Wolverine

2006-05-22T14:31:00.000-04:00

TAX RAISER-IN-CHIEF

Make no mistake about it, President George W. Bush will go down in history as increasing –not cutting-- taxes more than any President of The United States. Government is a zero sum game, its expenditures will be paid. The President has led us into the largest deficit ever seen and that bill will be paid for by increased taxes---for our children to pay. To make matters worse, our children will be taxed up to their eyeballs to pay off the Chinese, Arab and other foreign governments who lent us the money to increase the deficit. A tax tsunami is rolling towards America and it will roll across the country with a vengeance, sparing no one, including the reputation of the current taxraiser-in-chief.
Imagine lying on your deathbed and whispering to your children: "Oh, by the way, I made you responsible for all of my debts for the past eight years. Sorry kids, you have to pay those debts." President Bush plans to do that to all our children on his political deathbed, as he leaves office. Isn’t he just grand?
PS…It has already begun: Mr. Bush has just signed a bill raising taxes on all 13 to 17 year olds with college savings funds…… Their taxes increase a total of over $2 Billion over the next ten years. Thanks kids!!
THE WOLVERINE

2006-03-27T12:40:00.000-05:00

GRAVE NEW WORLD
If a terrorist operative overseas calls Joe in Joplin, should that call be monitored? Of course it should. When Joe then calls his aunt in Austin and his brother in Boston, should those calls be monitored? Of course they should. When those two call eight others should those calls be monitored, too ? Absolutely. When those eight each call ten others over the next week, should those 80 calls be monitored? Yes, they should because there is no way to know which call will activate a terrorist cell and cause harm to our country. Every call in the tree that started with the terrorist must be listened to for any sign of illegal behavior. Warrants? Why do we need those? The terrorists don't follow any code of law or ethical behavior, why should we? If we pick up a few tax cheats and drug dealers and other miscreants along the way, so much the better. In this grave new world we live in, they don’t deserve the same rights as the rest of us. Oh…. Yeah…. I forgot, this is America, a nation of laws and profound respect for those laws. When our head of government disrespects the law, he earns an equal amount of disrespect from the nation he purports to lead. Ignoring the law is not good presidential leadership, it is something quite terribly the opposite. We cannot let the President, "Like Cato, give his little Senate laws and sit attentive to his own applause." (A. Pope)

2006-02-18T16:53:00.000-05:00

Give Me A Break
It has been reported that President Bush has not vetoed a single bill presented to him by Congress. Not so fast….it seems that Mr. Bush has found a way to impose a veto without calling it a veto. He uses a little-known device called a "Signing Statement", a statement attached to the bill that explains how the President views the bill or selected portions of the bill. He uses the statements to nullify the laws or portions of laws by stating that this or that aspect will be executed (or not) as interpreted by the White House, not as directed in the law. He treats the Congress and the courts as advisors rather than as an equal branches of government.
He has used this imperial veto more than 400 times as President (more than all previous Presidents combined!) and clearly intends to continue. An example is the recent law which forbids torture by the United States. Mr. Bush signed the bill but he attached a "Signing Statement" that said he would essentially ignore the law and not direct his branch to comply. Many of the President’s statements state that he will apply a law as he determines its legality under the Constitution You can read these statements in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, available on-line.
Thomas Paine: "In America, the law is king. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other".

The Wolverine

2005-11-25T10:26:00.000-05:00

MORE SHAME

November 11 is supposed to be a day when all Americans, regardless of political belief, take time to honor all those who have served and died in service to their country. It is not supposed to be a day for politics. The President chose to use the day and the memory of fallen heroes to deliver a blatant political attack on his opponents, while ignoring the Tomb of The Unknowns at Arlington. He dishonored himself and all the heroes who have served this country so faithfully. I have friends whose bones still lie under the fields of Laos and Vietnam. I will not forgive the President for this insult to their sacrifice and the sacrifices of the thousands of others who had the grace to serve their country honorably.

