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Substance Over Style – The Romney Way

Substance Over Style – The Romney Way

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Stolen from the War Planner

ROMNEY:

– Graduated with “University Honors” from BYU (also known as “Highest Honors”, their most prestigious form of recognition, somewhat equivalent to valedictorian) with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English; he’s not just a numbers guy

– Master’s degree in Business (Harvard, a Baker’s scholar: top 5% of business students)

– Master’s degree in Law (Harvard, graduated Cum Laude / with Honors, top 1/3 of his class)

– Earned both master’s degrees (business AND law) at Harvard University simultaneously (Could you do that? I couldn’t.)

– Had an incredible 80% success rate in private business and now worth between $200 and $250 million (compare this to Obama and many of Obama’s closest advisers who have never had to turn a profit or go hungry, and, no, don’t whine about workers Romney let go when investing in a company while at Bain Capital because you’d be forgetting to look at:
A) the fact that Bain was INVITED by the companies to have Bain invest in them; there were no “hostile takeovers” by Bain Capital and
B) the workers’ jobs Romney saved by saving a dying company and
C) the jobs he created after those struggling companies were turned around and started to grow again)

http://theweek.com/article/ind…

– Gave away his inheritance in 1998 to start / help fund the “George W. Romney Institute of Public Management” at BYU (his father, George Romney, died in 1995)

– As head of the 2002 Winter Olympics (Salt Lake City) turned a potential loss (-$379M shortfall) into one of the few profit-earning Olympic games (+$100M profit)

– Donated his entire Olympic Games salary and severance package ($1.4M) to charity

– Put aside partisanship prejudices/trash-talk by successfully campaigning/winning the governor’s seat (2003 – 2007) as a Republican in a heavily Democrat-controlled state LONG before Scott Brown

– While governor of Massachusetts, at HIS request, served the people of MA at the salary of $1/year (that’s right, ONE DOLLAR)

– Turned Massachusetts’ budget from red to black while governor (- $3.0B to +$2.16B; that’s “billion” with a “B”)

– Cut taxes 19 times as Massachusetts governor (that’s not a typo, NINETEEN)

– As MA governor, developed a plan that would make deadbeats pay for their own health care (you may not like the MA health care law but that’s what it’s sole purpose was. Still don’t like it because of the mandate? Don’t move to MA.) (BTW, how would YOU have solved the MA healthcare free-loader problem and how would you have done it with an overwhelmingly Democrat-controlled state legislature like Romney had to work with?)

– “Service over self”. Romney endorsed McCain only 2 days after ‘Super Tuesday’ in 2008 when it became obvious McCain was the clear front-runner; America is more important to him than his ego (Can you say “He’s not Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum”?)

– Volunteer service to community as a church head pastor for 13 years all with ZERO pay (that’s right, none); 5 years as a “bishop” and 8 years as a “stake president”

– Would give ALL his Presidential salary ($1.6 Million total) back to the American taxpayers if elected (yes, he’s on record as committing to this)

– Voluntarily turned down enrolling in Medicare when he turned 65 on March 12, 2012
(in other words, he’s NOT sucking up our precious tax dollars because he knows he can, and therefore should, take care of himself)

– He also chose to NOT receive any Social Security payments upon turning 65 because, again, he knows he can take care of himself and therefore should not rely on our tax dollars to help fund his daily living

– Looks, talks and acts “Presidential”

– Released his last 2 years of filed tax records (2010 AND 2011) proving he’s not a tax cheat; paid $1.94 million in federal income taxes in 2011giving him an effective tax rate of 14.1%. AND, the private firm which prepared Romney’s taxes from 1990 through 2009 issued a letter stating that Romney paid 100% of the federal and state income taxes owed during those 20 years. The firm also said Romney’s average annual effective federal tax rate was 20.2% for those 20 years. Satisfied?

http://money.cnn.com/2012/09/2…

– Cares about his fellow man: gave $3,000,000 to charity in 2010 and $4,000,000 to charity in 2011; that’s $7 MILLION in just 2 years. Would you have done that? Romney did.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/o…

– He’s pledged (repeatedly) that he’ll repeal Obamacare and REPLACE it with something better.

– And finally…..he’s N-O-T Obama

P.S. – If all one can say about a candidate is that they are a member of “X” church and ignore the talents and character of the person, that person does not deserve the privilege of voting.

America In Decay From The Inside

America In Decay From The Inside

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During her weekly Capitol press briefing, Pelosi congratulated President Obama on his May 9 official decision to support same sex marriage, calling it a “great day for America,” and adding that she too feels the issue of same-sex marriage is an issue of anti-discrimination and equalityfor all. “My religion has, compels me – and I love it for it – to be against discrimination of any kind in our country, and I consider this a form of discrimination. I think it’s unconstitutional on top of that,” Pelosi said.

Rep. Barney Frank, an openly gay member of Congress, says he doesn’t expect President Barack Obama’s support of gay marriage to sway any voters. “Frank also said he wasn’t surprised by the president’s announcement. “I expected the president to be supporting same-sex marriage because, frankly, of the absence of any good reason against it once you believe that people ought to be treated fairly,” Frank said.

Even as President Barack Obama’s shift on gay marriage opens up a new round of debate about federal laws, Sen. Harry Reid has remained adamant in his view that decisions about who should and should not be allowed to marry should be left to the states. But on Thursday, Reid quietly said that if he were called on to vote one way or another in his home state of Nevada, he would “follow [his] children and grandchildren” and support legalizing gay marriage in Nevada. Reid communicated his position without words: He nodded affirmatively in response to a reporter questioning whether he would support a vote in Nevada to recognize homosexual marriages. The statement expressed by that nod is a significant one for the Senate majority leader, who has often said that he doesn’t object to gay couples marrying or think it’s any of his business whether or not gay couples choose to marry, but has never proactively said he would support their right to do so at the state level if asked to decide.

