douglaschick23's Blog

Watching and listening to John McCain on the campaign trail, shadows that of a doddering old fool that is out of touch with a world. With his comments on the war, economy, healthcare and fuel prices, raises the question; “Which America does he live in, the America of the powerful and privileged, or the America that the rest of us live in?” He admits he doesn’t know anything about the economy, you know the very thing that collapsed the Soviet Union. He has no personal experience regarding healthcare, as tax dollars has been paying for his healthcare since the day he was born in a naval hospital. His only real calm is his military experience is Vietnam. It wasn’t his military superiority that elected him Senator, but the pity of being a POW.

Fear of terrorism is what re-elected George Bush, and John McCain is “Capitalizing” on the same fear to elect him. Can America survive 8 more years of foreign / corporate lobbying and the fleecing of the American people? I don’t think so. We need a president that protects America’s interest first, and the rest of the world’s investment into corporate America second. Allowing internal and external markets to take over our sovereign nation is the same as opening our doors to the enemy.

After much thought, 1500 years, and waiting for a response from God, the Vatican has updated its Seven Deadly Sins.  

The original offences and their punishments

Pride: Broken on the wheel
Envy: Put in freezing water
Gluttony: Forced to eat rats, toads, and snakes
Lust: Smothered in fire and brimstone
Anger: Dismembered alive
Greed: Put in cauldrons of boiling oil
Sloth: Thrown in snake pits

  New Seven Deadly Sins

1.``Bioethical' violations such as birth control
2. ``Morally dubious'' experiments such as stem cell research
3. Drug abuse
4. Polluting the environment
5. Contributing to widening divide between rich and poor
6. Excessive wealth
7. Creating poverty

Is this revision directed at President George W. Bush?
And do priest have there own list of Seven Deadly Sins, because I did not see “Child Molestation as a sin?

If we continue to vote for politicians that support the “Global Economy” as the business model of America, you and I will have no jobs! Being a liberals or conservative will mean nothing if the communist have all the jobs. The government leaders that bed with lobbyist are not looking after the interest of the American people; their greed has consumed them to such a scale that America is in danger of economic collapse. Economic terrorism is when you allow American jobs to be outsourced to countries.  Economic terrorism is when American tax dollars bail out foreign investors from the sub-prime crime. Economic terrorism is when the government gives you $600 hoping you spend it on Chinese made products. Economic terrorism is when gas prices are so high that it pushes a country in to a depression. And economic terrorism is when the government is too weak to stop it!

Voting for the same old politicians that caused this countries problems, will not fix them.

Four more years with the wrong president will only barcode the American Flag.  

 When unchallenged, character is the easiest of all attributes to fake. When faced with peril, bravery, courage, and honesty can only be proven with actions, not words. But how quickly character abandons a politician during an election year. I am embarrassed that this is what our country has been reduced to; politicians that will say and do anything for one more term, begging for just one more chance. They over promise, and under deliver, or deliver nothing at all. I read that members of the congress and senate only work 2 days a week, and spend 3 day raising campaign money, not just during an election year, every year.  The fear of having to enter into the private sector job market and compete with the rest of is justifiably frightening.

George W asked for one more chance because he said he wasn’t finished. Now the Clinton’s are back also asking for another chance. With oil, insurance, and pharmaceutical companies on the right, god only know what the left has to offer us. A vote for the same old family of politicians is a vote for the same lobbyist and special interest groups.

Every four years we have a chance to make a choice that is best for us and our country, but we become

influenced by the promises of false prophets. Wolves in wolves clothing. Liberal wolves blame conservative wolves and conservative wolves blame the liberals. And the only voices they really listen to are from the special interest groups the fund their campaigns. 

The Unchallenged Politician will say and do anything to be elected, because they know that once they are in, we can never get them out again. I believe that the only way to make these career politicians stand by their promises is to remove the ones that do not produce results. Once enough career politicians are fired and replaced, the new ones and remaining ones will find a way to work together for the better good of America.

