IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID

        Before the political views on how we get better as a nation, I think that it's important to realize where we rank world wide in the following areas:

2008 we ranked #1 in competitive rankings, today we rank #7. 2008 we ranked #66 in macroeconomic stability, today we rank #111. We rank #54 in politicians trustworthiness... in the land of the free???? Our government is ranked #76 in efficient spending of resources. We rank #140 of #144 in government deficit as percentage of GDP. 2008 we were #50 in government regulations of business, today #76. 2005 our infrastructure was ranked #1, today #16.

So what am I saying? We all know it isn't great in our economy right now. We're in a gradual fall from the top of the perch to the middle of the pack. So what started all of this? Well, the housing bubble was to blame, banks are to blame,  President Bush is to blame... or is he? We have a lot of problems that all came together at once. So lets look one at a time at these problems.

THE HOUSING BUBBLE:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/48919926
"The housing bubble that devastated the American economy and can be traced back to 1999, when Clinton was in office."

"At that time, the White House advocated a program in which Fannie Mae was encouraged to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit was generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Flash forward to 2007 and the term sub-prime mortgage had become part of the daily lexicon. “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were at the epicenter of the housing crisis,” 

"Also critics argue that it was Clinton who repealed The Glass-Steagall Act, which for decades had separated commercial banking from investment banking. And they say Clinton signed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act — which exempted all derivatives, including the now notorious credit-default swaps, from federal regulation."

Bottom line, the government decided they needed to be involved in the mortgage business. They bailed out Fannie and Freddie because we're the reason they went bankrupt. It also transitions nicely because Glass-Steagall is the whole reason that some of these banks that we bailed out were "TOO BIG TO FAIL". Remember that terribly ominous statement?

BANK BAILOUTS:
What's Glass-Steagall? While I am a general fan of deregulation of business, this piece of legislature passed in the 1930's was a staple of our economy. It was one of the biggest mistakes, IMO, of all the things that Clinton did.
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/economic-intelligence/2012/08/27/repeal-of-glass-steagall-caused-the-financial-crisis

"In fact, the financial crisis might not have happened at all but for the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall law that separated commercial and investment banking for seven decades."

"From 1933 to 1999, there were very few large bank failures and no financial panics comparable to the Panic of 2008. The law worked exactly as intended."

"What happened over the next eight years was an almost exact replay of the Roaring Twenties. Once again, banks originated fraudulent loans and once again they sold them to their customers in the form of securities. The bubble peaked in 2007 and collapsed in 2008. The hard-earned knowledge of 1933 had been lost in the arrogance of 1999."

Our credit rating has been downgraded for the first time in history, and it is being threatened to be downgraded again. We've yet to pass a budget in the last three years. Our budget is bloated to the point that there are only 4 nations below us in debt to what we produce ratio.

So we have to become aggressive on our strategy to increase our funds, spend our funds wiser, and reduce unnecessary spending. The reality is that 1 in 6 Americans are on food stamps, and 1 in 3 are on some form of government assistance. THAT'S UNACCEPTABLE!!! I like Paul Ryan's moxy to actually release a budget to get the conversation started. His cuts make actual sense, his plans for the overhaul of medicare are a libertarians dream. At least his budget passed the house... President Obama's budget however...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/inside-politics/2012/may/16/obama-budget-defeated-99-0-senate/

"President Obama's budget suffered a second embarrassing defeat Wednesday, when senators voted 99-0 to reject it. Coupled with the House's rejection in March, 414-0, that means Mr. Obama's budget has failed to win a single vote in support this year."

"It calls for tax increases to begin to offset higher spending, and would begin to level off debt as a percentage of the economy by 2022. It would produce $6.4 trillion in new deficits over that time."

So, the president's plan would have us at 22.5 trillion dollars in debt by 2022. No wonder it didn't get any votes. Is this really the direction that we want to go for the next four years?

WHEN A NATION FORGETS GOD...

Here's my message on that very thing. Hope you enjoy it:
http://vimeo.com/49878408

Killing Bin Laden is not Foreign Policy

OU lost and this blogger needs to vent. Who else to take it out on then President Obama? I can't take it out on K State, they played flawless, and no one would listen if I did anyways. I digress, one of the things that is heavily in the media right now is President Obama's foreign policy record. It's much like his fiscal policy record, terrible. Why you say? Because just like the economy, we're worse off then we were four years ago.

We're out of Iraq you say, we killed Bin Laden you say, I say back that we couldn't have left Iraq in a much worse condition had we just dropped a M.O.A.B. on Saddam's house. The only reason we got Bin Laden is because of our presence in Afghanistan, remember the place that the Prez said when he got in office he'd be out of in a year? So on to the facts:

1.)  http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/on-the-record/2012/09/22/bolton-obamas-foreign-policy-complete-failure-has-reversed-americas-approach-peace-throug


"tens of thousands of protesters clashing with police in Pakistan. And get this! It was the Pakistani government, who is supposed to be our ally, that called for today's protests."

