THE ENTERPRISE--HEATING UP
SUMMER IS ALMOST HEAR AND THINGS ARE HEATING UP--IN ALL KINDS OF WAYS
Many have asked, so here is my latest GOP Presidential Candidate outlook:
The race is separating already, based on exposure, the recent CNN "debate" (If you can call it that) and general public opinion polls.
The ones who will NOT be the nominee:
Rick Santorum--Nice looking, articulate, but uninspiring
Ron Paul--Too old, too crochety, and to narrowly focused
Newt Gingrich--Keeps shooting himself in the foot, picking fights with the media (bad idea), and no matter how bright he is--color him gone
Herman Cain--I still like him a lot--but I see now that his experience is not right: he is clueless in foreign policy matters--and inexperienced as a politician
Gary Johnson--Where'd he go? Not that he'd get much of anywhere, but I guess he fell off the bottom of the polls.
Tim Pawlenty--Sorry, nice try TP--but you had your chance on the big stage to face off against Mitt and passed on it.
Sarah Palin--Fiesty, fun, interesting, but just got closed out by Michelle Bachman
Rudy Guiliani--c'mon Mr. Mayor--let it go!
The ones who are still in contention:
Mitt Romney--the front runner, still the best of the bunch, but a big target for every liberal media, and some conservatives too.
Michelle Bachman--the new face in town, came across great on the CNN stage; could be a contender--but maybe a better VEEP pick
Jon Huntsman--a new entrant--too new to rate--more moderate even than Romney (and another Mormon!)
Rick Perry--the very successful TX Gov. & a candidate who is not even yet a candidate--but may be the best of the bunch. Time will tell.
The one I wish would sign on--but as a VEEP: Senator Marco Rubio of FL--conservative, handsome, articulate, beautiful family, Hispanic and a great "on-deck for 2016--just in case," but young enough to be waiting in line for 2020.
HACKING IS GROWING IN INTENSITY AND REACH
This is just a partial list. It grows so fast I can't keep up with it. Google, Sony Playstation & TV(2-3x), Lockheed-Martin, IMF (the International Monetary Fund), NPR (National Public Radio), Citigroup, Atlanta chapter of FBI security affiliate InfraGard, the U. S. Senate, Bethesda Softworks LLC, the European Union. Anyone who thinks what I wrote in THE CHINESE CONSPIRACY is a work of complete fiction--will realize it was a fictional story wrapped around factual circumstances. If you have not read the novel yet, I think most people will like it. Virtually all of the independent reviewers, men and women have. Here is one that just came in this week. With reviews like this, you'd think sales would be soaring, but they are not. There appears to be a disconnect between quality and market awareness and sales. Anyone who can help in this area--please do! Does anybody have an inside track to Oprah's Book Club? Much to my surprise, the women reviewers seem to like it every bit as much as the men.
ByBeth's Book Reviews (USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Chinese Conspiracy (Paperback)
The deliciously creepy, Fringe worthy story, was made all the more creepy because it could actually could happen. At times it was a bit on the technical side, language wise, but it wasn't overly distracting. The masterful writing locks you into an escalating level of suspense worthy of a John Grisham. Fans of John Grisham and Brad Meltzer will find this engrossing conspiracy tale incredibly enjoyable. I sincerely look forward to future books by the author. I highly recommend this!
FOR THOSE WHO ALREADY READ THIS ON FORBES--THANKS--FOR THOSE WHO DIDN'T, I THOUGHT YOU'D BE INTERESTED.
I have been posting on the Forbes-Prosper Now blog site since late last year. Some are business oriented, some are general interest and some are political--just like THE ENTERPRISE content. A good post will typically get 1000-2000 page views. As you can see, this headline hit a nerve with readers, and generated over 11,000 view so far. Like most blog posts, you never know if a viewer reads it, or just takes a look and moves on. The reason for posting it is that (in an unusual twist) the NYTimes discovered this same issue---as has Congress and lots of other media outlets. The President's tendency to manage outcomes regardless of the law, the rules, etc. is becoming much more prevalent. Here's the NYTimes story for those who are interested. It outlines how Obama overruled his own two top lawyers and sought out some whose opinions he liked better.
Download 2 Top Lawyers Lost to Obama in Libya War Policy Debate - NYTimes.com
A President Who Ignores the Law
Jun. 9 2011 - 7:00 pm | 11,417 views |
Posted by John Mariotti
Image via Wikipedia
If you break the law in America, there is a good chance you will be caught and punished. Isn’t it odd that the highest office-holder in the land, President Barack Obama can ignore the law and have it go largely unnoticed and unpunished?
What do I mean? I mean the law that was passed in 2003 called the Medicare Reform Act. It contains a provision that if Medicare’s trustees forecast that general revenues will be required for 45% or more of the program’s payouts within a 7-year period, then the president must propose legislation to correct the problem within 15 days of his next budget submission.
Congress is then required to give this proposal expedited consideration. This year’s annual report of the Medicare Trustees says, “the threshold was in fact breached” during the last fiscal year and “a Presidential proposal is required by law in response.”
