Framing the Dialogue

Posts Tagged ‘washington’

Parsimony – Obama Overhaul

In “Parse-imony” I break down current news stories with my pithy, running commentary…

First the headline…

Obama pulls plug on part of health overhaul law

…and now the story:

WASHINGTON – (AP) — The Obama administration says it is unable to go forward with a major program in the president’s signature health care overhaul law — a new long-term care insurance plan. [broken promises]

Officials said Friday the long-term care program has critical design flaws that can’t be fixed to make it financially self-sustaining. [Perhaps had they spent a little time doin some cipherin they could have figured this stuff out ahead of time.  It is hard to believe that the White House's fiscal projections were flawed.]

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The OBA Administration

I’d like to suggest that the Obama Administration be renamed the OBA Administration or the Obama Back-Assward Administration.  When most of us have a problem we try to find and fix using logic.  For instance, my car was having some trouble starting so I had the battery and alternator checked.  If I were to act like the Obama Back-Assward Administration, I would probably have my key checked.  It would be funny except that these folks are “running” the country or should I say “ruining” the country…

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Boeing Boeing Gone

I have not had the opportunity to see the movie interpretation of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged (i.e. the closest theater is about an hour away), but it feels more and more like I am living the story.  I’ve read the novel twice since my first time when I was awakened bythe vultures depicted by Rand.   It was hard to be disgusted by a parasitic nation that sucks the life out of productive people to prolong their reign.  It is hard to watch former great companies like Jack Welch’s General Electric mooch off of Obama to gain favor for their subsidiaries while, in my mind, pretending to be a capitalist company.  Businesses have always done this, but the level of government interference seems obscene.

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News Briefs – Volume XXII

News briefs are a collection of interesting news stories…

Brief 1: What are the REAL chances of meaningful tort reform in the United States when one of the men responsible for that task files a lawsuit. Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) is suing the company that runs the cafeteria at the Longworth House Office Building. The suit claims that his veggie sandwich “contained dangerous substances, namely an olive pit, that a consumer would not reasonably expect to find in the final product served.” So when you get something with olives it is not reasonable to possibly find a pit once in a while? Since when is an olive pit a “dangerous substance?” Kucinich is only asking for $150,000 to cover his “permanent dental and oral injuries requiring multiple surgical and dental procedures,” and he also wants compensation for his pain, suffering, and loss of enjoyment. I can imagine the heartfelt testimony as Kucinich describes his crippling fear of olives and not even being able to stand the sight of Popeye’s girlfriend.  Perhaps it would have been more fitting if the dangerous substance had been a nut.

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Pale In Comparison

One of the topics likely to take center stage this summer is going to be the crowd that will seek to get the Republican Party nomination to take on Barrack Obama in the 2012 presidential election. I have no doubt that there will be a crowd as many sense Obama’s weakness and a country tired of the poor economy, big government spending, and Washington in general.

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Blinded By The D.C. Lights

While many of us conservatives are not the least bit surprised that Democrat leaders don’t understand the hopes, fears, desires, expectations we have for our country, I have been more than a little surprised at the blindness of so many Republicrats to the same issues.  As a registered Republican (though not for long – can you say independent) I was rather discouraged when our presidential nominee was ordained long before the primary in my state.  Even more perplexing was the fact that Democrat voters and pundits had more say in that selection than millions of registered Republicans.  The turnout in the 2008 election is a testament to the disgust many of us felt, though I swallowed and voted for Palin/McCain.

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If A Crook Falls In The Forest….

A famous philosophical puzzle asks the question whether a tree that falls in the forest makes any sound when there is no one around to hear it.  As an engineer by education and thought I really did not enjoy these types of “core” classes in college even though they gave me a “well rounded” education.  My philosophy class was perhaps the most tedious class ever and was dominated by seemingly endless discussions about what ifs and could be’s.  Our bearded professor certainly looked the part and in many ways I was happy that at least one person with a degree in philosophy was gainfully employed in his profession.

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Who Would You Follow Up That Hill?

Bunker Hill, Trenton, Antietam (Sharpsburg for you southerners), Cold Harbor, Gettysburg, Argonne , Iwo Jima, Midway, Utah Beach, Inchon, Hamburger Hill, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan should mostly be familiar to you as sites where America found glory while many of its sons and daughters gave their last full measure.

These famous battles could not have been won without dedicated military leaders.  You know the guys who would lead the charge up that hill, up the beach, or across that field.  It always intrigued me about how soldiers follow their leaders even though many know that death awaits.  Medals are often given to those that die or are wounded, but not enough is given to those who simply follow and fight.

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Boiling Calderon

Everyone in the United States of America should breathe a collective sigh of relief.  Our third world neighbor to the south has given permission, in principle, to Obama’s plan to send 1,200 National Guard troops to help with border security.  Mexico’s President Calderon did impose one condition to Obama.  The troops may not arrest Mexicans trying to illegally enter the United States.

What gives the leader of failing country like Mexico the cajones to tell Barry what he can do about border security.  Maybe he was emboldened by the invertebrates that work in Washington.  I think if you added up all of the spinal material in Congress and the White House you’d barely have enough to make one complete backbone. 

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Act of Treason

The author has a simple subtitle to this book, “A Thriller.”  I love the Mitch Rapp series and this book lives up to the subtitle as a thriller. Act Of Treason is different as Rapp is almost part of the sub-plot.  The real story is about Washington power and those who would do most anything to achieve that power.

Author Vince Flynn uses the usual cast of characters in this exciting novel.  Act of Treason doesn’t have as much of the covert operations-type danger as past Rapp novels which is a nice change.  I could kind of figure out what was going to happen in many places and I liked that. 

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