Sequestration Weekend Chat

It’s finally here! The formulated crisis known as Sequestration is to occur today at Midnight. I will be looking out the window waiting with bated breath, watching the sky fall! OH!, You mean it won’t fall? It was never really going to fall? Please don’t tell me that our illustrious President and members of his Administration have not been telling the truth! 

Let’s Start With the Department of Education

I am baffled daily with the ridiculousness that masquerades as the United States Federal Government. I mean, really, is there a better example of elitist ass clowns who bleat on about fixing this and changing that all while completely ignoring all the obvious fixes and changes that need to happen? The debt debate has been a perfect example of the hopelessness that exists when one thinks that any of these fools are in the slightest bit interested in doing what needs to be done in Washington DC. The only thing that is more ridiculous than a DC politicians are the millions of Americans who play along with the charade, believing that this party or that party is really the one trying to fix things and the “other side” is a group of godless heathens intent on ruining the American way of life.

Change that USW Can Believe In

Over the last couple of years, the debate here at SUFA, and realistically across the entire country, has been over federal government spending and the ways to pay for said madness. There are all kinds of statements that get thrown around in this arena. We have the folks on the left, who espouse raising the income tax rate on the top earners in America as a way to increase revenue and help us “get out of the hole we are in.” We have the folks on the right who espouse lowering the tax on top earners as they are the job creators and thus will be the ones to get us out of the hole. And that has been the basic framework of the debate in American politics today. But both sides are equally flawed. And true to the American political spectrum, both sides falsely vilify the other, while neither side wants to admit that it is the drunken Uncle Sam feeling up your cousin that is the real villain…

Don’t Fear Default… Goose and Gander at a National Level

This weekend was a “road trip” weekend for me and my lovely wife. A trip back to my hometown, which also included a detour to Hershey Park so that Mrs. Weapon could experience the wonderful world of chocolate for the first time. What Mecca is to Muslims, Hershey is to 52% of the US population. On the ride north, I listened to a minimal amount of news, instead opting for some music that the USWeapon clan could sing along with on the drive. But I did listen to about an hour of talk radio coverage of the debt ceiling discussions happening in Washington DC. As a result, SUFA gets this article because I am tired of hearing all the bull dookey around the topic.

If Not Now…. When?

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I watched the countdown to the potential government shutdown last week with a jaded eye. I can touch on what I wanted to happen in a bit, but what I was watching for was to see how much further we would watch the talking heads go in demonizing their opponents and using emotional rhetoric to sway public opinion. I must say, I was not disappointed. As was true with every major policy debate in the political spectrum over the last few years, each side spouted more nonsense than could be fathomed. It’s just proof to all of you: When you set the proper expectations for those in the political landscape, they are very capable of meeting or exceeding your expectations. And BF has the audacity to say that politicians can’t meet our expectations…

New Year, New Mortgage?

Before I get into the topic for the day, I want to take a moment to thank all those who sent me messages over the holidays wishing me a Merry Christmas, Happy Festivus, Happy New Year, etc. As we slide into the new year, I have great hopes for the future. Not because it is a new year and therefore a fresh start. Unless they are re-setting my bills and paying off all my debts, I am not getting a “fresh start.” I have great hope because I realize that after two years of writing this blog, there is hope out there that common sense will rule the day, that dogs and cats (or “D”s and “R”s) will live together in harmony. Watching the civilized dialogue at SUFA is something I can be proud of, and what I had hoped to do. I will endeavor for the next year to make SUFA an even better place to visit for all. As I sit here in pain (in bad need of surgery, coming soon!), I have great aspirations for SUFA improvement. There will be more of that same frank analysis of the world as I see it along with (hopefully) more guest writing and topic contribution that helps us all understand the world of politics in a better way and thus helps us speed towards getting it closer to “right”.

