Dumb and Dumber

I’m not sure which is which, but the latest pissing match between President Barack Obama and House Speaker Boehner about a date for the President’s jobs speech looks even more idiotic given the current state of the nation, and particularly the northeast post-Irene.

Hundreds of thousands of people are without power, posing potential health issues for them and their communities, people are stranded because of destroyed roads, and FEMA is running out of money. And these two bozos are fighting about a date for a speech.

Obama’s people knew there was a Republican debate tonight, but set the speech for that night anyway. Boehner objected . . .and the speech was moved to tomorrow night (the opening night of the NFL season, by the way, with the Packers squaring off with the Saints).

So we sit here watching these guys piss on each other.

Frankly, Obama has to grow a set and schedule his speech whenever the heck he wants. He’s the freaking President for goodness sake. It may have been a political move to schedule it initially for Wednesday, but can you imagine the House speaker telling FDR, L.B. Johnson or Reagan their request for a speech before a joint session of Congress is no good because there’s a political debate planned for the same night? Those presidents would tell the speaker to f-off . . . the speech is on and if they aren’t there, too bad.

By changing the date, Obama caved again. This guy has to get off the ropes and start piling up some points instead of backing down at every opportunity and letting the Republicans continue take the offense. He’s had plenty of chances to take charge of the issues, counter punch and take charge . . . he has yet to do it. Let’s see what he says tonight, and let’s see what the Republicans do in their first debate. Might be fun (I doubt it) . . . and it might show us who is starting to move away from the pack of GOP hopefuls.)

It's the Jobs, Stupid, but Let's Go on Vacation First

If Washington is so concerned about jobs, then why are they leaving on vacation without settling the FAA shutdown, which not only leaves some 4,000 FAA workers unemployed, but also an additional 70,000 construction workers locked out? And let’s not talk about the handful of FAA workers who have been ordered to work without pay until the matter is resolved because their jobs relate directly to air travel safety.

Oh man, the construction workers were working on airport construction jobs . . . renovations, expansions repairs, etc. And while I’m not necessarily a fan of directing all our job-building efforts to construction, closing down the FAA (mostly because politicians were yelping at each other over the debit-limit issue) has turned into a “ahh well, a few more people out of work is no big deal and we’re going on vacation because we don’t have time to vote straight up or down about this” non-issue for them.

Of course there is also political spitting involved as well . . . some Republicans don’t want the government to subsidize flights into 13 rural airports (all of which, not coincidentally are in Democratic regions), and Democrats

And far be it that the airlines are refunding or reducing fares for flyers . . . the extra cash is going to the airlines. Shocking, I know. Meanwhile, the government is losing $30 million a day in uncollected taxes. That will total more than $1.2 billion by the time the senators return to work next month. It’s like piling on after the debacle of the debt fight . . . just another straw . . . And, by the way, the FAA’s long-term operating authority ended in 2007 and the agency has been working under a series of short-term extensions since then. Sound familiar?

If lawmakers continue to harp on the need to create jobs, then they need to be held accountable for their inability to do that. Businesses aren’t going to commit to hiring people unless they have a clear vision of government policy and regulations. And now many businesses have learned they can live with fewer employees, especially if they see another recession on the horizon. In our current no-growth economy, it’s great to stand in front of a microphone and make political points with constituents, but most Americans are fed up with the talk and the reality of more of the same. Government needs to get out of the way, develop policies that encourage domestic job growth instead of inhibiting it. Our economy continues to contract and in an ever-increasing global economy, job growth may be the only way to get this train started again.

Our politicians have put us in a position without much wiggle room and fewer options for federal financial help. Not a bad thing given their ability to screw up even the most simple pieces of legislation, but the drain of two wars, reckless spending, a failure to fix our major entitlement programs, an inability to cut spending and an unwillingness to end tax loopholes for individuals and corporations means our national financial position remains a mess. The question of whether or not the clowns in Washington can move in a positive direction, with the interests of the nation first and foremost, remains, well, unanswered. I’m guessing that hope has faded.

Time for Ohio State's Football Coach to Pay Up

Sometimes it’s best just to come clean. It’s a lesson Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel would have done well to follow. As dribs and drabs of his lying, misleads and misdeeds over knowing about and failing to report possible NCAA infractions have come into the public spotlight, he is quickly becoming a public relations nightmare.

