in math and would close 66% of the gap in English achievement levels.
• A 2010 Department Of Education survey found higher levels of satisfaction among parents with both the quality of schools and their child’s development.
• The average charter school has a waiting list of 300 kids trying to get in, indicating a high level of acceptance and desire in the communities they serve.

So charter schools deliver high academic performance at a lower cost that attracts high levels of enrollees and provide high levels of satisfaction to parents relative to their kids’ education. This all proves that all kids from all segments of society can get a great education. But somehow along the way American politicians find a way to not accomplish what is doable despite spending hundreds of billions in a vain attempt to do so.

2) New Orleans is a city which has had good education results with charter schools. Nine out of ten kids in that city attend charter schools, a reality driven by the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. This makes New Orleans the city with the highest level of charter school penetration in the country.

How has that effort worked out for their kids? Stacy Telcher Khadaroo writing for ChristianScience Monitor on March, 2014 went looking for those answers:

• In New Orleans, there is no longer a traditional central district office that dictates what schools students will attend, a central office that usually hires and promotes teachers in negotiation with a union, and controls everything from budgets to textbooks. 
• In New Orleans, families get to select among charter schools citywide that have to meet certain benchmarks in order to have their charters renewed.
• Although 82% of the students in New Orleans schools are considered low income, charter schools’ test scores and graduation rates have climbed steadily over the past decade or so.
• Andy Smarick, a partner at the nonprofit Bellwether Education Partners in Washington believes that New Orleans has shown that "we can move government out of running schools" and have it focus on oversight instead.
• A charter superintendent, Patrick Dobard, gave some insight on why New Orleans charters have been successful: "Our model is about empowering educators that are closest to the children, to give them the autonomy to have great schools, but to have a strong accountability system in place...ensuring there is equity and access throughout the whole system."
• Academic results in New Orleans schools have moved ahead of the state average for high school graduation by several points, with 77.8 percent for the class of 2012 graduating within four years – up from just over 54 percent in 2004.
• Based on a state based academic performance school, in 2004-05 only 12 percent of students in New Orleans attended 'A' or 'B' schools while nearly 75 percent attended 'F' schools. By 2012-13, just 17 percent of students were in 'F' schools, while 34 percent were in 'A' or 'B' schools.
• Even better, the percentage of New Orleans students qualifying for college scholarships prior to Katrina was less than 6 percent of students in 14 high schools that were later taken converted into charter schools. By 2013, that 6% had increased over four fold to 27%. by the RSD qualified for these scholarships, NSNO reports. In 2013, 27 percent did.

The entire article can be viewed at:

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2014/0301/New-Orleans-goes-all-in-on-charter-schools.-Is-it-showing-the-way

The writer goes into much detail on the mechanics of education in charter schools that helped attain the tremendous improvements listed above. Regardless of how they do it, the results are what any parent would want for their kids: high and improving academic performance, better chance for college scholarships, etc. 

More proof today that we as a nation can do a much better job educating our kids. But somehow the political class gets in the way of allowing that improvement to happen. That is why Step 27 from our book, “Love My Country, Loathe My Government,” along with the track records of the education endeavors we have reviewed over the past two days, are needed to finally give our kids the education they deserve in an efficient and cost-effective manner. 

Allowing national politicians and Federal bureaucrats have given us the exact opposite: inefficient and lower education levels in a high cost manner.

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:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Part 1, Why There Is Hope To Better Educate Our Kids, Something That The Political Class Never Provided, Hope and Good Educations

It is no secret to anyone in the know that we are doing a terrible job of educating our kids in this country. On international achievement tests, there are usually kids from dozens of countries who score better on all different types of tests than American kids. It is truly a national disgrace.

A national disgrace especially when you consider that we have spent more and more on public education in this country over the years and have seen no improvement of positive return on that spending. This embarrassment was captured by the following graph from the Cato Institute, using California as an example:



It is not as if the American political class has not tried to fix the problem, they have just proven they do not know how to fix the problem, as witnessed by the graph above. Their solution always involves spending more money which in turn has gotten us nothing. Their latest attempt, via the so-called Common Core effort, has also proven to be a disaster. Where Common Core has been instituted, in states like Massachusetts and Maryland, the results have been a disaster. 