Congress Lifts Its Skirt Again

As I seem to be doing on a fairly regular basis at the moment, I must again apologize for the randomness of my posting schedule lately. As it turns out, time is such a limited commodity currently. But soon my tenure as a two job employee will be at an end. There is little doubt that the topic of the day seems to be the deal struck between the President and the Republicans in Congress to extend the Bush tax cuts for all Americans in exchange for an extension of the unemployment benefits for those who need them. I have to say that the world of Washington DC as I know it appears to be “Bizarro World”. The Democrats are lambasting the President and spouting off about standing up for their principles. The Republicans are lambasting the President and spouting off about standing up for their principles. Well, now USWeapon is going to NOT lambast the President and point out the lack of principle in Washington DC. What a bunch of hypocritical children we have in Congress.

Tuesday Night Open Mic for November 30, 2010

Another Tuesday Night comes and that means Open Mic. Please allow me again to thank all of you for your well wishes for my family and especially for your patience over the last couple of weeks. My transition to a new career is challenging to say the least. I am learning a whole new vocabulary and a whole mess of regulatory and procedural madness. I am not out of the woods yet. I will be working both jobs, old and new, until the beginning of January. That means some long days and very few days off. Come January I will no longer work the old job and things will ease up a little bit. But the new job will still have plenty for me to learn. So my time will be limited for quite some time. I will continue to work to post here on a very regular basis. I will say that any guest commentary articles are more than welcome though! I know I have one or two to process and post but the more the merrier! I have four topics below, but there was a fifth one that I wanted to get and ran out of time to look up. I heard on the news tonight that a farmer, I think it may have been in Georgia, was fined for growing food on his own land. If someone could find that article and post it I would be very grateful (even if you just find the link I will try to jump in during the morning and put it into my format and add comments when I have a moment). I would like to have some discussion on that topic as well! As always, feel free to pull forward your discussions that you might be continuing from the last article.

When Even the President Shows Desperation

I begin tonight with an apology that I have not been able to reply the last couple of days. My stubborn wrist has not exactly cooperated. It makes it difficult to type, as it takes me about twice as long to type as it normally does. After spending the day at work, I came home this evening to peruse the days news. News always gets more interesting as we close in towards an election. Each side becomes more desperate depending on who is leading. If a Dem is leading a Senate Contest, the GOP candidate is sure to throw out something wild. If a GOP candidate is pulling ahead, the Democrat is sure to have a new scandalous revelation to offer as proof that the opponent is the devil. I have grown used to it, although I openly admit that watching the races convinces me of one thing: Neither one of the two sides is fit to represent the average American in Washington DC. Yet somehow things never change. In fact they just seem to get worse with each cycle. As I said, I have grown used to seeing Senate and House candidates showing their ass and lying through their hypocritical teeth to sway voters. But then today, I saw something that surprised me. I hadn’t expected that the President of the United States would blatantly lie and twist on the campaign trail. Yet there it was.

Tuesday Night Open Mic for September 28, 2010

We come to the open mic night on the heels of a good conversation around public education. I would like to once again thank GrafZeppelin127 for taking the time to write an article that was interesting and excellently written, and then for also coming by and participating in the conversation around the article. I hope that he will find time in the future to write for us again here at SUFA, and further that he will find time to drop in now and then and participate in other conversations. I will not be available to write an article for Wednesday night and perhaps Thursday. If that is the case I intend to post one on Friday night. I will be trying to do one Thursday night though. For tonight’s open mic topics we have Pelosi perhaps losing support from her peers as Speaker of the House, an interesting poll on where voters get their information, Colbert going to Congress, and the US government looking for even more access to private communications in order to “protect the citizens.” I look forward to the conversations!

Are Tough Questions Out of the Question?

I once found myself at the crossroads of rational decision-making. Oh, it wasn’t some insane moment where life and death were being decided (well, perhaps my life and death). It wasn’t some moment where a major earth shattering event was unfolding. Nope…. I was in a bar. It just so happened that it was a biker bar. I used to frequent those when I was younger and thought myself a whole lot tougher than I am in my forties. There were buckets of testosterone on each table. Boxes of manhood and muscle were stacked behind the bar. The lighting was dim, the place was filthy, and the steady pounding of hard rock music was only broken every now and then by a selection from one of the superbands of the 70s. There didn’t seem to be a whole lot of value placed on intelligence in that bar. They dealt in respect and feats of strength. It was the kind of place you didn’t walk into unless you were part of the regular scene or you really did believe that you were a pretty tough hombre. I sat at a table with a group from a well known national biker gang, and the discussion turned to racism, and it weren’t good (bad grammar intentional!).

