Socialism, Facism, or a Nice Combination of Both

The drooling lap dogs got their wish. That's right. The American electorate got exactly what they thought they wanted. Everything ever mentioned about the American love affair with Obama comes to pass. And believe me, "something wicked this way comes." Our apathy and complete lack of focus and conviction now lives vicariously through President Barack Obama. Prepare to start paying the price and a steep one it will be indeed.

Help us and help me was the cry as the economy teetered, stocks wobbled, and unemployment numbers soared. While we sat back on dead asses and waited on promises from an inefficient government that cannot control itself within the walls of Congress, an entire way of life changes and the building blocks of our Constitution are being jackhammered by the Marxist liberals now controlling even more of what once had been a society based on personal freedoms and free markets. Blame Bush if you must for beginning the landslide. He abandoned the conservative creed of fiscal responsibility. The first automotive bailout and use of TARP funds clearly planted the first seeds of doom. Republicans crowded into bed with him did as well and now they're on the outside looking in. Just remember that the pinch-faced shrew Pelosi and cadaver Harry Reid have controlled both houses of Congress for more than two years. I guess the buck doesn't stop here. Please remember that the lisping and show tunes loving Barney Frank supported the very institutions that precipitated the mortgage meltdown that ushered in the current recession. He and other Socialists of his ilk like Maxine Waters and Al Franken are on the record supporting, indeed legislating the path for sub-prime mortgages. Why doesn't anyone ever mention the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 that the dunderhead Carter Administration enacted, Bill Clinton enhanced, and Barney Frank pushed until the sky fell last year? I'm just getting warmed up.

So do you want to start with the staggering deficits created by Obama's unprecedented budget of 3.1 trillion dollars? Do you know that these debts probably cannot be covered or paid back for generations? What about printing money to "monetize" the debt? Deflation of the dollar then pushes us towards an international currency as suggested by trustworthy nations like China. By the way, we've borrowed more money from the Communists than Pelosi has plaster for her puppet-like face. Did I mention Russia and China are buddies with ever increasing military might and increasing troop and weapons numbers? Does it matter to you that Harold Koh, a top attorney in Obama's state department, encourages us to shift to international law rather than our Constitution? Instead of relying on our own laws and judicial process we'll now base decisions in our country on what France or Spain thinks. That's comforting. You had better just grab a couple of drinks now.

The billions of dollars spent bailing out the auto industry and AIG was a smokescreen that allowed Obama the puppet and his radical handlers to begin pushing the government into a fascist state. Yeah, he used the news of AIG and the auto bailouts to pull the wool over the eyes of the voters. While we're cussing greedy corporate executives Barack is pushing stem cells, forcing doctors to perform abortions regardless of conscience, and pushing cap and trade carbon taxes that further cripple American industry. That's just the small stuff. Do you know that the construction jobs created in his stimulus bill only benefit those workers that are members of the unions? So much for special interests being driven out of Washington. Do you know why the automotive industry wasn't forced to pursue bankruptcy before now? Obama couldn't face the ire of the UAW. Truth is as action dictates. Am I the only one that remembers white tooth Obama promising no more earmarks during his campaign? Remember, earmarks are different than traditional pork barrel spending. Pork projects can be debated on the floor. Earmarks cannot be debated. They're slipped in there. Obama simply represents a more charming and eloquent version of the same toxic waste and slime. Shucks, trust me because I'm the government and I know what's best for you.

Are you nervous that the nationalization (Socialization) of banks and U.S. corporations came off without a hitch? The inept Congress cannot balance a budget, understand a profitable economic system, or agree on which color the new carpet in the congressional bathrooms should be. However, they are perfectly capable of running private industry and making decisions for the banks that have your money in them. Comforting isn't it. Now Obama can decide which employee makes too much money and who should be fired, hired, or hardwired. I don't think this was the founders' vision of a free America.

At least the liberal media types can focus on Michelle Obama (Mr. Ed look-alike) and how she touched the Queen of England's back or what shoes she wore when she met the French president's wife. You know, the important stuff. You and I fellow Americans had better pull our heads out and start attending some tea parties. Never under any circumstances though take to the streets with your guns. Oh wait, the ban on all weapons held by law-abiding citizens is on its way as well. Our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is well on its way to repeal and is under attack as well. The very protection the founders gave us to prevent the implementation of a tyrannical government is under attack by our tyrannical government. That's not an oxymoron but a now sweeping truth.

Stay tuned.

There's Only One L.A.

I remember growing up like a lot of other kids in the 70's and 80's enjoying peace and prosperity and thinking quite astutely that the world was my oyster. Growing up in a town of 1000 people isolated me from the reality of what was really out there in the big world and how exciting it could be. Yes, until adulthood I had no idea that everybody in America didn't go cow tipping! We had to travel by car over 250 miles just to get to an airport with scheduled passenger service. We couldn't really consider old Paul Winters and his Super Cub "scheduled" passenger service even though he could boast at least four successful forced landings after engine failures. He only tore off one wing and knocked down one power pole during those emergencies. I think that record stands yet today.

There wasn't a hell of a lot of hustle and bustle to deal with in my farming and ranch hometown in eastern Montana except for the occasional traffic jam caused by old man Johnson at the one yellow flashing light in town, you know the one at the Corner Bar and the abandoned hotel. He'd start out into the only "downtown" intersection in that yellow 72 Ford pickup and invariably stop in the middle because in the distance he saw a farm truck meandering it's way through the middle of town destined for the grain elevator. So he'd sit there until the truck passed his precarious position in the middle of the intersection a couple of minutes later making its way at a blistering 20 miles per hour. Morning traffic was such a headache! Our morning commute to school never exceeded about 8 minutes and that encompassed the entire walk and a quick stop at the old fountain drug store on the way.

