I went to buy a gas can yesterday and found the only kind you can get now has a spout with some kind of convoluted button and lock that takes 2 hands to operate. Either you have to have 3 hands or putting gas in a lawn mower has now become a 2 man operation. I asked the clerk if they had any with just a regular old spout and he said the government mandated the type with the button lock. If they do this with something as simple as a gas can I can’t wait to see what they do to health care.

If you read back on some of my other post you can see where I have talked about the quality of the goods being sold to us. The recent and ongoing Toyota recalls just exemplifies what I have been talking about. We have seen the toys recalled for lead paint, magnets that dislodge and other faults that can cause injury or death. We have seen food recalled because of contamination with chemicals and other agents that cause injury or death. Now we are seeing one ton plus machines that pass us by on the road every day at 70-80 miles per hour. Where does it stop?

As with any product made by man there is a certain amount of mistakes and defects to be expected, this is inevitable because we are humans and we make mistakes. That is what we do. The problem as I see it has nothing to do with mistakes or defects, it is a pattern that is and has been taking an alarming shape over the last few years. As consumers we think the regulations and safety standards imposed by our Government protect us, but as you can see when we accept a “global economy” we live by somebody else’s rules not ours. When corporate decision makers decide to put profits and gain ahead of pride and quality you end up with the situation we have now. Remember me speaking of a washing machine becoming a manufactured trinket? Well, it seems that this same mentality has spilled over into the manufacture of automobiles. Toyota is taking the hit right now but if you look around you see that nothing is made of substance anymore. Everything is made to sell with little or no regard to how it performs or how long it last. This business strategy is not by accident by any stretch of the imagination. It is a direct result of our “disposable society” mentality. We view everything as disposable from packaging to cars. Why fix something when you can just throw it away and buy a new one? Why make something to last when you can make it junk, sell it for a small price reduction and hoodwink the public into buying it over and over again? Can anybody say Wal Mart mentality?

We can complain about the lack of quality we suffer in the things we buy all we want but it will do no good. What will do some good is when the American consumer wakes up and starts to make demands with their purchases and dollars. Look at what you are buying and pay attention. Don’t drink the marketing kool-aid and have the conception that just because they are a big company or well known brand that quality is automatic. These companies don’t care about you; all they care about is that you spend your money. This fact is confirmed by the dire lack of customer service nearly all of them deliver. Try getting some help with a product you have purchased recently and see how far you get. If you can understand what Habeab in New Deli is saying you will find out just how little regard for your business these companies have.

In the United States if you accepted or offered to pay money or payment in-kind for you or someone else to vote a particular way in an election you would be committing a felony and subject to a $10,000 fine and up to ten years in prison. Most states also have statutes against vote buying in addition to the Federal laws. We all must live by these laws to keep our elections fair and democratic; all of us except the U.S. Congress. The U.S. Senate is working on their version of the Health Care Reform Bill written by Harry Reid (D) AZ in conjunction with the White House. In order to pass this bill Sen. Reid needs 60 votes, especially all 58 of the chamber’s democrats. The one hitch in Mr. Reid’s get-up was Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) LA who was opposed to the bill. Without her vote Sen. Reid has no chance of passing the bill.

One thing to keep in mind is our elected Senators and Representatives are charged with voting the will of the people that elect them. This is a fact that everyone, including the voters, and especially the elected representatives have lost sight of. Elected “officials” work for the people and are “of the people by the people”. The Senator and/or Representative should gather the facts and present those facts to their constituents, and vote the will of the people no matter what their individual or personal opinion on an issue is. In the case of Ms. Landrieu it appeared she was doing just that, since most voters oppose both the House and Senate versions of the Health Care Bill that are currently on the table. Mr. Reid, realizing that Ms. Landrieu wasn’t going to support his bill has put forth a blatant effort to buy Ms. Landrieu’s vote. Mr. Reid added page 432 to the bill, or SEC. 2006. SPECIAL ADJUSTMENT TO FMAP DETERMINATION FOR CERTAIN STATES RECOVERING FROM A MAJOR DISASTER. Without going into detail of the convoluted verbiage of this section it provides for $100,000,000 (that’s one hundred million dollars) in Medicaid subsidies to states “during the preceding 7 fiscal years” have been declared a “major disaster area.”  It is further narrowed by including “In this subsection, the term ‘disaster-recovery FMAP adjustment State’ means a State that is one of the 50 States or the District of Columbia, for which, at any time during the preceding 7 fiscal years, the President has declared a major disaster under section 401 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act and determined as a result of such disaster that every county or parish in the State warrant individual and public assistance or public assistance from the Federal Government under such Act”. This makes this section apply to one state; Louisiana. The bottom line is Mr. Reid has put one hundred million of yours and my federal tax dollars on the table in an offer to buy Ms. Landrieu’s vote on his Bill.

In my opinion, since Louisiana has 638,943 registered voters Mr. Reid should be charged with that many counts of vote buying. If charged and convicted he would be subject to $6,389,430,000 in fines and 6,389,430 years in prison. Since Mr. Reid put this offer to buy Ms. Landrieu’s vote on the table she is of course reconsidering her position and considering voting in favor of the bill. You can’t blame the people of Louisiana for wanting to procure an extra one hundred million dollars in funding for any program, especially in an economic time when States are struggling to meet budget requirements. You also can’t blame Ms. Landrieu personally for reconsidering her vote since she is charged with voting the will of the people of her state. Who you can blame is Mr. Reid and his audacious offer to buy-off the State of Louisiana. Vote buying—the exchange of money or goods for a voter’s support—is viewed as reprehensible and corrupt. Thusly I would consider Mr. Reid “reprehensible and especially corrupt” since he is not even using his own money to buy this vote but yours and my federal tax dollars.

