I'm Sick of the Pseudo-Beggars

I knew it….a week after the headline that Goldman Sachs is paying out $16.5 billion worth of bonuses this year…the jealous shrill is coming from those in the media and those who simply think it isn’t fair. I’m not quite sure that I understand this…what exactly isn’t fair about a corporation paying its employees in the way it sees fit? After all, on average, Goldman Sach’s benefited approximately $500,000 in profits this year per employee (that’s after expenses, paychecks, and taxes)...a figure that is better than 99.9% of the companies in America. So why not pay the employees well? Again, why is everyone outside of Goldman bellyaching? Because they do not work at Goldman….simple as that. The complaints of equity and fairness fall on deaf ears with me…after all America is the land of opportunity and the prospect of vast wealth and success for those willing to work hard is unlimited. This is why millions of people risk life and limb every year to come to the US, because we offer unlimited opportunity. More often than not, the detractors of this are our native citizens who insist on extending a beggar’s hand and loudly trumpeting inequity because they do not get a piece of the pie. Let me offer a simple formula for those God-awful bellyachers out there:

Get an education + Work Hard = Success

It’s not hard….people just want a free lunch or they want to blame others for their short comings. They blame lack of money for an education: BS! There are a million scholarship opportunities out there for less privileged people in addition to student loans that anyone can get…next. They blame poor education facilities in less fortunate neighborhoods…again BS! There are more after school programs, government money, school waivers, and community efforts available for poor students than there are for anyone else in the land. They blame the evil corporations….they should blame themselves for partying too much in high school, hanging out on the corner when they should have been in school. I have no sympathy for people who do not take control of their futures…none. There is no reason in the world why any one of those people who I read and hear complaining about Wall Street bonuses couldn’t be on the receiving end of a $600,000 bonus payout….well there is one: laziness.

Just Banter....(See, I Don't Always Talk About Iraq)!!!

The Liberal Celebs Strike Again

This time it’s Sean Penn…again. Mr. Penn, ever the Bush-hating liberal, took the opportunity to hijack the podium at another self-congratulatory celebrity event to call for the impeachment of George Bush and Dick Cheney. I love how these quasi-intellectuals abuse their limelight by displaying their Bush-Hater cards for the world to see. Honestly, people pay to see you act on screen….that’s it. Armed with a world class high school level education, Mr. Penn is hardly in a position to be considered an expert on anything much less politics. He is paid to mindlessly take guidance from a director in the portrayal screenplays that are written by someone else. Obviously, he is simply regurgitating what the mainstream media has implanted in the psyche of our culture as something that is “en vogue.” Like Gucci wallets, eating dinner at the Ivy, or driving the latest Mercedes, Bush-hatred is a fad that is rapidly eaten up by the pseudo-intellectual Hollywood establishment. Liberalism is the conspicuous consumption of the "wish I were an intellectual" crowd that infest Beverly Hills. Go back to memorizing someone else’s words and let us to the thinking….

Race Baiters Plan to Shut Down Wall Street

Black activist groups are planning to “shut down Wall Street” with a massive demonstration on Thursday to protest to killing of Sean Bell by NYPD police officers. Quick facts on the case, courtesy of the NY Post: Sean Bell was shot by undercover police officers (six of nine who were black) after ramming his car into an officer who approached his crew and asked them to stop. Like the Duke Rape Case or Hurricane Katrina, this incident provides another excuse for black leaders to legitimize their standing through race baiting and demagoguery. Facts aside, this case like all the others, is vital to keeping the likes of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and all the various splinter cells in power. Unfortunately for the black community, victim hood remains the calling card for their leadership. Until someone or some group steps up to take where Martin Luther King jr. let off by pursuing the betterment of the people, the black community will continue to self-segregate themselves from society.

