CPT Flashback - Ten Years ago CPT Predicts Obama will Win Presidency - A Day for the Ages - Lincoln's Dream Fulfilled by Obama

It has been ten years almost to the day that the bitterly fought Democratic primary in 2008 changed, and suddenly Hillary Clinton faced the prospect of defeat.  On Super Tuesday, March 4, the Clinton machine got their first inkling something was amiss when her march to the presidency failed to crush the young upstart Barack Obama.

By May 6 when the North Carolina and Indiana primaries took place, it was Hillary's last stand.  She needed significant wins to stop the Obama momentum.  Instead she barely won Indiana by 2 percent and was crushed in North Carolina by Obama.

On June 3rd Hillary officially withdrew from the race.  Obama was nominated at the 2008 Democratic Convention on August 28 and won the historic race for president on November 4, 2008.  Finally, on January 20, 2009 Barack Obama became the first African American president in American history.

May 8 of the primary year the Coltons Point Times declared Obama would win the presidency in seven months, before he was even nominated by the Democrats (August 28) and while Hillary was still fighting for the presidential nomination.   The following articles ran May 8, 2008 and November 6, 2008 in the Coltons Point Times with the prediction and the proof.

Thursday, May 08, 2008

AN OPEN LETTER TO BARACK OBAMA

As you stand on the threshold of history 148 years after a fellow Illinois favorite son named Abraham Lincoln did I would appreciate a moment of your time to remind you of the expectations we Americans have of our leader.

Image by Coltons Point Times

When the dust has settled from your very trying primary campaign, the confetti has been swept away from the boisterous national conventions and the final tally certified from the general election we have elected a president who instantly becomes the most powerful person in the world.

At that point in time you assume the mantle as the leader of all Americans, Democrats, Republicans, Independents and non-voters alike. You will lead a nation that is the citadel of freedom, the defender of human rights, the provider of equal opportunity, and yes the melting pot of the world where diverse people, cultures, ethnic backgrounds, religions, philosophies and politics can flourish. No other place in the world can make such a claim.

When you take the Oath of Office as the President of the United States you will become the 44th person in history to accept the responsibility inherent in the office. All Americans will be watching you, and so will all of the people of the world. The path you choose to follow as president will determine how many of the 300 million Americans will stand firmly behind you.

It won’t be easy but it does not have to be hard if you realize as so few politicians do that you, as our chosen leader, represent the heart and soul of what is good about the United States.

As a people far removed from the egos and thirst for power so often seen in our nation’s capital we long for a leader who cares, who possesses genuine empathy and compassion, who will create an administration dedicated to helping people and solving problems rather than perpetuating a bureaucracy, and who will bring about long overdue meaningful change.

We want a leader willing to learn about our needs rather than tell us what is best for us. Someone who can accept responsibility and admit mistakes and then you will always receive our support and forgiveness.

We are a people whose Declaration of Independence and Constitution made clear that we are One Nation Under God while distinguishing the difference between God and religion and we hope and pray you will not shrink from the rights and responsibilities inherent in being One Nation Under God and the inalienable rights we enjoy.

Our nation was founded out of love of freedom, respect for God and justice for all. The path has been bumpy at times but our strength comes from the will of the people to never lose sight of our goals. If you lead the people down that path you will discover the secret of our nation, the power of the people.

We the people in defense of our country and other nations are willing to sacrifice our sons, our daughters and ourselves to preserve our precious freedom and way of life and we have proven it throughout our history. We are the most charitable and forgiving people on Earth who will never hesitate to help another in times of need. No nation on Earth comes close to the unselfishness of Americans to volunteer their time, donate their money and offer their prayers for the good of mankind.

We expect you Mr. Obama to be yourself and Americans will stand behind you. Be America’s First Family looking out for all families in America and you will earn our respect. Show your devotion to your wife and children so the world will know what is important in America and you will earn our trust. Let the First Lady be an advocate for the forgotten needs of our people and your children a model for the love so desperately needed everywhere and you will earn our support.

Be our heart and soul, the heart and soul of all Americans, and you will take your rightful place in history as one of our greatest presidents of all time, not just the first African American to be president. We expect a lot, but we are willing to give a lot in return. Together we can return America to its rightful position as the model and leader of the world. Together we can demonstrate the strength of our conviction, the power of our will, and the value of our freedom to a world in need of hope.

God Speed,

Your fellow Americans

     Wednesday, November 05, 2008

A Day For The Ages - Obama & Lincoln

Image by Coltons Point Times

THE DREAM FULFILLED

Abraham Lincoln - 16th President

Barack Obama - 44th President

Just 23 days after he takes office as the 44th President, on February 12, 2009, Barack Obama will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, a fellow president from Illinois whose dream that all people are free was fulfilled with the historic election of Obama. Lincoln sacrificed his life so that Obama could serve. Here they are both sitting before the Illinois Statehouse where both began historic political careers.  Image created by The Coltons Point Times.

Obama Report Card - 1st 100 days - Chaos or Calculated Choreography

Everyone deserves a chance to know their grades so here is President Obama's chance to see how the Coltons Point Times grades his first 100 days as president. There are two elements to the grade, the personal actions of the president and the policy actions of the president. The true performance in both these areas is a reflection of just what type of leader he will become.

In terms of international relations the grade is quite good as most nations of the world are now more interested in photo ops with our president than trashing the USA. Yet we have received nothing tangible from other nations in terms of the things he asked them to do. Korea shot off the missile, Iran builds nuclear weapons, terrorists rule Afghanistan and Pakistan, drugs flow through Mexico, there is little coordination between nations in stimulating the economy and on and on but at least they are now smiling when they stick it to us.