The degenerates we have in Congress presently play with our money and our lives like they are playing a game of Monopoly. The above example is only one of vote buying and arm-twisting that continues on a daily basis in Congress. It is time we clean house and start fresh. Congressmen and Senators are like boils on the ass. When they are fresh and new they are manageable and can be cured but once they have been there for a while they get engrained and just end up being a pain in one’s ass. Even if you find a good man or woman for the job once they have had to deal with the likes of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi they are doomed to fall into the same trap just to survive.

In the past corporations that conducted business in America seemed to have at least a decent sense of corporate citizenship and desire to do what is right regarding the customer that spends their hard earned money with them and provide a reasonable amount of support for their products these customers purchased. Over the last few years this sense of responsibility has deteriorated to the point where now instead of corporate service it has become corporate ignorance.

My position with Sleek Communications, Inc. calls for me to deal with many major corporations regarding warranty replacement or repair of their defective merchandise. Although this has never been an easy task and requires lots of reasoning and standing firm on the position that the company stand by what they produced, until recently in most cases a reasonable solution could be negotiated and an equitable solution to the problem found. Over the last several months I have observed two major things regarding these issues. As we know the United States manufactures very little any more. If you look at the trade deficits and review the statistics of companies that have moved manufacturing and production facilities off-shore the figures are staggering. China of course is the major benefactor of this exodus, especially in the area of electronics and appliances. Of course we know why this strategy has evolved but that is another discussion for another time. The point of this discussion is about what the end user or consumer receives as a result of this practice when they spend their money with these corporations. It seems that the end result has reached a turning point within the last year. At first when we started shipping all our manufacturing to China the quality level remained fairly consistent and in some cases even improved over what domestic manufacturing offered. Of course as with any purely “bottom line” business model this could not hold forever. Recently we have seen a major deterioration of quality of goods coming from offshore. Because it costs money to maintain quality control it was inevitable that this would be one of the first elements of out-sourced manufacturing that would disappear. Now don’t get me wrong; every item that is manufactured will have a certain amount of defects no matter how stringent the quality control. This is understandable and acceptable as long as the ratios remain within reason. There are even instances of companies having “runs” of products that do not meet standards or expectations. Again, this is understandable and in most cases in the past when these “runs” were discovered they were pulled from inventory and the problem corrected and any product that had reached the consumer was repaired or replaced at the expense of the manufacturer. These normal defects experienced in day-to-day production were to be expected yet were kept to a minimum and were the exception.

In today’s market defects have become the norm instead of the exception. Quality control of products produced off-shore and sold in the United States seems to be nonexistent. This stands to reason when you think about it that names like Visio, Sanyo, Hitachi, Samsung and the likes have replaced names like Westinghouse, GE, Whirlpool, Zenith; Mahindra, Yanmar and Kubota have replaced International, Case and John Deere; Toyota, Nissan, and Kia have replaced Chevy, Ford and Chrysler. There is reason behind this transition and fault is complex with many cause and effect. We should go back twenty five years or so and study business management practice and business models of these corporations. An alarming trend runs through the transition period that most of us never even noticed until now when it is too late. These corporations started about that time to base their entire survival on quantity instead of quality. It’s no coincidence that is about the same time as Wal Mart with their volume selling business model began to rise out of backwoods Arkansas. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not blaming Wal Mart with the current manufacturing debacle although they have contributed more than their fair share to put us where we are but that is yet another discussion for another day. These former U.S. corporations conceived the idea that if they sold more for less their bottom line would increase. This low profit high volume business model is volatile and short-sighted in any manufacturing situation except trinkets and brick-a-brack. It might improve the bottom line for a short time but in the long run the result is obvious as pointed out by the transition from American companies to Asian companies at the beginning of this paragraph. The key word here being short-sighted. Over time the guiding principles of these formerly stable and secure U.S. companies that were founded in sound business practices have been replaced by what I like to refer to as “ninety day wonders” (they have been there ninety days are still wonder what they are doing) only looking at what can be achieved in a short time, or in other words take the money and run principals. These kids, so to speak, are highly educated by our esteemed higher education system whereby some queer college professor that has never worked a day in his or her life instills the idea that you get all you can get while the getting’ is good then get out. It doesn’t matter what happens to the company or people that have spent a lifetime working there building something to be proud of. What matters is that while their short tenure is in effect they make all they can any way they can. Think about this; back in the day Maytag produced a washing machine with an anticipated useful life of fifteen to twenty years. They anticipated that consumer would only purchase a washing machine every fifteen to twenty years and adjusted their profits accordingly. This accomplished several things. One being the user had a product that lasted and induced customer loyalty to the Maytag Corporation. Another thing this accomplished was the consumer didn’t have to go through the expense and inconvenience of replacing that unit more often. The Maytag Corporation made enough profit that in the rare event they had a defective unit they could do the right thing by the consumer. Sounds like a win-win situation for all involved. The consumer had clean clothes for a long time and the Maytag Corporation made a reasonable profit off each unit it sold. Also because the washing machine was made to last and considered a major purchase, when regular maintenance was required there were profits to be made from the sale of parts and service to the unit because it cost much less to replace a belt or bearing than to replace the unit. The same thing could be said for John Deere tractors and lawn mowers or Zenith televisions. Remember when about the only thing that constituted replacing your television set was a blown picture tube, and even then in a lot of instances it was better to repair than replace. Think about the times you would see a fifty year old John Deere tractor working the field every day. When products were produced with quality and pride they were made to last and designed to be repaired more economically than replaced.

