Who Knows How Great A President Will Be?

Posted on 09/09/2012 by Grumpa Joe
Cover of "Bedtime for Bonzo"

Cover of Bedtime for Bonzo

Many people talk about the man Obama is competing against as unqualified for the presidency. They belittle his ability, his stiffness, his jobs, his religion, his wealth, and in general people don’t like him as much as they do the  “Great One.” When I say this, I include Republicans and Conservatives too. They just don’t believe in the man one hundred percent.

This attitude began to have an effect on me during the debates. I listened and liked very diehard conservatives like Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum, and I really loved the government-reduction talks of Libertarian Ron Paul.  All of their messages seemed more “presidential” than those of Mitt Romney. The constant down play of Romney continued to work on my mind.

One night, in a dream, my sub-conscious played a movie about an event that happened thirty-two years ago.  America was in a terrible state. The economy tanked, interest rates pushed sixteen percent, and people were losing jobs. President Jimmy Carter was still unable to pronounce the word nuclear, even though he worked on a team to disable a damaged nuclear reactor while in the navy.

It was time to re-elect Jimmy Carter or to replace him. He succeeded in making the economy worse from when he took over four years earlier. His mission to rescue Americans held hostage by Iran failed miserably. The country was losing hope.

The candidate that challenged him was a loser. He had lost his first bid to the presidency four years earlier during the primary. His credentials to be president were somewhat lightweight. He served two terms as Governor of California. Before that his career included: sports casting, acting, leader of the Screen Actors union, and finally Governor. This man spent a good part of his working life as a Democrat, and eventually became Republican.

The facts were confusing and confounded me. How could an actor and union president lead the country as a Republican?

My conclusion came through much introspection. The country is in the toilet; the current president didn’t know how to make it better. His policies only made things worse, and there was no other option but to kick him out of office for new air.

I voted for Ronald Reagan even though I thought there might be better candidates somewhere on the planet that just didn’t happen to be in the race. The candidate whose claim to fame was a movie named “Bedtime for Bonzo” co-starring a chimpanzee, became my man.  I followed my instincts that anyone would be better than another four years of Jimmy Carter. It was the best electoral decision of my life.

The man Ronald Reagan, who I couldn’t reconcile, became a strong world leader able to compete with the Russians and the evils of communism. He also knew how to shrink the government and lead the economy into a sixteen-year growth sprout.

Who knew during the campaign how great this man would become? I feel the same about Mitt Romney; I’m giving him a chance to make good things happen.

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Father Figure. What’s That?

Posted on 05/09/2012 by Grumpa Joe
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in Ashland today

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in Ashland today (Photo credit: tvnewsbadge)

My opinion about why Mitt Romney is not liked by many people is that he represents a Father Figure to America. That is a concept  lost  in America because of the too many single parent families. We have set up a welfare system to make a complete family unit a negative. Why would a woman who has learned to make a good living off the system by having babies want a no good shiftless husband lying around the house? All he does is add another plate at the table, and full-grown men eat more than kids.

A friend from another State sent me this list of why people dislike Mitt. It does the job better than I ever could.

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A lot is being said in the media about Mitt Romney not being “likable” or that he doesn’t “relate well” to people. Frankly, we struggled to understand why. So after much research, we have come up with a Top Ten List to explain this “unlikablility.”

Top Ten Reasons To Dislike Mitt Romney:

1.Drop-dead, collar-ad handsome with gracious, statesmanlike aura. Looks like every central casting’s #1 choice for Commander-in-Chief.

2. Been married to ONE woman his entire life, and has been faithful to her, including through her bouts with breast cancer and MS.

3. No scandals or skeletons in his closet. (How boring is that?)

4. Can’t speak in a fake, southern, “black preacher voice” when necessary.

5. Highly intelligent. Graduated cum laude from both Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School…and by the way, his academic records are NOT sealed.

6. Doesn’t smoke or drink alcohol, and has never done drugs, not even in the counter-culture age when he went to college. Too square for today’s America ?

