Sequestration? No, This is Fight Club!

There is a great speech by Tyler Durdan about men's drifting Life.  yet, it parallels how President Obama and the Democrats have (not) leading the country leading the country. 

Follow along please:

Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.

(This was done before 9/11, but the rules apply in this Age of Contraction)

The Democrats have been treating their Constituents (and the rest of us) as Durden's "Middle Children of History," Shutting the people's House to tours? Playing games instead of doing their jobs? 

Time to follow the rules.  

And now, the Rules of Fight Club before I explain the Rules Senators and Presidents must follow:

The Rules of Budgets for Democrats (that the Tea Party and GOP Members Follow)

Sequestration is not new in American Budgets.  Look up Gramm-Rudman-Hollings. 

President Bush pere and the (Democratic) Congress' of 1989 and 1991 followed the rules, yet it seems that this current crop seems to have forgotten. 

So, what are these weird and crazy rules? (taken from Congress for Dummies, please send Senator Reid and President Obama a copy of page 123)

First Rule of Budgets is the President submits his Budget on or before the First Monday in February!
(President Obama has been late FOUR times including FY2014)

Second Rule of Budgets is that the President Submits His Budget on or before the First Monday in February!
(This is according to the Budget Act of 1921 and Bush fils followed it just fine)

Click for Detail

The Third Rule of Budgets is on February 15th, the CBO publishes their check of the Presidents numbers (Checks and balances);

Fourth Rule of Budgets is both House and Senate Budget Committees develop Budget resolutions in March.In April, they have a Conference Committee (what Senator Reid is afraid of) and by Tax day, the Budget resolution passes both Houses of Congress;

The Fifth Rule of Budgets is the House passes its Appropriation Bills April thru June;

The Sixth Rule of Budgets is the Senate passes June through September;

(Yes, there are 13 Subcommittees, but before President Obama, the process worked just fine)

Seventh Rule Conference Committee all Appropriation Bills and send them to the President;

Eighth and Final Rule: President signs Appropriation Bills (mixed of Congressional and Executive numbers if done right) before the end of the Fiscal year (October 1).

How President Obama and Senator Reid hit Rep. Ryan's Ear

For the first time in 92 years, the House is setting the tone of the Fiscal debate, not the Executive Branch.  

Without knowing how much funds were incoming (or outgoing due to the Age of Contraction), the House Budget committee is starting first.

The Sequestration, the last minute battles, and all the drama of the last four years could have been avoided by Senator Reid if he only went into Conference Committee to send Appropriation Bills to President Obama. 

No Appropriation Bills; No Budgets; Welcome to Sequestration.

Rep. Ryan has won every time he and the House GOP Submits an Appropriation bill.   

His Name is NOT Robert Paulson

Who should you call and complain if your job is on the line?

Call this number first: 202-863-8000 (the DNC) and then this number 202-225-7931 and ask Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, why Democrats in the Executive Branch are late with Budgets that include people's jobs.

Then call these numbers and ask Senator Reid why he hasn't passed any Appropriation bills since FY10: 
A) 202-224-3542
B) 702-388-5020

And finally, call 202-456-1414 and ask why President Obama is late with his Budget EVERY YEAR! 

My question to you: Why are Democrats afraid of passing budgets and Appropriation Bills in the Age of Obama?

Forget the Zombie Apocalypse! Here's How to Stop Taxamegedon!

Zombies will not walk down Hollywood Boulevard and eat our brains, but Taxameggdon is coming and business' are buckling down.  Be afraid, be very afraid.

However, Chairman Del Beccaro of the CRP understands how to get the economy moving again.

For the longest time, the Left (and Obama) have whinged about "The Bush Tax Cuts" (where even I, a lowly hourly employee, got money back from the Government,). 

If you remember back to the early 2000's, America's economy got hit by a few things:  9/11, the dot-bomb, the corruption (and prosecution) of Enron and other companies.  

How was America going to get out of it?

The Bush  Tax Cuts!

Now, with President Obama presiding over High Unemployment and low tax receipts for the Government, how do we get out of this Age of Contraction? (Well, one, vote for Governor Romney!). 

