Capt. Joseph H. (Cass) Forrington               Independent Candidate For President          This page contains positions and comments on past issues.                                       RETURN TO MAIN PAGE                                    PAST ISSUES & COMMENTS Obama's New Health Plan, 2/22/2010 General Comments, 2/18/2010 Response To Obama's "The State Of The Union Address" 1/28/2010 Post Election Comments On The Economy 11/3/09 I LOST! President Obama, a "Black" President? Obama's New Health Plan, 2/22/2010       There are several things wrong with Obama's new plan. The first is that it still "mandates" people buy health insurance. The so-called "Democrats" just love to mandate things and actions for other people. That is anathema to a people who love and cherish their freedom. The federal government has no constitutional right to keep issueing these mandates and over-riding the states' rights.       The insurance mandate also amounts to a huge "health care tax" that goes right into the hands of the monopolistic health care insurance companies and is coming out of the pockets of people who have already decided they cannot afford health insurance.       I am not recommending it, my suggestions can be found in my basic postions section, but it would be preferable to have a single, national health insurance company to create the largest insurance pool possible to make insurance rates as low as possible. This insurance company could have a set profit margin that would cover those who could still not afford the insurance premiums. Of course this would put all the private medical insurance companies out of business and would be a major move towards socialized medicine.       If we are going to move towards socialized medicine, the Dutch system is something to seriously consider, though people in the underground economy will always remain a burden.       The second is that it does not institute tort reform, something every rational person knows we need. His approach does not directly take action on this.       The third is that it does not allow for interstate competition between the health insurance companies.       There are many things we do need, like no caps on coverage and protection for people with pre-existing conditions. However, the insurace companies have to be protected against people who do not have insurance and then only buy it when they come down with an expensive disease. Therefore the companies should not be liable for treating serious illness until the individual has been paying into the plan for a pre-determined period. I would suggest five years. The Public Health Service I outline below would treat such people at much less expensive rates.       His Medicare reform also is too weak. The biggest problem with Medicare is fraud. We lose $60 Billion a year to fraud because of poor oversight and ineffective policing. It would more than pay for itself if we spent more on policing and modified the current automatic payment system.       I totally agree that all our medical records should be computerized so each doctor knows exactly what other doctors are treating an individual, what tests have already been performed and what medicines prescribed. I believe this is crucial to the survival of Medicare and the best treatment of patients.       I say "No" to Obama's plan and encourage you to contact your representatives telling them you want it voted down. It is just another sellout to the special interests, especially the trial lawyers and insurance companies. General Comments, 2/18/2010       As per my positions below, I very much approve of Obama's plan to build nuclear power plants. But it is far too little and does not address other energy industry development enough.       The stimulus plans have been a flop so far because of ludicrous Washington beauracracy inefficiency. I am well versed in how the bureaucrats function. I worked for them for too long operating my ships.       The real problem in our recovery is that our tax dollars are being wasted by the slow progress of the bureaucrats       This is because government bureaucrats think they are secure in their jobs and live business lives that put no pressure on them like the private sector does.       A 'TRUE" reformer would have kicked butt in Washington, like Bush should have kicked butt on his buddy "Brownie" after Katrina to get a few helicopters to airlift some water and MRE's into New Orleans to those who were stranded and to see things got done. Obama likes to talk nice, but he doesn't know how to kick butt or the stimulus money would already be creating millions of jobs.       This administration, like most in the past, is just too comfortable with "business as usual". They are fine orators, but just don't know how to kick butt or where the true waste is.       Government employees at every level feel much too secure in their jobs and want to just pass the responsibility on to suboridinates to get the job done. This attitude is passed down the chain so nothing ever gets done in an efficient way.       While a Captain under the command of the Military Sealift Command, for example, I had those idiots order me to sail out of San Francisco, (Oakland Army Base, actually), to Port Hueneme Ca, so they wouldn't have a ship sitting in port on the Fourth of July when the longshoremen were off. They didn't want an idle day for a ship showng on their "record". As it was, the longshoremen in Port Hueneme finished their loading in good time and we were back in San Francisco too early.       The idiots then had us sail to Tacoma, though we would be there too early to suit their needs. I told them I would put to sea and just stop the ship so I would not have to steam slow and burn high grade diesel fuel, which would require us to fuel again in Tacoma at great expense, so we would arrive at a time that was good for them, and they said we couldn't do that because it would look bad for them. It would be better if we burned the higher grade fuel at a slower speed and got there when they wanted us there.       