7. Represents an America of “yesterday”, where people believed in God, went to Church, didn’t screw around, worked hard, and became a SUCCESS!

8. Has a family of five great sons….and none of them have police records or are in drug rehab. But of course, they were raised by a stay-at-home mom, and that “choice” deserves America ‘s scorn.

9. Oh yes…..he’s a MORMON. We need to be very afraid of that very strange religion that teaches its members to be clean-living, patriotic, fiscally conservative, charitable, self-reliant, and honest.

10. And one more point…..pundits say because of his wealth, he can’t relate to ordinary Americans. I guess that’s because he made that money HIMSELF…..as opposed to marrying it or inheriting it from Dad. Apparently, he didn’t understand that actually working at a job and earning your own money made you unreliable to Americans.

My goodness, it’s a strange world, isn’t it?

Personal Information:

His full Name is: Willard Mitt Romney

He was Born: March 12, 1947 and is 65 years old.

His Father: George W. Romney, former Governor of the State of Michigan

He was raised in Bloomfield Hills , Michigan

He is Married to Ann Romney since 1969; they five children.

Education: B.A. from Brigham Young University, J.D. and M.B.A. from Harvard University

Religion: Mormon – The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints

Working Background: After high school, he spent 30 months in France as a Mormon missionary.  After going to both Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School simultaneously, he passed the Michigan bar exam, but never worked as an attorney.  In 1984, he co-founded Bain Capital a private equity investment firm, one of the largest such firms in the United States.

In 1994, he ran for Senator of Massachusetts and lost to Ted Kennedy.

He was President and CEO of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

In 2002, he was elected Governor of the State of Massachusetts where he eliminated a 1.5 billion deficit.

Some Interesting Facts about Romney:

Bain Capital, starting with one small office supply store in Massachusetts , turned it into Staples; now over

2,000 stores employing 90,000 people.

Bain Capital also worked to perform the same kind of business miracles again and again, with companies

like Domino’s, Sealy, Brookstone, Weather Channel, Burger King, Warner Music Group, Dollarama,

Home Depot Supply and many others.

He was an unpaid volunteer campaign worker for his dad’s gubernatorial campaign 1 year.

He was an unpaid intern in his dad’s governor’s office for eight years.

He was an unpaid bishop and state president of his church for ten years.

He was an unpaid President of the Salt Lake Olympic Committee for three years.

He took no salary and was the unpaid Governor of Massachusetts for four years.

He gave his entire inheritance from his father to charity.

Mitt Romney is one of the wealthiest self-made men in our country but has given more back to its citizens

in terms of money, service and time than most men.

In 2011 Mitt Romney gave over $4 million to charity, almost 19% of his income…. Just for comparison purposes,

Obama gave 1% and Joe Biden gave $300 or .0013%.

Mitt Romney is Trustworthy:

He will show us his birth certificate

He will show us his high school and college transcripts.

He will show us his social security card.

He will show us his law degree.

He will show us his draft notice.

He will show us his medical records.

He will show us his income tax records.

He will show us he has nothing to hide.

Mitt Romney’s background, experience and trustworthiness show him to be a great leader and

an excellent citizen for President of the United States .

You may think that Romney may not be the best representative the Republicans could have selected.

At least I know what religion he is, and that he won’t desecrate the flag, bow down to foreign powers,

or practice fiscal irresponsibility.

I know he has the ability to turn this financial debacle that the current and previous regime has gotten us into.

We won’t like all the things necessary to recover from this debt, but someone with Romney’s background can do it.

But, on the minus side, he never was a “Community Organizer”, never took drugs or smoked pot, never got drunk, did not associate with communists or terrorists, nor did he attend a church for 20 years where the pastor called from the pulpit for God to “damn” America.

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Let No Hurdle Obstruct the Path

Posted on 03/09/2012 by Grumpa Joe

A good friend called me recently and said how amazing it is that Obama is knocking down all the barriers set up by the Founders to protect the country. She pictured a cartoon in which Obama begins as a normal citizen (we take that loosely) and destroys the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Rule of Law on his way toward assuming a throne in the White House as King of the USA.

