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Mommentator

Click on that and read about the dumbest Senator alive.

I was ready for the read, especially since it is positioned as head-to-head combat to Mr. E. Thomas McClanahan.  Mr. McClanahan is unabashedly Republican, but fair and logical in an even manner.  I looked forward to conflict.

Please do your homework by reading the entire perspective of Mr. Robinson’s here.

This thoughtless and ridiculous tirade, which should bolster our enigmatic fire to reposition not REDEFINE our party, can be used to our advantage if we seek to harness the anger.  Please come along as I point out the brazen idiocies which Mr. Robinson projects.

First,  Mr. Robinson seeks to use the defection of Senator Arlen Specter to assert the idea that Republicans are “as a whole” defecting.  He attempts to paint a canvas depicting the Spector-switch as a mirrored effect.  However, as he chronicles the very issue of Mr. Specter’s defection,  Mr. Robinson’s own words seem to reflect the very admission of the Senator: he has flip-flopped only as a way to save his own ass.  He would not win as a Republican, and since retaining power seems first in the mind of the Senator he condemns each Pennsylvania voter by dismissing what seems to be their wish (if you look at the poll numbers.)

I predict that Specter did himself no favors and will ultimately be defeated.  And, for any Democrats out there: We don’t want him.  No one has been crying the blues…. he has been off-message for some time, his voting record is not conservative and frankly; we don’t care.  No one is blogging it and no one is twittering about it.  It doesn’t matter.  It doesn’t speak to any grand exodus and it’s brings to light what the Beltway has to offer these days: putting oneself over their constituency.

If anything, since we Republicans don’t care, I assert that it speaks well of our value to what is right.  We don’t want people in our party to have an -R after their name jufor the sake of power.  We want our party to do the tough work it takes to create a system of INDEPENDENCE, not INTERDEPENDENCE.  And we’ll willingly take a backseat, if for awhile, because the Left’s glittering generalities of change lure the mass to their side for a time.  But, as with all shifting tides, though we will need to be prepared with a new agenda, we will be given an opportunity to fix this massive crevice which is splintering.   We are chiseling away at a tectonic plate.  It will open up and the issues will run forth like lava. 

As for the poll numbers, Republicans do seem to be turning away from the general label “Republican.”  Though, I assert, they don’t want to be “Democrat” either.  The one issue in which Mr. Robinson and I agree is that “Independent” is the growing sector.  I affirm that “Independent” doesn’t have one prevailing definition,  though more people want to be different, inventive, thoughtful.   From what I’m reading, the one theme which does ring true is  that Independents don’t really like either party infighting and backstabbing.  Where have you heard that from?  The President himself.

Which leads me further to the introduction of this article:

…can’t…define bipartisanship as simply being willing to accept certain theories of theirs that we tried for eight years and didn’t work and that the American people voted to change. ~POTUS

Mr. Robinson champions this particular thought.  I assume he sees it as a great big “sizzle” to the Right.  As if President Obama just licked his finger and then touched his rear and hissed, “ssszzzzzz” to the rabid media.  It is a real nice one-liner.  But, it spits in the face of, I don’t know, ASKING the right if they want to put forward an alternative – working in a bi-partisan fashion, even if we disagree in the end. Let’s just for a moment note that the agenda is filled with new government programs, the likes of which have never been seen by American government.  Therefore, how could they, in fact, be subject of the tired assertions of the last eight years?  What “O” does is assume that by numbers alone, he has what is the face of the general population.  I further predict that this game may well be Obama’s play with political fire.  The people do want us to work together, as ”O” previously said but no longer demonstrates.  It will be on him when inflation hits.  The supposed collaboration of ideas which Mr. Robinson requests will be left littered in the history of Mr. Obama entertaining celebrities and offering the White House lawn to political correctness.  If “O” wants some input, he’d put aside his duties as Hollywood concierge to the Lincoln bedroom and have some policy-makers come around with some economic models.

As an aside, Independents are not turning toward Obama as Robinson asserts.  Quite the opposite: From Rasmussen:

For most of 2006 and 2007, the number of unaffiliateds was at or above the 30% mark. However, during Election 2008, the number of unaffiliateds declined, primarily shifting to the Democratic column.
The Democrats now enjoy a 6.1 percentage point advantage over Republicans. During the first three months of 2009, the Democrats averaged a seven-point advantage.

It is impossible for the gap to shrink without Independents. Additionally, with the help of these independents, the tide of dissatisfaction with the administration, though I readily admit it is at a snails pace, is also rising.  If the Republicans have “refugees” as Robinson asserts, the above proves that the Democrats are crossing the border as well, and they aren’t lining up to lift Obama’s approval numbers.