I said, "OK", and sailed and then just stopped the ship at sea and sent in false positon reports to save the fuel, and the refueling money.       This kind of waste runs rampant through our government. I figured out those idiots wasted $70,000 of our tax money trying to make themselves look good.       Military commands like COMSCFE (Commander Military Sealift Command Far East) tell congresspersons they are responsible for MILLIONS OF SQUARE FEET OF OCEAN, to inflate the numbers, INSTEAD OF SO MANY SQUARE MILES OF OCEAN, to inflate the numbers and make them more impressive to ignorant congresspersons. They say they have so many SQUARE INCHES of desk space instead of TONS OF CARRYNG CAPABILITY like we use as professional mariners to inflate the figures again.       This kind of garbage is where the vast majority of waste occurs. No one who attains office in Washington is willing to take this on. I am.       I am a Captain and know how to kick butt. Response To Obama's "The State Of The Union Address" 1/28/2010       President Obama has proven once again that he can deliver an impressive speech reading off his prompters, but there was nothing really new I heard except his suggestion we build nuclear power plants which, as I note above and below, I agree with. Sadly, I think this was just a political fop to make the GOP look bad.       His suggestion we drill offshore is also encouraging, but it is little more than a token that benefits the oil companies. Although we eventually need to develop those reserves, we should be concentrating first on the Bakken Reserves in the Dakotas. These reserves contain a huge amount of oil, much more than the offshore deposits, and we should be concentrating our limited drilling resources on the largest reserves first. Our priorities should be the Bakken reserves, the North Slope reserves, and then the Offshore reserves.       I believe the reason he chose the offshore reserves first is that the oil companies will benefit most there because the leases granted will be solely theirs, while if they move into the Bakken reserves they will make less profit because they will have to pay the people who own the mineral rights there. This is another political copout to the oil lobbies.       Letting the Bush tax cuts for the rich expire is a fiscal and moral neccessity and the middle class certainly needs tax cuts. I can also see eliminating the Capital Gains tax for small businesses, except that both of these represent a loss of revenue while we have a simply disasterous national debt. They would need to be offset by other revenues to be fiscally sound.       His claim about job creation is just false. At most we preserved 600,000 to 1,600,000 jobs, mostly by supporting the auto industry and by saving some teaching and first-responder jobs. Since the auto industry is not yet secure, all those jobs might just have been temporarily preserved. I don't see how they can claim any job creation when unemployment went up.       His call for billions to create jobs rings false. Isn't that what he claimed they were going to do with all those "shovel ready" jobs right after the election? We have spent billions upon billions of dollars so far and no one has seen any of those jobs, just huge payouts on Wall Street. Meanwhile our infrastructure continues to crumble.       The Republican response during and after the speech shows me that the same old garbage will continue in Washington and we can continue to expect a lot more of nothing.       Before the election I said I expected the winner to achieve nothing because Washington is broken and whoever won would simply become part of the problem when they got to Washington. I stand by that statement. Obama has just become a part of the problem. He gives a great speech, but he is not a leader. He does not propose any legislation, but calls on others to do it instead. He is all wind with no substance. Too bad, really, considering the mandate he had when first elected. All the polls show that mandate was wasted and the moment has been lost.       The Union remains in a disasterous state, which is why I propose the radical solution I outline below. Post Election Comments On The Economy 11/3/09       The administration is saying the recession is over and the economy is growing. I have serious doubts about that. The 3.5% growth in the 3rd quarter can mostly be attributed to the stimulus bill, which has yet to provide real jobs. About half the growth was due to the cash for clunkers program. Meanwhile unemployment keeps rising, businesses keep going out of business, and the commercial real estate market is now going into decline while home foreclosures remain high.       During the Great Depression, Roosevelt's initial spending slowed things quite a bit, but when too many concerns were raised about the increased national debt, and government spending was cut, unemployment rose again. This is where we are now.       California will be passing out IOU's again by Christmas, and that has to hurt the economy of California, which represents 20% of our GDP.       Meanwhile, no reform has been initiated for Wall Street. They are free to keep doing the same things that got us here in the first place. We see ridiculous bonus's and the same old practices going on with no return to the policy of requiring security for a loan. There are also no new regulations on the risky derivitives that are no more than gambling. The Obama administration and congress are selling us out again.       The credit card regulation bill is also a joke. Obama and the congress left them a ridiculous amount of time to stick it to the consumer, which is exactly what they have been doing. Now congress wants to "act responsibly" and move the effective date of the legislation up to next month. The horse is already out of the barn. They sold us out by folding to the credit card companies on the enforcement date of the bill.       