She is not far from wrong, because he has worked successfully to knock down barriers. He certainly ignores the Rule of Law and openly dictates to his Bureaucrats about how to treat illegal immigrants, how to deal with Arizona Law Enforcement, New Black Panthers intimidating voters, abortion, voter ID, and more. He commissioned Hillary to work the UN to end run gun control to take away our Second Amendment Rights. He has ignored Freedom of Religion under the First Amendment within the Health Care Act. He has openly declared that if Congress cannot give him the laws he wants he will find a way to do it administratively via Executive Privilege .

No one can deny that he has divided the country by waging class warfare, and has neutered the USA in speeches saying that our exceptionalism is no different from the exceptionalism of an Egyptian or a Saudi. His attack on Capitalism is relentless. He regards Capitalism as a broken down old system that does not work. He does so while denying that the world is a better place because of Capitalism. One modern example is within Communist China’s short embrace of capitalism  over four hundred million Chinese avoided starvation and have reached a decent standard of living. China’s success with capitalism came from a huge redistribution of wealth from the Western World. We sent them our entire manufacturing economy.  Obama’s change toward Socialism is of course an older idea, proven to be a disaster by many countries. Socialism failed in spite of murdering over sixty million dissenters who stood in the way of trying to make it work. Obama’s problem is that he does not read history. He is too young to know first hand that Socialism existed and hated by those who lived it. So, in his mind Socialism is new.

Obama is hell-bent on obtaining a socialist agenda in the USA during his presidency. What is scarier is that he is setting up to neutralize the Congress with his end run Executive Orders. He is changing the Supreme Court by nominating über liberal judges like Sonya Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. In a second term he will probably replace a few more judges.

The result is that the hurdler is not running according to the rules. He kicks the hurdles down instead of leaping over them and changes the rules to make that acceptable. He has achieved a tremendous amount of success in making the transformation. As a side note, he attacks his opponent by arguing that Romney does not offer any detail on how he will bring back the economy. Yet, during the 2008 campaign, the only detail we heard from Obama was two words, hope, and change. Not once in his campaign did I ever hear him give any detail on what he wants to “transform the greatest country in the world” into. How could anyone buy that line? The logic escapes me. Change the greatest country in the world, doesn’t the “greatest” title imply change is not necessary?

Let No Hurdle Obstruct the Path

We cannot, we must not, allow this man another four years to succeed at his agenda. If we do, it will be you and I who suffer the consequences. King Obama will continue to have his meals served while the Secret Service chauffeurs him in armored cars, and flies him to vacations in Air Force One. We, on the other hand, will be fighting each other for a piece of bread, or a gallon of gas.

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Mr. President I Agree With You, Well Almost

Posted on 27/08/2012 by Grumpa Joe
Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin (Photo credit: Dunechaser)

A few weeks ago, Obama uttered a phrase that has resonated with the entrepreneurial world, “You didn’t build that.” I take issue with his comment and I defend the people of the world who work day and night to make their business successful.

Obama did say something sensible in the same speech, “Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.” [Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/07/15/obama-dashes-american-dream-suggests-nobody-achieves-success-alone/#ixzz24lTWtdvE“]

I agree with his statement 100 percent, there are millions of hard-working people out there, but the fact remains that a majority of them do not provide jobs to other people. Does that mean to imply those who own businesses work harder than others? No it does not. “Well, what do you mean Grumpa Joe?”

Let me tell you a personal story. All my working life I wanted to be my own boss. I wanted to be in business for myself. The lure of independence and rich rewards appealed to me. I had many ideas for businesses and products that would make me rich. The ideas were endless, and many of them became successful by others. Those success stories told me that my instincts were correct, and my ideas were sound, but I lacked one key element of the success story; balls. To put it more politely, I lacked courage.