The one applause Robinson affords the right is in suggesting harmonybetween Republicans and the President on Iraq and Afghanistan.  Hey, Eugene, here’s a memo from Mommentator: That’s because your President has come to our side of the table and hasn’t done anything different that the oh, you know, past, dastardly administration.  You should be pissed off if you voted for change in Iraq from O.  His only change was to soften our methods of tackling terrorism on the front-end and chilling our CIA efforts.  And he did it for foul political purposes.  Noticing a pattern here?

The conclusion is that Robinson supports progressive policies and pretends to want vigorous debate.  Though, he clearly browbeats us as “bitter ideologues” when we assert an opinion, idea, alternative.  Just like his circular logic, Mr. Robinson plays at a policy of altruism: Instinctive cooperative behavior that is detrimental to the individual but contributes to the survival of the species.

The entire party, along withRobinson, urges the Right to use our principles, but do it in the, “context of today’s America, which is different from the America of 1998, or the America of 1889.”  Well, if it is, we, the Republic lovers, urge an effort to return to those times.  We reject the idea that change for the face of a “new America” is healthy.  

As I see it, Republicans will stand on principle, rising or falling with the ebb and flow of social awareness.  Every once in awhile, the altruistic thought of the left seems attractive. Republicans, more to the point, CONSERVATIVES, want to remain intact upon a tradition that produced this great nation.  It is the reason we are a case study in prosperity.  If we apply our values to today’s time we will only find that we have bastardized prosperity in the name of providing for those that, while our hearts tell us to love them, our SENSE tells us to offer tough love. 

That is why I offer Mommentary.  NOT commentary.  Mothers know it takes tough love to raise a well-mannered child.  And it takes tough love to stay on the path which has served America so well.

This approach is why the conservatives will regain our position, as we have before, to talk to issues rather than generalities.  But Robinson is right: We do need a boost. 

I’m not going to leave you hanging with criticism without a better method to contemplate. Remember, folks, conservatives won with Bush because we innovated new ways of getting our message out.  Likewise, the campaign of Mr. Obama.  If we  get to the substance of say; Health care, and reform it from the INSIDE, eliminating the cost from the inside, taking out the astronomical cost of caring for illegal aliens and restoring doctor/patient relationships without the outside influence of insurance and trial attorneys, we will have a recipe that far outpaces the easy road of “spend and depress” that is being offered by the Democrats.  We must come together on substance and get busy building a road to disseminate the plan.  We have too long been allowing our elected officials to lob one up at the 11th hour.  We need to make a plan addressing this issue and others, and reposition our message. 

Mr. Robinson, we are the party of value, and responsibility. We will not redefine for the sake of winning, as you wish and is the method of your party.  We will reposition our message.  And in doing so, we will march upon you.  You probably won’t even see it coming due to your singing, dancing and jesting as you thumb your nose at us.  It will make the victory sweet to see your face fall from this, your moment of thrill.  But, more so, the victory that is reforming and molding a better America.  You wish to know where you competition is?  You won’t know until it’s too late.

Republicans ONLY corner:  Wanna feel better?  After the Watergate scandal, Americans were fleeing from a party of divide.  According to Pew:

In 1977, more than half of the public (51%) identified themselves as Democrats, compared with barely one-in-five who called themselves Republicans (21%).

We all know what happened just three years later, right?

I find myself sitting quietly at my dining room table, squinting at news coverage thinking, “how the hell are these people going to say they did not know that we were practicing waterboarding as a technique to garner intelligence?”  I mean; I knew about it.  The administration had every kind of lawyer and constitutional aficionado releasing their findings on it.  President Bush said he condoned the use in a myriad or public settings.  Is anyone believing Nancy Pelosi’s insane rants that despite the fact that this middle-aged Mom from fly-over country KNEW about the controversy, somehow it escaped the understanding of the Democrat’s leading Senator?

In my line of work; mothering, there is a simple technique used the world over for helping children learn new knowledge. It’s called putting the information to verse. The ABC’s are a prime example. My personal favorite: the days of the week set to The Macarena.  In the following link, a clever podcaster has helped to bridge the gap of understanding.  I present:

Maybe that will help.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the post from SMART GIRL POLITICS, which called out the dastardly Keith Olberman.  Please read here. 

Here’s the skinny: The Bush Administration operated on their own understanding of the issue which was that it wasn’t torturous, in that we prepare OUR OWN TROOPS by doing it to them in case of their capture.  If you want to outlaw it President Obama, go right ahead.  But you are playing with fire if you want to make it a political issue.  Don’t you have some economic models to be researching?  I certainly have a few ideas I’d like to send over for your review.