New York Knicks vs. Denver Nuggets Brawl

Saturday night saw yet another despicable sportsmanship display, this time an out of control melee at MSG between the Knicks and Nuggets basketball teams. You name the episode: U of Miami vs. FIU, Ron Artest at Detroit, etc….when are coaches and administrators going to learn: garbage in, garbage out. It’s simple cause and effect; if you recruit thugs off of the street you will have thugs on your team who in turn will exhibit thug-like behavior. Unfortunately, the sports arena is viewed as the ‘hood’ to many of these athletes who choose to settle their on field scores with violence and malaise versus old fashioned competition. Who suffers? Certainly not the athletes…in the case of latest episode, they’ll be fined a few hundred thousand dollars…mere pocket change. Certainly not the NBA, they benefit from the added publicity associated with the spectacle of the possibility of rumbles occurring during their games (quick aside: the league is in decline as it is anyway as their games are dominated by ball hogs and prima donnas). Blood-thirsty viewers will tune in for the street fights on the court alone. The group that will inevitably suffer enough is the young fans, particularly the children who already view the world of sports as their only way out. They look up to these athletes as ghetto saviors and will absolutely mimic their behavior. Just look at the massive brawls that occur every Friday night at high school contests across the country. Incidents like what happened at MSG fuel the fire because young athletes will adopt the street hood ways of those they see on television….hey, Carmelo has a great crossover move, but look at his sucker punch…now that’s a great move!!!

Just Banter...

Goldman Sachs $16 BN Bonus Payout

To be honest, I’m shocked that there hasn’t been a massive populist backlash to the news that Wall Street Titan Goldman Sachs was paying out an average of $600,000 to each employee in bonuses this year. All we ever hear in the news is how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, working man being kept down…you pick the quasi-socialist battle cry…It’s cry cry cry all the time, extend the hand of entitlement a bit further and blame others for the fact that you didn’t go to college or dropped out of high school. A little known fact to those outside of the industry is that Goldman is notorious for their grueling 100 hour weeks and the unrivaled work ethic of their employees. Everyone on the “Street” knows that Goldman is the place to be, but that once you get there be expected to work your tail off and compete against the best and brightest in the industry. They are the cream of Wall Street for a reason, because they work ridiculously hard and hire unbelievably credentialed people. In contrast, Goldman is resident to a city whose transit workers held a strike last year and crippled 16 MM plus people in the bitter cold over their 35 hour workweek and the fact that they had to pay 1% of their health insurance premiums…these are people without degrees who make $40,000 for cleaning a subway car. Just imagine the furor if a “working man’s” union had to work over 40 hours at Goldman! Oh and somehow I think that GS employees pay substantially more for the health insurance and do not get 4 coffee breaks a day. Bottom line is that if you go to college, get good grades, and are willing to work your butt off…you get compensated for it….Goldman’s employees deserve every penny….Perhaps the thought of an achievable goal such as working on Wall Street and making millions might be a motivating factor to some of the inner city youth whose only known aspirations revolve around being a hip hop star or an athlete…success is found in education and hard work but current leadership of the unions, minorities, and the left completely ignore this fundamental truth and prefer to extend a beggar’s hand …there’s much more possibility in life and individual accomplishment and the news from Goldman proves that.


Iraq Study Group Referring to Israel as the Root of the Iraq Conundrum

Yeah!!! I’m sure that if Israel conceded completely to the Hezbollah and Hamas killers that suddenly the Iraqis would unite in song and immediately cease all acts of violence, halting the insurgency and civil war in the process. News flash, the violence in Iraq is sectarian in nature and has absolutely nothing to do with the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Unfortunately, the Israeli Palestinian struggle continues to be fodder for naïve policy makers, Muslim apologists, and terrorists seekingto catalyze support for their horrific acts of violence. The problem is and will remain within the death cult that is Islamo-fascism and its ardent desire to violently reclaim a regional Caliphate in the Middle East and eradicate Christians and Jews from their sphere of influence. If it isn’t the Jews, it’s the Christians, or the Americans…there’s always going to be boogyman to these radicals. Victory against such evil can only be obtained through wars of attrition and savage defeat of terrorist foot soldiers that infest the insurgency. No amount of negotiating and concession will substitute for victory through annihilation. The language of terror is death; theirs is a world where negotiation and diplomacy are viewed as weakness. Until we wise up to this simple fact, we will continue flounder in our war strategy. Hey, Jimmy Baker, let’s ask our friends in Syria and Iran what they think!