At one time, Massachusetts turned out the smartest kids in the country. Under Common Core, they have slipped to seventh place. Several years after Common Core was established in Maryland, test scores have plummeted:


Step 27 proposed a solution to this problem that did not include any input from the American political class. Over the past several decades they have proven themselves incapable of not injecting politics, greed, and their lack of knowledge of education principles and strategies into the education process. As a result, we have wasted hundreds of billions of dollars funding the Federal Department of Education and lord knows how many billions of dollars developing Common Core, of which both investments have failed horribly and disgracefully.

But that does not mean that we cannot heal our education processes and start turning out smart kids again. In fact, there are success stories in this field all across the country, a few of which we will discuss over the next two days. One of the common themes underlying these success stories is that the political class has been cut out of the education process, resulting in tremendous successes without tremendous costs.

1) An ABC TV News out of Los Angeles reported back in June, 2015 that an all boys high school in Watts has a 100% college acceptance rate. Yes, a school in Watts, one of the roughest and poorest sections of any American city actually has a high school where all of the graduating students got into college. I doubt there are many schools anywhere in any socio-economic class that can make that same boast.

Details of the story include the following:

• The school is called Verbum Del School and has been successfully run by the Jesuits for the past 50 years.
• This past year, every senior at the all boys school has been accepted to college.
• And I am assuming these are not only community college acceptances, given the goals of some of the students quoted in the article: "I want to be an orthopedic surgeon or an oral surgeon," said Zachary Byrge, the salutatorian for Verbum Dei's class of 2015. And, "Most immediately, I want to major in mathematics and do a program with Georgetown and Columbia, where I can become an engineer," valedictorian Nicholas Spates said.
• All of the school’s students come from low income families and are in fact academically lagging one to two years when they start at the school, making the college acceptance story even more amazing.
• Juan Perez, Jr. is the first in his family to go to college, having been accepted to St. John's University in Minnesota: "They always tell me every single day -- since I'm going to be the first person in my family to be going -- they're extremely proud of me." 

Outstanding, and nowhere in the story, which can be viewed at

http://abc7.com/education/all-boys-watts-high-school-has-100-percent-college-acceptance/777375/, 

is there a mention of Common Core, teachers unions, politicians, etc. Just dedicated teachers, families, and students proving that you can still get a good education in this country WITHOUT any “help” from Washington politicians.

2) This is a somewhat older story but it still applies to what we are talking about today. An article on the www.sfbayview.com website from June 28, 2013 talked about “10 Black Child Geniuses You Should Know.” Writer Amir Shaw started off his article with the following, pretty accurate stereotype descriptions: “If you only watched the evening news or depended on pop culture to paint a picture of young Blacks, you would probably think that the majority of Black youngsters were only ambitious about sports and music – or caught up in crime and debauchery.”

But he goes onto to describe the amazing educational accomplishments in a variety of fields of ten young black people who are achieving success “at a high level in science, math, classical music, chess and other knowledge-based areas and preparing to change society.” Mr. Shaw's profiles follow:



Stephen R. Stafford II - Stephen entered Morehouse College at the age of 11 and picked up three majors. Now 16, he is currently studying computer science and mathematics. He will likely graduate at 17.



Mabou Loiseau- By the age of 7, Mabou spoke French, Creole, Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic and Russian. Additionally, she plays the harp, clarinet, violin, drums, guitar and piano.




Andrew Koonce - Andrew is a master violinist based in Atlanta. He was named concertmaster, the most skilled musician, of the Georgia Music Association’s All-State Middle School Orchestra.




Autum Ashante - Raised by a single father, Autum was ridiculed by conservatives at the age of 7 for writing a poem that highlighted the travesty of slavery. Autum never wavered and mastered languages such as Arabic, Swahili and Spanish. She scored 149 on the standard IQ test. At age 13, she was accepted into the University of Connecticut.




Imafidon family - The Imafidon family is known as the smartest family in the U.K. The youngest siblings, Peter and Paula, made history by becoming the youngest students to enroll in secondary school. Their older sister, Anne-Marie, was the youngest student to pass A-level computing at the age of 13.




Rochelle Ballantyne - At 17, Rochelle is one of the top chess players in the world. She is currently on the verge of becoming the first Black American female to earn the title of chess master.