"Under generations since Franklin Roosevelt, we have followed a "peace through strength" policy, that America's strong place in the world, politically, economically and military, help protect our interests. Barack Obama has reversed that. He believes in withdrawing American influence. He thinks we are too much in the world and that the world would be in a better place with a receding, declining America. I think that's a prescription for disaster, both at the level of grand strategy and in any number of imminent threats we face."


http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/Obama-s-foreign-policy-reset-collapses-3884091.php


"On June 4, 2009, in Cairo, Obama promised “a new beginning” offering Muslims “mutual respect,” unsubtly implying previous disrespect. Curious, as over the previous 20 years, the U.S. had six times committed its military forces on behalf of oppressed Muslims, three times for reasons of pure humanitarianism where no U.S. interests were at stake."

" And his policies of accommodation and concession would consolidate the gains: an outstretched hand to Iran's mullahs, a first-time presidential admission of the U.S. role in a 1953 coup; withdrawal from Iraq with no residual presence or influence; a fixed timetable for leaving Afghanistan; returning our ambassador to Damascus; creating distance between the U.S. and Israel."

"Sovereign U.S. territory is breached and U.S. interests are burned. And what is the official response? One administration denunciation after another — of a movie trailer! A request to Google to “review” the trailer's presence on YouTube. And deputies' midnight “voluntary interview” with the suspected filmmaker. This in the land of the First Amendment."

"What else can Obama do? At their convention, Democrats endlessly congratulated themselves on their one foreign policy success: killing Osama bin Laden. A week later, the Salafist flag flies over four American embassies, even as the mob chants, “Obama, Obama, there are still a billion Osamas.”

SO... I thought we were electing this guy because he was "cool" and Europe and the Mid East liked him. Well those days are gone! Well, not totally, Europe still loves him. Especially Russia! Didn't his Mom and Dad meet in a Russian language class? Just a side note, no conspiracy theories on this blog, just the facts : )

This from uber-left wing website Huffpost: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/oleg-kozlovsky/usaid-expulsion-means-the_b_1898523.html

"After three years of attempts to repair Washington-Moscow relations and appeasement of the Kremlin, the Obama administration now has to deal with an even more anti-American, aggressive, and assertive Russian leadership than in 2009."

Don't forget this little moment when President Obama didn't know his mic was still on: (30 seconds)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/mar/27/obama-medvedev-mic-nuclear-video

He does point out that Mitt Romney thinks that Russia is our biggest enemy... and that he doesn't think they're a problem at all in his speech at the convention:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRxbFcAGfvM

Not to mention the fact that he abandoned Poland and Western Europe when he caved to Russia on missile defense:
http://www.acus.org/new_atlanticist/obama-abandons-poland-and-czech-missile-defense

You mean the Russia with more nuclear bombs then us? You mean the Russia who is blocking our blockade on Iran? You mean the Russia who's the #1 supplier to China's attempt to unseat us as the world's currency for oil? You mean the Russia whose aiding extremist Muslims to take over Syria (who has nukes already)? Oh, that's right, it's that Russia...

We all have seen in the news how he's treated Israel. Not talking to their PM when he was in the states and being on Letterman instead. They removed Jerusalem from the DNC platform. Put an ambassador in Damascus, etc, etc, etc.

The bottom line reality is this, he's anti-American influence, expansion, and colonialism ( the establishment, exploitation, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory). Here's what he said about his own grandfather who advanced himself due to English colonialism and appreciated it: “My image of Onyango, faint as it was, had always been of an autocratic man—a cruel man, perhaps. But I had also imagined him an independent man, a man of his people, opposed to white rule… What Granny had told us scrambled that image completely, causing ugly words to flash across my mind. Uncle Tom. Collaborator. House nigger.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/09/11/why-did-obama-use-n-word-to-describe-his-grandfather/#ixzz27GUSvqWB

If that's how he feels about his grandpa, what names has he called President McKinley who "colonized" Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.

Don't forget the scariest foreign policy move in my humble opinion:
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/03/05/10585197-holder-us-can-legally-kill-americans-in-terror-groups?lite

I hope that you're never categorized as "being in a terror group"... so much for the due process that our citizens are guaranteed by the 5th amendment.

Red Line in the Sand?

We live in interesting times. I want you to read this article carefully:

http://www.examiner.com/article/dollar-no-longer-primary-oil-currency-as-china-begins-to-sell-oil-using-yuan

Lindsey Williams: "The most significant day in the history of the American dollar, since its inception, happened on Thursday, Sept. 6. On that day, something took place that is going to affect your life, your family, your dinner table more than you can possibly imagine."