The ninety day wonders created many facets that have contributed to the end of the U.S. stronghold in manufacturing and quality. The first thing they realized was manufacturing cost were too high and where did they find cheap labor free of wage requirements and oversight; off shore of course primarily in the Asian countries. This concept seemed utopian for these ignorant kids that grew up in an “I want it all and I want it now” short-sighted disposable society. Of course they didn’t anticipate their consumer was just as short-sighted and disposable minded as them. How do you think the seven dollar DVD player at Wal Mart evolved? Of course the Asian’s were keen on this idea because it created jobs and created an economy where none existed before. Also because they were well versed in the low profit high volume practice of manufacturing trinkets and brick-a-brack this business model fit them perfectly, thus that Maytag washer that used to be a major appliance now became a trinket that is cheaper to replace than to repair and only designed to last a few years under the best of circumstances. We haven’t even discussed the U.S. worker that stands in front of the closed down Maytag factory and thinks about some Chinaman that has never even used a washing machine that is now doing his job and wonders how he is going to afford to replace his own washing machine when it is time. Thusly the evolution of the global economy, meaning the U.S. does nothing but consume and the rest of the world has an economy. At some point the consumption will catch up with the lack of economy and consumption will stop then where does that leave us? It leaves us where we are right now with the Samsungs, Sanyo, Nissans and Toyotas taking the manufacturing, profits and JOBS from the U.S. In addition to taking the manufacturing from the U.S. they have also taken the design and engineering to boot. Next time you consider buying something more complex than a potato take a look at how it is designed. Here is one example; a few years back I was looking to buy a new tractor for my place. I was looking in the 60 to 80 horsepower range (anything less than 100 HP is manufactured in China now) and happened to be at a Massey Ferguson dealer. They had several different models on display but on every one the rubber hydraulic lines and very thin spin-on hydraulic filters were mounted exposed on the bottom of the tractor. This made changing the filters easy but as tractors go the underside takes a beating under normal use and even when used with the greatest of care. In other words these filters and lines would have stayed on the tractor for less than five minutes the way most people use a tractor of this size. I asked the salesman about this poor design and with a chuckle he said they get dragged off all the time. Although it’s no excuse; think about the engineer over in China that designed that tractor. Even though the little guy may have made straight A’s at the University of Beijing the most sophisticated piece of farm equipment he was ever exposed to be a water buffalo pulling a plow carved from a tree trunk. No wonder out tractors, washing machines, refrigerators and such have become little more than trinkets and brick-a-brack.

The ninety day wonder short-sighted disposable minded Asian market bizarre concept and mentality has now encroached into the customer service aspect of consumerism in the U.S. Not only are the products produced in China cheaply made, poorly designed and the company must sell ten gazillion of them to make a profit of thirty nine cents, but they don’t care what happens to poor consumers that blindly purchases their trinkets and brick-a-brack. They have shortened warranties to nearly non-existent and “clause” them to the point of being worth less than the electricity it takes to display them from their web site. They know the product is not going to last so they accommodate the U.S. consumer by exempting themselves from any responsibility for what they design and make. Add to this the “new age” retailer that sells these useless products with the practice of “sell it and forget it” and you have the perfect sales pitch for the consumer to take it deep wide and to the left. My most recent excursion into manufacturer/retailer/consumer hell was with the Samsung Corporation, 105 Challenger Road, Ridgefield Park, NJ 07660 and Best Buy Corporation, 7601 Penn AVE S. Richfield, MN 55423, and their Geek Squad service department. This all started when our daughter Sheida purchased a Samsung refrigerator from Best Buy Store # 221 in Tulsa, Oklahoma in March of 2007. I didn’t get involved in this fiasco until a few weeks ago when I found out that for nearly a year the Samsung refrigerator had not worked properly. The first thing that happened was Sheida came home one day when the unit was about a year old and found it had quit cooling melting all the ice, ruining all her food and flooding the floor. She called Best Buy store 221 for advice as to what to do and they referred her to their Geek Squad service department. Geek Squad response to the non-working unit was that “she got a good deal on it when she bought it”. Getting no help from Geek Squad Sheida went to the phone book and located an appliance repair company. Their service man came out and with just a visual inspection of the outside of the unit and not performing any actual testing or service said it was a Samsung and the best thing to do was replace it. He did tell her as he was leaving if she left it unplugged for 5-7 days it MAY return to working. Since replacing the unit was not an option she did as he said and sure enough the refrigerator started working again. She replaced all her food and for a couple of months everything seemed fine until one day again she came home to find it had quit cooling, all the food ruined and the floor flooded again. Once again she called Best Buy store 221 in Tulsa and was referred to Geek Squad. This time Geek Squad told her they could send someone out and maybe they could break the unit down and sell it for parts and get some money out of it for her; a real professional response and encouraging to a single mother with the dilemma of a non-working refrigerator. Once again she went to the phone book to look for appliance repair and called out yet another company. The service man this time, again without doing any diagnostics or service on the unit told her the motherboard was bad and should be replaced but he didn’t have the part and couldn’t fix it. Keep in mind both times service companies came out she was charged for a service call even though they didn’t even work on the unit. Sheida being resourceful went online and found a new replacement motherboard at a Samsung parts distributor, ordered it and had Clint, her brother in law help her replace it. Once again the unit went to working perfectly and she thought the problem was solved until once again a few weeks later she came in to find the unit had quit cooling again, all her food ruined and the floor once again flooded. At this point is when I found out the problems she had been having with the unit.

After I discovered all the problems Sheida had with her Samsung refrigerator, after getting all the details of model date of purchase, etc. I called the Samsung America support line. Their first response was the unit only came with a one year limited warranty and was well out of that period. I politely explained to them I was well aware of their warranty, or lack thereof, yet this unit had not lasted anywhere near what was reasonably expected they told me I would have to leave my name and phone number for support team number two to return my call within one to two business days. Again, politely I told them waiting for a phone call from them for one to two business days was not an acceptable option and insisted they escalate my call to support team number two at that time. After some discussion my call was escalated to support team number two. After explaining the entire situation and history to team number 2 their response was I would have to leave my name and number to be contacted by support team number three within one to two business days. This seemed to be a pattern of the Samsung Corporation that they call you back at THEIR convenience, disregarding the fact you are the customer with a defective product THEY produced. This is where I hit a brick wall within the Samsung Corporation so-called customer service matrix. Support team number two would not give an inch to escalate the call to support team number three and informed me that even if they did they had no intentions of doing anything about the defective product. Their bottom line response was, she bought it, it doesn’t work her tough luck. During the call to Samsung and the numerous waits on hold I did a little looking online about their refrigerators. I was appalled to find volumes of web sites containing letters from consumers experiencing the same or similar problems with their units and exactly the same or worse experience with Samsung Customer Service. Just one site, http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/samsung_refrigerator.html contained TWENTY FOUR pages of consumer complaints about Samsung refrigerators and their lack of care in their customer service department. After reading through these consumer letters nearly all of which sounded like a transcript of my conversation with Samsung Consumer Service I gave up with Samsung and decided to turn my attention to Best Buy.