Ginger Howard - Ginger is the youngest Black American woman to become a pro golfer. Howard is competing to become the fifth Black American woman to join the LPGA Tour.




Tony Hansberry II - After Tony didn’t place in the eighth grade science fair, Tony interned at Shands Hospital and developed a method of reducing the amount of time it takes to perform hysterectomies and potentially reducing the risk of complications after the procedure. He was honored for his contributions.




Chelsea Dock - Chelsea has been an accomplished pianist since the age of 5. Now 13, Chelsea has performed at Madison Square Garden, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Steinway Hall. She’s also an artist and straight A student.




Daquan Chisholm - Daquan created a walkie-talkie, bulletproof helmet at the age of 12. He’s currently working with Johns Hopkins University to gather funding to patent the idea. 

Unbelievable, great accomplishments in a variety of fields at such young ages. It is possible to to educate our kids to high levels of attainment, these ten kids in this article prove that reality as do the kids in Watts.  

But despite having spent trillions of dollars via the Federal government to educate our kids, the vast majority of them get their butts and brains kicked when the are tested against kids from around the world. That is why we need the politics and the politicians out of the process, they have already proven they are incapable of attaining high education results despite high levels of funding.

Let’s find out what the educators of these fine young people were doing right, and as proposed in Step 27 in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government,” let’s apply those successful education approaches to the rest of the kids in this country. They deserve better than what the Department of Education, Common Core, and today’s politicians have been giving them.

More successful education stories tomorrow.


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.comIt 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.reason.com/http://www.cato.org/http://www.robertringer.com/

http://realpolichick.blogspot.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

July,2015, Part 3, Politicians Say The Darndest Things: Obama and a Nuclear Deal With Iran Edition

Ever so often we run a series of posts under the theme, “Politicians say the darndest things.” It is a parody of an old television show, “House Party,” where host Art Linkletter would ask simple questions of young kids and wait for their often funny responses. This segment of his show was called “Kids Say The Darndest Things.” 

Unfortunately when kids say silly or dumb things, it is funny. When politicians say silly or dumb things, there are usually serious ramifications across the land that often involve stupid laws, wasteful spending, self delusion of a politician’s intelligence or abilities, or a continued lack of faith that today’s politicians are smart enough to get anything right.

The past two days we have discussed general idiocy that has come out of several politicians' mouths lately. Today, will be the final update to our series, "politicians say the darndest things," and we will focus on the proposed nuclear arms deal that the Obama administration has put together with several other countries and the main protagonist, Iran.

The intent of the deal was to prevent the country of Iran from becoming a nuclear power. By promising to give up their pursuit of nuclear weapons, Iran is to be granted a number of benefits including the release of over $100 billion worth of assets frozen around the world.

There are a number of concerns about this deal:

• Will Iran use these now unfrozen assets to help make the lives of their citizens better or will they use these assets to continue to spread terrorism around the Middle East and around the world?
• Will this Iran deal cause others in the Middle East to move toward becoming nuclear weapon ready also since they do not trust Iran to not continue to pursue nuclear weapons or to increase their conventional weapon aggression against them, resulting in a nuclear arms race because of an agreement that was supposed to contain the spread of nuclear weapons?
• Will Iran actually live up to the terms of the agreement and not pursue nuclear weapons as promised in the text of the deal?

All very serious questions but today we will focus on politicians' quotes as it relates to the last point. You see, the world and the U.S. have been down this path before with a renegade country known as North Korea. Twenty years or so ago, the President of the U.S., Bill Clinton, thought he had a nuclear arms containment deal with the North Koreans, much like Barack Obama thinks he has a nuclear containment deal with the Iranians today.

As we look and compare the quotes from the two Presidents, their promises and bold predictions seem eerily similar. The question arises is that given that North Korea completely blew off the deal, using it as cover to develop its nuclear weapons development and capability, are the similarity in Presidential quotes a precursor to the Iranians doing the exact same thing, i.e. taking a President of the United States for a fallacy ride? 

You decide, starting with a press release from Congressman Peter Roskam  who introduced a Congressional resolution that has been backed by 176 House members expressing their disapproval of the deal with Iran. The press release than goes on to categorize and compare the quotes of Clinton and Obama relative to North Korea and Iran's race for nuclear weapons and the supposed deal that would stop both of them. According to the Congressman:

"In 1994, President Bill Clinton similarly argued that his nuclear agreement with North Korea would reduce “the threat of nuclear spreading in the region.” However, that deal stumbled out of the gate. In 2003, Pyongyang withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In 2005, it announced completion of a nuclear weapon. And in 2006, North Korea successfully completed its first nuclear test.