Back here in the USA his grade is more mixed. There is little doubt he controls Congress and in order to take advantage of this he is flooding Congress with requests for legislation, appropriations and new programs. In fact the volume of requests from the Administration has clearly overwhelmed the ability of Congress to absorb them so we have the Pelosi & Reid Rubber Stamp which means if the president wants something and it is liberal enough, it gets rubber stamped.

The House and Senate Democratic leaders and even the president seem to think all those people who voted against Bush wanted immediate socialism when they wanted change but I don't think so and when people realize how far left we have already drifted they are going to be shocked. They also seem to forget that 47% of the people voted against Obama and another 45-50% of the people eligible to vote did not register or vote. That means in truth Obama got about 25-27% of the eligible vote, hardly a mandate from the people.

Campaign Spending

After promising to limit the cost of the campaign by taking public funds, Obama changed his mind and proceeded to spend the largest amount in history, $775 million. Add in another $160 million for his Inauguration and $18 million to be spent after the election and he is the first BILLION DOLLAR president in history. So much for limiting campaign spending. With tastes like that it is no wonder over $3 trillion has been allocated by the government for bailouts and bribes, payoffs and profits, all of which was approved by Obama.

It seems the same problem existed in his selection of talent when he promised all new people to replace the old gang of Washington insiders. He is surrounded by Clinton and other Democratic hacks along with a legion of former Goldman Sachs and other lobbyists who have now turned their attention from wrecking Wall Street and the economy to sucking every last cent from the federal government and Federal Reserve. In the process he also was the first president to nominate seven tax cheats to the highest offices in the nation.

Latin American Relations

Obama seems to have impressed the leaders of the Latin countries just as he did the Europeans and Asians and I don't get too concerned about him getting cozy with Fidel's brother in Cuba and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela even if they are playing him. We need to do a lot of work with the Latin countries and Canada, like form some kind of American Union, so we can fix the mess we are in. Maybe Obama can help?

Middle East Relations

In spite of our presence in Iraq and the Middle East, our troops stationed there, and our massive foreign aid expenditures to both sides of the Israel and Palestine groups, we have little impact on anything that happens there. The Middle East is oil rich country, oil we could temporarily replace with drilling offshore and in Alaska and sharing the resources of Canada, Mexico and South America. If we were moving in the direction of eliminating oil consumption over a period of decades we could supply our own oil and gas right from the Americas.

The Middle East problem cannot be solved at this time. Hatred runs rampant between Moslem Shiites and Sunni, between Moslems and Israelis, between the Taliban and traditional Moslems, between the Christians and radical Moslems, between just about everyone. There will be war in the Middle East because there is always war in the Middle East, for as far back as our history takes us. Obama could be a Moslem, Jewish, Coptic Christian and it will not matter, there will be war.

Our policy so far has been to aid and arm all sides, a technique perfected by the European bankers that helped fuel a constant state of war in Europe for a couple of centuries. The Christians, Buddhists and Hindus of the world can sit back and watch as the Arabs and Israelis battle it out once again. It seems ironic that the Talmud of Israel is like our Old Testament and the Moslem Koran is like our New Testament yet the nations following them seem oblivious to the most important Commandment of all, love thy God and love thy neighbor.

Banks and Credit

Now that we have pumped about $3 trillion into economic stimulus and corporate bailouts what have we achieved? We are still here. Credit remains a problem but VP Biden finally got his way and Obama will be meeting with the credit card companies to discuss ways to save them. Most of these companies are located in Delaware, the same state Biden used to represent. What a coincidence. Biden should have the agenda down pat, he took care of these companies when his son was their lobbyist. He even sponsored a bill to change the personal bankruptcy law to protect the delinquent bills of credit card companies during a bankruptcy action.

Goldman Sachs continues to rule Wall Street and Washington, DC meaning anyone who owes them money through loans, warrants, derivatives or other manipulations will get a government bailout at least enough to pay off their debt to Goldman. So AIG teeters on the brink of disaster and gets $173.3 billion in federal aid then pays off $30 billion to Goldman. A failing company and Goldman gets 100% of all the money owed by AIG. It does go to show how firms like Goldman have seemingly unlimited access to the US Treasury and Federal Reserve.

When is Obama going to have Treasury tell us how much money is yet needed to cover the toxic loans, the commercial real estate loans, and the credit card delinquencies? Someone knows the numbers but the transparency of the president seems to have no effect on his people. Do we face trillions more in socialist subsidies and bailouts before we see light? Maybe!

Health Care Reform

Somehow the notion of spending $634 billion as a "down payment" on health care reform is not how reform is achieved. Normally you identify the savings and then reduce the budget, not increase it. As the changes work, a rather bold assumption, you bring in the people not covered by health insurance. Did you ever see health and life-expectancy statistics on people with no health care? What if they live longer and happier than those covered by insurance? Just how many billions and billions of dollars are spent on unnecessary operations and medication?

If Obama is really an advocate of transparency, then he should publish the total income of doctors, hospitals and clinics from government programs like Medicare, Medicaid and veterans treatment, or did they contribute so much to the campaign they are protected like so many other groups? This entire industry from professional services to hospital facilities, drugs to treatment costs to insurance must be investigated from top to bottom to find where greed took over and then eradicate it.

Obama and Religion

"America is not a Christian nation!" so echoed the words of our new president in his first major address to the Moslem people of the world. Since taking office his liberal media allies have been foretelling the death of Christianity in America and his actions have helped pound a couple of nails into the coffin of Christianity. Our founding fathers might have found his words a bit hard to swallow.