Tressel is being investigated by the NCAA for not reporting possible infractions, then lying about knowing about them and now saying he told nobody about them after they were reported to him. Now I don’t want to pile on this guy, but having made five players promise to stay for another year after they were suspended by the NCAA for selling clothes and equipment for a few tattoos, it would seem to me the hammer has got to come down on him.

Let’s remember that it is an NCAA rule to report to them and the school any possible infractions (he didn’t when he found out about his players selling their stuff for some tats). Additionally, his contract with the school mandates he report possible misdeeds (he didn’t). Then he signed a letter reiterating this last point in September saying he knew of no violations (he knew of the possibility in April and didn’t bother to mention is to anyone until December, when federal investigators contacted him. Tressel told them it was the first time he’d heard of it). Oh wait . . . that’s what he has said, but now it turns out he emailed back and forth with an attorney who first brought up the issue. Oops. Three (or four or five) strikes and you’re out.

The notoriously whiney and inconsistent NCAA is investigating. This is a huge money program, and there’s a lot of talk Tressel and his players have pretty much gotten a pass so far.

Tressel, great guy that he is, suspended himself for two games . . . then upped it to five when he saw nobody was biting at his “self punishment.” He has been fined $250,000 by Ohio State as well. It’s a move to stay ahead of the possible NCAA punishment.

I’m thinking at least eight games. Ohio State may have the last half of its 2010 season, as well as a victory in the Sugar Bowl, yanked by the NCAA as well.

Tressel is supposed to be a leader, teacher, coach and mentor. The big money corrupts and has corrupted. Of course the players don’t get any of it, but Tressel does . . . tons of it. Forgetting all the endorsement (logos on uniforms, shoes, etc. ) and speeches, Tressel pulls in a cool $4.7 million a year. He’s the highest paid coach in the college football game. He is the captain of this ship.

Time to make him pay.

Shut it Down? The Kids in Washington Continue to Act Up

A few hours until your government, led by children fighting over the Tonka Toy truck in the sand box, shuts down. Arguing not over budget cutting, but posturing for the next presidential election and their own home-state fans, congress can’t get out of its own way, move off agenda-based cuts and riders attached to cuts and get the job done. The job you are paying them to do. So, troops don’t get paid, hundreds of thousands of government workers don’t get paid, parks and museums get closed and you suck wind.

Here's a novel idea . . . instead of shutting down the whole government. Let's start by making sure politicians don't get paid if the government gets shut down. After all, our troops won't get paid . . . so why pay a bunch of hacks in Washington if the men and women in harm's way aren't getting paid. Sheesh.

We're talking about two-tenths of 1 percent between a shut down and no shut down. Are you kidding me? That's a mac and cheese dinner instead of a steak once a month. Republicans need to strip the political issues (does anyone else seem to think funding or not funding Planned Parenthood is a political not a budget issue?) out of their financial papers and get back to what people said they wanted in the last election . . . make it work. And Democrats need to understand that cuts are coming and they ain't all gonna be pretty. We're broke, folks. A few months later, it's as broken as ever. Bullies in the play ground won't work, and I'm guessing there will be hell to pay for all of them if the government shuts down.

Then lets take down the names of those who manage to piss us off the most with their political rhetoric and 30-second sound bites and make sure they are told to go home in the next election. Thus far, the election changes haven't worked . . . I'd fire all of you and start over. The machine is broken, and tightening a bolt here and there isn't going to work. The Tea Partiers are shooting themselves in their collective feet if they press agenda-based riders (although reports seem to indicate it’s old-line Republicans hanging on to the riders and not new Tea Party folk) . . . the attack on Planned Parenthood is agenda-driven. Federal funds don’t pay for or subsidize abortions, so that argument is out . . . despite the fact that many conservative insist (and show their ignorance) that Planned Parenthood should be cut because some centers provide abortions and nothing more. It’s an attack on women and women’s health, plain and simple. And, personally, I find it more than a bit off-putting that a bunch of middle-age white guys are leading that charge.