Damn You! Damn you all to hell!!!

 

How Do You Change?

How Do You Change?

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I have wondered how one person can effect change in Washington and have come to the firm conclusion it can’t be done. With all of the politics and the mother of all bureaucracies how can one individual, no matter how motivated get anything done, and I mean change that rattles the rafters. Politicians come in and most certainly are caught in the swamp of greed and self-importance, it’s just the nature of things in that town.

So I think an experiment should be tried by both houses and whoever is elected POTUS come November.

Since they can’t get anything done collectively, I say hire a temporary panel of the best economists the country has to offer. And I would model it after the Manhattan Project. If you are not familiar with the secret atomic bomb project Google it, you will get more info than me posting here. I assume most of you know what transpired. In short they developed an atomic weapon that ended World War II. Pretty important project, and the scientists were all under military rule to bring the weapon to fruition.
So, anywho, let’s say that we round-up the best of the best…with one mission…figure out a way to pay off the national debt in 10 years. Yep that’s right, TEN YEARS.
Now the kicker, in return for their efforts, they will be paid Ten Million Dollars to split amongst them after they come up with the program, basically one million for every year it takes to eliminate the debt. Now you probably think that spending 10 million would be more spending, well, not with the caveat that instead of raising corporation taxes and taxing the top 1%. The top business people in the country can pay for the reward. No taxpayer money goes towards the prize.

This panel would have as long as needed but under pressure to come up with something sooner than later, as the problem they are trying to overcome, may overcome them if it takes to long. No military cut’s will be allowed. It is the Washington bureaucracy that should bear the brunt of the decisions. Hell I would even give them 20 million, it would be that important.

Since Politicians can’t do it, take it out of their hands. They could not build an atomic bomb, so they brought in experts. They can’t fix the debt problem, so bring in experts…and reward them handsomely.

That’s all I have to say about that.
I tried to find hot economists, apparently they are camera shy, scientists will have to do for purposes of dressing up this post.

Damn Shame…Troops Told To Disarm

Damn Shame…Troops Told To Disarm

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I don’t know who got nervous, but I would say it is pretty telling when the Secretary of Defense does not trust 200 of his own troops, makes them disarm before he speaks to them.

Like I said, it may be time to get out now before someone else in the Obama Administration embarrasses us to the world. Again.

Update: You would think he would want our boys locked and loaded for just this kind of scenario.

 

 In a sign of the nervousness surrounding Mr. Panetta’s trip, the Marines and other troops who were waiting in a tent for the defense secretary to speak were abruptly asked by their commander to get up, place their weapons — M-16 and M-4 automatic rifles and 9-mm pistols — outside the tent and then return unarmed. The commander, Sgt. Maj. Brandon Hall, told reporters he was acting on orders from superiors.

“All I know is, I was told to get the weapons out,” he said. Asked why, he replied, “Somebody got itchy, that’s all I’ve got to say. Somebody got itchy; we just adjust.”

Normally, American forces in Afghanistan keep their weapons with them when the defense secretary visits and speaks to them. The Afghans in the tent waiting for Mr. Panetta were not armed to begin with, as is typical.

The Great American Tragedy

The Great American Tragedy

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New migration tendencies in California:

The state’s progressive tax-and-spend experiment is broken, threatening basic services, from courts and parks to education and health care for its most vulnerable citizens. Mr. Brown’s tax initiative only exposes the state to an ever more dangerous roller-coaster ride.

No wonder many Silicon Valley CEOs say they won’t expand in California because of high taxes and burdensome regulation. And no wonder net migration has recently reversed, with hundreds of thousands of workers and their families leaving the state in search of better opportunities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

California’s economy, which used to outperform the rest of the country, now substantially underperforms. The unemployment rate, at 10.9%, is higher than every other state except Nevada and Rhode Island. With 12% of America’s population, California has one third of the nation’s welfare recipients.

Partly due to generous union wages and benefits, inflexible work rules and lobbying for more spending, many state programs and institutions spend too much and achieve too little. For example, annual spending on each California prison inmate is equal to an entire middle-income family’s after-tax income. Many of California’s K-12 public schools rank poorly on standardized tests. The unfunded pension and retiree health-care liabilities of workers in the state-run Calpers system, which includes teachers and university personnel, totals around $250 billion.

Many Americans fear the federal fiscal train wreck will turn us into Greece. But, barring major change, they need look no further than California to see what this future portends. Relying on ever-higher taxes to fund payments to an outsized population of benefit recipients is a recipe for exporting prosperity. That is one California trend that other states emulate at their peril.

America On Life Support

America On Life Support

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In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior:
“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship.”
“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years.

 

 

 

 

 

During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.”
The Obituary follows:

Born 1776, Died 2012 – The Death of a Nation 
It doesn’t hurt to read this several times. Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul , Minnesota , points out some interesting facts concerning the last Presidential election:

Number of States won by: Obama: 19      McCain: 29
Square miles of land won by: Obama: 580,000     McCain: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by: Obama: 127 million        McCain: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Obama: 13.2       McCain: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: “In aggregate, the map of the territory McCain won was
mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country.

Obama territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in low-income
tenements and living off various forms of government welfare…”

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the
“complacency and apathy” phase of Professor Tyler’s definition of democracy,
with some forty percent of the nation’s population already having reached
the “governmental dependency” phase.

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal
invaders called illegal’s – and they vote – then we can say goodbye to the
USA in fewer than five years.