The Wolverine

2005-11-20T11:40:00.000-05:00

WELCOME ABOARD THE USS IRAQ

AMERICA'S NEWEST UNSINKABLE

AIRCRAFT CARRIER

It is no wonder that the Administration is having trouble talking about an exit strategy from Iraq. Simply put, they have no intention of pulling the majority of our forces out of that country. Instead, they are actively plannng and rapidly building infrastructure for a permanent presence. Major facilities are now under construction to facilitate the bed-down of US air and ground forces for an indefinite time. The term used is "enduring presence", which means "forever" in DOD-speak.

Essentially, we are building Iraq into the world's largest, unsinkable, aircraft carrier, enabling the United States to project its power in 360 degrees from the center of the Arab world with its oil, its location, and its propensity for disorder. Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the southern Arab world will all fall under the hegemonic umbrella of US power.

McGraw-Hill Construction and (of course) Halliburton have been awarded contracts for the construction of these enclave-like , stand-alone facilities. Assisted by the Army Corps of Engineers, construction is complete on some sites and is well along on others. One of the sites, Camp Taji, already has a Subway, Burger King and Pizza Hut, a sure sign that we are settling in for a long "enduring" stay.

From a grand strategy view, this is a superb and brilliant plan that would serve to stabilize the region with a reduced US force that does not risk aircraft carriers in the congested seas of the area and allows almost instant response anywhere in the region. It does however, require a modicum of calm in Iraq, which may be the long pole in the tent. We could tolerate some unrest, but the whole plan relies on the Iraqi security forces establishing control in their country. The US administration is in no particular hurry, since our bed-down bases are not ready and the transition needs to be gradual, so that the American public won't notice(They think we are a bit dense, you know). The slow roll on how and when we are to leave Iraq will continue because the administration would be committing politcal suicide at home and in the world if it told the truth about the real intent of our actions.

So....the war goes on and the Iraqi College of Terrorism will remain in session, training an alumni association of battle hardened terrorists that likes of which the world has never seen. The answer, soon, must be to stop enabling the Iraqis delay in improving themselves (it is much easier for them to have Americans fight for them than to do it themselves) by setting a series of dates for US withdrawal and giving the Iraqis notice that along with democracy comes responsiblity.

The Wolverine

2005-10-21T09:18:00.000-04:00

DAY OF SHAME

On October 13, our President held what was supposed to be an open discussion, via satellite, with ten American soldiers and one or two Iraqi soldiers. The President's handlers, for once, goofed, and our television networks picked up an astonishing feed. The feed showed that the whole event was scripted and rehearsed, turning our gallant servicemen and women into political prostitutes.

In all of my thirty years of proud service to this country, I never saw anything so blatant and insulting to the profession of arms. Armies are, indeed, instruments of national policy. However, individual soldiers should never be used as instruments of political expediency.

This insult to our troops is also an insult to the American people. Yes, in the grand picture of world events, it will be just a minor footnote, but the lack of respect for all Americans stands as an example of an underlying arrogance of power and callous manipulation that far exceeds standard political maneuvering. It should not be ignored or forgotten by soldiers and citizens.

The Wolverine

2005-10-09T09:55:00.000-04:00

SENIORS AND FUTURE SENIORS TAKE NOTE

The Fair Tax Book by authors Boortz and Linder is at first read an elegant solution to the mess that our Federal tax system has become. It is only upon further reflection that one serious flaw (among others) in the plan becomes evident. The plan contains a covert attack on Social Security. This should come as no surprise, since the principal author, Boortz, is a Libertarian whose love for social programs is less than zero.

The plan contends that it is "revenue neutral" with regard to Social Security funding. That is painfully true, but the plan is not "problem neutral". It eliminates even the possibility of a debate on raising the cap on Social Security witholding. It is decidedly and deliberately "problem negative".