It took Obama 8 weeks from the day he was inaugurated to find his way to a church with his family. At that pace he will attend church service 6 times his first year in office, or about 100 less times than he gets on the basketball court for a little b-ball. Of course after his experience with his big mouth minister during the campaign maybe he is a little gun shy. At least we found out he doesn't pay attention while at church since he didn't hear a thing his radical minister bellowed from the pulpit.

He has liberalized abortion in the year when America has now reached over 50 million legalized abortions performed. For every 6 Americans living one was aborted and for every 2 abortions performed for medical reasons (either the fetus or the mother) 25 abortions were performed for no reason. Add in the expansion of stem cell research Obama approved, research certain to lead to even more abortions for profit, and we fail to find much of anything that would appeal to Christians.

Global Warming

So what can we say about the Obama multi-billion dollar Global Warming initiative? Well I've studied a little bit of history and seems I've found a little information that casts doubt on this Global Warming thing. It seems global warming and cooling are a natural part of the existence of Earth.

In fact the worst ice age of all time occurred between 850 million and 630 million years ago during the Cryogenian period. Scientists believe it produced a Snowball Earth in which the entire globe was covered in permanent ice. Back then the accumulation of greenhouse gas, the stuff we are trying to get rid of, was produced by volcanoes which melted the ice and saved the Earth.

At least four major ice ages took place in our Earth's history. The current age started 2.58 million years ago and we are currently in the warming phase. These cycles of warming and cooling complete their cycle at 40,000 and 100,000 year time periods. The next ice age can be scientifically predicted to begin about 50,000 years from now, with or without human generated global warming. Nature will follow it's course no matter what we do.

Since the last ice age was longer than 2.58 million years ago and at least four ice ages have taken place with most if not all of the entire globe frozen, and this was before civilized man, before any man we know of, what caused the natural cycle? Either volcanoes explode, and there are still many around the world and in America, they create a dense layer of soot and ash in our atmosphere, and the debris blocks the sun from hitting the Earth. A few hundred years are required for the Earth's atmosphere to clean up and then we have another ice age. A large meteor could do the same and some have hit the earth.

How could we have had four major ice ages and thousands of warming and cooling cycles like we are in without mankind populating the earth and no advanced technology? No doubt mankind can speed up the process of global warming with our excessive consumption and emissions. But no matter what we do the global warming and cooling cycles will come and go

Personally I think if we want to stop polluting we should just ban all plastics which are made from oil, ban imports from countries that are polluting with their factories, and give a tax rebate of $2,500 for every car bought getting 35-49 miles per gallon (mpg), $3,500 for cars getting 50-75 mpg and $5,000 for cars getting 76-100 mpg. That kind of subsidy will make the hybrids, hydrogen and electric cars profitable to the car makers.

Okay, so what about the report card? Well, I say forget the grades, the Democratic leadership in Congress will just change the grading system in America to accommodate and cover up the fact we no longer lead the world in much of anything. It is not politically correct to encourage individual excellence, leadership, innovation or exceptional performance in a socialist world if that is what the left wing wants. I say give them a blank report card just like the report cards our public school students get. How else could we have the highest cost of education in the world and the worst results of most developed nations?

AMERICA'S COLLECTIVE NATIONAL TRIP

I never thought I would get the chance to do this article but there is no doubt that truth changes here in America and it is about time we take another look at the facts. The subject is marijuana use in America and the facts are this; over 100 million Americans have tried marijuana and 14.8 million use it monthly. Over 40% of all high school age kids have tried it.

Now for comparison purposes, there are three recreational drugs in America, alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs including marajuana.

Results from the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Office of Applied Studies (OAS)

Alcohol
Slightly more than half of Americans aged 12 or older reported being current drinkers of alcohol in the 2007 survey (51.1 percent). This translates to an estimated 126.8 million people, which was similar to the 2006 estimate of 125.3 million people (50.9 percent).





More than one fifth (23.3 percent) of persons aged 12 or older participated in binge drinking (having five or more drinks on the same occasion on at least 1 day in the 30 days prior to the survey) in 2007. This translates to about 57.8 million people, similar to the estimate in 2006.

In 2007, heavy drinking was reported by 6.9 percent of the population aged 12 or older, or 17.0 million people. This rate was the same as the rate of heavy drinking in 2006. Heavy drinking is defined as binge drinking on at least 5 days in the past 30 days.

In 2007, among young adults aged 18 to 25, the rate of binge drinking was 41.8 percent, and the rate of heavy drinking was 14.7 percent. These rates were similar to the rates in 2006.

The rate of current alcohol use among youths aged 12 to 17 was 15.9 percent in 2007. Youth binge and heavy drinking rates were 9.7 and 2.3 percent, respectively. These rates were essentially the same as the 2006 rates.

Tobacco
In 2007, an estimated 70.9 million Americans aged 12 or older were current (past month) users of a tobacco product. This represents 28.6 percent of the population in that age range. In addition, 60.1 million persons (24.2 percent of the population) were current cigarette smokers; 13.3 million (5.4 percent) smoked cigars; 8.1 million (3.2 percent) used smokeless tobacco; and 2.0 million (0.8 percent) smoked tobacco in pipes.

The rate of current use of any tobacco product among persons aged 12 or older decreased from 29.6 percent in 2006 to 28.6 percent in 2007, but the rates of current use of cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, cigars, and pipe tobacco did not change significantly over that period.





Between 2002 and 2007, past month use of any tobacco product decreased from 30.4 to 28.6 percent, and past month cigarette use declined from 26.0 to 24.2 percent. Rates of past month use of cigars, smokeless tobacco, and pipe tobacco were similar in 2002 and 2007.