A closer comparison between President Clinton’s North Korea agreement in 1994 and President Obama’s Iran deal in 2015 reveal stark, foreboding similarities. Should we take this Administration’s assurances seriously? You decide:"

***********

CLINTON: “Today, after 16 months of intense and difficult negotiations with North Korea, we have completed an agreement [my emphasis] that will make the United States, the Korean Peninsula, and the world safer…This agreement will help to achieve a longstanding and vital American objective: an end to the threat of nuclear proliferation on the Korean Peninsula.”

OBAMA: “Today, after two years of negotiations, the United States, together with our international partners, has achieve something that decades of animosity has not—a comprehensive, long-term deal with Iran that will prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”

***********

CLINTON: “The United States has been concerned about the possibility that North Korea was developing nuclear weapons since the 1980s.”

OBAMA: “[W]e’re dealing with a country—Iran—that has been a sworn adversary of the United States for over 35 years.”
***********

CLINTON: “This agreement represents the first step on the road to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. It does not rely on trust. Compliance will be certified by the International Atomic Energy Agency [(IAEA]].”

OBAMA: “Because of this deal, we will, for the first time, be in a position to verify all of these commitments. That means this deal is not built on trust: it is built on verification…Put simply, the organization responsible for the inspections, the IAEA, will have access where necessary, when necessary.”
***********

CLINTON: “And the United States has an unshakeable commitment to protect our ally and our fellow democracy South Korea. Thirty-eight thousand American troops stationed on the Peninsula are the guarantors of that commitment.”

OBAMA: “We will continue our unprecedented efforts to strengthen Israel’s security—efforts that go beyond what any American administration has done before.”
***********

CLINTON: “This agreement is good for the United States, good for our allies, and good for the safety of the entire world.”

OBAMA: “I am confident this deal will meet the national security interest of the United States and our allies.”
***********

CLINTON: “Today all Americans should know that as a result of this achievement on Korea, our Nation will be safer and the future of our people more secure.”

OBAMA: “Today’s announcement marks one more chapter in the pursuit of a safer and more helpful and more hopeful world.”
***********

Now, the fact that North Korea ignored the deal back during the Clinton administration does not mean that the Iranians will ignore this deal. For all I know, they may be giving up their pursuit of nuclear weapons, will stop promoting terrorism, stop hating Israel and the United States, and behave well going forward. The fact that Clinton said the darndest things over twenty years ago does not mean that Obama words will end up looking as sad and pathetic twenty years from now.

But let's be honest, even after the deal was signed between the U.S., other nations, and Iran, leaders and protesters on the streets in Iran were still calling for death to Israel and death to the U.S. I would bet that the odds of Iran following the lead of North Korea are far higher than the odds that Iran will behave.

Let's look at another set of quotes relative to Clinton and Obama that was put together by the website, www.wnd.com, and is in the same vein as the Congressman's listing above:

***********

Clinton: This agreement will help to achieve a longstanding and vital American objective: an end to the threat of nuclear proliferation on the Korean Peninsula.

Obama: …Iran will never be permitted to develop a nuclear weapon.
***********

Clinton: It does not rely on trust.

Obama: So this deal is not based on trust, it’s based on unprecedented verification.
***********

Clinton: Compliance will be certified by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Obama: …what we’re going to be doing is setting up a mechanism whereby, yes, I.A.E.A. (International Atomic Energy Agency) inspectors can go anyplace.
***********

Clinton: Under the agreement, North Korea has agreed to freeze its existing nuclear program and to accept international inspection of all existing facilities.

Obama: …a deal to stop the progress of Iran’s nuclear program and roll it back in key areas.
***********

Clinton: This agreement represents the first step on the road to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.

Obama: This framework would cut off every pathway that Iran could take to develop a nuclear weapon.
***********

Clinton: …we have completed an agreement that will make the United States, the Korean Peninsula, and the world safer.

