Blazing Thoughts - Or Is My Hair on Fire?

Blagojevich (L) with former Presidential Fixer and current Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (C)
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Blago
On the bright side, recently sentenced former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's Elvis impersonation will be a big hit at the Joliet talent shows. Hey Gov, be sure to perform Jailhouse Rock for all of the other inmates - and sing it like you mean it!
Obama in Kansas
Being a far-left liberal and having the far-left Washington Post (allegedly a newspaper) rate your speech is kind of like your own grandmother grading your performance at a local piano recital. So, when the WaPo gave King Barack I three out of four Pinocchio's for his outrageous fantasy-laden speech, I was shocked. Of course, I would have rated them as outright Whoppers, but Obama just makes it up as he goes along!

The GOP's Circular Firing Squad

Ken Carroll's Eleventh Rule of Politics: "If you’re an incumbent, the election will nearly always be about you. If you are a challenger to an incumbent and the election is about you, then you are nearly always in trouble.”

The Republican Party and its faithful followers have formed a circular firing squad around its potential presidential nominees and are rapidly loading and firing. Some on the outskirts of the group, apparently fearing that the massacre will be over before they can make their way to the front, are calling for more candidates to step forward.

Dear Mr. Cain: It's Time

Dear Mr. Cain:

We've never met, so this advice may sound impertinent. I'm offering it as a serious Republican who is still not committed to a particular candidate, so I hope you will consider what I have to say.

When people said you were a flash-in-the-pan after the South Carolina debates, I defended you way back on May 6th, saying, 

  "The big winner was Herman Cain. Cain clearly won the debate on two levels: his performance and his accomplishment of what he needed as a candidate. Last night Herman Cain proved he belongs on the big stage and that his message has an audience. Pundits may dismiss Cain and we must remember it is a long campaign, but anyone who thinks Herman Cain won’t be around is going to be proven wrong."  

I took a lot of heat for that statement, but I was right. In other posts, I defended your lack of political experience when I pointed out that your positions as CEO were a better preparation for the US Presidency than the herd animals in legislatures. I still believe I'm right about that, too, but now we won't know.

GOP: White House Or (We All Go) Bust

GOP: White House or We All Go Bust
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The 2012 federal elections will be an extended IQ test for the American voters. If we, as a nation, focus on personalities and political advantage then we absolutely deserve to have an economy that crashes, burns and explodes violently. We are not looking at economic Armageddon in the future, the armies are joined at Mt. Megeddo now and we are losing.

I honestly cannot determine if the left is tabula rasa ignorant, hide bound to the addiction of spending and the power it brings or if they simply do not care if the politics of envy and redistribution destroy the economy. Either way, the left has earned the scorn of, not just the right but also, the reasonable center.

This election will not be solely about the economy, but a powerful combination of high unemployment, looming inflation, energy costs and sickly economic growth are the chief concerns of most Americans. Huge

50 Job Ideas for Joe Biden in 2013

In a spirit of cooperation, and because I'll be doing everything I can to evict the current residents of the White House in 2012, I think we may need some type of outbound job placement. Well, not for the President or Mrs. Obama. They're set for life. There will be book deals and I'm fairly certain that there will be plenty of "business" opportunities in Chicago for the two of them. No, the Obamas will end up quite wealthy.

Dr. Jill Biden has a doctorate in education and two masters degrees and actually holds down a job as an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College, so it's Joe that's likely to be a drag on society.

Vice President Joe Biden
Image via Wikipedia

I have taken Joe's abilities and his likely connections into account while preparing this list. There is even speculation that Biden will be dropped from the Democratic ticket  next year. I've also taken that into account. I encourage you to submit your own suggestions in the comments section. My suggestions for Joe Biden (Tweet hash #jobs4joe):

Job Suggestions For Joe:

1.  Donald Trump Apprentice - That should last for a good two hours - If The Donald is in a good mood.

2.  Manager of GM's new wind-powered car division. If anyone's got the wind, it's Joe.

3.  Public relations consultant for Charlie Sheen

4.  Dr. Teeth's stunt double on the next Muppets movie

5.  Night manager at Denny's - "I'm shooting for a job at IHOP. After all, I have lots of experience with international relationships - - and pancakes."

6.  Based on his experience, the perfect Vice-President of the Hair Club for Men: “ . . . And there were almost no ingrown hair plugs.”

america all over your ass

Marc Tracy, the owner and author of the america all over your ass blog, has kindly agreed to write a monthly guest blog for this site. In fact, if you'll look at the top of the page, you'll see that Marc now has his own tab, where he already has a blog posted. I'll also have some contributions on Marc's site, and I appreciate the opportunity for his readers to read some of my scribblings.

Marc is a talented, edgy and humorous writer that I enjoy reading and I think you will too. When you finish reading his contributions here, take a look at his website, There's more where this came from. You'll find that Marc is a no-holds-barred conservative and an excellent read. Hey, who loves ya, baby? Enjoy!

Ken

Why Hippies Are Better Than OWS Hippie-crits

Love is understanding
Don't you know that this is true
Love is understanding
It's in everything we do
In this generation
In this loving time
In this generation
We will make the world shine . . .
We were born to love one another
This is something we all need
We were made to love one another
And we must be what we're going to be
And what we have to be is free
Love is understanding we gotta be free
Love is understanding we gotta be free
We gotta be free; we gotta be free
 - For Pete's Sake by Peter Tork and Joseph Richards, 1967, performed by The Monkees




There is a massive difference between the original Hippies and the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) Hippie-crits. It gives a bad rap to the original Hippies when you call the current bunch of grasping, selfish, me first (and last) whiners the same name.