The rate of past month cigarette use among 12 to 17 year olds declined from 13.0 percent in 2002 to 9.8 percent in 2007. However, past month smokeless tobacco use was higher in 2007 (2.4 percent) than in 2002 (2.0 percent).

Illegal Drugs
In 2007, an estimated 19.9 million Americans aged 12 or older were current (past month) illicit drug users, meaning they had used an illicit drug during the month prior to the survey interview. This estimate represents 8.0 percent of the population aged 12 years old or older. Illicit drugs include marijuana/hashish, cocaine (including crack), heroin, hallucinogens, inhalants, or prescription-type psychotherapeutics used nonmedically.

The rate of current illicit drug use among persons aged 12 or older in 2007 (8.0 percent) was similar to the rate in 2006 (8.3 percent).




Marijuana was the most commonly used illicit drug (14.4 million past month users). Among persons aged 12 or older, the rate of past month marijuana use in 2007 (5.8 percent) was similar to the rate in 2006 (6.0 percent).

In 2007, there were 2.1 million current cocaine users aged 12 or older, comprising 0.8 percent of the population. These estimates were similar to the number and rate in 2006 (2.4 million or 1.0 percent).

Hallucinogens were used in the past month by 1.0 million persons (0.4 percent) aged 12 or older in 2007, including 503,000 (0.2 percent) who had used Ecstasy. These estimates were similar to the corresponding estimates for 2006.

There were 6.9 million (2.8 percent) persons aged 12 or older who used prescription-type psychotherapeutic drugs nonmedically in the past month. Of these, 5.2 million used pain relievers, the same as the number in 2006.

In 2007, there were an estimated 529,000 current users of methamphetamine aged 12 or older (0.2 percent of the population). These estimates were not significantly different from the estimates for 2006 (731,000 or 0.3 percent).

Among youths aged 12 to 17, the current illicit drug use rate remained stable from 2006 (9.8 percent) to 2007 (9.5 percent). Between 2002 and 2007, youth rates declined significantly for illicit drugs in general (from 11.6 to 9.5 percent) and for marijuana, cocaine, hallucinogens, LSD, Ecstasy, prescription-type drugs used nonmedically, pain relievers, stimulants, methamphetamine, and the use of illicit drugs other than marijuana.

Did you really check out the statistics? Alcohol was used by 126.8 million people 12 and over, tobacco was used by 70.9 million people 12 and over, and illegal drugs were used by 19.9 million Americans 12 and over. Of the latter 14.4 million used marijuana. Over time 100 million people have used marijuana.

The cost of illegal marijuana is staggering with a study by Jon Gettman, Ph.D. indicating that Americans spend nearly $113 billion annually on the drug. We also spend $10.7 billion in law enforcement to control the drug before the stimulus and new drug enforcements efforts by the Obama Administration. In other words our government loses nearly $31.1 billion in lost tax revenue to illegal marijuana and spends $10.7 billion trying to stop it, about $42 billion a year.

That is only the beginning of the cost however. The majority of the drug is grown in South America and Asia and smuggled into the states. Along the Mexican border over 6,000 Mexicans have been murdered in drug wars in the past year alone. Tens of thousands of people in other countries have been murdered over the years supplying the US with pot.

Yet the effects of marijuana are nearly insignificant compared to the physical and psychological damage inflicted on us from legal drugs sanctioned in America, alcohol and tobacco. If you threw in the abuses in the prescription drug use here you would find billions more in wasted money. We know all these legal drugs kill and cost us billions of dollars in medical costs.




So why not legalize marijuana? The benefits now substantially outweigh the risk. Marijuana is the only natural drug of the three sold in a natural state. Where it has been legalized in places like the Netherlands, the use by the public has dropped significantly below the rate in America. In fact in Columbia where it is grown the drug use is a fraction of the American use.

Not only would legalization eliminate the $10.7 billion in law enforcement costs, money that could be better used chasing the criminals in suits whose actions cost us trillions of dollars in losses, but the $31.1 billion in lost tax revenues could pay for a lot of deficits in states and a lot of new initiatives nationally.

Marijuana could be grown in America putting tens of thousands of acres into productive, tax generating use, land currently sitting idle and generating no property tax revenue. States that lost significant property taxes with the loss of tobacco crops would have a way to recover the losses. Thousands of lives in Mexico would be saved every year by eliminating the drug smuggling and drug wars involved in distribution.




When we tried to prohibit the sale of alcohol in America it backfired and we should have learned our lesson. We allow the sale of tobacco which has hundreds of chemicals added to it to make us addicted to it and the government still can't stop 126.8 million people from using it. The last three presidents of the United States have all admitted to using marijuana. There would be a great sigh of relief from all the countries trying to stop the flow of marijuana into America and we would be saving thousands of lives a year. How about we use common sense and finally legalize it and put billions of dollars to work for us?

# # #

On Balance What Problems Might Obama be Solving?

As the new Administration continues to struggle to get new programs out the door, which is certainly understandable when you are throwing everything including the kitchen sink at the public, I wanted to offer my help to them.

First, I find it rather bizarre that after two years of investment financial analysts, media financial analysts, Congressional financial analysts and Executive branch financial analysts being dead wrong on the economy and virtually every aspect of the economy that Washington, Wall Street and Madison Avenue continue to listen to them as if they had a clue what they are talking about. Don't the leaders in the Obama administration remember? Oh yeah, the same mouthpieces that blew it before are speaking for the new administration.