The largest healthcare benefactors are employee’s of the government. The same government leaders that say that National Healthcare is socialism enjoy the privileged benefits of free healthcare for not only themselves, but for their families as well. The same people that say the government can not manage healthcare efficiently run the government. No one knows themselves better then they do. So why should we vote for the same people that say they can not efficiently run a national program? 

Government leaders are now saying that healthcare should be taken out of the company and purchased by the individual user. Does this also include government employees? The United States is the largest employer in America. They have the largest healthcare plan, and it is paid for by the tax payers. (I do not mean the military. Soldiers that fight in wars should undoubtedly receive free healthcare for the rest of their lives.) They say that a large portion of Americans have healthcare, but they do not exclude the national healthcare package for government. They say we can not afford national healthcare for the people, but we can afford it for them. 

Oligarchy (Greek Oligarkhía) is a form of government where political power effectively rests with a small elite segment of society (whether distinguished by wealth, family or military powers). The word oligarchy is from the Greek words for "few"  and "rule". Compare with autocracy (rule by one person) and democracy (power in the people).

If my tax dollars, (and I pay a lot) If my tax dollars can not pay for mine and my families healthcare, why would I want to pay for yours.  

Like Mike Huckabee, John McCann is not the only candidate that needs a degree in "Miracles". Like it, want it or not, there will not be another Republican president again for 20 years. That is unless; stem cell research can bring Ronald Regan back to life, a feat John McCann and Mitt Romney failed to do. I'll tell ya, the 32 percent that still think George Bush has done a good job, must own stock in Exxon, Halliburton, China, and Saudi Arabia. I'll even bet that some of you would host gay marriages in your home, if it stopped "them" from reprocessing it? You don't have to be a Democrat to say I told you so.

And now for the Democrats; didn't we just kick you out of Washington? Just because you are getting another chance, does not mean that we are all going to walk around bare-foot with flowers in our hair and move the White House to Disney World. You are there because we have no one else to vote for. If we did, we would. (Please do not send me anymore e-mail regarding Ron Paul. I know he's running for President.)

Liberals, Conservatives Fundamentalist, Right Wing, Left Wing, Libertarians, if I wanted to be ruled by radicals, I would move to Iran.

The majority of this country is not the religious right, or the liberal left. We are the rational middle, but we are not given a rational middle candidate to vote for because the two parties are ran by extremist. There has to be a third party in this country for the middle-class tax payer? Not for the people that pay little or no taxes, and not for the people that don't want to pay any taxes. I wouldn't even mind if the new party was ran by certified accountants, because that's what this country needs, someone that can accurately add and subtract.

Douglas Chick
DouglasChick@gmail.com

I am not a liberal, I am a conservative. My friends that still support the Iraqi war; stubbornly say it was the right thing to do. For whom I ask? Not for the 500,000 dead Iraqi’s, and certainly not the over 3000 dead American’s they gave their lives for people that would wish us all dead. McCann says that we will be in Iraq for 100 years, and that seems to be the conservative pledge. I will not pledge my tax dollar or give support to those that intent to spend money that I have not made yet. Having to choose between giving my tax dollars to Americans verses Iraqi’s, Saudi’s, or China, I think I will select my people first. If you want your money to go overseas, I will not stop you.

My friends that still follow their conservative party lines see nothing wrong with giving privilege to pharmaceuticals, oil, and insurance conglomerates, even though they are in middle-class tax brackets that are burdened by the seemingly endless hunger for more. Supply and demand is perhaps one of the most fundamental concepts of our economy and it is the backbone of our free market nation. It is those principles that made us the strongest country in the world, but something has changed, and we are no longer the richest nation. We now depend on countries like China to buy our debt. A communist country that was once a sworn enemy must by our debt to protect their economy? Lobbyist and special interests are no longer American born, but they are a threat to America.