Here is Chairman Del Beccaro's answer:

"The problem facing America today is that the economy has stalled. There are many reasons given for that including: (1) too many state and federal regulations, (2) high corporate taxes, (3) high state and federal income taxes, (4) the uncertainty over the election, (5) the Obamacare taxes, (6) poor international economic conditions, (7) our national debt and more. All of those are actual reasons, to one degree or another, for the slowdown we face today.
...
 
"In a stalled economy, regardless of the cause, people’s ability and incentive to undertake risk is stalled as well. In order, to get people to take risk again, government needs to jolt them with a psychological force, otherwise known as economic incentives – to get them to change their behavior and take risk.

"There are many examples throughout all of history of governments that did just that in the face of bad conditions. In 2350 BC, a Sumerian ruler cuts taxes and regulations for his people who even had to pay a tax to get divorced. In 141 BC, the first of a series of Chinese rulers instituted tax “remissions,” i.e. cuts, for farmers whose land was hit by natural disasters. In the middle centuries, Mongul governments cut taxes for farmers whose lands were devastated by the Mongul/Chinese wars. The Roman Emperor Pertinax granted 10 years tax immunity and free land to those who would take over agricultural land abandoned because of heavy taxation."

When the GOP talks about Tax Cuts and Trickle Down economics, its worth noting that "Poor people cannot hire," If the American economy is shaky (due to the factors mentioned above), maybe the Government throwing money at it does not work.

We've given the Government Four years to make things better.  It hasn't worked.  Again, see the factors above.

Here is the Chairman's conclusion:

"Clearly, our economy is not moving – even at the Bush tax rates.

"While those rates may be low compared to some periods in the past, the fact is that economy has ground to a halt at the existing tax and regulatory levels – regardless of how those rates compared to years past.

 "We must understand that the boulder that is the U.S. economy will not simply just start rolling again. To foster a sustainable expansion of the economy and get people off unemployment and disability rolls and onto employment rolls, we have to jump start incentives. To raise tax rates on anyone or to continue our regulatory ways will only dig a deeper trench around the boulder that is our economy."

Or in short, stop worrying about the Zombie Apocalypse and keep Taxamegedon from Rising.

Again, I hope Governor Romney is listening to the California Republican Chairman. 

My question: Since President Obama's plans have not worked, what is your solution for getting the American economy started again? 

Open Letter to Dr. John Deasy, Chairman, LAUSD, Part 4

Chairman Deasy,

Nothing? No response?

Are you a Bureaucrat or a Leader?  If you are the former, welcome to being made an issue during this busy campaign year.  

Let me explain why:

Last I checked, you wrote for the Liberal Huffington Post and show up at Los Angeles (and national) Democratic Party events.   The current Democratic Presidential  champion fought for "Obamacare," However, it seems you are busy hiring consultants and Administrators and screwing the CSEA staffers by firing them, and then hiring back with NO Health care.  

Dr. Deasy, have you no shame?

This is a Democrat YOU support.  This is a Presidential issue that YOU should get in front of.  Or, with advent of Obamacare, the prices are higher for staffers, which meant that Republicans were right all along? And you are acting like a typical Democrat, health care for me, but not for thee (CSEA staffers)?

August 14th is around the corner and you are cutting staffers left and right  without regard to Departmental History (or success).  In this Age of Contraction (i.e. "The Great Recession,"), you are using taxpayer funds to hire Consultants and six figure Administrators without regard for the Los Angeles or California taxpayer.  

And the staffers to help the kids (and departments) make the transition to make the new school year move easily? Gone.  My Mom is out and she understands how the departments show worked in were made efficient, so how many other Moms have you thrown out of LAUSD for your six figure Administrators? 

 You want to not be made a campaign issue (especially over your hypocritical stance on Obamacare and your CSEA staffers)?  

Do three things:

1) Talk with Espie Medellin, on how to bring back the staffers (with health care) before the school year starts;

2) Please account why you need six figure Administrators during "the Great recession," and why no one is cutting their pay while the private sector is going through a painful time (as are your CSEA staffers)?  Here's a hint: Visit SFVRC and Westside GOP and take questions (with CSEA people at both places) -- I dare you; and


3)  If you oppose Obamacare, speak up -- don't hide behind bureaucracy. If you support it, show LA how to implement it. Don't hide behind hypocrisy, my candidates will find out.  