Congress has been studying the collapse of the housing market for over a year and we are yet to see anything except ways to save mortgages in foreclosure or save the criminals that wrote the mortgages that are in foreclosure. Even Obama's chief of staff was part of the Freddie Mac Fanny Mae mess that evolved from the liberalization of mortgage rules.

You want to fix the problem here is a good start. Allow 4.5% refinancing with minimum closing costs. Bank of America is allowing refinancing after receiving $45 billion in federal bailout funds but the Bank of America closing costs on refinancing have risen to $16,000 when they used to be $3000-5000. What kind of a deal is that for clients? They may be lending money again, our money from the federal bailout, but now it costs us 3-8 times as much.

There is no reason to require appraisals, title searches and registration fees costs thousands of dollars for refinancing mortgages already owned by the banks. Get rid of the corrupt fees and rigged appraisals and put money back in the pocket of mortgage holders and you will finally get real stimulus. While some of those in foreclosure should be saved most should not be when over 95% of the people are making payments on time. Lowering the monthly mortgage payment of the good loans will immediately put those hundreds of dollars a month into the economy.

The sale of foreclosed homes should not be allowed to impact on the market value of homes not being foreclosed. Appraisers are dropping market rates where ever there is a glut of mortgages and applying such loss of value to regional areas experiencing no foreclosures. Unscrupulous appraisers can get away with the same manipulation to lower values as they did to raise values the past 3 years.

Speaking of appraisers, if a home has been remodeled and exceeds energy and environmental code it should have a much higher value than a home not remodeled. Even homes built to code are far from achieving energy and environmental efficiency peak potential. Right now a home needing $50,000 to $100,000 in energy and environmental upgrades to exceed standards is valued the same as a home with the most advanced materials and equipment, a joke if the nation really wants to save energy. There is no value gained by making the improvements. We are encouraged by present law to take shortcuts and not use advanced materials to keep the costs down.


Historic preservation must accommodate energy and environmental improvements and reward them when made but these homes are also discounted for age and penalized for maintaining historical standards. For example, if a home was built without closets but used cabinets or free standing wardrobe closets they will be rejected as a bedroom and significantly decrease the present value of the home even though they are being historically preserved. Does that make any sense?

What about the banks, how do we save them from self-destruction? Well, if you are liberal and believe it is our responsibility to pay for their sins then do whatever Pelosi and Franks tell you as you already have made up your mind they are too big to fail even if it takes nationalization to save them. What is a few more hundred billion dollars when money can be printed at will? Even Obama slipped $750 billion more into his new budget to cover unexpected bank losses.

I wonder why the Administration finds it so important to save banks like Citigroup and Bank of America when they have already cost us $90 billion to keep them alive, snd after all that cash they are still on life support. Now since all individual deposits in those banks were already guaranteed by the FDIC, that means any money they need has nothing to do with the little people. So why in the world have we already pumped in $90 billion when the little people were protected? Who is Congress protecting and bailing out if the money is not needed for depositors?

So where does this leave you? In the first place, 47% of you didn't even vote for Obama which the media seems to keep forgetting as they talk about the president as if everyone in the world voted for him. Here in American a six percent victory is not a landslide. Truth is he should have won by 15-20% and didn't.
However we still have those that did support him. I doubt they all believed he would advance such a liberal - socialist agenda, especially in such dire financial times.

In normal times I would say contact your Congressmen to stop the largest government spending spree in history but the Democratic Majority are demanding he spend even more. Obama promised to stop pork barrel spending. His own stimulus bill had at least $10 billion in pork and a new appropriations bill he is expected to approve has $410 billion, with a substantial amount of pork barrel. I guess Obama can't keep all his promises.

We have no campaign reform being discussed though it is the biggest violator of ethics and cause of corruption in Washington. We have no control over pork barrel spending as witnessed by the legislative record to date. We have no control over lobbyists working in government as a number of lobbyists have been hired by the Obama administration.



We do have a worldwide expansion in abortion approved. We do have stem cell research approved that encourages the "harvesting" of unborn fetuses for scientific research. We do have a move to force unions into all the states and industries nationwide, even if a state has chosen to be right-to-work. We do have millions of federal dollars being poured into liberal activist organizations that demand bigger government and more spending.

One final observation and that is regarding the liberal-biased media in the television and newspaper business who were so responsible for trashing Palin and McCain and getting Obama and Biden elected. As these media are rapidly falling into bankruptcy and disappearing I'd say your hero seems to have lost interest in your cause. Now are you glad you got him elected? Do you still have a job?

Big Money Now Owns America

. . . . .

I think this is a pretty good description of the treacherous ground we are venturing down with the financial meltdown and the government response of tossing billions into the mess.

"Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more and more expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits, until their debt becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of banks, which will have to be saved by the government and nationalized; ..."

Big Money gets greedy. Big Money finds new ways to rip off the public like the sub-prime mortgage market. Big Money hedges their bet by secretly backing a future unknown to be president for when the day of reckoning may come. Big Money gets Congress to change the laws and regulations to allow them to avoid being detected as they pursue the illegal deals. Big Money gets too greedy and people can't afford the phony mortgage deals leaving trillions of dollars in losses to be absorbed by someone.

Big Money has now destroyed the US credit market and must change tactics to cover their losses. Big Money manipulates the oil futures market to generate outrageous oil profits to cover the outrageous mortgage losses driving prices to record $150 per barrel levels. Big Money sees chaos as opportunity to drive competitors from the marketplace and suddenly 10 legendary investment banking houses are reduced to two survivors.