The credit card industry is also about ready to face a shakedown. They, too, give credit to anyone, regardless of their ability to pay it back, and so must fail. This is the reason they now want anyone with the ability to pay to pay so much interest. They want the good credit customers to pay for the bad credit customers so they can still maximize the number of credit card sales and their commissions on all those sales. Congress and Obama have done absolutely nothing to fix this problem. When I was a child, more than 4% interest was considered usury and was punishable as a crime. How any government entity can allow 28-32% interest is totally beyond me. Such usury sucks the economy dry of cash and funnels it all to the money lenders, the same people who greedily crashed the economy.       I predict new credit card companies that require collateral and an ability to repay. By being more selective in their clientelle, these companies will experience far fewer loses and will be able to offer far lower interest rates, which will attract a lot of customers.       As for the economy as a whole, right now consumer confidence is way down and people are not spending. I encourage everyone to spend what they can. I know that sounds ludicrous, but if you spend what you can afford to, especially over the coming holidays, you will help buoy the economy until a true recovery happens. Spending is, actually, the patriotic thing to do if you can afford it. Other than that, hold on, the ride is definitely not over yet.                  THE SECOND BLOW 7/1/2009       I believe we have only just begun to see the effects and depth of this economic collapse. I live in northern California and our economy is heavily dependent on the tourists. The governor is proposing closing most of our state parks, all of them in our area, and this would finish off an already very weak local economy.       The other proposition being brought forth is a $15/vehicle tax on all California vehicles, which would also give free day admission to any park. Of the two, I prefer the second.       But the real trouble is that the state of California is bankrupt. People can not live on IOU's and the entire economic system is swaying and crumbling. This collapse is going to begin negatively affecting the housing market again. The state plans to "borrow" money from the taxpayers in November with an additional 10% tax on their income which they will supposedly get back as an income tax refund. This year they issued IOU's for tax refunds.       And California is not the only state going bankrupt. As all these civil servants lose their jobs and take pay cuts, the stores they frequent lose their business, and the trend continues to spiral downward.       I hope I am wrong about this, that something being done will begin to work, but I very much doubt that. It seems to me we are actually following the same trends of the Great Depression. FDR pumped money into the economy and slowed the descent and created a brief recovery of sorts, but then got worried about the deficit and cut spending and unemployment increased again. Government created jobs, in the end, do not end recessions and depressions, public sector jobs do. It took WWII to end the Great Depression. We have lost far too many jobs and small businesses for us to recover quickly and unemployment continues to rise.       The stimulus is not working yet, if it is going to. It might have slowed the drop so far, but the economy is still collapsing and the bankruptcy of the states means a huge increase in the unemployment figures. I believe the stimulus was not managed correctly. The money should already be out in the economy instead of being held back due to red tape. That, and the beauracrats are just not good at expedition. As it is not stopping the bankruptcy of the states, it could be judged by history as a failure.       It was definitely mis-managed in the financial industry. ALL parties responsible for the collapse in that industry should have been fired. No one is indispensible. Now they are trying to give back Federal money because they want to go back to huge bonuses! These people are criminals and should be persecuted for their fraud, just like Bernie Madoff. Did these so-called "professionals" not know they were peddling worthless securities, just like Madoff?       As the auto makers went bankrupt anyway, it seems that, too, was handled poorly. I might have done the same thing at the time, though, and supported the attempt to save them intact.       The collapse of the state payrolls is most likely going to provide another major blow to the nation's economy and could send us into a deep depression. Using some of the unspent stimulus to help keep the states solvent might slow the process, but a collapse seems unavoidable as the states employ so large a share of the workforce and the revenues are no longer there to support all the state programs.       Also as discussed below, we should recreate the Public Health Service system. It should be funded as much as possible by those who utilize it, but should be free for those who can't. To keep costs down, it must be a point of law that people using it are not entilted to outrageous malpractice claims, but must rely on social welfare if things go wrong for them due to an error.       We should also pass tort reform and limit claims in the private arena, so doctors' insurance goes down, lowering rates for us all. You still don't hear this in Washington under President Obama, but he, too, is a lawyer. There is NO GOOD health care reform plan that does not include tort reform!       If you want me to say I can end or stop the collapse, I can not. Things are much too far along and I would not be in office until 2012. So brace yourself. My programs, though, would help start us out once we hit bottom, and recoup much of the costs. I discuss them below.       