One of the fondest memories of childhood consistently remains the old theater downtown. It closed for a period of years before reopening and even now the interior looks exactly the same as it did when my parents went to movies there in the 1960's. I still maintain that regardless of the many home entertainment systems available out there, the only way to see a movie is to see it on the big screen and allow yourself to be drawn into the fantasy for the next couple of hours. The house lights darken as the smell of buttered popcorn wafts through the seating area. Your pulse quickens in anticipation as the sound booms through and beyond the flickering previews on the screen. Don LaFontaine, the voice of Hollywood, captures your entire attention as that voice of his pulls you into the images of the theatrical trailers presented on the screen with that signature and commanding speaking style. Nothing felt quite like going to the movies in that old theater.

I'd always wanted to go to Los Angeles as a kid but never had the means or opportunity. I wondered how neat it must be to wander through Hollywood or the streets of Beverly Hills. I'd only seen pictures of the mansions and palatial estates but wouldn't it be something to go there and meet a movie star or see the magic of a movie set! I guess it makes a mark on you knowing that L.A. represents the entertainment capital of the world (you New Yorkers can argue your point for NYC) and most of what mesmerized you in that old hometown theater had its origins in this city on the west coast. At any rate, Los Angeles seemed to me as much about the concept of fantasy as it did the pavement, people, cars, and beaches.

I finally got my chance to descend on the L.A. basin in 1990. Although it wasn't in the way I would have preferred as in being discovered as the next Clooney, Pitt, or Cruise, I at least got to see the city for the first time. I was working for a guy that hauled pigs, yes oinking pigs into a processing plant in Vernon in east Los Angeles. We loaded them at different Hutterite colonies in Montana and switched off driving sleeper team in the semi-truck so that we would make L.A. in less than 32 hours from Great Falls. I know, the jokes are just waiting to spring from your lips but I'll continue anyway communicating this redneck adventure to you as best I can. I remember looking around in Victorville thinking wow this must be it and was shocked to know that even the suburbs of L.A. still waited some 20 miles in the distance.

We dropped down El Cajon and past the San Bernardino split and continued south on I-15. Shortly after passing the entrance to I-10 we travelled west on 60 or the Pomona freeway. About 45 miles later I got my first really good shot of the Los Angeles skyline, kind of like that early morning scene featuring Richard Gere in "Internal Affairs." I guess Los Angeles isn't known for having the most domineering skyline in comparison with other cities but for a small town kid like me it was still pretty cool. I remember arriving in that area at about 2:00 in the afternoon and the term concrete jungle finally took on a reality it never had before that day. The 60, I-5, I-10, the 101 all came together and twisted over and under like cornonary arteries feeding pulsating heart muscle. One wrong move and we would have been stuck as some of those neighborhoods down there didn't afford a lot of room or patience for truck movement and emergency manuevering.

You had to be in the proper lane to make the Soto Street exit and God forbid if you missed it. California interstate exits and on-ramps aren't necessarily designed for large vehicles to make a quick exit and turnaround on. The pace of traffic and precise handling required force you to be at the top of your driving game. Some of the corners are tight to make with that trailer coming around and car traffic views you with contempt and disgust. We make a left on Slauson or Vernon I don't remember which and enter the cramped parking lot, back up to an unloading chute, and offload our smelly squealing cargo that by now are quite grumpy after having ridden in a trailer for 1500 miles. Yes, after unloading I donned coveralls and shoveled over 1300 pounds of pig waste from the trailer so that we could load a legal load of cattle later in the week. I remember leaving the Farmer John's plant and traveling north on I-5 up past Dodger Stadium and seeing all the signs along the freeway indicating the exits for Burbank. Up over the grapevine and into the south end of the San Joaquin Valley and Los Angeles is a distant memory in the past. It was exciting to see and a little scary too. I felt ill-equipped to match the pace with which people seemed to live.

Since that first trip in 1990 I've made many like it over the past 18 years into the L.A. basin. I've hauled flatbed loads of decorative moss rock into Rolling Hills Estates near Lomita and plastic pipe from Ontario to Yakima, WA. I've delivered onions in Commerce at 3:00 am and I've hauled malt barley from Spiritwood, ND to the Miller Brewing Company in Irwindale. I've delivered barley to Anheuser Busch and lumber to a small yard in Van Nuys and loaded roofing granules in Corona destined for Owens-Corning in Portland, OR. It's still exciting to see the city and it still is a little stressful to navigate a large tractor-trailer unit there but I find myself more confident having developed somewhat of a truce with the city and her traffic.

I still marvel that I found myself in the city I wondered so much about as a young person after some dangerous and tragic times. I remember going into Vernon in 1992 shortly after the L.A. riots and seeing a cop literally on every corner. I remember the network of concrete overpasses that collapsed just north of the Santa Clarita exit several years ago. I passed under what had collapsed only days before that quake. I was in the city the day the Alaska Airlines flight plunged into the Pacific after unsuccessfully trying to navigate the damaged plane to LAX. It doesn't really mean anything to anyone else but I've developed my own bond with L.A. I've yet to be discovered, meet a star, stare at the ocean from the Santa Monica pier, or wander the streets of Beverly Hills but it really doesn't matter. To me there will always be only one L.A.