Big Money sees chaos as opportunity to finally secure unlimited control and access of the US Treasury and Federal Reserve and tells Congress, whose campaign coffers are inflated with Big Money donations, to pass multi-billion dollar bailout bills. Big Money gets benefactors in Congress to bail out billion dollar losses in mortgage, insurance and banking industries. Big Money realizes they got too greedy and have now nearly destroyed the world economy thus limiting future chances to steal from the government if they don't fix the mess.




Big Money gets unknown candidate for president elected and promptly loads up his team of economic advisors to assure blame is deflected for mess and they control the future of the world economy. Big Money gets Democratic friends elected to control Congress and assure future Big Money prosperity. Big Money gets new Congress to adopt nearly trillion dollar economic stimulus bill to revive the sconomy and increase stock values.



Big Money gets US Treasury to underwrite "toxic" loans of Big Money and their banking partners thus transferring the debt to the taxpayers. Big Money gets Congress to pass home mortgage reforms to bailout all the toxic pending foreclosure losses of the past three years, again paid for by taxpayers. Big Money keeps new president from laying any blame for the economic meltdown, regulatory and oil price manipulation where it belongs thus assuring the continue to dominate the world.

Big Money never even has to tell the government how many trillions of dollars it will cost them to fulfill the economic stimulus, credit restoration, Wall Street welfare and Main Street salvation programs caused by the greed of Big Money over the years. Big Money has now successfully protected their financial windfalls and deferred payment to the next generation. Big Money is now hauling the taxpayer money from their Big Money friends in Congress and the White House to the big banks they own to finance the latest schemes they devise to further the interests of Big Money around the world.

The world is now the Big Money playground and the Treasury and Federal Reserve are now safely secured in the hands of Big Money. That pretty much sums it up. And by the way, the end of the quote and the source is:

"the State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to communism."

Karl Marx, 1867

# # #

Obama Cabinet Nominees Spoil New Criminal Rehabilitation Program

Just when we thought the highest ranking appointees in the Obama Administration were going to constitute the most elite criminal rehabilitation program in the nation two of the three charter members withdrew from consideration this week.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who failed to pay $43,000 in back taxes until his Senate hearing, was first to make it through the process in spite of the tax problem. Obama said it was no big deal and Geithner said he didn't understand that he owed the taxes, a bit scary for the next head of IRS. What would happen to you if IRS discovered you did not pay $43,000 over a four year period? Geithner gets to be US Treasury Secretary. You would get federal prison.

Then along comes Tom Daschle, the former leader of the Democrats in the Senate and Obama's nominee to fix the health care mess. Seems he was paid over $5 million for lobbying for health care companies in a couple of years though he never bothered to register as a lobbyist. That was okay with Obama. But IRS said he owed $143,000 in back taxes for failing to report a full time car and driver paid for by his lobbying firm. He paid that and once again everything was okay with our new king of clean government President Obama and he urged the approval of Daschle.

Would you get a cabinet post with Obama if you owed $143,000 in back taxes? Once again federal prison would be more likely. A third key Obama appointee, Nancy Killefer, picked for what he described as the most important new post in his Administration, the government's first Chief Performance Officer, then had to acknowledge she also owed back taxes but just $946.69, a miniscule amount compared to the tens and hundreds of thousands owned by the old boys.

Nancy did the right thing, she immediately withdrew from consideration. Thus one of the most prominent female appointees of Obama was the first to recognize her civic duty and dropped out. A few hours later Daschle followed suit, even though Obama and others all agreed it was not significant enough to warrant withdrawing from the race. So far the new Obama standard is key employees are okay as long as they don't steal more than $143,000 from the government.

On Jan. 21, the day after his inauguration, Obama issued an executive order barring any former lobbyists who join his administration from dealing with matters or agencies related to their lobbying work. Nor could they join agencies they had lobbied in the previous two years.

However, William J. Lynn III, his choice to become the No. 2 official at the Defense Department, recently lobbied for military contractor Raytheon. And William Corr, tapped as deputy secretary at Health and Human Services, lobbied through most of last year as an anti-tobacco advocate. Before the ink had dried the first waivers of the brand new executive order had to be granted to allow lobbyists to join his staff in top agencies. Didn't Obama get a lot of mileage smearing John McCain for having lobbyist in his campaign?

It just seems that those campaign promises for a new way to govern free of the influences of the past don't seem so real now. A new level of ethics promised has not materialized. In fact, far more promises have been broken than kept in the early part of the new regime. If there was any doubt about this ask the United Auto Workers at General Motors. The union was one of Obama's biggest supporters and were promised a bail out for the auto industry and told by the new president they were the priority of his administration. Today GM announced one third of the UAW workers must be laid off. That does not sound like they are being protected by the new president.

Obama's Sorry State of the State

Now that the new president is almost the president we should take a look at the state of the state he will be inheriting before we get too caught up in the euphoria of the historic moment. Make no mistake, the challenges facing Obama are among the most difficult ever faced by an incoming president. If he succeeds he will have earned his place among the greatest presidents in our history.

While Obama gets a lot of mileage out of his humble beginnings and life, the fact he went to Columbia and Harvard and his wife went to Princeton belies some of the impact. These Ivy League schools are among the best and most expensive schools in the USA and world. Let us hope he didn't lose his ability to stay humble while rubbing shoulders with the aristocrats. He certainly did acquire the ivy league taste for the good life starting with his home of well over a million dollars.

As a candidate for president Obama spent three times more than any previous candidate in history, about three quarters of a billion dollars to win 53.5% of the vote. His speech the night of the Democratic convention cost $8 million, just one speech mind you. This inauguration will cost more than $150 million, three times more expensive than any in history. Add to that the economic bailouts he already has supported to the tune of over a trillion dollars, and he isn't even president yet, and we have ourselves one very high maintenance newcomer on the political scene.