It is also a huge mistake for us to continue an expensive, nearly unilateral, war effort in Afganistan. Unfortunately, the Military Industrial Complex benefits from war and helps the economy. I also discuss the alternative to this below. The lives we are losing, and will lose, are not worth the economic benefits. They never are.                  THE SECOND BAILOUT 2/09       This is my first comment since President Obama's election and is therefore the kickoff of my 2012 bid for the Presidency.       First of all, let me say that it is obvious from many news reports that a lot of financial CEO's knew that giving out sub-prime mortgages was going to lead to problems and that they were commiting fraud when they gave out the loans to unqualified borrowers. If I am elected in 2012 the statute of limitations will not have expired and I will see to it that all these people, and those who worked for them and knowingly cooperated in this fraud, will be prosecuted and sent to jail: not some "white collar crime country club", but regular prison. I don't know why we give preferential treatment to white collar criminals and believe it is unconstitutional and terribly wrong. I believe in the same treatment for all, criminal or not. If anything, white collar criminals are worse, in my opinion, then the mugger with a gun because they are more destructive and impact far more lives. Indeed, if I had my way, buttheads like Madoff, who "Made-off" with so many people's and charities' money, would be hung, literally hung, right outside the Stock Exchange on Wall Street. I believe in executions and I think each and every one of them should be public and timely. THAT would deter crime, especially amongst white collar criminals who haven't got the guts to begin with to use a gun.       There are people who have committed suicide after being ripped of by Madoff and the other ponzi schemers. This means they are guilty of murder as they showed "criminal indifference" to human life. In every single state criminal indifference that leads to death is considered murder. Not only that, I would gladly wager that the damage they have done to so many charities will also result in death for others. They should be tried and punished just like any other murderer. If they knew that when they got caught that someone, anyone, would commit suicide, that makes it pre-meditated murder and that warrants the death penalty. Because of the vast financial damage they also do, I would pass a law to make such crimes capital crimes so in the future such criminals would be executed.       Under my administration, Lehman Brothers' Richard Fuld's $100 sale of his house to his wife would not stand and he, and his wife, who is now an accomplice to fraud, would spend a long time in prison, and I don't mean some "country club": I mean hard time.       It is a shame the Democrats want to include so many social projects like STD prevention in the stimulus bill. In this respect it is a liberal wish-list and was bound to cause Republican opposition.       The government should be promoting the values of the majority of the faiths that make up the population which, by far, is STD prevention through chastity before marriage and fidelity afterword. It shouldn't even be an issue in a healthy moral society, but we are a diseased amoral society, so it is.       If you do a simple research of the national debt online, you will see just how far down the latrine we already are. No household or business could survive our current debt ratio to GNP. The country is nearly bankrupt and the current depression, yes, depression, could drive us all the way down into bankruptcy.       At this point, every dime being spent in Washington should be used only for job creation, job preservation, as in the auto industry, and accountable support for the financial community that demands a freeing up of the lending policies of the institutions getting help. It is totally infuriating that congress did not allow for accountability in the first $350 Billion given out.       In view of the recent elections in Iraq, I believe it is possible for us to get out of there by the deadline set by President Obama. If so, and Iraq stands on its own, then President Bush will be somewhat vindicated by history, even though the initial invasion was a grand mistake. However, considering the state of the national debt, I believe it is a huge mistake to transfer those troops to Afganistan unless other nations commit to a much larger role. I don't mean just NATO nations, but Russia, China and all other nations, as well. This should be a UN mission as everyone but the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are threatened by the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. These people hate everyone else, a very non-spiritual stance, and they won't rest until the rest of the world is dead.       Of particular importance is the commitment of the Pakistani government to fight the radicals in the western provinces, as they are right now. It would be very helpful if the Pakistanis would accept other troops from outside their country to help in the fight and the best troops would be fighters from other Muslim nations like Saudi Arabia making up a UN force. America should not be putting troops into Pakistan unless it is a pincer movement being performed by coalition troops in Afganistan and Muslim-backed Pakistani forces moving in from Pakistan.       "Muslim" terrorists aren't really Muslim at all. Anyone who knows anything about Islam knows that what they are doing is against the precepts of Islam and the teachings of Mohammed. Therefore they are not Muslims, even though they claim to be. We should simply be calling them "terrorists and murderers" which is what they are. This would gain us great credibility in the Muslim world and would gain us their support in the fight against these people who are darkening Islam's image by their murderous ways and claims to be "Islamic". These fanatics want to break all the democratic treasuries, not just the western ones, if they can. We are all their enemies. The current economic catastrophe has moved them dangerously closer to their goals. We should not be spending huge amounts of money to fight the war in Afganistan primarily by ourselves.       