Voting for a President is much more than voting for someone that shares, (or say they share) my ideology. The 20% devalue of the U.S. dollar, reduced my ability to pay my bills also by 20%, and subsequently I am left with less impulse purchasing dollars. With a choice of the remaining Presidential candidates, I have to select someone that is best for my tax bracket, not a candidate that is best for someone with a much higher bracket, or lower. Mike Huckabee says that he doesn't have a degree in math, he has one in miracles? We do not need miracles to save America, just honest people that are good at math.

I am no fan of the democratic mind-set, and probably never will be, but how poor a job has George Bush done that I must consider a democratic to save America?

Douglas Chick
DouglasChick@gmail.com

I have heard so many people say, “It doesn’t matter who is President.” and I must admit, I’ve said it too. Clearly it does matter, because look at us now. When down to two candidates, what are our real choices? Here are my Top 10 priorities: 

1. Responsible Government Spending? You can not spend money we do not have. I do not want my children paying off debt to China, (or any other country) for a war or stimulus plan that did not make a difference to America.
2. A budget with no deficit? If you present a budget that includes a deficit, then it is not a budget, right?
3. I want my social security deduction to be applied correctly, or eliminated!
4. Healthcare: Employer healthcare at one time was to lure good employees with good benefits. Some how it has turned into a crippling burden on the employer. We pay our leaders to lead; they can broker an individual healthcare plan to relief the burden from U.S. businesses. …at the very least.
5. The War in Iraq: I don’t know why we are there, and I do not want my tax dollars applied to people that pray for my death on a daily basis. Let their God sort out their fate. Bring our soldiers home, or ship them to Afghanistan.
6. Accountability: Why is it that the middle class are the only ones accountable for their actions in this country?
7. Support our Soldiers: When our soldiers return home they should be given the care, respect, and support to get back to their lives. Supporting the troops mean the people that fight the wars, not the politicians that start them.
8. Fuel independent Nation: Without fuel independence we will always be at the mercy of the greedy.
9. Environmental responsibility: If you vote for an oil man for President, do not blame him for high fuel costs, or global pollution. I drive an SUV gas hog, and I complain that gas cost is too much, and pollution is too high. My next car will be a fuel efficient one.
10. Sub-Prime bail out? Who will the government actually be saving with a Sub-Prime bail-out? Foreign investors are hit the hardest from this failure, will the government bail out foreign investors with U.S. tax dollars borrowed from China?

These are the answering I am looking for in a Presidential candidate.

What are yours?

Douglas Chick
DouglasChick@Gmail.com

 -- It is the U.S. consumers that have all the power. It is the people that dictate products, not the sellers. If we do not like a certain product, then we simply do not purchase it. If a toy is made by slave child labor, we boycott and demand change. The seller has no choice but to oblige, if they refuse, we refuse to buy. We do not purchase products that harm our families, then why do we purchase goods that hurt our family’s quality of life?

If you purchase goods and services made in another country and remove that money from your local community, it directly affects you. If you only purchase items made locally, you help your local economy, and money stays in your neighborhood, city, state, and country. However, if you purchase products made in other countries, you only benefit their neighborhood, city, state and country.

With my purchase money I want to help the people of my area first, then the people of my state, after then the people of my country. Only after my local, state and national economy has been satisfied first, then I might consider purchasing a product that helps strengthen another country. With every product I buy that is made in another country, or service I use, I hurt the people and economy of my country.  We can survival terrorist attacks; it is what we are doing to the dollar that will destroy us. We can blame the government for allowing jobs to be sent overseas, but We the People are the consumers, and only we can make the United States a financial power again.

Douglas Chick
DouglasChick@gmail.com 

Conspicuous Consumption Economics

Conspicuous consumption is the force that drives the U.S. economy. If the consumers are not consuming, then the economy is not moving. But it takes more then just spending to spur growth. If consumer goods are not manufactured locally, the proceeds from the sales are not retained locally. If the jobs that create these consumer goods are sent to another country, then it is that country’s economy that benefits from our conspicuous consumption. All we benefit from are a bunch of consumer goods that ultimately end up populating our land fills.

