THE ENTERPRISE
Parental Discretion is advised. Be prepared. Some people will be offended at the content. (Others will love it.)
SURPRISING?
The US Economy seems to be holding up--surprising in many respects: employment is surprisingly strong in spite of the housing dip; manufacturing and services indices are surprisingly trending up; so, surprisingly, is consumer confidence. gas prices have (surprisingly) eased a little; international economies are strong (no surprise), and the dollar remains weak (vacation in the US this year!) We are so lucky. I wonder how long our luck will hold out.
NOT SURPRISING--no. 1
Our nation's leaders are still fumbling and stumbling. Reid and Pelosi are being exposed daily as not up to the task. Bush's miscues are many. No clear winners in either party's candidate "gangs" have emerged. America's global leadership is perceived as weak, conflicted and ineffectual--AND THAT IS DEFINITELY NOT GOOD. Who suffers? The majority of the people--the citizens.
ACTION PLAN: Find new leaders. Elect them. Throw out the pretenders. Quit hanging old laundry on new lines. Choose good leaders who will lead, take action and stand accountable, regardless of party affiliation. In the short time (6 mo.) the Democrats have controlled the government, they are showing the same problems, perhaps worse ones than their predecessors. Nancy Pelosi cannot maintain any kind of party unity or party line. Harry Reid is a joke--even among his colleagues. Bush will be replaced at the end of 2008. So should these two be replaced. The likelihood of this is lower if the Democrats sweep again in 2008, but stranger things have happened in 16 months before the election. Even if the Dems win, new Congressional leaders are imperative. Younger, more moderate and more principled.
Go see this site: http://realclearpolitics.com/polls/ The poll strength of Barack Obama and Fred Thompson--both relatively untested newcomers (Thompson not even a declared candidate) signals the desperation Americans feel as they look for new leaders. We must look very hard at who we choose. Harder than ever before.
NOT SURPRISING--no. 2
The Middle East is a mess--Iran's leaders are radically unpredictable while it's populace, heavily a new, younger generation (2/3 of its 70 million people are under 30 years of age) just wants to live like most of the rest of the civilized world. Palestine and Israel keep fighting each other and now within Palestine, Fatah and Hamas are fighting for control of that tiny country. Who suffers? The majority of the people--the citizens. This kind of stuff has been going on for centuries--and will keep going on. We need to stay the hell out of it unless Israel's existence is in danger--then, maybe we get in.
The Iraq situation is,depending on what you read, making progress, or not, and certainly not fast enough for the "cut and run" bunch. We fret over arms flowing into Iraq across its borders and we cannot even muster enough will, planning and direction to control the immigrants flowing illegally across our own borders. We worry about the Mexico border, but the Canadian border is longer and easily more porous because of it length. Bush is wrong! The immigration bill in the Senate now is an abortion. it needs massive rework or they need to start over. (If Ted Kennedy likes it--I don't--and you won't, unless you are a labor leader, a government bureaucrat, or an illegal alien.)
ACTION PLAN: "Tend to our own knitting." Quit traipsing around the world, with our pocketbook open trying to solve or intervene in every problem. Who named us the world's leading "fixer" and "financer" of injustice. We can't even fix our own messes. We don't need to "pull out" on a wholesale basis in Iraq, but we do need to pull back and regroup, rethink and re-task what is going on there. WE NEED TO RE-FORM A MUCH LARGER PART OF OUR ARMED FORCES INTO SPECIAL FORCES AND USE COVERT ACTIONS AS THEIR PRIMARY MISSIONS.
To do that, we need to quit "baby sitting" (and funding) the Iraqis sectarian fighting and tell them to grow up and take care of their own cities and countries. We need to focus on al Qaeda's hand in it and viciously strike at that target. Then we can re-deploy our forces to act more like the insurgents do. Quit massing-up and being easy targets. Example: If we are worried about Iran's nuclear facilities, we should not take them out with massive air strikes. too blatant and obvious. We should do it with clandestine operations--quietly, secretly and soon. That takes manpower and money and too much of it has gone to supporting corrupt and inept Iraqi efforts. Because we took down Saddam Hussein and his brutal, murderous regime doesn't mean we have to rebuild and baby sit their country indefinitely.
(Because we let Osama bin Laden get away once doesn't mean we shouldn't be combing the mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan and there, if necessary, use whatever air power we can bring to bear on his camps.)
Colin Powell stated Iraq as the Pottery Barn problem: "you break it, you bought it." OK. We broke it. We have not bought it and paid for it. But if you sweep up the breakage once or twice, and someone else comes in and makes a new mess, then it is Pottery Barn's problem. Get it? (We proved this in Anbar province of Iraq.) And by the way, it is fine--no it is mandatory--to cut off any sort of money flowing into rogue nations like Iran, and North Korea regardless of the circuitous route of investment it takes in getting there. Cut them off until they start acting responsibly (which will be never).
CLOBBER THE GAS GUZZLERS
Congress needs to tell the failing "Detroit dinosaurs" to send their lobbyists home. Raise the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) regulations by at least 1--2 MPG starting with next year's models. Make these apply to cars and light trucks. Close the loopholes. DEMAND COMPLIANCE TO REDUCE OUR DEPENDENCE ON THE MIDDLE EASTERN AND HUGO CHAVEZ' VENEZUELAN OIL. If models must be dropped from the line to meet the standards, so be it.
OUTLAW INCANDESCENT BULBS
We are wasting our time and money rushing to drive High Definition TV into our country--why--so we have to replace millions of TV sets or retrofit them, and the TV makers and their affiliates sell us new sets and boxes. Nonsense. Set a phase out for incandescent light bulbs on a phased basis such that in 3 years, no more will be sold except for special applications where compact fluorescent and LED lighting is not yet technologically ready. (High intensity flood lights, dimmable specialty bulbs, etc. That will save a huge amount of energy and the manufacturers will rush to fill the void with new products--but not so we can see the wrinkles in a 40-year old actor's face more clearly.
OK--I GOT THAT OFF MY CHEST.
I WATCHED THE US OPEN PLAYED ON WHAT SOME CALLED AN UNREASONABLY DIFFICULT GOLF COURSE. YOU KNOW WHAT? LIFE IS UNREASONABLY DIFFICULT TOO. WE HAVE TO LEARN TO DEAL WITH IT. THE BEST GOLFERS IN THE WORLD DID--NOTE THAT TIGER WOODS AND JIM FURYK FINISHED 2ND AND 3RD TO ANGEL CABRERA'S OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE.
Enjoy the start of summer and give those elected officials hell. We deserve better!
Best, John.
P.S. A personal note on "difficulty." If all goes as planned, I will take my 20 handicap (& two 18-hole outings in the past 2 years to Oakmont to play a round later this month. "Play" may be the wrong word, but just standing on that historic ground and attempting to get the ball on the green--and have it stay there--will be a great achievement over difficulty. And I AM taking my driver (it has the longest shaft which will be useful for measuring how far from a terrible place I can drop my ball--into a slightly less vexing place.)
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