I talk about this in other places, but I will briefly mention here that we need to free up small enterprise as much as possible so people can start businesses. Large businesses that can impact the whole economy, especially the financial community, have to be overseen and regulated by the Federal government simply because of human nature.       The entire congress voted for the deregulations that led to this collapse from greed and corruption. The Democrats wanted everyone to be able to afford a home and the Republicans thought it would be great for business. Both were terribly wrong. That is why you see no fingerpointing going on over the economic collapse. Both parties were equally at fault for their own wrong reasons. Even Greenspan said he was wrong in wanting the deregulation because he put too much faith in the character of the people running the financial markets.       On the other hand, as you might know from my other sites, I have a sea glass jewelry business, and now a museum. I can't tell you here how frustrating it was to get myself going in this business. At every step of the way the government worked against me and they actually put me out of business several times. I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop.       This is terribly wrong. It should be incredibly easy to start a small business in the land of the free and free enterprise. THAT is what built this country. Small business should be as unhampered as possible and big businesses essential to the economy should be regulated so they cannot bring around a collapse like this. Of course there are shades of gray in between and of course all businesses have to be subject to reasonable requirements regarding the enviornment and their impact on the community.       Although I believe we have to save our financial institutions and the auto industry, the mortgage bailout is simply criminal. There is no reason people living in trailers, their cars, or renting houses should pay for the mortgages of homeowners and landlords who have over-extended themselves. Indeed, most of these people would like to see the inflated property values drop so their rents will drop and they might even have a chance to finally own a house of their own. To artifically prop up house values when everything else is collapsing is simply ridiculous and amounts to nothing more than the raping of the poor and our children who will have to pick up the tab. This is rotten politics and very poor judgement on the part of the new administration. Non-homeowners should be up in arms over this issue.       It is now very apparent that the new administration, and the Democrats in general, are only going to make matters worse. They are using President Obama's mandate to push through a radical agenda that the country will be paying for for decades and are actually crossing the line and hindering the recovery. Over 5 million people are now on unemployment and every dime being spent should be used only for job creation and maintenance. The reality is that the bubble has burst and trying to maintain home values artificially is bound to fail, and all monies spent to do so a total waste. If you are not a homeowner, are you willing to pay other people's mortgages? The mortgages of people who have not saved and who have lived to the limit on undeserved credit? I am certainly not willing to do so.       THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE AND "BAILOUT"       (I wrote this section during the first bailout under Bush)       Regarding the collapse of the economy, a rescue is definitely needed, but it should not be a "bailout". We should be "bailing out" the institutions that are sinking, but not the people running them. Those people should go to jail. The money has to be a loan, not a gift, no matter how long it takes to pay it off, and the interest should reflect the inflation rate. The people don't need to make money off of this debacle, but they should get their money back, even if it takes 100 years.       A lot of people are opposing a corporate rescue, but without it those same people will lose everything and end up on the streets. My feeling is that most people don't realize just how much they are about to lose and how difficult it will be to find the simplist job. We already have a long way to go to recovery and as this crisis deepens we vastly increase the time it will run. As more businesses continue to go out of business the process will snowball. This is a time for action. Recrimination can come later and those responsible for this fraud punished. Right now we need to be saving our instituions.       Also, the government is borrowing money, from some of the banks they are saving, to actually save them. When the national debt increases, it means the government is borrowing money. It is borrowing from banks. The government should not have to pay any interest, or a minimal inflation-based interest, on the money it is borrowing from the banks it is saving from collapse.       Obviously we need more regulation of the financial markets. De-regulation was also obviously a mistake. We have a problem with the extremes represented by our two party system. The Democrats, if given the power, would over-nationalize, over-tax, and over-dictate in matters like public safety, while the Republicans just want everyone to run amock in an Adam Smith free market economy. We supposedly learned from the Great Depression and the New Deal, that government regulation is necessary. That's why we have anti-monopoly laws and a Federal Reserve system. It is these two extremes that keep us in gridlock in Washington and most of the states. We need to change our system so it is not just a two-party game. I discuss this further below.       