Then we get to the problems he faces. There is the economy. Big money, big banks and big fat investors are lined up waiting for the new president to bail them out of the trillions and trillions of our dollars they lost, squandered or stole the past couple of years. Seems funny that if you rob a bank you go to jail but if you steal all the money from inside the bank the government bails you out.

Why is it the financial experts guiding us out of this mess are the same financial experts who got us into the mess in the first place? If we put into jail all the people who masterminded the bankruptcy of America and the takeover of the US Treasury New York City and Washington, DC would be ghost towns, Wall Street and Capitol Hill would be surplus property, the Money God would not have a blank check on our tax dollars and unemployment would be greatly reduced because the bad guys would be locked up.

Today 1 out of every 54 mortgages in America is facing imminent foreclosure and everyone in Congress is scrambling to find ways to save the poor citizens. Now if you listen to the politicians, media and Wall Street you would think that means every other house in America is in foreclosure. The truth is less than 2% of the homes with mortgages are in foreclosure, about 2 million out of over 100 million mortgages.

If you look a little deeper at the sub-prime mortgage mess that brought down our economy, a program of waiving the normal mortgage requirements so anyone could buy a home in the mid-2000s that was the brainchild of Barney Franks and other Democratic leaders, things get more interesting. There are over 7.5 million sub-prime mortgages, mortgages in which minimum down payments were accepted, excessive fees were paid, credit fraud was tolerated, balloon interest payments were built in and inflated home values were inherent.

About 25% of the sub-prime loans are in foreclosure meaning nearly 100% of the foreclosures were not the typical citizen buying a home but the people taking advantage of the sub-prime scam and now that they are defaulting on the loans the government is now trying to figure out how to use taxpayers dollars to save them. In short, we are all going to pay for the fraud. It was these loans that were packaged by Wall Street greed mongers and sold through stock offerings that brought the banks, mortgage and financial institutions down and triggered our current recession. Trillions of dollars have been lost by investors to the very institutions claiming responsibly for managing our wealth, pensions funds, savings and so on.

Many other aspects of the economy from AIG and bank bailouts to oil price increases, the futures markets, swaps, derivatives and others were created for the purpose of getting away with what should have been illegal. Is it so important we spend trillions of government dollars to save the very people who created the scams in the first place?

In other areas there is the latest threat from Osama Bin Laden to continue his terrorist actions against the USA while wars continue in Afghanistan and Iraq. Pakistan is ready to fall to insurgents waiting to deliver it to the Taliban. India is being attacked by Pakistan. Did I mention that Pakistan, home to Bin Laden and headquarters for many terrorist groups, really has nuclear weapons unlike Iraq. Russia is testing it's strength against the Ukraine and Europe. Israel is battling the Palestinians, killing them at a rate of 71 dead for every Israeli killed. You get the international picture, just add to the violence the reality of worldwide recession and many more nations could get desperate.

Now beyond the economy, wars and international affairs there remains a health care system that is the most expensive in the world and 56 million people with no health coverage. Schools that don't teach. States that are going broke. Auto and other industries that can't efficiently produce or sell. Energy policy that leaves us subject to the pricing and manipulation of others. Immigration issues with Mexico and the threat of drug cartel warfare in Mexico crossing the border into the USA not to mention the corruption of our southern neighbor.

Wow, come to think of it do you think Obama would have become the greatest spender in campaign politics history if he knew what he was getting into once he won the election? At least we will find out real soon if that Harvard education was all it is supposed to be. If he can solve the mountain of problems and issues he inherits he should be entitled to every award like the Nobel Prize offered.

Lastly, let us not forget the other thorny issue Barack has already raised that may prove more difficult than many I listed. Our new president has already signaled the NCAA that he wants to push for a National College Football playoff and championship, something long overdue. Good luck Mr. President.

Thank you for another good year...

As President-elect Obama prepares to take office next Tuesday the Coltons Point Times now has 25,877 readers according to the tracking services which means our readers total 74 times the total population of Coltons Point. That does not include the circulation of articles by many of our dedicated readers like Cathe who distributes it to about 2,328 of her closest friends and family members. We appreciate your interest in our view of the world and hope you will encourage your friends to check us out. As always we encourage letters to the editor (everyone is entitled to their silly opinions) and welcome story ideas.

Election Wrap up - Democrats - What Now?

Suppose you made a wish list last New Years and you got everything you could ever dream for all in one year. Well that was the fate of the Democrats as they swept the presidency while taking much stronger control of the House and Senate, a politicians delight. But remember the caution, be careful when you wish as you may get what you want. Add to that be specific as well.

The Democrats got control of the government, filling Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barney Frank's stockings to the top. Unfortunately, they were not clear enough in their request and they forgot to say no recession, Wall Street collapse, credit crisis, auto collapse, war in Iraq, war in Afghanistan, violence in the Middle East and overall pretty bleak domestic and world economic, political and military situations.

The new president will inherit all these and untold more situations that have been kept hidden from the public for good reason. Had we known about the crooks on Wall Street and Washington, D.C. earlier in the year, not to mention throughout the nation and the world, most of our incumbent politicians who got elected would have been taken to the woodshed and lashed.

In addition there were all those many campaign promises, health coverage for all, tax reductions for 95% of the people, clean green cars, more unions, more social programs, more abortions, mortgage forgiveness and restructuring, more genetic engineering, well, more promises than I have room to spell them out, still what will happened to all those promises? The last time a Democrat made such promises was when Pelosi said we would be out of Iraq in a couple of weeks and a laundry list of other promises back in 2004 if we gave Democrats control of Congress and they got it but we didn't. So I guess this is déjà vu all over again.