Why The Supercommittee Was Doomed

It's confession time. The eventual outcome of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, also known as "the Supercommittee", was so obvious that I wrote most of this blog two weeks ago. There was no reason why there would be an outcome other than failure.

The Supercommittee was composed of twelve members, evenly divided among the bicameral Congress and evenly subdivided among the two major political parties. It was supposed to be a tool for getting around the stalemate between the Democrat-controlled US Senate and the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives.

Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA)
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There is a non-profit, non-partisan, conservative organization called The Club for Growth. It measures the economic policy votes cast by members of Congress. Members favor low tax rates, free trade, limited spending, repeal of the inheritance tax and regulatory reform among other things. You may or may not agree with their positions, but they issue a scorecard that is a convenient measuring stick for the comparison of the Supercommittee members' approach to taxes and spending.

In the following paragraph is a list of members, their home state and their party affiliation. In parenthesis are their lifetime Club for Growth ratings. I've included this as a way for readers to see where members stand relative to each other. Two members have not been in office long enough to have a rating. You may wish to know that Senator Toomey, one of those two members, is a former head of Club for Growth. So though Toomey does not have a rating, if you pencil in 100%, you would likely be very close.

Chu on This

Poor US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, the Nobel Prize winner is characterized as a brilliant academic but his lax management style makes him too incompetent for even the hapless Obama Administration. Sadly, the Obama Administration is, indeed, so hapless that they haven't yet accepted the fact that Chu is not an able or even competent administrator.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu
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I'm being kind in that assessment, because if Chu isn't incompetent then it means that he participated, with or without specific knowledge, in routing taxpayer money to benefit the billionaire buddy of our current President. Of course, there is still the alternative that both things are true. It's also telling that Solyndra was the very first loan Chu approved.

Chu says that he accepts responsibility for the Solyndra debacle, but that's not quite accurate is it? Accepting responsibility doesn't stop at making excuses for why you made the wrong decision despite evidence to the contrary. It means making amends. If Secretary Chu wants to be responsible, then he should actually be responsible. We'll even allow him to finance the $535 million dollars as long as he pays it back to the taxpayers. That would be taking full responsibility.

OWS: Return of the Useful Idiots

It was a little rocky last night (November 4th) here in DC. The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) people were out in force, surrounding the convention center where Americans for Prosperity (AFP) held their two-day summit. There was some excitement in the building, as well.

In the opening moments of Judge Andrew Napolitano’s speech during the Reagan Dinner, one of the OWS protesters who had paid admission, stood up and began to scream something unintelligible about Jefferson. I’ll be kind and assume he meant Thomas and not George. Besides, I’m fairly certain he doesn’t believe in the concept of “movin’ on up”.

As the protester was peacefully escorted from the room, Judge Napolitano loudly quoted Voltaire, “I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.” It’s too bad the protester didn’t stick around for the entire speech; he might have learned something. Except that he could have not learned a thing because he wasn’t there to learn.

The OWS people, as a whole, are not interested in understanding. They are interested in transforming our current system, which they do not understand to a system they cannot describe for reasons they cannot properly communicate through demands they cannot enumerate. Do you see the beginnings of a problem here? - Ken Carroll, Below the Gnat Line

It's Not Just the Economy

Image by Truus, Bob & Jan too! via Flickr

I'll be in Washington for the next few days at Americans for Prosperity's (AFP's) Defending the American Dream Summit (Twitter hash: #dream11). It's been interesting so far.I spoke with several of the other AFP attendees yesterday on the bus ride up from Georgia.

Surprisingly, most of the conversation revolved around non-financial topics.I posed the same question to several people on the trip up, "What do you believe is the most significant problem facing our country and what is its underlying cause?"I got some interesting answers but none were specifically related to fiscal or monetary policy. In fact, all of the answers were either directly or indirectly related to moral issues. Nearly all involved the American family.

Do the thoughts of a few people, all from the same part of the country with similar beliefs and backgrounds offering similar opinions prove anything? No, they do not; but, their responses do raise the possibility that many people do understand the link.

“No matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion – it is an evil government.” - Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind

Let's face it, there are federal policies that encourage the break-up of families, especially among lower

In Defense of Capitalism

I hate to tell the Occupy Wall Street group (OWS) this, but not only do they not understand capitalism, they aren’t even the trendsetters of anti-capitalism. For years, American culture and tax policy has been at odds with the values of capitalism. It’s a pity, but it’s true and one can trace the majority of our current economic problems to that fact.

Wall Street, 1867
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The basis of capitalism is self-denial; the intentional delay of gratification for the chance of a greater reward later. If you think this is still the core of our country’s values, then you haven’t been paying attention.

In order to generate capital, individuals have to consume fewer resources than they have available, meaning that they save rather than consume. Then those individuals must be willing to risk those savings to acquire the tools necessary to provide desired goods. If the individuals make poor decisions, or as our Commander-in-Chief calls them “bets”, then they will lose their investments. This means that their sacrifices were in vain, except for some new knowledge of what fails.

Capitalism is what people do when left alone. Anything other than capitalism is because of a government that restricts what people freely do. Even simple barter requires a saving of resources and an investment to obtain other goods. Simple farming was also capitalism long before tractors and center-pivot irrigation systems. Early farmers sacrificed the consumption of seeds in order to invest them in next year’s crop.

Is capitalism good? It rewards innovation and efficiency. It creates job opportunities and allows families to