If a successful "bailout" isn't enacted, we can expect "Hoovervilles" to spring up everywhere. We already have them in the form of the places the homeless camp, and we already have the food banks and "soup kitchens" that serve the chronically homeless and those temporarily down on their luck. But the shelters are already overwhelmed and "Hoovervilles" aren't far away if we let the worldwide economy collapse. There will also be famine and increased starvation in the poorest nations and many will die not just there, but here, from hunger and exposure to the elements, both hot and cold. People who can't afford air conditioning in our desert and hot areas will move to cooler climates while those on the streets in the cold areas will also have to move to warmer areas. We are talking about the greatest worldwide financial failure in history and Congress needs to act intelligently and quickly.       As I expand on below, we have been given a date of withdrawel from Iraq by the Iraqi government and that should be our goal in Iraq. In Afganistan we have to drastically lower our financial and military contributions and have the rest of the world pick up much more responsibility, or we have to get out and deal with the nests of vipers as they arise. The money saved here should be spent on public works infrastructure projects such as energy development (in all forms), bridges, roads, mass transit systems, a public health system, and CO2 scrubbers to begin cleaning the air. These projects would provide much needed employment nationwide. I discuss this further below.       Just from recordings I've heard on television, I know there was a conspiracy to defraud the American consumer and rape the financial system. We need a full investigation of this mess and a lot of people should go to prison and even more should at least be doing community service. I LOST! President Obama, a "Black" President?       NOTE: I wrote this right after the election:       Well, if you are reading this site, you know it is too late for me in 2008. Apparently ;-) I lost the election to Barak Obama. What really bothers me is that everyone keeps saying he is the first "black" president of the United States. He is not. He is not "black". He is half white and half black. It is a terribly racist fact that if a person has just a smidgen of "black" heritage he is considered "black". America wanted a black president to sooth its conscience, but Obama is not "black". His wife is. His children are not because he is not.       To me it is terribly racist to call a person "black" because he has some black heritage. Even people with only a quarter or a sixteenth black heritage are considered "black" and that is simply racist.       Barak Obama is not "black". He is a mix. If he turns out to be as good as he promises to be, it is not a "black victory": it is a black/white victory. I think I'll have to punch the next person who tells me Barak Obama is an African-American in the nose. I mean, Whoaaaa, the guy has some black heritage, just look at that! Please, people, give me a break. Sorry, he's a 50/50 on the most shallow of levels and much more on the deeper levels. We all are.       I congratulate President Obama. For the first time in a long time I felt the contest was between two "good" men. I am sorry McCain lost because I think he deserved to be president of the United States after his long service, but in foreign affairs I was worried very much about both. I talk about this below. Let me just add here that pride precedes the fall and hubris is definitely not desirable. McCain has humility, Obama does not. Self-rightous, self-assured people, are very dangerous. Both McCain and Obama would expand the war in Afganistan, which is a terrible mistake, but Obama is more prone to do so disasterously because of his hubris and self-assurance.       So, I concede (lol) here to President Obama. I pray earnestly that the Creator guides him through his new, extremely heavy, responsibilites and teaches him humility in a way that does not affect us all. I do not believe, however, that his economic recovery is as it should be and, though I agree with aspects of it, I would do much differently. I discuss this below.       The best thing to come out of this election is that black parents can no longer tell their children that a black person can not become president of the United States. The black community has a far worse problem with racism than whites or asians, and, maybe, this can help them get past this.....but not too fast, you, because he is half white, too. ;-) But the next "black" person I meet who claims he has no chance because of his race will be dismissed by me as a fool.       Perhaps now the black community will also stress the importance of learning proper English to their children so they, too, can enter the economic and political mainstream. If President Obama was speaking "ebonics", or black slang, he could not have achieved what he did. Neither could Colin Powell, Oprah, or Bill Cosby or any other successful black person.       I think Obama is a good man. He has too much pride and hubris and, as a leader, this puts the rest of us at risk, but I think he is a good man who is mostly speaking from his heart. God Bless him now, and God bless America, by granting him good guidance from within.       God bless John McCain, too, another good man who has served his country well and stands by the age-old morality of our ancestors. I thought his concession speech was the best I ever heard and he moved me to tears. God Bless a good man.       I am now announcing my bid for the presidency in 2012 because I know Obama is already on the wrong path in Afganistan. I'm not predicting the economy because I believe Obama is correct on his infrastructure policy but wrong on energy development and other aspects of the recovery plan. I discuss these issues more fully below. I'd have loved to vote for Mr. Obama McCain this election, but he wasn't running.       