Once again, with frustration.

Sincerely,

JSF

Want to be a Powerful Political Bloc? Follow the Jews!

President Truman (D)  with  PM Ben-Gurion in the Oval Office

Governor Romney (R) and PM Netanyahu 2012

Power.

In politics, everyone wants it, but few know how to get it.  When you watch a Presidential race, it is raw power for the biggest prize of them all.

To win in the game of Politics requires the building of Coalitions. 

Whomever builds 50 % + 1 = Winner of the Game of (Oval) Office. 

If your group is ALWAYS part of a winning coalition, your issues always get addressed.  If your group is locked under one of two coalitions, your votes and issues can be ignored.

Don't believe me?

Follow the bouncing ball....

Homicides in 2011  -- The red zones are places where people were killed

Also note, that in the Gateway Area (which has voted for Democrats since the Flood), the murder rate is extremely high. 

Take a look at this chart:

Now, when you vote a Political Party in Power (like the Modern Democrats), they should be able to help their fellow citizens from being both crime victims and victims of poverty.  But looking at the Gateway area of Los Angeles and the chart above, can we NOW acknowledge that African Americans (and the NAACP) giving all their votes to one party has now failed? 

This lesson applies to the Gay and Lesbian community and other communities feeling they are not moving forward in their goals. 

The best Political players (and their representatives) know that winning people to your side requires a few things:

A) Use the Carrot more then the stick;

B) Expand your reach beyond the voters who already like you; and

C) Put yourself within BOTH parties coalitions (at a local level).

Here is where HBO directors, Dan Savage and the NAACP fail miserably. 

Even though I am the only Elected Goth Republican Blogger, to push my views (Social Liberterianism), I find out where I can help.  After helping, I'm listened too. 

If candidates want my support, all they have to do is play ball with me. 
If I believe in an issue, I fight for it, but within the parameters of the Republican Party. 

If you only fight for your issue within ONE political party only and you are still worried about being a crime victim (or being poor), listen to Romney's speech to the NAACP:

For all the talk of how Democrats "love," the poor -- they never seem to rise within the Left.  But there is always room for rich stars from Los Angeles Westside (not from any high crime areas), Upper East Side New Yorkers and corrupt incumbents.

(Please note, I am struggling in this Age of Contraction like everyone else, and the GOP County Party has a place for me. There are no democratic equivalents.) 

If you want Power, follow the example of the Jews -- they have invested people in both Parties (no matter how many times Jonah Lowenfeld of JJLA wishes to deny RPLAC Jews their support), their issues are never forgotten (and those Parties and People that do, usually lose Elections).

My questions:
Why deny any American the chance to influence TWO Parties?
And when will African Americans note how Democrats have failed them? 
And when will HBO do a documentary on Democratic Party failings in Los Angeles? 

Moderation Did Not End with Senator Luger; It Ended in 2006

First, this is Charity week in the Valley:

Please donate to Freedom House and/or Fisher House. 

Thanks.
---------------------
Tonight, the same old, same old concern trolls are saying with Senator Luger losing the Indiana Primary means the end of Moderation.

What I see are the same folks who spent 8 years attacking President Bush (R) for getting rid of a dictator, and then not endorsing Moderate Republican Senator John McCain and attacking Establishment reformer Governor Sarah Palin, now whining about the lack of Moderation from the Right (Note: Hart Williams will never click those links).

Allow me to have an ironic laugh.

When did bi-partisanship die?

In 2006, when the Left kicked out Senator Lieberman for working across the aisle with President Bush, bi-partisanship died in the Democratic Primary.

And for those who whinged about how the GOP started opposing President Obama on the first day?

Let me remind you how "classy" the Left treated President Bush on his exit from the Political stage:



I bet the call from the Minority leader of the House and to the Minority Leader of the Senate went off immediately, after learning, even though the Democrats won, they had no class about it.

Think of Winston Churchill's post World War II quote (learned from the lessons of WWI):

“In war, Resolution; 

In defeat, Defiance; 

In victory, Magnanimity;

In Peace, Goodwill,”

Elections are wars, Governing (Odd number) years are times when the victors are supposed to be able to trash their opponents in public, but work with them in private.  Pelosi is well known on the Hill for doing the former but not the latter (and that's why she lost the House).

