Continued Madness...

I have not posted any thing new in a while because frankly there has not been much worth talking about. The same ole tripe is being spewed around the Internet international forums and commentaries. But I am itching to put something in writing so I can clear my head and move on. Some of the recent subjects that have caught my attention are:

• The US Congressional leaders have failed miserably in discharging the duties they were elected to perform.Period. 
•  All parties deserve an equal amount of the blame. The recent budget fight highlighted their massive failures in managing the countries affairs. I wish the US Constitution allowed for the citizens to call for a popular vote of no confidence that can force early elections to replace those currently holding their positions.  A simple Yes or No ballot with a 2 week advance warning to cut down the amount of time the incumbents will have for campaigning. Leaving incompetents to finish their terms just gives them more time to screw things up. I believe this type of voting procedure would also force incumbents to do a better job knowing they can be replaced anytime by the electorate.
• Some of the more egregious decisions have been the adding of anti-choice provisions to the budget debates and carelessness with proposals involving cuts in Medicare.
• If cuts do need to made in the Medicare program they should be approached in a more forthright manner that does not panic those who depend on that service.
• Tax payers have been paying the Medicare tax in their wages since before I was born and they deserve a government who can take that money and ensure a benefit to those paying for it.
• Medicare can also be a good tool to lower the costs associated with health care. Health care delivery organizations can negotiate for cost reductions or Medicare could ban any organization from receiving and treating people using Medicare. This is especially effective when dealing with individuals or small groups of health care providers. Doctors have  used this same negotiating strategy with the HMO's and PPO's by forming groups of doctors into billing consortium's who would not accept particular HMO or PPO patients without negotiating fees they found acceptable. I actually developed a computer system in the early 90's that supported these types of operations. The government has the leverage to lower the cost of health care but they need to use it and place the public's interest first without regard to the health care special interests groups which always seem to get what they want.
• How long will the US last if our leaders are so unwilling to fulfill their obligations and put the people that represent first.? Our current political parties do nothing but attack each other relentlessly on every single issue. In our system of government their should be a whole set of issues and problems that the parties could find a middle ground on and leave the extremist positions to the fringe but today they practice the opposite.
• It's time for our military to leave the middle-east. There is nothing for the US to gain in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Keeping a good watch and leaving a couple of drones in the afflicted areas in case they are needed. The drone strategy has been the most successful tool in the fight against the extremists. They walk around looking at the sky wondering if they are next. They can not use any modern communication methods without being tracked so that will hamper their organizational efforts.
• The next time a terrorist act is carried out on US citizens the response should be brutal and immediate to those responsible.  Just like Israel's responses when attacked. The US has the capability to kill, maim, or just blowup anyone in the world without the use of ground troops and all of the associated costs of full wartime deployments. Terrorists will continue their attempts to attack and they might yet succeed at anytime but that is a manageable risk. The world is just to big to police constantly alone with wavering or non-existing support from our "allies" and we should accept that. 
• The US needs to stop worrying about what other countries think and say about the US. Most of it is bullshit. Many of the people complaining would absolutely kill for a visa to the US so they can go to the US. The US is populated by people who left behind their shit hole countries to find a better life and the majority of them have found it.
• We need to tackle the illegal immigration issue in the country. When US courts start listening to advice and complaints from the Mexican President we need to respond with a question of our own. Why are people desperate to leave Mexico and shouldn't the President of Mexico be doing something about the reason the people want to leave Mexico. And in a follow up we should ask them how they deal with illegal immigration on their southern border. They guard their border and deal harshly with people they catch coming into the country illegally.

Support...

I need to articulate some of my current thoughts on various topics.

1. I am a supporter of Israel because of the shrill denunciations and lies spread around the world by it's opponents.
2. I support the Freedom of Choice in the abortion debate and abortion issues have no buisness being injected into the budget fight.
3. I support neither the democrats or republicans that run the US. All they do is posture and compaign 24/7 totally ignoring the job they were elected to. If they were in the private sector I would fire them all.
4. I support bringing all US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan home and limiting continued interaction with either of their governments. Governments who were giving a chance re-build their countries without obstacles like Sadamm Hussein and the Taliban.
5. I support regulation in the private sector that require companies to give US citizens first grab at jobs and decreasing the number of H1-B visas.
6. I support adding small tariffs on imports from countries that erect barriers to US participation in their economies.
7. I support toal non-intervention on other countries problems no matter what. If it doesn't effect the US directly or compromise security.
8. I support aggressive government insentives for companies creating new energy sources which lower the US depedance on oil.

And life goes on...

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post but it hardly matters since the world situation in general have been nothing new. However, there are a few things that have crossed my mind and provoking comment.

• The situation in Libya has been a real mess compared to the revolts in the other middle-east and Africa states. The UN agreed to provide air cover for the rebels and it has only been partially effective and I doubt the rebels will prevail. The interesting part will be to see how Qaddafi deals with all of the countries who voted to remove him from power.
• I don't understand why the Presidents and leaders that are being asked to give up power have not done so voluntarily? All of the leaders in question have been in power for 20 years or more. Why don't they just grant themselves a generous retirement package and leave all the turmoil to someone else? 
• You could of heard a pin drop when the UN, Arab League, and French agreed to support a no-fly zone in Libya and the US pretty much stayed quite in the background.  After the UN resolution was passed the countries who voted fro it realized they did not have the means to enforce the no-fly zone. Any attempt they tried to make without the US would become a bloody mess. Without the US Qaddafi's air-defense system would have been much harder to neutralize. Most of the participating countries only had fighters that are not tremendously effective on ground targets. The US provided A-10's and gun ships that are specifically built to attack ground targets. The US also supplied the air traffic AWACS needed to run an air war. The other countries could have eventually succeeded but they would have taken a lot more damage then they have.
• The Libyan mess has also shown the sheer idiocy of the people who criticize US actions around the world. They rage about Qaddafi's brutality but seemed perfectly willing to accuse Saddam Hussein's brutality or the Taliban's enlightened rule. The same people clamoring for the US to stop becoming involved in other countries affairs are castigating it now for not getting involved more in places like Bahrain and Yemen. I wish they could make up their mind or shut up.