Please keep checking back later, because I will be re-building my platform as Obama's administration unfolds and different issues are addressed by his administration.       God help us all, friend and foe alike. The Creator dwells within all. CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS ON THE ECONOMIC                          COLLAPSE 1/17/2010 These hearings "trying to get to the bottom of what happened" are a total farce. What happened is that the greedy bankers lobbied for congress to remove the regulations keeping them from doing just what they did, and the corrupt politicians went for it. the Democrats led by did it so people who could not meet the financial criteria to buy a house could do so, and the Republicans went along with it to please their fincial backers on Wall Street. Both "parties" sold us out. They know damn well what happened and the "hearings" are just a show. The only reason they are not pointing fingers at each other is because they are all guilty. They all voted for it and brought down the world economy. Now the show is on, like they are trying to fix things, while the bankers lobby to stop re-regulation so they can keep on robbing the hard working people who actually produce something with their labor. Meanwhile, who do you think now owns all that foreclosed property? The same damned banks own it all and are collecting more daily as more people walk away from the property the banks over-inflated in value. Get it? The banks don't lose when a home forecloses. They win because they got the mortgage fees, the mortgage payments, and now totally own the property to re-sell as the owner! All with no money down! If you think the robbery and fraud is over, think again. It is going on, and on, and on! We are all getting robbed every single day! WAKE UP AMERICA! Washington and Wall Street are full of traitors! They don't care about you or America. They only care about their own fortunes and political careers. Wealth and Power! Corruption and Greed! Not only do the banks need to be "re-regulated", the big ones need to be broken up so none of them are "too big to fail". As I mention several times below, we also need to send the fraudulent bankers to prison. They say they can't replace their "talent" but a CEO told the committeee they made a mistake in thinking home prices could rise forever! They are treating the committee and each of us like we are total fools! Could any banking CEO possibly think they could artificially inflate home prices forever and the bubble wouldn't burst? Who could possibly call that "talent"? It is total arrogance to think we would buy that and if the idiot thought that then he should have no place at all in the financial industry. Every one of the people on Wall Street can be replaced, and ought to be as soon as possible as we throw them all in prison and confiscate their property and ill-gotten gains, and sell them off to repay the American taxpayer.                  HEALTH CARE BILL 12/20/2009 The Senate healthcare bill that passed tonight is an abomination! For the first time in United States history, it will be a requirement of legal citizenship that a person buy a product! Not only that, it must be purchased from monopolistic companies. This is an outrage perpetrated by shallow politicians who made sweetheart deals that are themselves abominations, just so they could get a bill passed! How can the idiots demand people buy health insurance when the problem is that people can not afford health insurance? Especially when we are in the "Great Recession" with national unemployment at 17%. It is not 10%, it is 17%. They only count the people still getting unemployment insurance to come up with the 10%. The real figure is 17%. The do-gooders are turning each of us into potential criminals. WRITE your representatives and tell them to kill this ridiculous bill NOW! Purchasing a product can not be a requirement for legal citizenship! This is unconstitutional in the extreme! (More on healthcare below)        THE HOUSE HEALTH CARE PLAN 8/1/2009       The current health plan is terribly flawed. The primary flaw is that it does not contain tort reform, which would tremendously reduce costs for everyone, and allow for the inter-state sale of insurance, breaking the insurance monopolies creating a "healthy" competition, also lowering costs.       Without these reforms, any plan would be a bad plan. Even a single payer plan, like Canada's, needs tort reform to work. It is the outrageous cost of malpractice insurance doctors, hospitals, etc, must pay that drives all our costs so high. These costs will remain high if the government, in a single payer system, or a participant in the free insurance market, remains vulnerable to the same damaging lawsuits.       The reason we never see tort reform is the lawyer lobby. That, and the fact that so many in Congress are lawyers. Obama, himself, is a lawyer. If you have eyes, see.       His plan also does not take care of 100% of the people. It is a mish-mash of different people getting different things for different prices and in different systems.       What about the death panels? The fact of the matter is that countires with a single payer system, i.e. the government, are now rationing health care. They don't call it "pulling the plug on grandma", but they are now denying life-saving, and life-enhancing, procedures for old people, saying it is "just a part of growing old". This is a major issue in the United Kingdom, England, and is causing a major uproar. This is health care rationiing. The financial inducement to get health care providers to get people to sign living wills limiting their future options is very similar to this. Healthy people often make decisions they would gladly change when they are terminally ill.       