The risks of losing everything I worked for frightened the heck out of me. All of my ideas required investment of time, energy, and money. I had the energy, but since I had a job and needed to work I lacked the time and the money. Yes, I could have borrowed money to get started, but that would have meant putting my house up as collateral. I would not jeopardize losing my family home. My family is too important to me. I would not make my wife go to work to put food on the table so I could spend everything we owned on my dream.

In retrospect, I did the right thing. My tolerance for risk could not handle starting a business. Yet, there are thousands of people who can handle the risk and think only about a positive outcome. Then there are those who think like me, and see the glass half empty.

Yes Mr. President, “there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there,” and I am one of them, so were my parents. Does that give me a right to take from those who do take the risks? Does my hard work entitle me to a fair share of  the entrepreneur’s estate? My fair share is the salary I get for the work I produce for the entrepreneur. He hired me because I had the training, experience, and talent he needed to support his business. Did the government give him that?  My boss had the wisdom to see in me a person of value, and he took a risk by hiring me. I chose to become an engineer. Payment for my schooling came from my savings, my parents, and a scholarship. I went to private elementary school, high school , and a private college before I finished in a public university. My story is typical of my generation, and it didn’t involve help from the government. Yes, I traveled the roads and the sidewalks of the towns I lived in, but they were provided because people need them in general. The tax payer forces government to make improvements by referendum.

I love to talk about my employer because he is a man who did have the courage to invest it all. As a young engineer he saw the need for a product that could help electricians route wires in a more productive way. He designed the product, and enlisted a friend who knew how to extrude plastic to make it for him. He and his wife worked evenings in the basement of their home to make accessories for the product. He enlisted agents to sell for him. Today, the company employs thousands of people worldwide to produce a huge catalog of products for the electrical industry. Did the US government help him build his business? Not a chance. Did the government provide infra-structure which the company uses? Yes, but only after the need for same justified an expenditure. Did  the government provide him with teachers? Not really, the law demands that all children go to school until they are sixteen. Did that make them so educated that they were useful workers? Not really. We found ourselves teaching entry-level workers how to read and do arithmetic before they could work in the factory without endangering themselves. Is that what you mean, that you provided an inferior education requiring private sector remediation Mr. President?

Yes Mr. President, there are a bunch of hard-working people out there and many of them are exceptional. They stand above the others in the way they take risks, and the way they move forward. Then, there are guys like me, who work very hard , but lack the courage to make it on their own. We need the exceptional ones. Thank God for them because they provide the rest of us with a living.

The problem I see with philosophy of equal outcomes for everyone is that it deliberately kills the idea of exceptionalism. It believes the only exceptional people are those employed by big government.

Joseph Stalin, Kim Il Sung, Mao Tse-tung, Ho Chi Minh and Pol Pot forced equal outcomes on their people and in the process killed up to sixty-million non-compliant citizens. Adolph Hitler’s brand of socialism eliminated six million people who did not fit the Socialist profile of the master race.

It took the blood of exceptional nations to slow the Communist movement. With Obama’s leadership America is allowing itself to be overtaken by the same stupid ideology from within.

The next time you hear President Obama shout that the Republicans are selling tired old ideas that don’t work (Capitalism), think about the sixty million people who refused to listen to the vibrant new ideas of Lenin, Marx, Stalin, Kim Il Sung, Mao Tse-tung, Ho Chi Minh, Pol Pot and other lesser  known implementors of the Hope and Change ideas of the Socialist movement.

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Congress, Do Your Job, Can Him.

Posted on 25/08/2012 by Grumpa Joe

When the Founding Fathers came together to build this country, they knew that human nature would always tempt politicians to go astray. They pondered about the congress having too much power, and if that happened Congress would control the country by its legislative power thus nullifying the executive and judicial branches. In a stroke of genius, they came up with the three branches having equal but separate power.

What happens when one of the three branches usurps the power of the others? In the year 2012 nothing. Our Congress and Supreme Court are abdicating power to the Executive Branch. This very plainly pisses me off, and it should you too.