You want bi-partisanship and things to move in politics again?

Here are a quick couple of rules you on the Left should follow:

1) Stop turning our Electeds and Others into Emmanuel Goldstein (the Vorpal Sword Blog thrives on needing an Emmanuel Goldstein) -- they are human, just like your candidates.  When you forget that, you prove Orwell's INGSOC is the Democratic Party. 

2) Prove to the Right that you will not renege on deals (that happened in Reagan's era and we have been wary ever since) and allow us to save face in public -- we might actually believe you next time; and

3) During the Bush II era, Democrats cheered Ahamadinijad and Chavez at the UN over their own President.  Karma has a way working against you if you forget.  What Democrats believed in the Bush I era (Democracy Overseas is a good thing) switched in the Bush II era (Negotiate with Dictators will stop wars from happening - to hell with the dictator's population, right?) -- and in the Obama era, all War and military excursions are forgiven.  That's why no Republican should ever cross the aisle, Democrats care about Power first, America second.

When the Democrats look in the mirror and acknowledge they are fallible too, then bi-partisanship will rise again.  All I can say is, bring back the Tip O'Neill Democrats. 

My question: Did the Democrats think that throwing out Senator Liberman for working across party lines occurred in a vacuum?  And why is a Paranoid Blogger like Hart Williams on the Moderate Voice?

(Here's a hint Hart: Opposition does not mean Treason, we learned that during the Bush Administration -- you don't like it? Step up and show the GOP should act in opposition (when you deal with any Republican). I know you can't do it. 

America's Cold Civil War 2 (Or the Return of Catiline)

Motivational Poster Maker


Sequels suck.

Unless you count Empire Strikes back, G-dfather 2 and the Dark Knight. 

Among the partisans, something is going on.  I noted it back on the Crack on the Washington Monument post, I see it even more as we get closer to Election 2012.

Cicero Denounces Catiline by Cesare Maccari

It seems the Democrats and their Media Praetorian Guards are playing the role of Catiline, ready to destroy the Republic if their Champion does not win.

Who is Catiline and what was his role in the Roman Republic?

(c. 108-62 B.C.), a member of an ancient but impoverished patrician family of Rome, the prime mover in the conspiracy known by his name. He appears in history first as a supporter of Sulla, and during the proscription he was conspicuous for his greed and cruelty. He slew his inoffensive brother-in-law with his own hand, and tortured and mutilated the much-loved Marius Gratidianus. He was believed to have made away with his wife and his son to win the profligate and wealthy Aurelia Orestilla; it was even suspected that he had been guilty of an intrigue with the Vestal Fabia. In 77 he was quaestor, in 68 praetor, and in 67-66 governor of Africa.

And his conspiracy?

Depending on such accomplices and adherents, and knowing that the load of debt was everywhere great, and that the veterans of Sylla, having spent their money too liberally, and remembering their spoils and former victory, were longing for a civil war, Catiline formed the design of overthrowing the government. There was no army in Italy; Pompey was fighting in a distant part of the world; he himself had great hopes of obtaining the consulship; the senate was wholly off its guard; everything was quiet and tranquil, and all these circumstances were exceedingly favorable for Catiline. 

...

But most of the young men, and especially the sons of the nobility, favored the schemes of Catiline; they who had abundant means of living at ease, either splendidly or voluptuously, preferred uncertainties to certainties, war to peace. There were some, also, at that time, who believed that Marcus Licinius Crassus was not unacquainted with the conspiracy; because Cneius Pompey, whom he hated, was at the head of a large army, and he was willing that the power of anyone whomsoever should raise itself against Pompey’s influence; trusting, at the same time, that if the plot should succeed, he would easily place himself at the head of the conspirators. 

...
Catiline and Autronius, having concerted measures with this Piso, prepared to assassinate the consuls, Lucius Cotta and Lucius Torquatus, in the Capitol, on the first of February, when they, having seized on the fasces, were to send Piso with an army to take possession of the two Spains. But their design being discovered, they postponed the assassination to the fifth of February; when they meditated the destruction, not of the consuls only, but of most of the senate. And had not Catiline, who was in front of the senate-house, been too hasty to give the signal to his associates, there would that day have been perpetrated the most atrocious outrage since the city of Rome was founded. But as the armed conspirators had not yet assembled in sufficient numbers, the want of force frustrated the design.