Not only does the actual proposed Fair Tax Bill (H. R. 25) specifically state that Social Security will get exactly the same amount of revenue that would have been raised under the current system based on wages (income) , it freezes, by law, funding for Social Security at that level, dooming Social Security to certain underfunding and a certain death. This is a poison pill designed to pull the plug on the program that has served us well. Seniors and those who plan to become seniors should take note.

Readers of the Fair Tax book might also note the voodoo math on pages 57-58 where the authors say: "Where his profit margin was $2.00 per T-shirt, it’s now $4.16. Profits have jumped by $2.16 a shirt…or nearly 22 percent." Really??? Can we rely on the authors to be that accurate in the rest of their proposal for the future of America??

The idea of a consumption tax to replace our current system has merit and should be debated, but this not-so-sly attempt to throw the Social Security baby out with the bath water makes it imperative that every facet of the plan should be carefully evaluated. In the meantime, be afraid old people, be very afraid.

The Wolverine

2005-10-04T15:26:00.000-04:00

It's Deja Vu all over again....

I was shocked to hear the Commander of The United States Central Command, General John Abizaid, speaking with evident pride on Face The Nation, say: "...We have never lost a single platoon-size engagement in four years of combat in the Middle East, and it's pretty hard for me to think of the armed forces of the United States ever being pushed into the sea, out of Iraq, out of Afghanistan or anywhere else out there....ultimately they can't beat us and they know it."

I instantly remembered a conversation between an American general and a North Vietnamese general a few years after the United States pulled out of Vietnam. The conversation went something like this: The American general said, "You know, you never once beat us in a major battle." The Vietnamese general paused and said, "That is absolutely true, general, but it is also totally irrelevant."

For an officer with General Abizaid's military education and record as Commandant of West Point, it is more than a bit surprising to hear him forget his lessons and the Clausewitzian axiom that war is politics by a different method. Insurgencies are won and lost, not on the battlefield, but in the hearts and minds of the societies that support them and in the halls of governments. The Vietnamese beat the French out of Indochina in France, not on the battlefield. They drove us from Vietnam on the streets and campuses of America, not on the battlefield. The insurgents in Iraq are attempting to do the same, bleeding us white while they wait for the tides to turn again on the streets of America. It amazes me that our strategic leadership has not noticed that in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict the Palestinians have been fighting and willingly dying for generations, with no end in sight. Why would we think that the insurgents in Iraq would be any less patient and any less willing to die? These people do not quit.

Can we win? Not by ourselves. We will win only when we have an absolutely overwhelming force in the country to stay for at least a generation. Where will those troops come from? As a start, we can get the French and Germans and Russians in just as soon as we share those big contracts with firms from those countries. As soon as big money is involved, our erstwhile allies will move quickly to help secure the country. With some more financial arm twisting, we could easily get our Arab allies to pony up some troops and then and only then, we might have a chance to bring peace to Iraq. We have little hope of reaching that goal with our present policy to have the light at the end of the tunnel be another train from Vietnam.....

2005-10-03T14:25:00.000-04:00

STAND BY TO RAM!! Congress is in the process of imposing the largest tax increase in recorded history upon the American people. To explain: Government is a zero-sum financial game, it is ALWAYS paid for by the governed--unless, of course, the country no longer exists. Given that America is not likely to disappear, we the governed will pay for what we get and we will pay every penny that our government spends. That payment includes what we borrow and that is the rub. Deficit spending is a tax increase that we will pay as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow. The only question remaining is when will we pay and what the interest rate (another cost of government) will be. It is posssible, of course, that we will be able to pass on the duty of paying to our children and their children, but I include them as members of the governed class. The large and increasing federal deficit will be paid and the only way that will happen is to raise the bill to us, the governed, in the form of higher taxes. To make matters worse, we should remember the words of Ayn Rand in 1952: "Inflation is not caused by the actions of private citizens, but by the government: by an artificial expansion of the money supply required to support deficit spending. No private embezzlers or bank robbers in history have ever plundered people's savings on a scale comparable to the plunder perpetrated by the fiscal policies of statist governments." Be afraid, my fellow Americans, be very afraid.