My initial call to Best Buy regarding Sheida’s Samsung refrigerator was referred to their Geek Squad Service Department. Their initial response was to contact Samsung and when I informed them of my experience with Samsung the second solution was the unit was out of warranty so tough luck that it didn’t work. Again after some discussion the Geek Squad referred me to their Corporate Consumer Affairs Department where I spoke with one Jeff Winkleman. Mr. Winkleman was a very nice individual and listened intently to my explanation and agreed that something should be done. Now I am smart enough to know that technically the unit was out of warranty and neither Samsung or Best Buy were under no obligation to do anything, yet I hoped that one of the two or maybe even both would step up and do the right thing and try to find an equitable solution to the problem. Mr. Winkleman seemed to be genuinely interested in doing the same so I proposed to him that, since Samsung flatly refused to do anything, maybe between Best Buy and us would could come up with a way to replace the unit where no one took a beating. Mr. Winkleman was receptive to this idea and even proposed that maybe Best Buy corporate could absorb a bit of the cost, store 221 a portion and us a portion and we would get Sheida a new refrigerator that she could afford. After my conversation with him I was pleased and even felt pretty good about Best Buy and their corporate responsibility, from Mr. Winkleman’s words he was truly interested in getting the problem resolved. He even went so far as to claim he tried to contact the store manager while I was on the phone but was unsuccessful and would continue to attempt to make contact with him and get back with me once he had filled the manager in on the situation. He even provided his email address so we “could stay in close contact”, and referred to Sheida as a “frequent flyer” at Best Buy after reviewing all her purchase history. A couple of days went by and I didn’t hear from Mr. Winkleman so I emailed him. Straight way I received a response with a copy of an email he had sent to the manager of store 221 and his response along with instructions that I should contact the store and settle with them on a model to replace Sheida’s defective unit. I had even told him we would accept a “scratch and dent” unit to help differ some of the cost. The first problem was contacting the manager at store #221. It seems he was always either out of the store or in a meeting and would have to call me back. Of course I never received any phone call back and had to continually call and call without success. Finally I talked to a department manager in appliances who appeared to want to be helpful but said he didn’t have the authority to do anything in regard to our problem. He referred the case to an assistant manager named Greg who did call me back and said he saw no problem with coming up with a solution we could all live with. Although he was aware of the situation he would have to get more details from the store manager and Winkleman before they would know what we could do. Apparently the ONE email Winkleman sent to the store manager was the extent of his involvement because after that he never would respond to any of my emails or answer his phone even though I had his direct line. Obviously he talked a good talk but that was all. Finally I was contacted by an assistant store manager from store #221 with an offer. His offer was both disappointing and insulting. He quoted a similar unit to what Sheida had and offered to give us 10% off the retail price. I told him I could go to any appliance store anywhere and get 10% off without even having a situation with them and that I expected and was led to believe by Winkleman this was going to be a shared solution. He promptly said “well we can’t lose money on the deal”. He had no answer when I asked him what were we suppose to do since we had already lost nearly $1,200 on the unit and approximately $600 in lost food. Again he reiterated that Best Buy WOULD NOT sell a replacement unit at a loss. At this point my exasperation was coming to a head. I hung up with the store and called Best Buy Corporate Consumer Relations where ultimately I was connected with Habeab, or Saddam, or Choo Lee who informed me in no uncertain terms that Best Buy didn’t give a damn about the consumer and there was nothing further to discuss. At this point Sheida has a $1,200 paperweight sitting on her damaged kitchen floor that it is now going to cost money to dispose of.

The bottom line of all this is; these two corporations, like so many others are managed and controlled by people that just don’t give a damn about the products they make or sell and especially don’t give a damn about the consumer that purchases them. It goes back to that volume selling mentality that if they lose 25% of their consumer base they still have 75% left. It also has to do with corporate citizenship and responsibility which these two companies have demonstrated first hand they have neither. They are only interested in getting your money when you purchase and have absolutely no care or concern after the sale. Best Buy in particular visa via Jeff Winkleman even went so far as to outright lie about what they would do. This just goes to show you why our economy is in the toilet and nearly everyone you deal with on a corporate level acts like you, the customer, is an inconvenience to them instead of the driving force behind what pays their salary.

It is February 2009 right? Undoubtedly that must have been a rerun of a campaign speech from Obama I saw on TV last night. The election is over isn’t it? Didn’t Obama win? Wonder why they would have been replaying one of his campaign speeches at this time? Wait, that wasn’t a rerun it was his address to a joint session of Congress as President. It sure sounded much more like a campaign speech than an address to Congress by the President of The United States, especially that part about “nobody messes with Joe”.

In true form Obama’s delivery was exemplary. Also true to form were his hollow words, just as they were all during his campaign. I won’t go through the boring details of this speech line by line. What I can say is a lot was said that sounded good but there was nothing there to back up the words. Obama hasn’t learned that talk is cheap and easy; actions are costly and difficult. Not once did I hear him outline any plan to meet the objectives of the eloquent words he spoke. It’s easy to say what you want but to reach that objective you must have a plan and method. Obama offered neither for any of his talking points he made. The one bright point of the whole fiasco was he didn’t talk gloom and doom as much. This was because his advisors told him to back off that track and move to a more positive approach.

In order to realize the full impact of Obama’s speech one must ask the question; do you feel more encouraged or confident that our country is moving in the right direction after listening to him? The Democrats have spent more money in the first days of their control than was spent in the last seven months of the previous administration combined, including the war in Iraq. This is money we don’t have and don’t foresee having anytime in the future. In addition to the nearly $8 billion they seem to be so proud of they just spent there will be another $410 billion omnibus spending bill delivered to the House today. The Democrats are already announcing this bill will pass as well. It only contains 9,000+ earmarks for pork and pet projects for Senators and Representatives cronies.