"On Friday, Sept. 7, Russia announced, that as of today, we will supply China with all of the crude oil that they need, no matter how much they want... there is no limit. And Russia will not sell or trade this crude oil to China using the American dollar."

"No longer will U.S. sanctions against Iran have a measurable affect, as the rogue nation can simply choose to sell its oil to China, and receive Yuan in return, and use that currency to trade for the necessary resources it needs to sustain its economy and nuclear programs."

Obviously this is a twofold problem. 1.) In the very near future our ability to print money like it's going out of style will be over. Every attempt to "stimulate" our economy will drive inflation to obscene levels. Every session of QUANTITATIVE EASING will cause more problems than it solves. 2.) This puts us in a situation where we either back Israel or back out on our strongest ally in the Middle East... Here's what the prime minister of Israel just said in his state of the union address:

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-netanyahu-obama-iran-20120916,0,208191.story

"Netanyahu, appearing on Sunday TV news shows in the midst of a heated presidential campaign, again urged President Obama to draw a "red line" before Tehran."

"Netanyahu last week assailed the administration for refusing to issue a more specific ultimatum to Iran over the nuclear program, saying that those who refuse to do so "don’t have a moral right to place a red light before Israel," a reference to U.S. pressure on Israel not to conduct a military strike on Iran aimed at its nuclear program."

"What's guiding my statements is not the American political calendar, but the Iranian nuclear calendar," he said."

So, this extremely important ally of ours just happened to be stateside this week. Our president decided that he had better things to do then to meet with a man whose country could literally be wiped off the face of the earth tomorrow if Iran had a nuke...

http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-makes-time-for-letterman-but-not-israeli-pm-netanyahu

On the flip side of this at least QE3 has started up! (sound of cheering in the background from the uninformed and foolish) I mean the last one was super successful, and all the money went right into American pockets... Oh, right, there's this:

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/obama-stimulus-money-spent-overseas/story?id=10002592

"An investigation by ABC News and the Investigative Reporting Workshop found that 79 percent of the program's money has gone to foreign companies, money that Schumer said was "federal tax dollars, the stimulus, which was sold as jobs in America."

"The frustrated senators are concerned, though, that some of the money is also paying for manufacturing jobs in China, and they are pushing a bill requiring that stimulus projects create jobs in the United States. They want the wind energy program stopped before the Chinese turbine manufacturers can collect any money."

Interesting times indeed... Don't forget that Iran and all the protests are really "evangelical islamophobes" fault though!

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/15/my-take-its-time-for-islamophobic-evangelicals-to-choose/

"At a time when U.S. embassies are being attacked and when people are getting killed over an offensive, adolescent and puerile film targeting Islam - beyond pathetic in its tawdriness – we must begin to own up to the reality of evangelical Islamaphobia."

"Many sincere and good-hearted evangelicals have never yet had a real Muslim friend, and now they probably never will because their minds have been so prejudiced by Islamophobic broadcasts on so-called Christian television and radio."

"The events of this past week, if we let them, could mark a turning point - a hitting bottom, if you will - in the complicity of evangelicalism in Islamophobia. If enough evangelicals watch or try to watch the film trailer that has sparked such outrage in the Middle East, they may move beyond the tipping point."

"It is hate speech. It is no different from the anti-Semitic garbage that has been all too common in Western Christian history. It is sub-Christian - beneath the dignity of anyone with a functioning moral compass."

His basic premise is that Evangelical Christians talking about how terrible Islam truly is, is in some form "hate speech" and that we'll all miss out because the truly whole individual has at least one Muslim friend... I'm sorry, but I think that at a time when Muslim terrorists just killed an innocent American an article like this could wait.

I hope this catches you up on the Mid East DRAMA from PJ's perspective.

HERE GOES...

Here goes....

I've decided to start this because I'm constantly thinking about politics. I find myself holding back because of my position here at FCFC on my facebook. I'm friends with multiple generations, cultures, backgrounds, and political affiliations. The last thing that I want to do is to destroy my witness with someone over my postings in the political arena. I understand that it is MUCH MORE IMPORTANT to win people to Christ then to talk about politics. I also know that:

It is the Gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit which will save our nation – not politics or even necessarily godly leaders in positions of authority.

I think that one of the biggest reasons for this blog is really just the simple fact that I want to make a difference inside of the Christian community. We've become lazy when it comes to protecting our values and freedoms. As George Bernard Shaw said, "Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it." We have a responsibility to protect the freedoms that we all enjoy today, that our grandparents enjoyed when they were young, and that our founders wanted for this nation.

So, I'll be putting together a blog once a week, maybe more often, that will detail what's going on in our nation, what we can do about it, and how we can make a difference today. So follow me up on the top right hand corner, share these blog posts if you like on facebook or twitter, and get involved in keeping the freedoms that we enjoy today for our kids tomorrow.