Questions of the Day

What exactly do Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton do for a living? What are their jobs other than to incite racial hatred and violence? Please I’m really curious to know….

With all the annual furor over the symbols of Christmas why don't we make employees of the Christmas-banning entities (schools, government, etc) come in to work on Christmas day? It shouldn’t be a big deal considering it is the practice of these institutions to disavow all things related to the Christian holiday, so why should they not go to work as they would any other day? Wouldn’t that be considered a “celebration of Christmas”? Don’t count on it….it’s like asking a Congressman to regulate his salary.

Why hasn’t anyone sued the New York Times for recklessly endangering their lives by exposing vital anti-terror tactics to the enemy in wiretapping and SWIFT monitoring operations by the US Government? It’s a legitimate grievance….

Why don’t the people who consistently bemoan CEO pay as “excessive” actually purchase the stock of the companies in question and vote on it? At the end of the day it is the shareholders of the company who are responsible for “executive salary” excess and if they do not have a problem with what a CEO is making, why should John Q. Public?
Why are Michigan politicians trying to introduce legislation to mandate a college football playoff? Come on….I got one for ya: try be

Give 'Em What They Want

In light of the recent events that have been precipitated by the recent release of the Iraq Study Group (ISG) report chaired by former Secretary of State James Banker, I am changing my policy proposal for the current war in Iraq. As Andrew McCarthy in today’s National Review Online put it, the country is in 9/10 mode. To review, the ISG report outlined 79 steps that the administration should take in order to address the growing instability in Iraq which in essence add up to ways in which the administration should manage its defeat. Some of the more notable recommendations amongst a set of shockingly naïve and defeatist blather, include: involving Syria and Iran in talks to end the violence in Iraq, threatening the withdrawal of US forces to influence the policy making of the current Iraqi government, and to shift the strategy of the military towards less direct engagement with the insurgency and more dedicated focus in training the Iraqi army and police. In shockingly simplistic reasoning, the ISG honestly feels that bringing two countries who have sworn to destroy the US and US-interests worldwide. To refresh your memory, Iran and Syria have waged an explicit and concentrated terror campaign against the United States since 1979. Our forces are in routine engagement on the Syrian border, sometimes directly with Syrian troops….the Iranian President has professed is interest in wiping Israel off the map and killing Americans whenever possible. In terms of threatening withdrawal and focusing our efforts on almost exclusively advising the Iraqi forces, the ISG ignores the elephant in the room: the insurgency continues to attack our forces and wreak havoc on the Iraqi populace….how can changing strategy and leaving the insurgents to continue their ways be effective in the least? Not surprisingly, the Left and the MSM have quickly embraced the report as an official validation of their Iraq Strategy and have used it to beat the Bush Administration over the head.

This is yet another indicator that the majority of the United States refuses to believe that we are at war and desperately wants to see our Commander in Chief fail. Regardless of the long term ramifications of losing a war, most people hold such an irrational hatred of the current administration that they would rather us lose in Iraq than emerge victorious as a country. Bush-hating has become a deadly addiction in this country, an addiction that has eaten away at our core patriotic values, alienated our military, and has lead us to forget the 3,000 innocent souls whose lives were robbed from them five years ago. Addiction is a disease whose release must be driven by the individual who seeks a cure to his affliction. Family, friends, and loved ones can attempt anything to persuade the addict to change, but until has reached the point of no return, or ‘rock bottom’, there is no chance of persevering. Having personally experienced this, the searing pain of addiction is that which is caused by watching the addict self-destruct and continue to lose himself in the shadow of denial…it is a sense of helplessness and pain that can never be rivaled. To let the addict continue to hurt himself until he realizes he needs help is the only to influence recovery, but once a realization has been made, the positive changes will come.