New Era of Financial Responsibility: Day Two

I am going to be trying this particular tactic out for a couple of weeks and see how it works out. As it typically has worked out these days, I write my article, fully hoping to engage in discussion, only to go to work the next day and not be able to discuss the topic that I wrote about! For example the only comment I got in today was a response to Charlie during my lunch break. So what I am going to do is take two days for the discussion from Monday morning. As it stands I have been posting an article Monday morning around 2:00am and then allowing discussion for two days and doing open mic Wednesday morning. Rather than post no article on Monday night / Tuesday morning, I am going to write a follow up that answers some of the comments from the discussion of that day. Since the Monday morning article is usually the “heavy” one for the week, it will help to ensure that I continue to follow up on my thoughts and engage those of you that take the time to comment on my articles. Plus I can take a bit more time and answer a thought or two more thoroughly. I will start tonight with the idea of de-regulation.

A New Era of Financial Responsibility

Whew… A long week for me last week. Traveling, working, and spending time with my son. It left me little time to pursue my passion of writing here at SUFA. But now I am back to work on the site for a couple weeks until I have to travel again for two weeks. Tonight I want to talk about something that I have been wanting to talk about all week. I want to tread into the realm of financial reform and financial responsibility as put forth by our federal government. This article is going to address some things, mostly done by the Obama administration, but really simply pertains to our federal government in general. To be honest, the words fiscal and responsibility should not even be allowed to be used in the same sentence with federal government, unless it is done to point out a lack of it. The sheer magnitude of fiscal ineptitude displayed by the federal government is staggering, and it has now pushed us both to the edge of financial disaster and to the brink of full government control over the private industry in the United States. This is both infuriating and scary as hell. And I have to say that I have taken one step closer to believing a rebellion is the only answer.

Alan Grayson… Idiot Child of the Left

I didn’t have a ton of time to write again tonight. I had actually decided that I was going to skip the night and try to get some other stuff I have been procrastinating on done. But then I stumbled across this article, another of the open letters Representative Alan Grayson seems so fond of writing over there at the Huffington Post (one of the few places that will give a voice to fruit cakes like Grayson). As you all know, I have no beef with HuffPo. They have some interesting articles and some good ideas that come from a very intelligent group of writers. Unfortunately, they also have become a place where hatemongers such as Bob Cesca and Fools such as Grayson are given a podium from which to spew their nonsense. What they will not do, however, is allow for any dissenting opinions to be offered to counter folks like Cesca and Grayson. And that is a shame, because the surest way to ensure that your writers won’t be taken seriously by anyone other than those who already agree with your ideas is to limit the ability to to offer rational responses.

Tuesday Night Open Mic for June 15, 2010

As I begin writing this introduction to the open mic for tonight, I am watching the Celtics versus the Lakers, and hoping that I can will my boys in green to the win and another NBA chamionship. By the time I post this to the site, we will know whether they were able to seal the deal or whether the Lakers managed to stop them and force a game 7. The open mic topics for tonight have a lot of questions for all of you. We are discussing Hydrogen Powered cars, North Korea’s threats against the United Nations, the Democrats chances of retaining 59 Senate seats, and the inability of today’s higher education institutions to prepare graduates to effectively adapt to the modern working world. The Hydrogen vehicle stuff is one where I am relying on some of you science minded folks to weigh in with your thoughts. Obviously, it is open mic, so feel free to fire away with topics of your own as well!

