Dem candidates running from Obama like he has the plague

...or Ebola.  In any case, the president of these 57 states is about as unpopular as George W. Bush was before the 2006 midterm elections. Maybe more so.  And if anybody remembers, the GOP took a beating, losing both the Senate and the House to the Democrats who ran on the 'culture of corruption' drum beat.  After that gruesome election, both gavels of both congresses were turned over to Harry Reid(D-NV) and Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

Both sitting leaders of the Senate and the House back in 2006, Bill Frist and Denny Hastert respectively, had their own issues of their own creation: Bill Frist was seen as weasley, mealy mouthed and easily bullied by the minority into lousy deals for the GOP.  Denny Hastert was seen as a weak leader who could not contain the Tom Foley scandal and tried to sweep it under the rug.

Dubya called the elections of November 2006 'a thumpin'.  This election on November 4th is looking every bit as thumpy for the Democrats, as Obama, while not on the ballot, is dragging down every Democrat's polling because of his scandalous presidency and disastrous foreign and domestic policies which these Democrats supported - much to their peril.

And now when any of these Democrats are asked about Obama, all we hear are crickets chirping.  Kentucky Senate Democrat Alison Grimes can't even find it in her liberal heart to admit that she voted for Barry (twice), as she knows that saying as much in very conservative Kentucky is like Dracula asking for a glass of Holy water.  It'll kill her politically.  But she doesn't even need to say it: everyone knows who this liberal commie pinko babe voted for in the past two presidential elections, and her candidate's name does not rhyme with either McLain or Momney.  

The incumbent Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) is trying to convince voters that he was not with Obama all the time: he did not support any gun control measures, and did not support Obama's restrictive energy policies.  To do so in Alaska would have been an immediate kiss of death politically.  Of course he couldn't support those policies, as every man, woman and child in Alaska is armed to the teeth, and they use 40-gallon barrels of sweet Alaska crude as kitchen chairs.  

But what Sen. Bagich, the imperiled incumbent, can't run away from is that he supported the other 97% of Obama's liberal, job killing, foreign policy damaging agenda.  And Alaskans have watched Begich like a hawk voting with the Democrats on all of that garbage.

He's toast.  And probably the same fate awaits the rest of those incumbent Democrat candidates in the shaky seats up for grabs in North Carolina, Georgia, Kansas, West Virginia, Iowa, Colorado, Louisiana, South Dakota and a few surprise states.

All of these petrified Democrats are running from Obama as fast as their chubby little liberal legs can carry them.

Are San Francisco low achievers exempt from the effect of market forces?

San Francisco, California and its metropolitan areas contain some of the highest property values in the world.  The price per square foot for commercial real estate rivals that of Hong Kong and New York.

Ditto for residential property, the prices are sky high and rising.  In typical liberal fashion, these market forces for this highly desirable part of the country have been thwarted several decades ago by rent control laws that prohibited landlords from obtaining fair market rates for their assets.

And the low achievers that pay way less than fair market value in the short term can enjoy screwing their landlords out of the fruits of their labor owing to liberal politicians securing votes by sticking it to 'the man' and passing laws that prevent rents from achieving equilibrium....in the short run.

But these rent control laws are running up against very powerful forces, namely the laws of supply and demand.  In the long run, the supply and demand forces will simply find a way to prevail despite the best efforts of scumbag politicians to keep them at bay and keep those whose lives are artificially improved through legislative fiat intact, in addition to their votes.

Landlords in general are not stupid.  These guys are actually pretty damn savvy, on the whole.  They have been patient, and since they are for the most part law abiding citizens, have gone along with the local governments' restrictions on their assets.  But they have not been idle: there are ways, and then there are ways to beat the system.

Additionally, these landlords have hired particularly sharp attorneys, who have been hard at work finding ways to free up the locked value of San Francisco property, and legally evict these free loaders who have been squatting on the assets of others for decades and only paying peanuts for the privilege to do so.