Obama: …if this framework leads to a final, comprehensive deal, it will make our country, our allies, and our world safer.
***********

Clinton: The United States and North Korea have also agreed to ease trade restrictions and to move toward establishing liaison offices in each other’s capitals.

Obama: In return for Iran’s actions, the international community has agreed to provide Iran with relief from certain sanctions — our own sanctions, and international sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council.
***********

Clinton: These offices will ease North Korea’s isolation.

Obama: …if Iran complies with its international obligations, then it can fully rejoin the community of nations…
***********

Clinton: This agreement is good for the United States, good for our allies, and good for the safety of the entire world.

Obama: And it is a good deal, a deal that meets our core objectives … we are more likely to be safe, more likely to be secure, in a better position to protect our allies.
***********

Clinton: It’s a crucial step toward drawing North Korea into the global community.

Obama: …there was an appetite among the Iranian people for a rejoining with the international community.
***********

Clinton: And the United States has an unshakable commitment to protect our ally and our fellow democracy South Korea.

Obama: …a very clear message to the Iranians and to the entire region that if anybody messes with Israel, America will be there.
***********

Clinton: We will continue to work closely with our allies and with the Congress as our relationship with North Korea develops.

Obama: But I say that hoping that we can conclude this diplomatic arrangement — and that it ushers a new era in U.S.-Iranian relations — and, just as importantly, over time, a new era in Iranian relations with its neighbors

If you want to see how these quotes from Clinton and Obama sound in their own voices, go to the follwing link:

https://www.facebook.com/StandWithUs/videos/10153076816647689/

Given the devious nature of North Korea and the similar nature of Iran and its leaders, does anyone really think that giving the Iranians a deal like Clinton gave the North Koreans is going to end any differently? Again, twenty years from now, I would be willing to bet that we will look back at Obama and say he said the darndest, and most incorrect things, when he went shopping for a self-serving legacy with this deal with Iran, at any cost. 

As a result, he further endangered the world and this country while achieving to look as silly and ransacked as Clinton and his quotes now look relative to the nuclear deal with North Korea.

Yes, politicians say the darndest things and many times they are both naive and dangerous as their rhetoric fails to match the reality of the tyrants they capitulate to.

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:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

July, 2015, Part 2, Politicians Say The Darndest Things: Presidential Edition

Ever so often we run a series of posts under the theme, “Politicians say the darndest things.” It is a parody of an old television show, “House Party,” where host Art Linkletter would ask simple questions of young kids and wait for their often funny responses. This segment of his show was called “Kids Say The Darndest Things.” 

Unfortunately when kids say silly or dumb things, it is funny. When politicians say silly or dumb things, there are usually serious ramifications across the land that often involve stupid laws, wasteful spending, self delusion of a politician’s intelligence or abilities, or a continued lack of faith that today’s politicians are smart enough to get anything right.

So let’s take a look at the latest darndest things that an American politician is saying, President Barack Obama. The President recently spoke in front of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and had the following words and quotes: 

“When I came into office, we were going through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. And over the last six and a half years, not only have we taken the unemployment rate from 10 percent down to 5.4, creating close to 13 million jobs, over five years of consecutive job growth — an all-time record; not only did the stock market double, helping people with 401(k)s make sure that their retirement accounts hadn’t been completely devastated; not only have we provided 16 million people with health care who didn’t have it before, and, by the way, driven health care inflation down to its lowest level in 50 years; not only have we doubled the production of clean energy, increased solar energy by 20 percent, reduced the pace of our carbon emissions, doubled fuel efficiency standards in cars, produced more traditional energy than ever before so that we’re weaning ourselves off of foreign oil and doing something about climate change, which is going to be a critical issue for Drew and Rachel’s daughter, and all our children and our grandchildren; but we did all that while cutting the deficit by two-thirds.”

“We’ve ended two wars. We have reestablished our alliances around the world in ways that make them stronger than they ever have been before. High school reading, high school graduation, college attendance — on almost every metric, the country is significantly better off than we were when I came into office.”

Yes, politicians say the darndest things and this President is the king of darndest things. Now, some of what he says is true in the above comments:

• The country was going through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
• He has reduced the unemployment rate from over 10% to just over 5% if one uses the increasingly obsolete U3 unemployment rate calculation.
• We have seen five years of job growth.
• The stock market has recovered nicely from the Great Recession.
• The country has reduced the amount of carbon emissions.
• We have likely increased the use of clean energy sources.