Tuesday Night Open Mic for May 25, 2010

I apologize that there was not an article for everyone when they awoke yesterday morning. I wanted to write last night but simply ran out of time after taking care of all the other things that I had to get done. I appreciated the somewhat limited responses to the BP article. I understand the points some were making. I hope that eventually everyone will at least consider my point as well. Tonight for open mic we have a few interesting topics, but none that made me jump up and down with excitement. We have Congress banning dropside cribs, ensuring that those with bad backs will forever regret having children. We also have more nonsense from the left’s reigning gasbag, Alan Grayson. Add to that the federal government going on record showing us the very reason why Arizona felt that the only recourse they had was to take immigration enforcement into their own hands. Finally, we have the situation in Korea and the Secretary of State’s call for the international community to act against North Korea. As always, please feel free to add topics that you want to discuss!

Tax Day Special… The False Hope of Code Changing

Like many Americans, I approach Tax day each year a little more annoyed than the year before. I have done my own taxes for many years. And once I was married, I took over preparing taxes for two. It is not a new concept for me. I feel like I have a simplistic grasp on the process, although I would never come close to qualifying as an expert. What I find is that each year it becomes more complicated than the year before. New tax codes, special breaks, and searching for documentation for every nickel you might have earned over the last year all come together to create a headache for anyone sitting at their computer attempting to figure it all out. I find this fact troubling for one specific reason…. I am a pretty smart guy. I don’t want to toot my horn too loudly. But I have managed to keep a 4.0 GPA through all my degrees, I have an IQ that qualifies me for special groups, I have a tremendous memory, and I generally can figure out just about anything I want to figure out. So why is it that what should be the simple act of filing my taxes is enough to make me feel like I am back in “Quantitative Application of Statistical Theory” again?

Why START II is a Waste of Debate Time

As we enter a new week, I don’t want to take away too much from attempting to finish the Corporate taxes conversations because I haven’t gotten much of a response from the left yet, and I figure that will happen more today. But I do want to have a new topic, and thus wanted to address something that wasn’t too massive a topic to handle at the same time. This weekend has flown by for me, with a lot of yard work with Mrs. Weapon, which was nice. Added to that was some good time spent out on Saturday, hitting the farmers market here, and while there having a fried catfish sandwich at the North Carolina Seafood market. I must tell you it doesn’t get much better than that. Overall I have had a very busy, but awesome weekend with Mrs. Weapon, something that doesn’t get to happen too often (I usually work the weekends). Add in some time with legendary couch slayer, Canine Weapon, and the weekend was complete. But when I had time, I read up on the START II treaty negotiations and found myself thinking, “who cares?”

Quick Hit: Union Secret Ballots

After watching the National Championship game tonight (and along with it watching Duke once again show the country why the ACC is still the best basketball conference in America, I went to PSU before the military, and to the University of Maryland after I got out), I find myself with little time to write this evening. But I wanted to get the pulse on this subject. I mentioned it the other night when I was talking about the recess appointments that were made by Obama. The President appointed radical union lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board, and has it set up that there is a 3-1 Progressive majority on the board. Becker is a big supporter of the idea of eliminating the secret ballot for union voting (Card Check), along with the Employee Free Choice Act (yet another bill where the name is the opposite of what it does). It seems to me that the progressive camp is firmly in the elimination of the secret ballot camp. I warned folks that this would be a move that the progressives would make. I now see the move beginning to take shape, so I want to get some opinions.

Recess Appointments… or Circumvention?

I am not going to write a really long article about this particular topic (of course it won’t really be a short article either). But it really irks me so I am going to put it out there and watch to see how people either defend or repudiate this act. As you may or may not have noticed on Friday, the President decided that now that Congress is in recess he would use his authority within the Constitution to appoint members to top posts within the administration without waiting for approval from the Senate. In general, I don’t have an issue with this being done. However, I do have issue with one of the appointments specifically. And I refuse to allow the President, of all people to put a false spin on things or to fail to recognize some of the reasons that he is in the situation that he now finds himself. I had a different article planned for tonight, but I will run it tomorrow instead, as I am making a few adjustments to it and awaiting some feedback on it.