The squeals of outrage from these low life squatters are now evident, as the chickens come home to roost in San Francisco.  Evictions of deadbeats who either cannot afford any longer the cost to live in paradise, or choose to default and let the authorities work their charms while the TV cameras are rolling.

In any event, subverting the laws of supply and demand is not possible - in the long run.  In the short term, sure.  But those who live in the short term always have hell to pay in the long run.

Welcome to the NFL, all you San Francisco hippies who now have to pay fair market value.  It's about time.

What would one party rule look like in America?

Barack Obama would love nothing more than to destroy the Republican party and create one party rule.  In that manner, he and his successors could get quite a lot done without that pesky 'Party of No.'

We already have several areas within the United States that are defacto one-party ruled: Detroit comes to mind as the poster boy of what happens when dissent to an out of control government is crushed and extinguished as a countervailing force in politics.

Barack's old stomping grounds of Chicago are also governed by one party only: the Democrat party.  And this has been the case since "Big Bill" Thompson (R) was mayor ending in 1931, although "Big Bill" was so corrupt that he may as well have been a Democrat.

Chicago politics is now in play nationally, with Barack Obama ruling through executive orders and virtually ignoring the will of Congress and the American people.  He learned this style of politics in the least democratic area in the US - The Windy City.

Just a few days ago, Chicago Public Schools' teacher's union boss Karen Lewis withdrew her name from the upcoming mayoral race, and it now appears that the current uber-liberal, big spending Democrat mayor Rahm Emanuel will not face any credible opposition.

This news of Karen Lewis' withdrawal was bemoaned as a loss of choice for the voters of Chicago, since Karen Lewis was running ahead of Rahm in the polls.  The choice was never between the two dominant philosophies within the US currently: liberal or conservative.  The choice Chicago voters would have had with Karen Lewis in the race was re-electing a big spending liberal in Rahm, or electing an even bigger spending liberal in Karen Lewis.

Not much of a choice, given that Chicago's public unions (including Karen Lewis' CPS teacher's union) are running billions of dollars of unfunded pension liabilities that has bankrupted Chicago to the point that it is another Detroit, only in zombie form - Chicago is fiscally dead but just doesn't know it yet, much like zombies are dead but don't seem to understand the concept.  

Fredd saw this coming 5 years ago....

Dumb ol' Fredd published this post way back in 12/2009.  With how things stand in Afghanistan (and Iraq) now, this makes me look like some kind of prophet - read this and then consider what has transpired in the Middle East since then:

'With our 18 month time table now in play, President Obama has laid out the framework of our mission in Afghanistan. We send 30,000 more troops, secure the Afghani population from terrorism within their borders inflicted by the Taliban, and train the Afghani army and police forces so that they can assume responsibility for their own security. 

Sounds good. Sounds achievable. Right? No way in hell is this going to happen, and I would be more than happy to elaborate on why I think this administration has absolutely no chance in achieving these pie in the sky goals. 

We have been trying to do this since the inception of hostilities in 2001. According to my math, that is eight years and counting. Eight years. You would think by now that some serious training would have transpired, and that a stable standing Afghan army would now be in place. In addition to the standing Afghan army, we have been training (and training, and training, and training…..) an Afghan civilian police force to assume some of the civil security now under tenuous control by the U.S. Army for eight years now. 

Eight years. 

Well, we all have to consider what kind of raw materials we all have to work with as it pertains to available personnel within this endeavor. Most Americans think that the citizens of the world are all made up of the same DNA (which is true, but irrelevant) and accordingly, other than some minor differences in politics, that we all behave the same; we all have similar hopes, desires, fears, and dreams for a just and righteous society. 

Right? Wrong. Profoundly and demonstrably wrong. 

The template that most Americans and nearly all the U.S. politicians have in place is horribly wrong. We assume that the Afghan population has the same desire, the same potential and the same tenacity to take control of their national security as that of the typical American. 