But a lot of what he says qualify for this rendition that politicians say the darndest things:

- Yes, we were in the middle of a great financial meltdown but a lot of that was do to Obama’s Democratic friends and allies over the years:

• http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2009/08/blame-game-part-2.html
• http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/05/who-really-caused-great-recession-part.html

- Yes, the U3 unemployment rate is down to 5% or so but the more realistic unemployment rate, the U6 rate, is still about 10%. This is the more realistic rate since bad economic policies and decisions from Washington have caused millions and millions of Americans to become too discouraged to even look for work, forcing them to drop out of the workforce, a reality not captured by the U3 unemployment rate.

- Yes, there has been five years of steady, if undramatic job growth, but those newly created jobs have either been mostly in low paying economic sectors that offer very little long term financial reward or have been part time jobs. Recent government economic data estimated that over 6 million Americans are stuck in part time jobs even though they would like full time employment. These two factors have resulted in anemic wage and household income growth since the recession ended.

- Yes, the stock market has recovered but tens of millions of Americans do not participate in the stock market so that aspect of the weak economic recovery does not even affect them. On a side note, the chairman of the board of Goldman Sachs, one of the investment banks that were likely a driving force that created the recession’s causes, recently became a billionaire as a result of the Obama administration’s economic policies.

- Yes, over 16 million Americans have gotten health insurance coverage as a result of Obama Care but according to a Rand Corporation study, about 8.5 million Americans lost their existing healthcare insurance as a result of Obama Care so the real net gain is about half of what Obama lays claim to. In addition, many of those that got insurance as a result of Obama Care not only signed up because Obama Care made their existing, preferred plans go away but they have to pay more for their new coverage while getting less coverage and less choices of medical care in return. In other words, quantity does not equal quality.

- Yes, the healthcare cost inflation curve may have been reduced but that trend started before Obama Care came into existence and underlying analyses of the cost trend show that many people are delaying healthcare costs, which also reduces the growth in costs. Not because they have insurance or because they are healthier but because they cannot afford their Obama Care insurance deductibles and co-pays, not because they got well. All of which still does not explain the Obama promise that healthcare insurance costs for the typical American family could go down by as much as $2,500 a year.

- Yes, usage of solar energy might be up a lot but the cost of achieving a 20% growth on a small base might not have been cost effective when you remember that this administration has already wasted tens of billions of taxpayer dollars on dozens of failed alternative energy projects, (e.g. Solyndra, Beacon, A123, etc.). Almost all of those wasted taxpayer dollars were paid out to Democratic Party donors and supporters, plain old crony capitalism that failed to provide an societal benefits in return.

- Yes, this administration did declare that car efficiency would double but that has nothing to do with reality. Saying it does not make it happen.

- Yes, this administration has been worried about climate change but as readers of this blog know, that is a probably a phony, power grab by the political class. Type in “I am a global warming doubter” in the search box above to find out why this is an empty suit claim and accomplishment.

- Yes, he withdrew American troops from two wars but he did not end them. He has rushed thousands of U.S. troops back into Iraq to fight ISIS even though his military advisers advised him not to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq back in 2011 just to satisfy a political campaign boast. Just this week the Pentagon reported that U.S. jets flying missions in Afghanistan killed a terrorist leader. Flying bombing runs seems contrary to the boast that he ended two wars. U.S. troops remain on the front lines of the war against the Taliban, that war has not ended.

- Our alliances are not stronger around the world. Relations with Russia and China are at the lowest levels in decades. We have ticked off our allies by spying on their leaders and governments. Former Middle East allies like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Gulf nations are looking to Russia and China for sources of weapons, a process that we used to own 100%. When the leaders of the six Persian Gulf nations were invited to a White House summit, more than half refused, with one leader going to a horse show in Britain rather than come to the summit. There is so much truth to the following statement regarding Obama’s foreign policy: “Our enemies no longer fear us and our allies no longer trust us.” 