Did anyone hear the victorious Democrats say they would pursue prosecutions against all the Wall Street crooks who caused the economic collapse or did they all take too much campaign money from them to get serious? Any word about how we will get meaningful campaign reform or was that also buried under the avalanche of special interest campaign contributions? Why are they going to extend health care to everyone when our medical system is broken down already? Shouldn't it be fixed first?

How can we believe Barney Frank and the Democrats that they are going to fix the mess when they were the ones that caused the mess in the first place? How many politicians will be leading the nation who stood by and watched the economy go up in flames in recent years? And how many staff and elected officials were personally involved in many of the crooked deals but remain in power?

We are just at the beginning of the reform promised by Obama. First he had to get elected. Now he has to drive out the demons of government and Wall Street and that will be a much more difficult task. I believe all those liberal groups and hardcore Democrats will be in for a shock when the Obama program is finally disclosed and it will not be fully disclosed until 2010 when the next round of Congressional elections takes place. That will be the first chance he gets to go after the patron saints of corruption still leading Congress.

You can always count on a rambunctious time when the Democrats take control of the government and I expect we will see more of the same. Still, something tells me Obama is a lot more than a politician but someone really committed to changing the nation for the better knowing full well the amount of pain that will cause in the short term. My prediction is a very short honeymoon for the new president as it will not take long for the crooks in Congress to realize they are the targets of the new Administration and when they see the truth they will fight Obama every step of the way against reform. Let's hope they are so drunk with greed they miss the warning signs.

Pictured in the article are Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barney Frank and Pelosi with Steny Hoyer, the House Majority Leader. These are the people we have entrusted with our government and our future. Yes, Pelosi and Hoyer are from Maryland though Pelosi long ago moved to California.

For those interested in history, the Democratic office holders in line to become president are 1. Joe Biden, Vice President, 2. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, and 3. Robert Carlyle Byrd, President Pro Tem of the Senate (at 92 years old this year he would be the oldest president in history).

Obama's Historic Presidency - Harvard Must Clean Up the Yale Mess

On the abs and shoulders of newly elected Barack Obama comes the most daunting task of his historic presidency which is cleaning up the legacy (mess) that 20 straight years of Yale grads as president has bestowed on us. The last Harvard grad to undertake such a challenge was John F. Kennedy 48 years ago.

In 1636 Harvard was founded and in 1701 Yale was founded and ever since these two Ivy League competitors have been at each other's throats whether it was in founding a nation, creating the game of football, distinguishing themselves as the educational elite of America, charging the highest tuition in the nation to attend, or just capturing the presidency.

Almost a year ago I wrote an article called "Presidential Election 2008 - Harvard versus Yale" . The stunning recent success of Yale in capturing the presidency the past 20 years and nearly for an additional 8 with Hillary capped a long and dominant run by the Bulldogs. In every election since 1972 either a Democrat or Republican presidential candidate or both were from Yale and the 20 year domination beat out the old record held by Harvard and Franklin Roosevelt.

Roosevelt was elected four times himself, meaning Harvard had the muscle to change the Constitution and have a president elected more than twice to keep a favorite son in office. He served into his 13th year before dying and had been elected to serve 16 years. Yale controlled the White House the last 20 years with three different presidents, Bush, Clinton and Bush 2.

Now before we all become overly enamored with the power and success of the Ivy elite remember that Harvard, the venerable 372 year oldest university in the nation still has the dumbest mascot ever adopted by a school in America while the Yale Bulldogs must explain away the legacy of the past 20 years. Oh yes, and only once in history has someone been president who graduated from both schools, our very own George W. Bush, leaving both with much to explain.

As for the Harvard mascot, for those of you who don't know and the Harvard Crimson has worked very hard to conceal the fact, the university mascot is a real person, John Harvard, a puritan clergyman from England in the 1600's. A statue of John Harvard, sculpted by Daniel Chester French, sits in Harvard Yard at Harvard University. Despite its name, the statue does not depict the true likeness of John Harvard, as the sculptor had no accurate image to work from.

The statue, known by Harvard tour guides as the statue of three lies, claims that it depicts John Harvard, Founder, 1638, but in reality Harvard was a contributor, not the founder; the institution was founded in 1636; and the statue is actually a likeness of someone else as French used a student as a model. What Harvard did do was leave the first major endowment to Harvard along with his library thus immortalizing the value of endowments over academics. The current mascot is a hideous distortion of the original John Harvard who wasn't John Harvard to begin with but some student.

Obama is the 8th Harvard grad to serve as president from colonial days after John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Rutherford Hayes, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and George Bush. John Adams was vice president under George Washington for two terms before being elected the 2nd president of the USA in 1797.

Yale has given us 5 presidents with the first being William Howard Taft who was not elected until 1908, 111 years after the first Harvard president. Following Taft were Gerald Ford, George Bush, Sr., Bill Clinton and George Bush, Jr. all in the past 35 years.

The current Yale legacy, Iraq, Afghanistan, the credit crisis, Wall Street collapse, auto company collapse, insurance industry collapse, in fact the whole economic collapse, the extreme negative attitudes toward our elected officials, financial leaders and media, the negative attitude of the world toward America, corruption, oil crisis, terrorism and all the other stuff is certain to be the biggest challenge to Harvard since the great depression and World War II inherited by Franklin Roosevelt.

We can only hope and pray that Barack Obama can clean up the Yale mess and maybe even get the Harvard mascot finally changed during his historic presidency, something even the Adams, Roosevelt's and Kennedy failed to accomplish.