Unfortunately this analogy is not lost on the domestic front in regard to the Iraq War and the Bush Administration. The virulent Left and the mainstream media have pushed their toxic hatred of George W. Bush on the American people to the point that it has resulted in a massive epidemic that has jeopardized our very survival as a nation. It is hatred for Bush that drives the profound disgust for the war in Iraq. It is hatred for Bush that impugns any reasonable effort to defend our country from terror domestically and abroad. It is the Machiavellian pursuit of regime change that has blinded our country from the dangers that lurk in Iraq and in the shadows of our backyards. So like a distressed parent left with no choice but to watch a dear loved one self-destruct, I propose the following: Give the people what they think they want, withdraw from Iraq immediately. I am serious, unconditionally withdraw American Forces from Iraq and Afghanistan immediately….all American personnel. Just leave, no residual aid, no military advisors, no subsidies....nothing. Pack up the troops, dismantle the bases, shutter the embassies, ship our equipment home, pocket our money and depart the region entirely....Gone.

With the immediate withdrawal the nation should be prepared for several things. First, the Left and the MSM will embark on a massive “self-congratulatory” campaign and cite the withdrawal as a major victory (note: major victory for their party). Second, Iraq will rapidly spiral into factional conflict resulting in tens of thousands of civilian deaths, atrocities, and reciprocal genocide (note: Iraq will become the “Darfur” of the Hollywood elite), Third, Iran will advance to quickly replace the void left by the United States and further destabilize the region driving energy prices to unimaginable heights (note: creating massive wealth for the Mullahs to aid in nuclear efforts). Fourth, there will be a massive backlash from not only the US Military but from the thousands of brave men and women who at this point will have essentially given their lives in vain. This abandonment by the very Government whom they had vowed to protect will inevitably result in bitterness, distrust, and loss of morale that will pale the plight of the Vietnam Vets in comparison. Fifth, high from the resounding victory that will be trumpeted throughout the Islamic World, the campaign of terror will continue with unrivaled vigor. Networks of extremists both homegrown and foreign will infiltrate American and European cities in search of new targets and sensational losses of life. With each attack and subsequent media coverage, the terrorists will only grow bolder and move to satiate their bloodlust. Finally, the United States will remain a superpower from an economic perspective but our prestige on the international stage will be irreparably damaged. No longer will we be the dominant superpower, but rather a weak, yet fat giant. Unfortunately these are the inevitable consequences of withdrawal and many will result in damages that cannot be reversed. We have reached the point of no return, as the pushers of discontent have achieved their goal of near unanimous addiction and we have to allow it to run its course. Bush should immediately withdraw all US Force from the Iraqi and Afghan theaters…I don’t think there is much of a choice. Will the American public every truly grasp what is at stake in the war on terror? I do not know. I do know that we cannot let another American serviceperson die in service of a hopelessly addicted country who doesn’t believe in the cause….we owe our troops that much.

Perhaps one of these events will force the American public to hit the proverbial rock bottom and rise above their addiction, but then again, addiction can also prove to be lethal.

Selling the War Strategy

The number one determinant of a successful rollout of a new product, business strategy, or start-up is the ability to sell the vision to the target market and potential investors alike. One can have the greatest vision in the world, but if he/she cannot sell it, it will never be a success. By selling, I do not mean simply spouting a pitch line or meeting with one or two stakeholders…I mean constant evangelization, sharing, and growing one’s vision. Every great company is founded on the ability of its management to aggressively verbalize its mission statement and corporate vision. A successful strategy also requires management to address its competition and underscore their “value advantage” versus that of others in the market. As the market and stakeholder sentiment changes, successful companies tailor their strategies to meet the market needs while upholding the underlying corporate vision. Organizations that do not leverage this approach will eventually lose market share to their competitors and fade from the space altogether, whether their core products/business was superior or not. Therefore, willingness of the market and stakeholders to adopt a company’s vision is a function of the company’s ability or willingness to drive it.