After listening to Obama last night and NOT hearing any plan or proposal to obtain even one of his objectives it confirms my belief his suit is still just as empty as it ever was. God help us all!

It has been a while since I have written any articles. Fortunately, in this poor economy we have been very busy at work. This is the case with most business people I talk to on a daily basis. Only a very few have mentioned that business is less than expected for this time of year. The sun still comes up every morning and people go to work. They do their job and being productive just like always. Funny think is none of them have mentioned getting a wake-up call every morning from Obama or the Government to help them do what they do. This fact alone drives the Democrats crazy. People can actually do something for themselves without help or intervention from the Government. Imagine that; people doing for themselves!

Most people I know don’t want intervention or “help” from the Government. They want to be able to make their own decisions and provide for the families and businesses on their own. As a matter of fact the Government is more of a burden than an asset to most including me. For example; if the amount of taxes required for an employee wasn’t as high as it is we could afford to hire another technician. This would create a job that was productive and meaningful not only to my company but also the employee. And, as amazing as it may seem, would create more income for the Government. That seems to be an impossible concept for most Democrats to understand. But when you look at their strategy it’s not hard to see why they have difficulty understanding how this concept works. In case you didn’t already know, this concept is known as Capitalism. In their little greedy minds they know better what we the people need than we do ourselves. They can better determine how our money and resources should be expended than us. In their opinion we are not smart enough to know how to manage our own lives so we need them (the Democrats) to tell us. The problem with this concept is it becomes self-serving for the ones doing the telling and serves little for the ones being told. It is a share-the-wealth concept whereby people that have and are willing to work to have must share what they have with ones that aren’t willing to work for anything. In the process the ones doing the telling take their “commission” for managing our lives. In case you didn’t know, this concept is known as Socialism.

The Government is in the process of rapidly shoving Socialism down our throats. If you think this is wrong just look at the banking situation. At this moment the Government is discussing investing in a 40% share of Citi Bank. In effect this would give the Government controlling interest in the bank. There is also discussion of the Government nationalizing many of the larger banks such as Bank of America. Now you might think this is a good idea given these banks have failed miserably at their job of being bankers over the last few years. Let’s get control of them and run them right. Buzz! Wrong answer! When have you ever known the Government to be able to run anything right? Take this scenario a step further. Say Representative Barney Frank’s (D MA) boyfriend wants to build a memorial to gays and lesbians. He needs about $100 million to build this memorial. Of course there is no way it will ever return that investment but because the Government owns controlling interest in Citi Bank without anyone ever knowing Mr. Frank can put pressure on Citi’s board to loan his boyfriend the money. Mr. Frank’s boyfriend makes a handsome sum from the deal, gets public recognition for his human rights stand and in turn makes a handsome campaign contribution to Mr. Frank. Who is left holding the bag? Citi Bank of course and since the Government is the controlling investor we can’t allow them to take a loss so we must subsidize the loss with, you got it, more taxpayer money.

Here is another example. The Government is discussing “investing” in the auto makers. When the Government obtains partial ownership of a private company be it called “investing” or otherwise it is Socialism, plain and simple. In this case instead of having innovative designers that come up with concept cars that are stylish and appeal to the public, since the Government controls the interest in these companies they decide that stylish and appealing is not in our best interest. Instead efficiency and environmentally correct is the way to go. Those creative car designers are replaced with Government employees. After fifteen years of research and study funded by, once again you go it taxpayer money, these Government employees decide a cardboard box with a five and a half horsepower Briggs and Stratton engine is the most efficient and environmentally correct mode of transportation. Soon every car rolling off the assembly line looks the same, runs the same and falls apart when it gets rains, a little fact the Government employees overlooked in their fifteen year study. So now we all drive cardboard boxes that do twelve miles an hour and can’t be used when it rains. Never mind the fact that fifteen minute commute to work now takes you three hours and on rainy days you have to walk because your cardboard box will fall apart if it gets wet. What is the next step? People don’t need to decide what kind of house they live in? The Government comes up with a design that is, in their opinion, better suited for us than what we want? Will we all be living in the same kind of house with no diversity or design innovation? Oh, and back to the car issue. Since it takes so long to commute and you can’t drive in the rain Government determines it is more efficient that you live within 5,280 feet of your job. Since all the houses are just alike now what does it matter if you live on the 40 acres you worked and paid for? That land can be better utilized for the Government owned farm to raise crops or timber. Where does it end?

If you think all the above is extreme think again my friend. This is the road we are on and heading down it at break-neck speed.

First let me jog your memory, just in case you have forgotten, about the $700 billion dollars that Congress approved to supposedly shore up banks that held “questionable” mortgages. Remember that is $700 billion of yours and mine hard earned tax dollars the U.S. Government has sucked from us. Of course the pretense of this “bail-out” bill was to help people that were delinquent on their mortgage payments and help prevent them from losing their homes. Well, the first half of that money is gone under the George W. Bush administration. It was given to banks who now, when asked what they did with the money, tell Congress “it’s none your damn business what we did with it”, or our accounting practices don’t facilitate us to be able to separate the money you gave us from the rest of our finances so we really can’t say what we did with it.

Keep in mind the banks that are recipients of the lion’s share of this money are not your local bank around the corner. These are multi-billion dollar investment banks and the large banks like Bank of America, Wachovia (now merged with Wells Fargo Bank), Citi Bank, etc. These are the same banks that charge you 20-30 percent on your credit card balance, $20-$50 per month late payment fee if your payment is one second after midnight posting, and 20-50% over limit fee if you go one cent over your credit limit. Just a side note, I thought a limit meant that was it, no more, all you have? If you have a credit “limit” then how can you go over it? Even though these aholes aren’t disclosing what they are doing with the money, we do know they are using it to buy other banks (see how many bank buy-outs have taken place since the money was released), they are using it to continue to lavish their executives with golden parachutes absurd bonuses, and extravagant lifestyles. We also know that none or little of this money has been used for the intended purpose it was originally presented to the American people for; to help with distressed home mortgages. Just take a look at the statistics on how foreclosures have risen since the release of the first half of the money.