OK, A Little Health Care

But not the real article I know that you are expecting. I am still reading through all the “changes” and “fixes” that have been done. Trying to re-evaluate and see if there is anything that I can find that I like about what has been passed. So my true evaluation of the bill is forthcoming, but could take a bit. 3000 pages is a lot of reading. What I am finding extremely frustrating is the consensus from those on the left that the passage of this monstrosity is a good thing. It is almost as though they have no concept of what is in the bill. I am failing to comprehend how on earth anyone could think that this is a good bill that we should be celebrating the passage of.  Strike that.  I absolutely understand why the politicians think it is a good thing. But I am talking about everyone else. It simply baffles the mind.

Why the Democrats are Doomed with Health Care

I know, I know, that starts out a little tough. Democrats are doomed. But I really do believe this to be true. Forget about the actual bill for just a moment. We all have differing opinions on whether the bill is a good one or not. But ignore that fact for a moment. What I want to look at is the process we are seeing unfold. I know that those on the left have attempted to justify each of the shady moves that have been either proposed or actually used in order to attempt to get this legislation passed. But the fact is that I simply cannot recall a time when a legislature has acted in such a subversive way in order to do what they would like to do. I am aware I am but a young buck, and I have only followed politics for about 20-25 years. But I simply have never seen something like what we have witnessed over the last year in the health care push. Obviously you can all correct me if I am wrong. But even if I am wrong, and there was a time where stuff like this happened before, I simply fin it sickening to watch it happen in this environment and under these circumstances.

Let’s Find a Fix 1 – Unemployment (Continued)

I have to admit that I am pleased with the progress that was made in discussing this subject over the first couple of days. The thread was getting pretty long so I figured I would do a bit of a recap here and start with a somewhat clean thread. That way people aren’t scrolling forever to find the stuff they want to further discuss. So I figure I am going to do a somewhat short recap here in what will pass for the “article”. I will then go through the comments and pull out comments that we should continue to flesh out a bit. Obviously, I am going to be picking out the stuff that I think should be brought forward. Please don’t hesitate to bring something else over if you want to discuss it further and I didn’t bring it over. Additionally, I am going to post a few specific thoughts of mine with questions in the beginning comments. My hope is that we can come to some sort of agreement on the answers to them, but I realize that may not be the case.

Let’s Find a Fix 1 – Unemployment

OK, to this is the beginning of the series I was promising that would focus on the realities that we are facing in today’s America. Instead of the usual premise that government is bad, and thus should keep its hands out of everything, for the sake of this series, I would like to start from a different premise. That premise is that the world is what it is. Government is involved in everything. So the focus now has to shift away from the purely philosophical (although that doesn’t negate it, just changes the focus). What I mean is that it is OK to start from a point where we say, “government should not be involved” as where you would like to find a solution. But if we say that, we need to find a way to get there from here. I would like this to be a really open discussion with as many different ideas as possible. And no condescending to those who offer their thoughts. We have very different views all represented here. The idea behind my site was that we would have a place to discuss solutions despite the two party’s attempts to keep us separated by rhetoric. Time to get to doing that. So here are my rules for how we play this out:

Climate Change… Government Scope or Government Nope

Today we had an announcement from the White House that the President has ordered the creation of a new agency to study climate change. I read the headline and immediately rolled my eyes and thought, “here we go again.” Then I stopped myself, reminded myself that I must view the article before I form an opinion. So I did read the article. And then I went, “here we go again.” In light of the events of the past few months in the world of climate change I find myself wondering what is real and what is not. Man-made global warming was a passion of mine for quite a while, as I saw the consequences of government intervention as bad and wanted to understand if it was as dire as the talking heads tried to convince us it was. Regular readers here are already well aware of my opinion on Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW= the “man-made” myth). But I remain, as always, open to the discussion and thus open to changing my opinion if anyone can give me the facts to force me to do so. After all, to not change my mind in the face of real facts would be illogical. However, I am not interested in simply hearing how I am stupid while the premise of the article is completely ignored…..