Applying the above theory to the Iraq War provides an interesting case study in how the Bush Administration failed to adequately evangelize the war to the people of the United States and as a result lost the battle of public opinion to its primary competitors: the Democratic Left and the insurgency. Let’s start with the facts: according to CNN poll statistics the approval rating for the war in Iraq went from 72% (3/03 During Iraqi Freedom) to 35% (6/06 during the height of the mid-term campaign). At no point, did the public approval rating of the war rise above 72% and has decreased steadily as the campaign wore on. The Iraq War has essentially been comprised of two phases: 1) Operation Iraqi Freedom during the Spring of 2003 during which US Forces crushed Saddam and took Baghdad during a period of three weeks, and 2) Sustained Insurgency that has remained constant since the late Summer of 2003. Two distinctly different periods that had distinctly different public approval ratings and that require two distinctly different marketing strategies. Rewind to early 2003, the value statement for invading Iraq was an easy sell (I’ll overly simplify it for this essay): A madman whom we have been dealing with for 13 years and is a material support of Islamic terrorism has built up a store of WMD that poses a grave threat to our national security. It’s an easy sell and the world agrees with the intelligence (remember this is 2003), so we go in and rapidly bring down Saddam….big win for the US, big win for the war on terror. In the United States, Bush’s Iraq War is now the darling of the “market.” Fast forward to 2006, the military has sustained over 10 times the amount of casualties sustained during the initial push to Baghdad yet remains vigilant in the fight. This being said, the US has routed insurgents in every battle, destroyed many top leaders including the head of Al Qaeda-Iraq, and continues to dismantle the lingering insurgency of less than 10,000. Our military leaders and soldiers remain cautiously vigilant and remain committed to the original mission of liberating Iraq. Meanwhile, we have a mainstream media that asserts defeat on a daily basis.

The bottom line is that the administration has failed miserably in driving the sentiment of the public in regard to the Iraq War. Instead of being on a war footing, the vast majority of the American public refuses to accept that we are even at war. How can this be a strategy for success? Try telling the Marine who is locked in a deadly firefight with Al Qaeda insurgents in Ramadi that he is not in a all-out war…..as our President, George Bush needs to spend less time commissioning studies that outline steps to “manage” the war and more time seeking expert advice on how to “sell” the war. Whether the American public likes it or not, we are at war and as a public we desperately need a leader that can galvanize opinion or else our strategy for success will never get off the ground.

How Do We Want This to End Up?

Back from a few days away from the blogsphere….I realize that most of the postings on this site have to do with the war on terror and my views on how it is being conducted, but as a citizen who lives smack in the center of the worlds biggest bullseye, security is foremost in my thoughts. Immediately following the events of 9/11, I told anyone around me who would listen:

“ Remember how the attacks on the WTC and Pentagon made you feel. Remember how deeply your worldview and sense of security has been tragically altered….remember it, because in two or three years the country will have forgotten.”

In the midst of the massive reinvigoration of Americana and the near unanimous call for patriotic cause in defense of our nation, those words made me sick…it made me sick because I knew it was a prediction that would inevitably come true. Five years and two months later, I think I can justifiably say that we as a nation have “forgotten.” I say this with the caveat that there is still a sizable element of Americans who have not forgotten nor have they lost sight of our struggle for survival against the most frightening foe we have faced in the history of our country. I’m specifically referring to mainstream America as has become abundantly clear in this past election, the reporting of the media, and the failure of the public to grasp that we are at war. I am not going to waste this posting on the fatal mistake of submitting to our enemies by withdrawing from central fronts in the war on terror or ignorantly brushing aside an enemy that consistently asserts his desire to destroy America and our allies. I’m going to make the following statement: America does not have the fortitude that is necessary to mount a sustainable fight in the war on terror as a result has broadcast it’s weak underbelly to our enemies, a mortal mistake that will cost us dearly in innocent American blood.

Over the next several days I will explore the reasons why we have lost our souls as a country at war and why this will result in further attacks on our soil. Some of the topics I will explore are:

Ø The role of the media in influencing the publics aversion to war from Vietnam onward
Ø The utter failure of the Bush Administration to adequately gain ongoing support for his war effort
Ø The Machiavellian tactics of the far Left in effectively creating an anti-war movement in its pursuit of power
Ø Congressional losses in the midterm election and the message that it has sent to the rest of the world, including our enemies

These are some of the key indicators that show our defeat in a war that is 10% military and 90% public opinion. I can only hope that something will be done to reverse this trend, but much like my pragmatism immediately post-9/11, I sincerely think that the only catalyst to change at this point is another attack on our soil. Gut wrenchingly sad…but true.