Now let's look at China's booming economy. Because so many jobs and manufacturing have been sent to China, this means that their economy is flooded with U.S. payroll dollars. Now the Chinese people have money for consumer goods. U.S. businesses may have larger bottom line profits because of overseas outsourcing and sending factors to China in the short term, but in the long term, it will be the Chinese people and their businesses that will cut them out of the middle.

A real stimulus plan for the U.S. should have long term benefits, not short term goals that borrow American money from China, and then loan it to Americans, that have to be paid back to China. For real long term growth, (This means economic growth after the elections) Factors and jobs have to come back to America. But before that can happen, healthcare has to be fixed. Healthcare costs are too much for a company to make a profit.

Douglas Chick
DouglasChick@gmail.com

Making the Rich Richer

On a construction site, during lunch, over 30 years ago; I sat beside my dad, on the ground, and listened while the other construction workers debated on how to disturb rich people's money. One said that he would take away all the wealth from all the rich and divide it among all the people. Another said that he would only take all the foreigners wealth and divide it because they were not American's, while even another said he would take all the money, cars, and expensive homes, sell them and then divide all the proceeds. My dad laughed out loud and said, "It wouldn't matter. You can take every penny they own, divide it equally among all the citizens in this country, giving everyone that exact same amount, and the rich would have it all back again within a year."

They all grunted and disagreed. He then continued;

"if you don't have the initiative to make the money, you certainly don't have the initiative to keep it. The first thing that everyone would do is go out and buy. You would fill you new homes with, new furniture, and new kitchen ware, and buy new cars for your new garages. You would buy all the stuff that you don't need, but always wanted, until every penny has been returned to its true owners. And after every penny is gone, you would have homes and cars that you could not afford, and then you would sell them at a much lower values until it was all gone. Then the rich would be even richer, and we would all be back here a year later, finishing this building."

So the government knows what they are talking about with this new stimulus package. 

Here is a silly video of 5 Tips to help protect your computer in a storm.

e-mail your computer questions to: ComputerHelp@TheNetworkAdministrator.com

With high tech, medical research jobs, and the vacuum created from the manufacturing sector leaving this country, the legs have been kicked out of our economy, and can not stand on its own with our manufactured products being produced in other countries. Trickle down economics is trickling down in China, India and Mexico. Our elected leaders are not serving those that elected them, they serve those that financed their election.

John McCann said it best in Michigan, “…lost jobs will not return to Michigan!”

 President Bush said it worst, “…oil prices are high because of supply and demand. The U.S. people cut back on purchasing gas, so the price went up.” Are high gas prices our fault?

You can not cut taxes without reducing government spending. You can not reduce government spending without losing support from special interest groups. Politicians can not lose support from special interest without losing needed dollars to become re-elected.

The proposed stimulus plan is not a boast for the people, they want to boast spending. Who benefits from spending? What will they do if we put that money in the bank and do not spend it? Will they issue another 150 billion dollars in government gift cards? Where are they going to get 150 billion dollars from?

http://www.wirelessamberalerts.org/

You can sign up on the site for FREE Amber Alerts sent to your mobile phone as a text message when one is issued. When you sign up, you specify which zip code(s) you would like to receive alerts for. The site explains that you do not have to enter in multiple zip codes for the same city because most Amber Alerts are issued state-wide. The website does not charge any sort of fee for this, and neither does your wireless carrier. (Except maybe standard text message rates, not sure about that. The website has some sort of partnership with most of the carriers in the US). I will most likely sign up in the near future, and I would encourage everyone else to do the same ASAP.

The U.S. budget deficit is financed by borrowing. More and more of that money comes from China, now the United States' second-largest lender, after Japan. China's investment in U.S. government debt has more than tripled in the past five years, from $71 billion in 2000 to $242 billion in 2005.

 My question is; what are they using for collateral, the future labor of its citizens?