Now that other industries have seen how easy it is to get free money from the Government using this bank bail-out as a model, they are lining up for their share. Hell, even ole Larry Flint of Hustler magazine and Joe Francis of Girls Gone Wild has allied to ask for money. Yea, that’s right; they say pornography sales are down 40% and America needs a good healthy porn industry to maintain our mental health. Of course if AIG can get $85 billion dollars and immediately have lavish extravaganzas at 5 star resorts for their executives then it’s no wonder that ole Larry and Joe feel they are entitled too. When AIG was asked what they did with the money their response to Congress was nonya, as in none of ya damn business. At least if they give Larry and Joe our tax dollars we know what they will do with them.

It never ceases to amazement how Democrats and Republicans can never seem to work together for the betterment of our Country and the American people. However, when it comes to fleecing the taxpayers out of money, lining their own pockets and those of their cronies they can work together like a finely tuned symphony orchestra. This bail-out fiasco is the biggest scam that has ever been perpetuated upon the American public. The Bush-Obama team is what brings us to the half-n-half situation. From what has transpired so far it is clear that George W. Bush needed to pay off his Wall Street buddies before leaving office. He got his half of the $700 billion and we know what has happened to it. Now, as quick as Obama is sworn in next Tuesday he is going to get the other half. Nobody will ever convince me that this wasn’t planned from the beginning and the Bush-Obama team knew exactly what they were doing and going to do. It was a conspiracy from the beginning. In my opinion the entire Presidential election was a conspiracy. If you think I am wrong, just take a look at the Governor of Illinois and him taking bids on Obama’s vacant Senate seat. The Rod Blagojevich situation is politics at its best. Normally we don’t see these practices because they take place in back allies, ante rooms and under the table. In the Blagojevich situation he was so brazen he didn’t even care that the public saw the raw face of how political deals are done. If you think this is an isolated incident, my friends you are wrong. This type of wrangling is the norm, not the exception and if you really think about it the Bush-Obama team has done the same thing to us, just on a grander scale and with, although very little, a little more finesses. What remains to be seen is just how much of a team player Obama is going to be. I won’t judge him before he acts, but chances are he will follow through and the second half of that $700 billion will disappear just as quickly as the first half did. This being the case; Bush will be happy, Obama will be happy, the bankers will be rich and happy and us, the American taxpayer, will be left holding the bag. Ain’t our Government a wonderful thing? The only hope is, and it is a slim hope, Congress will actually grow a set and step up to demand return of the wasted $350 billion and not release the second half of this money. The reason this won’t happen is because they have pockets to line and political debits to repay just like Bush and Obama.

I don’t think any of us realized at what point we lost control of our government. Somewhere the process has gotten so twisted that now instead of “Government by the People for the People” it has become government by the lobbyist. In order to understand the influence and power of lobbyist and how issues are put before our politicians we must first understand what a lobbyist is and how they operate. The origin of the term lobbyist or lobbying is vague but the practice has been around for hundreds of years. To lobby or be a lobbyist means that you hang around outside where important people are in an attempt to attract their attention and present your ideas. A simple definition of a lobbyist is to think of a big dog holding a big bone and a bunch of little dogs hanging around him trying to get a nibble. Although the definition of lobbyist can apply to many situations we are going to concentrate on lobbyist in our governmental system. In government lobbying the politician are the big dogs holding the big bone, the government check book, and the lobbyist are the little dogs trying to get at that bone.

One generally accepted method of lobbying comes from England. It is referred to as the gathering of members of Parliament gathering in the hallways and anteroom of The House of Parliament between debates. Of course not only members of Parliament were present but individuals seeking favors, jobs or other tidbits gathered there as well. This practice carried over to the United States and the Halls of Congress where lobbyist would attempt to catch Senators and Representatives between the chamber and their offices. Being of Capitalist mind these lobbyists soon figured out that wealthy individuals and corporations were willing to pay large sums of money for them to represent their points of view or interest to the politicians. Thus an industry was born. If this was the extent of lobbying it might not be such a big deal but unfortunately it goes much further than just a bunch of guys and gals hanging out trying to get a minute or two of a politician’s attention. Lobbying in Washington D.C. is such a big part of the Government now that nearly an entire street, K Street is occupied by lobbyist offices. In our time lobbyist seldom hang around in the anterooms and hallways of Congress. Lobbying today is done on a more direct way using influence and contacts to get to the intended politician directly.

It is very easy for lobbyist to move from lobbying to bribing. There is a very fine line and it is easily crossed. In respect to this lobbying and lobbyist in the U.S. are heavily regulated. There is only one problem with this; the ones making the regulations and imposing them are the very same ones that are being lobbied. Because of the way regulations are written it allows for a broad definition of lobbying vs. bribery. For discussion we will create a hypothetical situation to see just what influence this practice has on us as taxpayers and our elected officials. My company, Widgets, Inc. produces what else, widgets. One day I decide I want to start selling my widgets to the military. Well, after going through many steps of becoming a government contractor and presenting my widget I find that there really is no need for soldiers to have widgets. After all they are widgets and they serve no real purpose for anything. I am persistent though and determined the military is going to buy my widgets. I manage to gather up some money, a pretty significant amount of money and hire myself the lobbying firm of WGTEM, Inc. (We Get To EM). Right up front WGTEM charges me a hefty fee for their services. In addition to the lobbying fee I also put up a significant sum of money for campaign contributions and other perks WGTEM can use to accomplish my goal of selling widgets to the military. It just happens that WGTEM has ole Joe working for them that is friends and has contacts with Senator Cheatem who is on the defense appropriations committee. After I pay my fee to WGETM ole Joe calls up his friend Senator Cheatem and invites him for a round of golf. There is nothing wrong with two old friends having a round of golf together. As a matter of fact ole Joe used to be a Senator and colleague of Mr. Cheatem so they have a long history together. Now, here is the first problem; the round of golf is at a posh exclusive country club and last for an entire weekend. Of course Widgets, Inc. picks up the tab for ole Joe who just happens to have his old friend Cheatem along for the weekend. Between the dancing girls, the five star meals, drinks and endless rounds of golf you don’t have to imagine very hard the conversation is about Widgets, Inc. and how the military needs to buy widgets. In a lot of cases this is all it takes, an ‘uhh weekend of golf with an old buddy Joe. Depending on how in-depth the issue is and how much money is involved sometimes it takes more. It may take large campaign contributions through Widgets, Inc. newly formed PAC (Political Action Committee), an exotic trip in the name of Congressional study, of course financed by the Widget Foundation; the list can go on forever. At any rate ole Joe has convinced Mr. Cheatem that it is to his personal and political advantage for the military to all have widgets.