In case you think this might have been overlooked by President Obama with all he has on his agenda, four members of the Medicare trustees serve on his cabinet.
So, the President Obama simply ignored the law, and to date has not sent Congress a plan to fix Medicare’s finances. This happened last year too, but Congress waived the requirement for the President to do his job. That was easier when Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress.
This is not new. Barack Obama is a former University of Chicago lecturer on constitutional law, so he can’t claim ignorance (it wouldn’t be a valid excuse anyway—don’t try it the next time you are picked up for speeding). He just picks and chooses which laws he wants to observe and follow and which ones he wants to ignore.
The War Powers Act requires that the President seek Congressional approval for military action that lasts more than 60 days. He’s dodging that one in the Libya situation by hiding behind the US participation in a NATO action.
There is another reason the president has no intention of observing the law about Medicare’s perilous funding. Then he can’t use it as a campaign issue—or at least not nearly was easily. If he has to propose some solution to Congress, he can’t sit in the White House and take pot shots at whatever his GOP opponent proposes. Convenient, right? But illegal as hell.
Obama said he would change America—and he has—he’s made it worse, much worse. His actions and those of his cronies in Congress have buried America is a debt so large that he hardly ever tries to blame it on his predecessor any more. He’s eclipsed George Bush’s deficit spending by a whole order of magnitude. This all happened after his campaign promise to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. But then we know about broken campaign promises. They don’t count so much. But how about blatant violations of the law? Don’t those count?
I just have one question. When is America going to revolt over this man’s lies and actions?
The American public sees the economic problems so clearly that even getting rid of bin Laden didn’t fool them into feeling good about the economic mess Obama has made. Check the results below, from American Pulse, a survey of 5000 Americans of voting age.[1]
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The death of Osama bin Laden doesn’t seem to have inspired any additional confidence from consumers in May…this month, 27.9% say they are very confident/confident in chances for a strong economy, dropping more than half a point from April (28.6%) and falling below the 31.5% reading from May-10.
While consumers aren’t feeling any more assured about the economy, bin Laden’s demise seems to have had some impact on concerns for political and national security issues…in May, one-fifth (20.4%) say they’re worrying more about these matters, down two points from a month ago (22.2%) and on par with May-10 (20.5%).
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IF YOU WANT TO READ ANOTHER ONE— "HOT OFF THE PRESSES"—HERE IS THE LINK FOR THIS WEEK'S—POSTED FRIDAY NIGHT.
http://blogs.forbes.com/prospernow/2011/06/17/obama-fiddles-while-the-country-suffers/
ON THE "BIG CALL" THURSDAY--VERY INTERESTING STUFF
Many readers know that I work with BIGresearch, a Worthington, OH company that does incredibly large and accurate monthly surveys of consumers. The most recent survey, finished for the month of May is being published right now. I thought I'd share a few of the conclusions from it, since it is just now out in the "public domain" by way of their VIP mailing list. I often talk about this company and use the line: "Don't you wish you could predict the future? Well now you can come as close to that as ever before." The monthly survey, cleverly called the CIA (Consumer Intentions and Actions) typically contains results from over 8000 respondents, demographically correctly distributed across the entire country. The survey contains about 100 questions--so it gets into a lot of areas. Some are the same from month to month and others deal with seasonal, or topical timeliness. Here's a brief look:
JUNE 2011 CONSUMER INTENTIONS & ACTIONS HIGHLIGHTS
Over 8,300 consumers participated in the June Consumer Intentions & Actions® Survey.Confidence remains stagnant in June as consumers continue to be uninspired in the economy, while practicality and a focus on needs reach record highs. But despite languishing confidence and increasing practicality, the 90 Day Outlook improves for most categories compared to May...do rising prices have anything to do with this?
Find out more in the June BIG Call! June BIG Call Take-Aways:
Confidence remains stagnant in June, as consumers remain uninspired in economy
More predict “more” layoffs in next 6 months
Practicality, Focus on Needs reach record highs
Future purchase plans
Consumers are worried...
about the economy
a complex job situation
and their future!
FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO HEAR THE WHOLE THING, COMPLETE WITH SLIDES, HERE'S A LINK
You simply need to "sign up" to gain access: http://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/2200/30731
WE'LL STOP THIS ONE NOW, SINCE THE NEXT POSTS WILL BE MORE DETAILED IN COMING WEEKS.
I want to explain something that is going overlooked in the economic future of America that will affect us all for two decades!
For now--HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to all the Fathers out there.
Best, JOHN
---------------------------------
BUY IT NOW:
THE CHINESE CONSPIRACY
http://www.thechineseconspiracy.com
Come see me on Forbes.com: http://search.forbes.com/search/find&start=1&tab=searchtabgeneraldark&MT=JOhn+Mariotti&sort=Date Also come see me on American Express Open Forum http://www.openforum.com/search/text/?searchstring=Mariotti&x=0&y=0
John L. Mariotti, President & CEO, The Enterprise Group, Phone 614-840-0959 http://www.mariotti.net, http://mariotti.blogs.com/my_weblog/
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