The problem is there are no real consequences for politicians . . . they vote for this cut and that cut or to spend this much or that much, but their pay doesn't get cut (in fact it rises regularly and automatically with nary a vote, let alone my say or your say . . .  their benefits and perks are among the best in the country and they enjoy huge staffs and free travel . . . oh wait . . . that is free travel on your dime. So, as I said, let's start with cutting salaries if they vote to cut yours, making them pay for healthcare . . . cutting staff (after all, your secretary was let go in the recession) . . .  no travel outside the country and no travel outside commercial coach. There's no need for some congressperson from bum wherever to take a jaunt with his staff to Aruba for a week, especially in this climate.

Solve the problem . . . don’t delay it with half-baked delays, continued extensions and endlessly raising the deficit ceiling. The people who pay you are ticked off, and failing to do your jobs isn’t going to help . . . You want to tell us how great and hard-working you are? . . . Stop the sand kicking, lock yourselves in your offices and get working. We’re watching.

Pisses me off.

Republicans Start Eating Their Young Again; Target Agendas, Not Dollars

Years ago a friend gave me a button that read “Republicans Eat Their Young.” Kind of funny, and I suspect he was more Republican than Democrat, though we all tended to float in and out of both platforms. But now, one has to wonder if Republicans are starting to eat their young again.

With their attacks on public radio and television and their defunding of Planned Parenthood, they are clearly making politically and agenda-driven budget cuts. Marching like Sherman through hot topics like abortion and government-assisted, supposedly liberal-biased, programs like public broadcasting turns the Republicans into the party of “I don’t give a crap about anybody or anything unless they fit into my narrow-minded view of life” party. I know, that’s not really fair, but I don’t care.

With politicians throwing money away faster than (pick your own cliché . . . I was going to go with the sailors at a hooker convention one . . . ) it seems to me they’re ignoring the obvious, trying to spin the cuts into “budget only” decisions. Oh please. I know politicians think we’re all idiots incapable of seeing through their fluff and sputter, but with thousands of bloated programs funded at least in part by our government these attacks on women’s programs and public broadcasting (oh let’s just haul the Cookie Monster into Washington Square and shoot him) seem especially vicious.

Newly neutered Democrats are flopping around on the Washington beach without a clear message and seem to have forgotten that there are new bullies in town now and they ain’t Democrats. Welcome to the world.

Clearly Planned Parenthood was targeted because they provide abortion counseling and abortion services. But more importantly, they provide all kinds of services and counseling to a wide range of women. Rich, poor, black, white, young, old, etc. Pre-natal care, birth control counseling, and on and on. Millions of women go to Planned Parenthood for reasons other than abortions, and many women go there because Planned Parenthood provides them with services they need and want at little or no cost. Working on a five-point sliding payment scale, Planned Parenthood provides ob-gyn services, a wide variety of counseling, including birth control and pre-natal health,

An attack on Planned Parenthood is, simply, an attack on women, and the Republicans, not known for their open-mindedness when it comes to women and their rights, need to take a broader view of the world before starting to hack at so specific a target. I get the abortion issue and agree that federal funds shouldn’t be used to fund abortions, but this is a much bigger issue that Republicans don’t get, and we should all be ashamed they don’t.

Ok, thought I forgot about public broadcasting? Nah. It’s the one that really irks me. I get the liberal-bias argument, but with these folks agenda-driven cuts seem to be becoming the norm and not the exception. While arguments have been made that public broadcasting doesn’t need the federal dollars, I’d argue that needs-based government funding is a myth and often more reliant on political friends rather than viability of the program or need. Farm subsides? Ethanol production? (That worked for a few days until food prices started rising and some genius figured out that corn is used to feed farm animals . . . sheesh).

Of course top NPR execs didn’t help their cause by bad-mouthing conservatives to a group of fake Arab money guys in a video sting, but again, the bigger issue of “cherry picking” agenda-driven cuts over more significant cuts remains. And you can’t tell me Washington is serious about cuts until Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare are on the table.

Everyone there needs to buckle up, because it is going to be a bumpy ride . . . no federal employee raises, nothing but commercial travel for politicians (no military planes and no overseas travel . . . stay here, folks and work), let’s take a look at your benefits (since you want to take ours and make us pay more), and on and on. You’re pissing money away and, frankly, it ain’t yours to piss.