Our President -0 is doing just that. He is rough riding over Congress and has tried with some success to do it with the Supreme Court too. Where is Congress in this matter? Instead of the Executive administering the government by the laws enacted, it is doing it by executive fiat, the Executive Order. Where is Congress? Why are they not outraged? Why are they not holding the President’s feet to the fire?

Well Grumpa Joe, you are just a fanatic racist who doesn’t like this president because he is black. Bullshit.

I despise this president and all before him who refuse to control our southern border.

I despise this president because he sided with a foreign government (Mexico)  in a lawsuit against a State in the Union (Arizona).

I despise this president because he devised a clandestine program to set the country up to destroy the Second Amendment; he called his program Fast and Furious. When Congress did finally act against him, he declared his papers confidential under executive privilege. We accused President Nixon of burglarizing an office, and he was relentlessly pursued by the press and Congress until he resigned in disgrace over the matter. Nixon’s act did not result in Border Agents being killed with guns we allowed to cross the border.

I despise this president because he refuses to acknowledge a need for voter identification, but demands attendees to his speeches verify their identity with official ID’s.

I despise this president because he pretends to deport illegal aliens, but is only putting them into a holding pattern until they can disappear into the underground of the USA.

I despise this president because he tolerates Sanctuary Cities in order to hide and protect illegals.

I despise this president because he has taken the Welfare Reform Act and arbitrarily gutted a major requirement without any discussion by Congress or the Supreme Court. Why isn’t the Congress filing suit to bring this to the SC?

I despise this president because he places more credence in the hopeless United Nations than he does in the US Congress.

I despise this president because he deliberately usurped the First Amendment right of freedom of religion in his omnipotent health care act.

I despise the president for his sneaky and lawless way using the UN over his own Congress to get our military involved in Libya, and Syria.

I despise the President for allowing special interest groups to control his agenda.

I despise the president for a stupid green jobs program that dictates his energy policy.

I despise the president for using agencies like the EPA to sneak regulations into effect that usurp  Congress.

I despise this president for taking over a private sector company to reward his supporters.

I despise this president for believing all people are too stupid to take care of themselves. What ever happened to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and human potential?

I despise this president’s demonization of capitalism and the rich. I can only wonder why he hates himself so much? After all, he is rich and he uses the capitalist system to sell his phony life story.

I despise this president for wanting to make the USA into Europe.  Europe has been working at light speed to catch up and be like the USA while remaining socialist; which by the way, is proving to be a disaster for them.

I despise this president for declaring that America is not a Christian Nation.

I despise this president for bowing to foreign leaders.

I despise this president for being a pansy with Iran.

I despise this president for throwing Israel under the bus. Have you looked at a map of the mid-east? Israel is a small dot in a vastly huge area. They are surrounded by Arabs. Why are the Arabs so bent on annihilating them? Why is this president so bent on letting that happen?

So where the hell in Congress in all of this? Why don’t they wake up and do something to show us they are an equal entity? Why don’t they bring impeachment proceedings against the president? They are totally afraid to even utter the word. I realize that there are two houses in Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Fathers wanted debate and argument between both houses on laws. They required  both houses to agree on a law before it can be enacted. Unfortunately, at this moment we have a Democrat Senate, and a Republican House of Representatives. The House of Representatives has passed many laws but they are stonewalled by the Senate. What we see in this process is exactly what the Founders envisioned.

What we need is a creative House that determines how to ally with the Senate or the Supreme Court to get past the blockages that make it seem inept. What we need is a Newt Gingrich to consult on the matter, he would know how to provoke the two houses into action.

Many of my rants above are impeachable offenses, but where is Congress?  They are out looking for Mitt Romney’s tax returns, and  attacking Republicans for a comment made by candidate Aiken about abortion. At the same time they stick their heads into the sand about our president’s record on late-term abortion and saving babies who live in spite of a botched abortion attempts.

Folks, we have a huge job ahead of us, but it can be accomplished. How? Just like a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, this one begins with firing President -0.

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