...
Of the first conspiracy enough has been said. 
-- Sallust, the Conspiracy of Catiline, Chapter 16 -19 

Let's start with President Obama's Praetorian Guard, Fareed Zakaria:

But our Constitution has been revised 27 times.  Some of these revisions have been enormous and important, such as the abolition of slavery. Then there are areas that have evolved. For example, the power of the judiciary, especially the Supreme Court, is barely mentioned in the document. This grew as a fact over history.

But there are surely some issues that still need to be debated and fixed.

The electoral college, for example, is highly undemocratic, allowing for the possibility that someone could get elected as president even if he or she had a smaller share of the total national vote than his opponent.

The structure of the Senate is even more undemocratic, with Wisconsin's six million inhabitants getting the same representation in the Senate as California's 36 million people. That's not exactly one man, one vote.

And we are surely the only modern nation that could be paralyzed as we were in 2000 over an election dispute because we lack a simple national electoral system.

So, to defend President Obama and the Democrats, the cry went forth on June 20th, 2011: Change the Rules.

To keep going with the same trend (Change the Rules so Democrats can win!!!), we now have Peter Orzag, President Obama's  former OMB Chair (and shares the same birthday with yours truly by two years. Unlike him, I did not go to private school) wrote this:

"This is why I believe that we need to jettison the Civics 101 fairy tale about pure representative democracy and instead begin to build a new set of rules and institutions that would make legislative inertia less detrimental to our nation’s long-term health.

 ...

"What we need, then, are ways around our politicians. The first would be to expand automatic stabilizers—those tax and spending provisions that automatically expand when the economy weakens, thereby cushioning the blow, and automatically contract as the economy recovers, thereby helping to reduce the deficit. A progressive tax code is one such automatic stabilizer ...

"Beyond automatic stabilizers, we also need more backstop rules: events that take place if Congress doesn’t act.....

...

"I wish it were not necessary to devise processes to circumvent legislative gridlock, but polarization isn’t going away. John Adams may have been exaggerating when he pessimistically noted that democracies tend to commit suicide, yet, as we are seeing, certain aspects of representative government can end up posing serious problems. And so, we might be a healthier democracy if we were a slightly less democratic one."

-- Peter Orzag, The New Republic, "Too Much of a Good Thing,"

Read the words I highlighted.  Just because President Obama is losing does not mean the American Polity is.

And one final shot in the Coming Cold War from Cataline sympathisers:

Speaking to a Cary Rotary Club today, N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue suggested suspending Congressional elections for two years so that Congress can focus on economic recovery and not the next election.

“I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that,” Perdue said. “You want people who don’t worry about the next election.”

The comment — which came during a discussion of the economy — perked more than a few ears. It’s unclear whether Perdue, a Democrat, is serious — but her tone was level and she asked others to support her on the idea.

Please read those bolded words.  How different are these Democrats from the words of Catiline on the verge of his second conspiracy?

Who in the world, indeed, that has the feelings of a man, can endure that they should have a superfluity of riches, to squander in building over seas and leveling mountains, and that means should be wanting to us even for the necessaries of life, that they should join together two houses or more, and that we should not have a hearth to call our own? They, though they purchase pictures, statues, and embossed plate; though they pull down new buildings and erect others, and lavish and abase their wealth in every possible method, yet cannot, with the utmost efforts of caprice, exhaust it. But for us there is poverty at home, debts abroad; our present circumstances are bad, our prospects much worse; and what, in a word, have we left, but a miserable existence? 

 

Will you not, then awake to action? Behold that liberty, that liberty for which you have so often wished, with wealth, honor, and glory, are set before your eves. All these prizes fortune offers to the victorious. Let the enterprise itself, then, let the opportunity, let your poverty, your dangers, and the glorious spoils of war, animate you far more than my words. Use me either as your leader or your fellow-soldier; neither my heart nor my hand shall be wanting to you. These objects I hope to effect, in concert with you, in the character of consul; unless, indeed, my expectation deceives me, and you prefer to be slaves rather than masters-- Sallust, Conspiracy of Catiline, Chapter 20

How different was Catiline from the Occupy Wall Street mobs?  Not very.