- On almost every metric, the country is NOT better off when Obama came into office:

• The national debt level will likely double during his Presidency, placing severe financial and economic pressure on future generations.
• This administration has no plan on how to get runaway Federal government spending under control. 
• More than one in five American kids live below the poverty line, up significantly from when Obama took office.
• Long term unemployment levels are at record levels.
• The Federal government is obese, dysfunctional, and broken, wasting hundreds of billions of dollars every year due to waste and criminal fraud.
• Over 45 million Americans are still receiving Federal food assistance every month.
• This has become the most lawless administration ever, from Fast and Furious to IRS harassment of Obama’s political opponents to unilaterally changing laws without the consent of Congress to unwarranted spying on all communications of all Americans to selectively enforcing only the laws it likes (e.g. allowing sanctuary cities to exist, DOMA, etc.), to using executive orders to bypass Congress, etc., possibly destroying the Constitution and the rule of law for a long time in this country.
• Despite the economic tailwinds of an $800 billion economic stimulus program, energy procurement breakthroughs, and the Fed printing up trillions of paper dollars,this administration could manage only anemic economic growth over the past five years.
• There is no plan to fix Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, three Federal programs that are heading directly into financial insolvency in a very short time.
• There is still no plan to fix America’s under performing schools, seal our leaky borders, implement a coherent national energy plan, attack the true underlying root causes of our high healthcare costs, or finally tackle the plight of America’s poor besides keeping them addicted to government handouts and a life with no hope.
• If anything, race relations have deteriorated during this administration despite a long term trend to improving relations prior to this Presidency.

Yes, politicians say the darndest things, most of which are usually pure lies, pure spin, or pure delusions. You just have to scratch below the surface and look at facts, not rhetoric.

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.comIt 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.reason.com/http://www.cato.org/http://www.robertringer.com/

http://realpolichick.blogspot.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

July, 2015, Part 1: Politicians Say The Darndest Things

Ever so often we run a series of posts under the theme, “Politicians say the darndest things.” It is a parody of an old television show, “House Party,” where host Art Linkletter would ask simple questions of young kids and wait for their often funny responses. This segment of his show was called “Kids Say The Darndest Things.” 

Unfortunately when kids say silly or dumb things, it is funny. When politicians say silly or dumb things, there are usually serious ramifications across the land that often involve stupid laws, wasteful spending, self delusion of a politician’s intelligence or abilities, or a continued lack of faith that today’s politicians are smart enough to get anything right.

So let’s take a look at the latest darndest things that American politicians are saying today:

1) Most often politicians say the darndest things in an asinine view, proving that they often do not have a concept or reality or what they are talking about. However, we start today with a politician’s quote that is just down right mean, uncaring, and pathetic. Katie Steinle was recently killed on the streets of San Francisco by an illegal immigrant that had seven felony convictions and who had been deported five times. Obviously, a serious criminal element.

When he reentered the country, he headed for San Francisco since that city is a so-called “sanctuary city,” a term that means that city has unilaterally decided to disobey standing immigration law and not aggressively, or not at all, seek to send illegal immigrants back to their home country. As a result, a young American lady, Kate Steinle, is dead because of this law breaking and the continued presence of this illegal immigrant on the streets of America. 

This is a tragedy in so many ways, not the least of which the grief and mourning that has been caused to rain down on Ms. Steinle’s friends and family. A young lady cut down in the prime of her life because of the illegal doings of the national and local political class. But that sadness is only compounded by a quote from a Hispanic Illinois Congressman, one who has been in the forefront of making life easy for illegal immigrants, Luis Gutierrez: “Every time a little thing like this happens, they use the most extreme example to say it must be eliminated.”

A woman’s murder is a “little thing” to this heartless bastard of a politician. I bet it is not a “little thing” to her parents, her brother, her boyfriend, and other her family members and friends. I dare this low life to say this in front of those that have been grieving and will be affected for the rest of their lives by this tragedy. How would he feel if his daughter had been shot on the street by someone who should have been in jail or shipped out of the country permanently, would it still be a “little thing?” Yes, sometimes politicians say the darndest things and this case, they say the most heartless, uncaring, and ignorant things. 

