Fire-Side Chat, January 28, 2009

From Gillibrand to Blagojevich, failed TARP to the failed GOP, Abortion to Gitmo. So much to talk about so little time... well, actually, I have all the time in the world, so here it goes.

With StoneWall Clinton as Secretary of State, Governor Patterson chose Kirsten Gillibrand (representative for NY's 20th congressional district) to replace her. Good choice?... politically - no...good for NY? - yes. If I was in Patterson's shoes, for political reasons, I would have picked Andrew Cuomo (the Attorney General of NY), purely because he represents the only real threat Patterson has when he has to actually run for Governor in a few years. Now on the other hand, Gillibrand probably offered the best choice for NY in general. Being from upstate NY, Gillibrand balances the state representation (with Schumer from downstate), she's a moderate democrat which will help with her re-election in two years, she has a proven track record as a vote-getter, not only does she have a 100% rating with the ACLU but she also has been endorsed by the NRA with an A rating, AND she's good in my book because she voted against the TARP bill TWICE! (granted, I voted for Sandy Treadwell this last November mainly due to Gillibrand's associations with big tobacco and her working for the Clinton administration but that's neither here nor there)

Rod Blagojevich. I read an article from a liberal columnist that actually summed his situation up pretty well, it went along these lines: Blago was dumb to think he could sell an open senate seat and get away with it, he was even dumber to think he could return to work after he was caught. I realize every citizen is presumed innocent until proven guilty but being an elected official he has to be held to higher standards of ethical conduct. The man was caught on tape discussing the sale, his wife was caught on tape discussing the financial security of their family, he's part of the corrupt Illinois political machine, and to top it off he sincerely believes he did nothing wrong! Sure, maybe his selection of Ronald Burris for Senate will prove to be wise but in my eyes Burris has been tainted and should be watched like a hawk. I foresee a swift impeachment with a criminal trial cherry on top in Blago's near future.

Ohhh the Troubled Assets Relief Program. Congress, The Treasury Department, and the Federal Reserve blew through $700 billion of taxpayers money with absolutely nothing to show for it. The October surprise, THE SKY IS FALLING!!, we must pass the TARP bill quick or we will all die. Well, three months later it proved to be nothing but the largest scam in American history. I don't know whether Congressional members were just too stupid to see that with zero accountability the banks would receive blank checks to do whatever they wanted or if they just couldn't see through all the smoke billowing out of the Treasury Department.

Another point I have to make regarding this bank bailout nonsense is that usually I would have no problem in a successful company spending their profits on anything they wanted, but these banks that have received TARP funds ARE NOT SUCCESSFUL COMPANIES. They are now being funded by the American taxpayer and what they spend their money on is crucial. First of all the funds should only go to the relief of troubled assets, secondly my tax money is not being spent on $50 million dollar jets, $1.2 million dollar CEO office renovations (which included roughly $35k for a toilet!), or even half a million dollars for a weekend spa vacation. I believe the Treasury should go to each bank that received TARP funds and demand an itemized report of how each dollar was spent and have them repay every penny they can't account for.

I could go on for days talking about how the bailout has proven to be utterly useless. Congress is investigating Bernie Madoff over his $50 billion ponzi scheme, yet there has been no action taken on Congress's misuse of $700 billion. Talk about a joke.

The Republican party...should we start over? John McCain fought a long hard battle recently. Sure, his campaign probably could have done better but Obama proved to be effective in everything he did. We all knew this was going to be a democratic year, Americans have to blame someone for the economic fallout and the unpopular war in Iraq and we all know they're too stupid to blame the right people so of course they blame the Republicans (even though Democrats controlled Congress since 2006 and could have eased the financial fallout two years before it happened but what do I know). If you read my letter to Senator Schumer you will have seen that I placed blame on everyone, we all share an equal amount of guilt in this (but it can possibly be traced back to the Carter administration but we'll talk about that later). Now back to the GOP. In the 1994 mid-term election, Republicans took control of Congress since the 1950's or 1960's (fact check?). They won because they ran on the basic platform of limited government, congressional accountability, and self-responsibility. Newt Gingrich, using the Reagan Doctrine of limited government, drafted the Contract with America and created a new dawn for the republican party. After 14 years the GOP has lost that appeal of a shinning city on a hill, in order to regain power we must get back to our founding principles and rewrite the contract with America and actually FOLLOW it. In a few days I'll probably write up a new contract using Lincoln's, Reagan's and Gingrich's policies as a base so look for it.

I'll leave the rest for a new blog. Executive orders and the beginning of Obamunism.