You all may bitch about private companies, but the simple truth is that is you worked for one you’d be fired because they need to work to stay in business . . . and Washington hasn’t worked for a long time, and the fact that Republicans are starting to eat their young again won’t help.

A Super Super Bowl

After reviewing over 80 hours of coaches’ tape beamed directly to my football center here in New Hampshire, listening to 430 football pundits, watching 3,800 hours of ESPN analysis and interviewing 420 current and former players, our analysis of today’s Super Bowl is . . . it’s a toss up.

Ok, we mostly did none of that, but today’s game sure looks like it will be a classic. Two hot quarterbacks, both great outside the pocket (unlike Manning and Brady, both of whom will be watching from somewhere comfortable and safe), solid defenses and great receivers put both the Packers and Steelers in Dallas in the first place. Forgetting the quarterback match up, keep your eyes on the defense, especially those two lovely hair guys Pittsburgh strong safety Troy Polamalu and Green Bay linebacker Clay Matthews. Wherever the ball is, that’s where Polamalu will be . . . outside, inside, cover, blitz . . . he’s a nightmare. Matthews (Thor without the freakin’ hammer), rushing, covering, blitzing, is a monster inside and a nightmare for a sometimes dicey offensive line.

They are the two best defensive players in the NFL and their big defense plays later today may tell the story in the end.

If the Packers can continue to move the ball on the ground like they have the past few weeks, it’ll give Aaron Rodgers his downfield chances both in the pocket on set pass plays and on play-action. Ben Roethlisberger may not have the stats of a lot of quarterbacks, but he’s a beast who seems to make every big play he has to. If it’s close and you’re a Packers’ fan, don’t walk away in the final few minutes if Green Bay’s leading.

Like I said up front, it looks like a toss up . . . being the guy I am, I’m taking Green Bay 28-24, but my buddies in Vegas aren’t going to hear from me to drop some cash on this one.

Illinois Pols Blow Up Their State

Hard to believe, but if you paid $2,000 in state income taxes in Illinois last year, you’ll pay nearly $3,400 this year, thanks to the politicians who passed a “temporary” 66 percent hike. Ouch. Boom.

While much is being made of the fact that other states have higher individual and corporate tax rates, the simple fact is that mismanagement, overspending and lousy oversight led to the increase. Politicians, always good at spending and always bad at managing, found themselves in a lose-lose situation (one they put themselves in, of course) of having to cut virtually every state program to the bone or jack up the people that are paying for those programs. So, pay more taxes, folks.

Politicians voted to raise the personal income tax rate from 3 percent to 5 percent and the corporate tax rate from 4.8 percent to 7 percent. Both rates were adjusted to carry through until 2015, when they would drop to 3.25 percent and 5.25 percent, respectively.

Sure . . . ever meet a “temporary” tax increase before? Me neither.

Clearly a tax increase was needed, but also as clear is the fact that the Illinois legislature had failed to address its financial quagmire before it became a financial disaster. Stop me if you’ve heard this before: underfunded pensions, growing deficits, delayed bill payments. Ok, let’s say a $13 billion deficit, some $8 billion in unpaid bills and around $78 billion in underfunded pension liabilities. Of course when all that starts hitting the fan, bond ratings fall and the state has to pay more to borrow money and pay more to service the debt they already have.

Despite the fact that states around the country are reporting higher tax collections recently (Illinois’ revenue has increased from $57 billion to $68 billion during the first six months of the fiscal year), apparently there was no choice but to blow the state up. I’m guessing there were plenty of other choices, despite cuts and layoffs already made.

What will be interesting to watch is the impact on jobs and businesses in the state . . . Some are predicting the tax increases could cost the state more than 250,000 jobs over the next few years. Part of the problem is that what business will extend itself to make new hires if there isn’t a predictable tax pattern from the state?

Government, no matter the size, local, state or federal, needs to learn to run lean. Save money when it’s pouring in so when the bad times come, they don’t have to gut people when times are tough. Unemployed people can’t pay higher taxes, and businesses can’t hire people when the economy tanks. We need long-term predicable policies.

With an unemployment rate of 9.4 percent, it hardly seems the state is interested in attracting new businesses or encouraging the ones they already have. Too bad, I heard a story once about things rising out of the ashes . . . I’m thinking Illinois has just blown up the Phoenix.