This is where a disconnect the size of the Grand Canyon throws the monkey wrench into our strategy: the Afghani population are not by any standard in the civilized world what we would call ‘civilized.’ And that is the key here. This country, if you can even call it a country, is one of the most primitive societies on earth. Illiteracy is well above 90% of the population. More than 9 out of 10 Afghanis can neither read nor write. This society consists solely of local brutal and savage tribes with no contact to what the rest of us would call civilization at all. 

Karl Rove in his interview with Fox News last week said that illiteracy is an issue with regards to our goals in Afghanistan. This is the understatement of the century. Saying illiteracy is an issue with regards to our goals in Afghanistan is akin to saying that having a 5 foot 9 inch center on your NBA team is an issue in winning the NBA Championship. It is like saying that having a 167 pound average on your NFL team’s offensive line is an issue to achieving a Super Bowl win. It is similar to saying that having an IQ of 77 is an issue to securing a Rhodes scholarship. 

This issue of illiteracy is not only huge, it is an impediment, a virtual road block to our ultimate goal of training Afghanis to defend themselves from overthrow by the Taliban. In order to maintain an effective fighting force or civilian police, it's imperative that the soldiers and policemen have the ability to reason, to make split second decisions regarding whether to use deadly force or not, and to make these decisions on the side of justice consistently. An uneducated, uncivilized goat herder with no formal education has no business being placed in any position of power over others, such as are civilized soldiers and police personnel. 

The U. S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines require anyone entering military service in an enlisted capacity to have at least a high school education, or have completed a G.E.D (General Equivalency Diploma). Ditto for nearly all U.S. civilian police force entry requirements. Additionally, these branches of our armed forces also require an officer to have completed a college degree prior to receiving the commission. Our armed forces have by far the highest standards of any significant military force on the planet. You cannot possibly get into the U.S. armed forces if you can’t read, since all of the training you are expected to complete to master your specific job entails a significant amount of reasoning, logic and comprehension. 

And yet we as a nation seem to expect that we can train these savages to achieve our civilized standards of behavior in a matter of a year or two. Good luck with that. The average Afghani picking up a rifle and trying to keep in step in a platoon formation is much like the old TV show ‘Gomer Pyle, USMC.’ Gomer couldn’t do anything right, but had the typical heart of gold that Hollywood script writers always gives these fish out of water characters. And it took every bit of energy on Gomer’s marine platoon sergeant, SFC Vincent Carter, to keep Gomer in line. Imagine an entire army of Gomers. And of course who could forget deputy sheriff Barney Fife of the 60's sitcom 'The Andy Griffith Show.' Stumbling, bumbling Barney (with his standard issue heart of gold) was issued only a single bullet, and for good reason: give him an entire cylinder of ammo in his service revolver and the idiot became a bona fide menace. 

Now consider trying to train an entire standing army and police force of Gomer Pyles and Barney Fifes. And once you have that image in your mind, then imagine hitting all of those Gomers and Barneys in their heads with a brick 20 or 30 times, until dementia and brain damage was well established. Then you would have a better feel as to what kind of standing Afghan army and Afghan police force you will have at the ready. It will take much more than 18 months to train these ignorant and brutally savage goat and yak herders. It will require them all to attain high school diplomas. And how long will that take? Well, it took me 12 years, if you don’t count Kindergarten. 

But before you start with that process, you have to build schools. And before that construction starts, you have to have the will of the population to initiate this process. Good luck with that. And Obama is confident that 18 months will do it. The reality is that the Afghanis will never, ever be up to the task of their own security as a nation. The only force on earth strong enough to get rid of the Taliban in Afghanistan is the United States military. And we have yet to unleash our awful and terrible deadly forces within our awesome arsenal to do that. 

We, contrary to any and all common sense regarding this situation, continue with this pie in the sky hope that we can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. 

Good luck with that.'

End of post.  This material was published in December, 2009.