After the weekend of golf with his old buddy Senator Cheatem returns to Washington and the daily grind of spending the people’s money. Since he sits on the Senate Defense Appropriations Committee he has control of the purse strings for military spending. He calls his ole buddy General Overkill in the Defense Department, who just happens to be in procurement, and tells him about this new gadget that all the military needs called a widget. Overkill tells Cheatem that he has seen these widgets and they are useless to a soldier. Now Senator Cheatem thinks about that hot little blonde from last weekend and how good she danced, especially when she did that thing with the pole and five gallon bucket and he is determined that the military is going to get widgets. He tells Overkill that he should take another look because in order to get funding from the Senate Defense Appropriations Committee on that new big gun he wants he might need to buy some widgets. Of course now Overkill thinks about his position and how his buddy at Big Guns, Inc. won’t get his contract and agrees that maybe widgets would be useful in the field. At this point Senator Cheatem is prepared, if he didn’t convince Overkill for the need of widgets in the military to introduce a bill in the Senate making it law. However, Overkill agrees and immediately issues a no bid contract to Widgets, Inc. purchase a widget for every member of the military along with a lifetime supply to keep in reserve. Over at Widgets, Inc. a widget for the general public comes in a brown box and cost ten cents retail. Because the military is going to use these widgets now I go out and get a bunch of spiffy looking green boxes and a rubber stamp that reads “Military Certified”. I take the ten cent widgets and put them in the green boxes and stamp them with the stamp and the military buys them at one hundred dollars apiece. I have now made so much money on my widgets that I start producing dofarbs. We haven’t found a practical use for dofarbs as of yet, but I have my executive secretary on the phone with WGTEM, Inc.; I am sure there is a dire need in the Department of Transportation for dofarbs.

From the example illustrated here you can see how close lobbying is to bribing; not really much difference. With lobbying one just has to go through a few more steps and polish the turd a bit more to keep it from legally being called a bribe. From a practical standpoint, they are one in the same. As a matter of fact lobbying is so lucrative that Senators have resigned their post to start lobbying firms Trent Lott (R MS) for one. President Elect Barack Obama has supposedly laid down strict directives for his transition staff about being involved in areas they have previously lobbied or lobbyist they are family or associates with. Of course, as I mentioned about polishing a turd, we will see how shinny this one gets. The bottom line of all this is the squeakiest wheel is always the one that gets the grease. Or, in the case of the government, the one with the biggest checkbook is always heard. This is where control of the government has been whisked away from the people and given to the special interest. We, as taxpaying citizens of the U.S., are the biggest group of lobbyist in the world. No Washington firm on K Street has more power. The difference is the lobby firms dedicate their time and attention to getting what they want while we as citizens go through our daily routines oblivious to what is happening with our Government and ultimately our tax dollars. It is time we start to sit up and take notice of what is going on with our Government, from the local level all the way to Washington. No longer can we be complacent in the thought that Government is going to do what is best for us. Government is going to do whatever they can get away with and it is up to us to keep this in check. If you like the rights and freedoms you have now and you like to keep a little of your paycheck each week I urge you to get involved. You have the Internet right in front of you. Use it to follow what your senators, representatives, governors, mayors and yes, even the dog catcher is doing with your rights and money. If you like it let them know; if you don’t let them know early and often. Only YOU can prevent corruption from continuing to take over our rights and freedom!

As I have mentioned before our governmental system can be a bit confusing. In my last article I wrote that the President can’t make laws by himself. This is true, to a point; however there is an exception to this statement. I also pointed out the President has authority of the Executive Order otherwise known as an EO. An EO carries the same legal weight as a law passed by Congress, therefore it can be considered just as binding as if Congress had made it law. In this article we will explore what an EO is, it’s intent and how it compares to a law passed by Congress.

An Executive Order is a legally binding order given by the President, acting as head of the Executive Branch, to federal administrative agencies. The President’s source of authority to issue Executive Orders can be found in the Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution which grants to the President the “Executive Power.” An EO differs from a law in the sense that laws are placed on the books and directly affect the citizenry. An EO is directed at a federal agency which is bound by law to enforce the EO. This is one example of how sometimes our system gets confusing. The intent of the EO was to allow the President to direct federal agencies and officials in their execution of congressionally established laws or policies.

Here is an oversimplified example of how and EO should to work. A company board of directors establishes a policy within the company that everyone is to wear a hat to work on Fridays. This would compare to Congress passing a law. The board passes the policy to the CEO of the company who then issues instructions to department heads about the directive and how it is to be enforced. This would be the same as an Executive Order issued by the President. This example is also why the EO is dangerous. In the example the board of directors only said all employees had to wear hats to work on Friday, although they could have been more specific and in detail. They didn’t specify what kind of hats was acceptable or what the penalty for not wearing a hat would be. This leaves a broad interpretation of the policy up to the CEO in his instructions to the department heads.