In single payer, government funded, plans, people also have to wait for needed medical procedures, like MRI's and surgery, for too long a period.       If the government offered a supposedly 'competitive" plan to free market insurance, with inducements to sign living wills, the free market companies would have to do the same and we are then providing health care at the level of the least common denominator. We would then be providing limited health care, especially for the aged.       My plan covers 100% of the people and lowers cost. I discuss all this in detail below, but I believe we need to re-establish the Public Health Care system, but with modern changes, including the requirement that all new medical graduates serve 2 years in the service.       There would be no lawsuits for mal-practice. The Publlic Health Care system should be strictly "Use at your own risk", though the social safety net must provide for those who end up needing it.       People will be assessed on their ability to pay and will be required to pay what they can. No one, however, will be denied any service simply because they cannot afford it, nor be required to sell their home, etc., to share the cost.       Facilities in current hospitals, clinics, etc, will be used to provide these services, but they will be provided by Public Health Care personnel. If additional beds in hospitals are required, additions could be built as that is cheaper than building new facilities.       Newly graduated medical professionals serving in the Public Service shall receive a lower middle class income while doing their 2 years of mandatory service, and an upper middle class income should they decide to remain after their service.       This mandatory service is justified as medical professionals are privileged members of society who owe society, just as each patient they help owes them.       I discuss this further below. Again, NO PLAN is a good plan if it does not include tort reform and an end to the medical insurance monopolies!                  NEW BANK BONUSES 8/1/2009                        (AND, SADLY, 1/13/2010)       It was announced today that the banks getting our tax dollars are getting ready to give a new record amount of bonuses. This is outrageous. As I discuss below, these people should have all been fired and prosecuted for fraud. How are they really different from Bernie Madoff? They knew they were selling worthless securities, too.       The arguement that they need to "keep and attract talent" is completely hollow. Aboard ship we had a saying, "Captains and Chief Engineers fall out of the trees if you shake them". This kept us humble, because it was true. The same is true in any industry. Cut out the bad apples and hope the next guy is better.       The financial industry is still raping us and we have still not had justice. We need to save the institutions, but the people running them are replacable today.                              THE WARS       First of all, America spends far too much time at war. Eisenhower warned us about this, but we didn't listen very well. People hear the phrase "military industrial complex" and immediately have negative feelings because of Eisenhower's warning. I put different emphasis on the words. It is the "military" industrial complex as compared to the "consumer goods" industrial complex. We need a "military" industrial complex for national security and defense, and it is not an "evil entity" unless we allow it to become one. The same is true of the "consumer goods" industrial complex, which the banks are a primary part of. Currently both entities are having evil effects because we have allowed corruption to infiltrate our political system and our politicians are literally selling us out. This is why I propose the radical fix I am suggesting below. The system itself is rotten.       We spend far too much blood and treasure overseas trying to fix what can't be fixed, or isn't broken, or in trying to spread "The American Way" throughout the world. This is blatant cultural imperialism and is wrong. You can not, for example, spread feminist ideals in a country where the women have not been liberated from their traditional duties by modern technology. Life is hard for third world peoples, both men and women, and their traditional duties fill all their time.       Regarding the wars, if we manage to stabilize Iraq, the focus will shift to Afganistan, as it already is. The war in Afganistan is not just a war in Afganistan, it is also a war in Pakistan. Pakistan is now the target of Al-Qaeda as Pakistan has nuclear weapons and is highly unstable. Pakistan, not Afganistan, should be our main focus. We should be doing everything possible to support the Pakistani government in its combat against the terrorists and extremists, and should be doing everything we can to push them into a greater effort. I talk more about our approach in Afganistan below. We cannot carry this burden ourselves, it is a world problem.       Obama talks openly about invading Pakistan, a nuclear-armed ally and this is totally unacceptable. We are already sending troops into Pakistan clandestinely, which causes hard feelings, and should be the very limit we are willing to do in a military way without the approval and cooperation of the Pakistani government. To talk about sending troops into Pakistan without the concurrance of the Pakistani government shows just how impetuous and dangerous Obama is in the foreign policy arena. Obama's ego could lead this country into nuclear war.       Barak Obama will not be able to maintain the welfare and public health programs we already have if the economy collapses, much less fund universal health care, and I doubt the economy will recover enough in his time in office to fulfill this promise. Likewise, neither he nor John McCain will be able to sustain our military actions in the Middle East if the economy collapses. Even if it doesn't collapse, those wars are already too expensive considering our other needs.