And here is Cicero's words, standing up for the Republic, speaking to the people of Rome:

Wherefore, O citizens, since a supplication has been decreed at all the altars, celebrate those days with your wives and children; for many just and deserved honours have been often paid to the immortal gods, but juster ones never. For you have been snatched from a most cruel and miserable destruction, and you have been snatched from it without slaughter, without bloodshed, without an army, without a battle. You have conquered in the garb of peace, with me in the garb of peace for your only general and commander. 

[24] Remember, O citizens, all civil dissensions, and not only those which you have heard of but these also which you yourselves remember and have seen. Lucius Sulla crushed Publius Sulpicius⁵; he drove from the city Caius Marius the guardian of this city; and of many other brave men some he drove from the city, and some he murdered. Cnaeus Octavius the consul drove his colleague by force of arms out of the city; all this place was crowded with heaps of carcasses and flowed with the blood of citizens; afterwards Cinna and Marius got the upper hand; and then most illustrious men were put to death, and the spirits of the state were extinguished. Afterwards Sulla avenged the cruelty of this victory; it is needless to say with what a diminution of the citizens and with what disasters to the republic Marcus Lepidus disagreed with that most eminent and brave man Quintus, Catulus. His death did not cause as much grief to the republic as that of the others

[25]And these dissensions, O Romans, were such as concerned not the destruction of the republic, but only a change in the constitution. They did not wish that there should be no republic, but that they themselves should be the chief men in that which existed; nor did they desire that the city should be burnt, but that they themselves should flourish in it. And yet all those dissensions, none of which aimed at the destruction of the republic, were such that they were to be terminated not by a reconciliation and concord, but only by internecine war among the citizens. But in this war alone, the greatest and most cruel in the memory of man,—a war such as even the countries of the barbarians have never waged with their own tribes,—a war in which this law was laid down by Lentulus, and Catiline, and Cassius and Cethegus that every one, who could live in safety as long as the city remained in safety, should be considered as an enemy, in this war I have so managed matters, O Romans that you should all be preserved in safety; and though your enemies had thought that only such a number of the citizens would be left as had held out against an interminable massacre and only so much of the city as the flames could not devour, I have preserved both the city and the citizens unhurt and undiminished. 

(Cicero's Third Oration against Catiline)

Can the Democrats in their hatred against President Bush, former Governor Palin or any of the Wisconsin Protests say the "city and the citizens [are] unhurt and undiminished," 

That's why this post is called the Cold Civil War 2 -- the slings and arrows of attacks have gone in one direction for so long (after Elections, and always needing an Emmanuel Goldstein) from Left to Right, that many people are shocked that the Blogosphere and new partisans of the Right are standing up.

Here is how the Left looks upon the Right: (the missiles are pointing in that direction. Hmmm)

USSR fighting the West

Conservatives and Republicans have dealt with losses (close and otherwise) by continuing forward.  Democrats lose, and they want to change the rules.  Don't believe me?


The Republicans were the Minority in the House for 40 years (and the Presidency from FDR until Ike) -- even then, no Republican ever thought of changing the Rules.

My question: Why are the Democrats taking their cues from Catiline?

UPDATE 8:30PM PST: Welcome Insty Readers! Enjoy the Valley and hit the Tip Jar!  Thanks for visiting!

Playing the Gibson Guitar Blues

This is LA.

Not only the land of TV and Movies, this is also the land of the Musician.

I'm please to know a band, Many of Odd Nature (Sign them to a record label! They rock!).  So, when Federal Agents shut down Gibson Guitar factories in two states, it makes this Political Strategist/Blogger stand up and focus. 

Let me quote from the Gibson Guitar Press Release:

"The Federal Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. has suggested that the use of wood from India that is not finished by Indian workers is illegal, not because of U.S. law, but because it is the Justice Department’s interpretation of a law in India. (If the same wood from the same tree was finished by Indian workers, the material would be legal.) This action was taken without the support and consent of the government in India.