Just as in our example above if Congress is not detailed in the verbiage of the laws it passes it leaves broad gaps for the President to interpret the law and direct enforcement and execution of the law via Executive Order to the federal agencies responsible for the law. Here is another example; Congress passes a law that all non hunting rifles are illegal. If they do not clarify any further then there are many aspects of the law left open for the President to interpret. With this vague law in hand the President could issue an EO to the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms that nearly any rifle is not suitable for hunting. He could also direct them to confiscate all such rifles from gun stores and even individuals and prevent further manufacturer or importation of such. This example is extreme and God forbid should Congress pass any law as vague as this example but you should get the idea of how powerful and EO can be, especially if it is orchestrated with Congress to circumvent the debate and review process. This could be a real danger with this President and Congress we have now. In recent years the EO has been used to circumvent the process and put laws into place that a sitting President did not want to deal with Congress on. President Bill Clinton issued over 300 EO’s many to bypass a Republican majority congress. The liberal runaway use of EO’s goes against the grain of the Constitution and the checks and balances it provides.

The EO is a dangerous tool in the hands of a President that is willing to use it to implement what is known as “stroke of the pen” law. The EO is controversial because it allows important decisions and even laws to be made without the consent of Congress. This goes against the general logic of the Constitution which intends that no one should have power to act unilaterally. Another danger is if an EO is deemed to create policy or law regarding National Security most times it will not be made public. In essence we may have laws that we don’t even know about. Another danger of the EO is it can be implemented without review or public knowledge until after it is signed by the President. Unlike a bill that is made public as soon as it is introduced on the floor of Congress, the EO can be written and signed before ever being seen by the public. The ultimate criticism of Executive Orders is that the runaway use of could result in a President becoming a virtual dictator, capable of making major policy decisions without any congressional or judicial input.

There are 3 types of EO’s. Proclamations are generally ceremonial in nature such as “National Stand on Your Head Day”. Another subset of Executive Orders is those concerned with national security or defense issues. These have generally been known as National Security Directives. Under the Clinton Administration, they have been termed “Presidential Decision Directives.” And the last is the EO that directs federal agencies in implementing and executing laws made my Congress. If Congress does not like what the executive branch is doing, it has two main options. First, it may rewrite or amend a previous law, or spell it out in greater detail how the Executive Branch must act. Of course, the President has the right to veto the bill if he disagrees with it, so, in practice, a 2/3 majority if often required to override an Executive Order. In addition to congressional recourse, Executive Orders can be challenged in court, usually on the grounds that the Order deviates from “congressional intent” or exceeds the President’s constitutional powers.

Just as with Congress, it is up to us to make ourselves knowledgeable of Executive Orders are being issued. Unlike being able to protest a bill before it becomes law, with the EO we will have to recourse it after the fact. This will make it much harder to reverse since we will have a Democrat controlled Congress. What we have to watch for is a pattern. If the sitting President starts using EO’s excessively we must call for Congress to check his actions and make this activity known to the public. We can’t depend on the media to do this; they have shown their true colors in this last election. It is up to us as citizen patriots to keep check on what the President and Congress is up to on a regular basis.

With the election of Barack Obama as president we will face some challenges over the next four years that we never thought we would see in our lifetime. With the Congress being controlled by democrats along with a democratic president it will be much easier for them to pass legislation that we may not want to see made into law. In order to stem this process we should know first how this all works.  The President can’t make laws by himself.  His two most powerful tools are the veto and Executive Order. I am sure most of us know the basics of how a law is made but it helps to know the details.

First we will take a look at a how a bill becomes law. A bill can be introduced to either the Senate or House of Representatives by any member of Congress, the President or head of a federal agency. Once this bill is introduced it will be debated on the floor of the House of Congress it was introduced in. After debate the bill is sent to the appropriate Congressional committee for review and revision. A Congressional committee is a group of senators or representatives that are elected or appointed from within each respective House that has knowledge or expertise in the area the committee is responsible for. The public has no say in who is on any given committee. This is all done within. If the committee does not act on the bill it “dies” in committee and there is no further action. Once the committee approves the bill it is returned to the floor of the Senate or House for further debate an approval.

Once a bill comes out of committee and is returned to the floor members can propose amendments to the bill add additional text or otherwise alter the bill. If similar bills are introduced into both the Senate and House a conference committee is formed to reconcile differences in the two bills. Once the conference committee is in agreement the bill is reintroduced to the floor. Usually a bill is introduced in the House of Representatives. Once it has been through committee it is passed to the Senate for a vote. On occasion a bill will be introduced in the Senate and once approved there is passed to the House of Representatives for a vote. Once both Houses of Congress have approved the bill and amendments it is sent to the President.

The President has 3 options once the bill is sent to him. He can sign it and it becomes law. He can send it back to Congress with comments which is called a veto or if he does nothing in ten days the bill automatically becomes law. However if Congress adjourns within this ten day time period and the President doesn’t sign the bill it becomes what is known as a “pocket veto”, meaning it doesn’t become law. If the President vetoes the bill and sends it back to Congress they have two options. They can amend the bill, vote on it again and return it in amended form to the President for his signature or they can override his veto. A veto override requires two-thirds approval from both the House and Senate. It is rare that a veto override occurs. Below is a flow chart indicating the progress of a bill as it passes along the steps of becoming law.

If this whole process seems complicated and daunting to understand it can be, but for the most part it is fairly straightforward. It is our duty and responsibility to know how this process works in order to know what laws our Government is enacting. Congress passes over 500 bills a year that become law. These laws include our tax code, entitlement programs, criminal and civil laws. We don’t normally think of these things as laws but in reality they are. As you can see the President can’t make a law without the approval of Congress. When these bills are traveling through Congress is where we come in as citizens. If we know what they contain and what law they are trying to pass we can comment to our respective Senators and Representatives on how we want them to vote. We also can contact committee member, even though they may not be in our district and make our opinions known to them as well. In my next article we will explore how we as citizens can impact the passage of these laws.