The politicians have denigrated themselves so much that human life is now secondary to their political ambitions and goals. To hear the actual quote out of the politician’s mouth go to:

http://joeforamerica.com/2015/07/angry-racist-democrat-illinois-senator-calls-murder-white-girl-illegal-little-thing/

2) Martin O’Malley used to be the Governor of Maryland and now thinks he is worthy of being the Democratic Party nominee for President in 2016. Consider his latest darndest quote, as reported by Bloomberg News: “One of the things that preceded the failure of the nation-state of Syria and the rise of ISIS was the effect of climate change and the mega-drought that affected that region, wiped out farmers, drove people to cities, created a humanitarian crisis that created the symptoms — or rather the conditions of extreme poverty — that has now led to the rise of ISIL and this extreme violence” 

Ah, climate change/global warming, the cause of every problem in the world. As we have said countless times in response to Al Gore-type climate hysteria, correlation is not causation. Just because a weather or climate event happened, it does not mean it caused other events to happen that seem to occur at about the same time. 

I am sure that throughout time, the Middle East and Syria have suffered through mega droughts long before the concept of man made climate change was even a thought. I am also pretty sure that those previous meg droughts did not give rise to the deadliest terrorist group of all time.

Rather than use faulty correlation/causation logic and political hysteria, let’s take a look some real analysis and do a reality check based on facts. According to the George C.Marshall website: “The George C. Marshall Institute was established in 1984 as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation to conduct technical assessments of scientific issues with an impact on public policy.

In every area of public policy, from national defense, to the environment, to the economy, decisions are shaped by developments in and arguments about science and technology. The need for accurate and impartial technical assessments has never been greater. However, even purely scientific appraisals are often politicized and misused by interest groups.

The Marshall Institute seeks to counter this trend by providing policymakers with rigorous, clearly written and unbiased technical analyses on a range of public policy issues. Through briefings to the press, publication programs, speaking tours and public forums, the Institute seeks to preserve the integrity of science and promote scientific literacy.”

So, here is a 31 year old science based organization, indicating that they have a long track record of doing what they say they do. They must be doing something right to be around for so long. They might be a good place to check in to see if O’Malley’s assertion has any validity: “In summary, the climate-security argument is dangerously overstated and designed to serve a domestic political purpose more than filling a void in strategic thinking,” writes Marshall Institute president Jeff Kueter, the author of the study.

Wow, strategic thinkers think O’Malley’s assertion is basically unfounded garbage. How about another strategic analysis firm, the Cato Institute: “It is not until you dig pretty deep into the technical scientific literature, that you find out that the anthropogenic climate change impact on drought conditions in the Fertile Crescent is extremely minimal and tenuous—so much so that it is debatable as to whether it is detectable at all,” according to Chip Knappenberger and Patrick Michaels, climate scientists at the libertarian Cato Institute in a writing of theirs from March 5, 2015.

Now, some readers might claim that these two organizations are not liberal enough in their views and their science is skewed. Fair enough, but until these readers or O’Malley can produce contrary evidence, science-based evidence, to support his point, something he has not done, we will assume that O’Malley is just saying the darndest thing without any valid science supporting his politically biased and likely incorrect position.

3) Sometimes people talking about politicians say the darndest things and we include those quotes also in this series. The one we are using today is from a cable news person operating out of San Diego, Tomi Lahren. In a closing segment recently on her show, she took the President to task relative to the recent murder of four U.S. Marines in Tennessee by a homegrown terrorist. She minces no words and probably shows more courage, honesty, and insight to a real world problem than any politician in Washington, up to and especially including the President has shown, on the whole Middle East/Islamic terrorist crisis:

“Four United States Marines are now dead. Climate change didn’t kill them. Lack of free community college didn’t kill them. The income gap, wage inequality — nope, not those things either. Gay marriage? Nope. Oh, white racism? Not that either. So what did?” Lahren asks before addressing the president. “President Obama, if you won’t say it, I will: Radical Islam.”

One of the darndest and insightful political statements made recently and made by a non-politician. The video of her quotes and excellent lesson in reality can be seen at:

http://www.teaparty.org/newswoman-sweeps-internet-with-blistering-viral-slap-down-of-obama-2-minutes-of-wow-108794/#sthash.32deJPK5.dpuf

That will do it for today’s darndest political quotes. A Washington politician that has no compassion and basically no heart relative to a murdered innocent young American, a politician whose spouts off a theory without any basis in reality, and a brave young newsperson who says more truth in two minutes than most Washington politicians say in a lifetime.

We will continue this update tomorrow, focusing on some recent Obama quotes which show just how out of touch he is with reality, a bad reality that was almost all of his doing with a little help from others in Washington.

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:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w