"On August 24, 2011, around 8:45 a.m. CDT, agents for the federal government executed four search warrants on Gibson’s facilities in Nashville and Memphis and seized several pallets of wood, electronic files and guitars. Gibson had to cease its manufacturing operations and send workers home for the day, while armed agents executed the search warrants. Gibson has fully cooperated with the execution of the search warrants, "

Let us note that the law that Obama's DOJ is following comes from India.

In this era of the Age of Contraction, I thought it was the American Government's job to protect, oh, I don't know, American business' from sea to shining sea. 

And guess what musicians in LA and beyond? The Obama DOJ hit Gibson back in November 2009.  Read:

"Agents armed with warrants searched the Nashville factory of Gibson Guitars as part of a crackdown on the illegal use of endangered woods, authorities said.

"U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service agents served the warrants on the company Tuesday at its manufacturing plant for electric and acoustic guitars, The (Nashville) Tennessean reported.

"Exotic hardwoods used in high-end guitars, such as Brazilian rosewood, have become a focus of strict controls because of rainforest depletion. Trading in such woods is a federal offense, the paper said.

"The company said in a statement it has done nothing wrong and is "fully cooperating with agents … as it pertains to an issue with harvested wood."

"Environmentalists were surprised by the search, saying Gibson is an industry leader in using only sustainable woods."

And what does Gibson's CEO has to say?



The most important thing he said: "Every guitar we build is a Criminal violation,"

November 2009 and August 2011, this what Environmentalists do to jobs.  And they're killing the music, man!

As we venture towards 2012, I want my musician friends to know that some of my candidates (on the Right side of the aisle) will keep the music playing.  

Remember, the Democrats is the party of Tipper Gore's Parents Resource Music center.  Vice president Gore attacked musicians to raise his profile.

We on the Right just want you to play.  And play it LOUD!

So, to all my up and coming musician friends, will you stand up to the Environmentalists to let the music play? or will you wait for the Democratic senator ready to use your industry as an Emmanuel Goldstein?

My question:  Will you musicians join us at RPLAC and the CAGOP to stand up against these raids? 

And now, some good LOUD music!

AC/DC, Highway to Hell

Summer 2011 POP! (with Music!)

Let us harken back to days of yore, when the Valley was still breathing its first.

Now whilst I have been busy in real time, many things have happened which I will address (in separate posts at some point -- I hope).

Now get ready to POP! (with music):

1) America loses a Credit Grade -- Policy --

Trading Places, Commodities Scene



Now, a tune:

Billy Idol, Mony, Mony



Politically, it damages President Obama and the democrats for 2012. Not only have Democrats not passed an Appropriations bill since 2007 (Neither House nor Senate), now with their Power in the White House and the Upper House, they couldn't stop the Unemployment rate from rising.

President Obama was hired to fix the economy in 2008.  He failed with a large Democratic majority.  hence the rise of the NEW Fiscal Conservatives, the Tea Party.  President Obama, to paraphrase Pig Killer in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, there is no plan to fix the economy. 

Welcome to the Age of Contraction.

2) The UK Riots -- Policy

The Clash, Guns of Brixton


It's August; tensions are high in this Age of Contraction, and a young man,  Mark Duggan was killed by the MPD.  Riots and alarms have broken out across the English cities. 

I retweeted something from one of my favorite underrated British actor, Noel Clarke (Mickey on Doctor Who).  He tweeted simply:

#Stoptheriots. 

And this was a later tweet:

We're supposed to fight for honour, pride. #London. you are better than this. young people you are better than this. We are better than this
Even in this Age of Contraction, for civilization (old and new), let the Law will out on those involved.  Everyone else, keep calm and carry on.  The UK is one of my favorite places, please keep it in one piece until I visit. Thank you. 

3) The Wisconsin Recalls, pt 1. -- Politics:

Phil Collins, I Missed Again


After the Democrats ran away from voting on a budget issue; allowed people to trash the Wisconsin capitol and then force an election not long after the last scheduled one, what were they thinking?

Well, the Democrats  lost 4 of the 6 races to take over the WI Senate and the race for the State Supreme Court. Maybe they can't take a hint..... (h/t to the Althouse Blog for following all the news)

Cooler heads always prevail.  Protests had a by-sell date of 1974. That's done now. 

And that's all the POP for tonight!

My question: Did I miss anything? I'll add it here.