A Country Moving Towards the…

Left. Right Center. Who Knows. We all know what the different factions tells us. The left says the country has moved to the left, and as such their extreme left agenda is what the people want and need. The right tells us the country is on their side. Scott Brown proved it after all. A lot of pundits tell us that the country is primarily in the center, with dwindling numbers the further away from that median you you get. Who to believe? I say believe what you want. It does not matter what they say or what we believe. At least… it shouldn’t matter. We find ourselves in today’s world arguing incessantly about which direction the country needs to move. Political pundits preach the virtues of either cutting taxes or increasing them. And a support of a single issue is constantly considered an endorsement for that entire ideal. And that, dear readers, is a small microcosm of the problem with today’s non-representing representatives. That they represent the people or thier party is a constant debate. What is not part of the debate is whether they represent a solution. And for the record, I am going back to the Open mic tonight to answer some posts from Ray and others, so check that out too.

State of the Union? Same old Crap….

So I have finished watching both the State of the Union and the Republican rebuttal. I thought both were weak. I thought both were full of bulldookey. I am not going to address every single thing that the President said tonight, but I am going to address some of the things that jumped out at me. Because in the end, I felt like he was right back in campaign mode, but more importantly, he was right back to claiming one thing while doing something completely different. I am sure that Black Flag will say “what did you expect?” I would answer that I expected exactly what I got. I am simply pointing out my disappointment that I was not surprised. And there are just so many things that I have to rebuke, if nothing else for the plethora of facebook posts from all manner of my friends saying how great Obama was and how awesome it is that he is on our side and how proud they are to be Democrats tonight. It literally almost drove me mad. Had I not had a few Raptor hybrids that D13 sent me to test out, I wouldn’t have had anything to kick and might have gone out and attempted to remove the pom poms and springs from Nancy Pelosi’s hindquarters. By the way D13, they really are as trainable as you promised.

My Take on What Scott Brown’s Win REALLY Means

As everyone is aware, Massachusetts held their special election on Tuesday and shocked the system by electing a Republican to fill the seat vacated by the late Ted Kennedy. From the moment he was declared the winner in the race against Martha Coakley, all of the news outlets, political pundits, politicians, and spin masters, including the White House, have worked to tell America what this monumental upset means. Is it the beginning of the end for the Democratic party? Is it nothing more than a rebuke of a candidate that thought she was entitled to the seat and, therefore, didn’t bother to work hard at winning an election? Is it a statement made by Massachusetts voters that America is not happy with the direction of the Obama administration and the progressive movement that is afoot in Washington DC? Is it a statement that Americans do not want the health care legislation in its present form? Is it a statement that the back room deals, sweetheart bribes, and partisan games in Washington have finally proven too much for the average American to tolerate?

I Don’t Want to Tame Big Government….

So as you awaken to the beginning of yet another week in today’s America, I offer today a bit of a pep talk, a bit of a rallying cry, and a bit of a further explanation for where I want to go, both personally and with Stand Up For America. I can tell you all that the last 14 months has been a tough time for me. Challenged by many of you, those faithful readers that have digested my daily thoughts, and then took off your kid gloves and smacked me around, I have spent the last 14 months challenging myself. I found that the paradigm that I had been living for so very long….. was not entirely flawless (yeah, I know… Shocker). I found that while I still am smarter than the average bear, I still make mistakes, find contradictions in my conclusions, and stumble as I attempt to find the path to personal freedom, individual liberty, and personal responsibility. My most shocking conclusion (at least most shocking to me) came in my conclusion about government in general.

What I found is that I have absolutely zero interest in taming big government…. I want to kill it.

Massachusetts… Battleground State Deluxe

I figured as my final article for this week, this topic is the right one to cover. As many of you are now aware, the special election to fill the vacant Senate seat that was once held by Senator Ted Kennedy is being held on Tuesday. It is a pivotal election, as a GOP win would drop the Democrats majority to only 59 in the Senate, meaning that they would be unable to stop a Republican filibuster on health care or any other illegitimate legislation that they are attempting to ram through Congress with 1:00am votes and limited debate allowances. The seat is being held temporarily by Paul Kirk, a Kennedy family friend and former Democratic National Committee Chairman. The Massachusetts legislature allowed Governor Deval Patrick to appoint Kirk as the interim Senator back in September. Kirk’s vote has been a pivotal one over the stretch of time since then.