This awesome poem and link is an ABSOLUTE copy from PINK ELEPHANT PUNDIT, Tabitha Hale.  (She said we could.  She’s cool like that – for the greater good and all that.)

This is it.  The most definitive teaching you need to know about where you are heading on an economic front.  The other fronts are important too, but just consider:  if you are doing this to your pocketbook, where are you going to be in trying to deal with the rest of it?  You won’t.  The government will be the only one with power and isn’t that really the point of this administration?  They are robbing you of your freedom – one dollar at a time.  And then they will own you.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090409/ap_on_re_us/obama_housing

Mr. President, if, in fact, you wanted to change the landscape, please do not offer the same ideas that we have been trying for the last 2 years!

The rates have been this low for at least a year.  They cannot go any lower.  Everyone who affords their home and has good sense about their money has already re-financed.  The problem with the housing market is that there are too many people in houses they can’t afford.  Therefore, they have been getting behind in their other bills, ruining their credit.  They could not refinance if their life depended on it.  Additionally, they are upside down in their home AS IT IS because of the downturn in the market and they can’t show the values it takes to get mortgages approved.  Therefore having money in the banks to refinance can’t HELP!  They are going to have to let them go and let the home values adjust to the mayhem. 

Hey, I don’t like it either.  My own home is suffering in values and that’s the lousy thank-you I get for actually paying my mortgage.  But, it’s the truth and we’re hanging here with a noose around our neck not knowing when the bottom is gonna drop out.  IT WILL!  And the agony is worse than the inevitability.

Stimulate small business so they can give these people a RAISE so they can pay their mortgage!  It’s that simple.

So it is with the speech which President Obama gave yesterday in France.  Political pundits are decrying the President as pandering to the Europeans and accuse the President of being on the proverbial campaign trail oversees.  Here is what the President said:

“In America, there is a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.”

Clearly, there is a problem with the quote. However, Conservative pundits are focusing on the second sentence in the quote: “that America has been arrogant, dismissive and derisive.  Personally, I think it’s possible that maybe we have been, and I’d even argue that there are times where appropriate as a sovereign state.  But, untouched by the conservative pundits, the real problem is with the first part of the quote.  “We have failed to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world?”  COME ON MR. PRESIDENT!  Europe doesn’t lead on anything except perhaps implementing systems for inflation and expensive regulations for climate change which aren’t returning results.  You can’t just out and out lie!  Europe wants the United States domination of the economic markets to end, and they will not be happy or discontinue the rhetoric until it is so.  In such a state, the leader should say, “In America, there has been a failure to continue dialog when we have fundamentally disagreed.”  That might be a bit more truthful.

NOW, also neglected by conservative pundits is the exact mirror opposite of the above quote, which followed the above quote:

 “But in Europe, there is an anti-Americanism that is at once casual, but can also be insidious. Instead of recognizing the good that America so often does in the world, there have been times where Europeans choose to blame America for much of what is bad. On both sides of the Atlantic, these attitudes have become all too common.”

 Isn’t that exactly true and well stated?  Shouldn’t the President receive some credit for the truth in which he speaks, not just the criticism of possibly anti-American sentiment in the first quote?  The President’s speechwriter has used a tactic to try to build consensus by contrasting the attitudes and sentiments of each country.  Perhaps he goes too far in characterizing Europe as being a model and leader.  However, isn’t he really just giving a compliment so that they can swallow the criticism?  I would argue that this tactic is pretty natural.   

It’s time to criticize folks.  It’s time to stand up.  But, we lose all credibility when we focus on the ammo you want to use and disregard the facts.  My focus is to look at the problems with the administration once they actually make them.  I do not Hannitize the situation by predicting a Socialistic state with  tens of thousands of folks in soup kitchen lines. Though, I am watching closely for government too big, too invasive.

I suppose in some ways, it makes me behind the “news.”  But then, aren’t we really just rewarding extremism by reading and clinging to pundits which are comfortable being wrong as much as being right? Because being the first means that you just throw out vast predictions which may or may not come true.  It makes for sensational TV, but it’s wrecking our ability to harmonize and succeed.

Recently, in one of those obligatory moments which Moms are faced with every day, I am making conversation in the school hallway with an infamous member of what I like to call, “The Five-Carat Diamond Club.”  Please do not confuse this with a member of elite society.  The five-carat diamond club, may, in fact, include someone with cash who also possesses bad manners or taste.  However, more often than not, they are posers who dress like royalty to merely drop off a permission slip.  Instead of unobtrusively dashing in and out of school, the members choose to strut down the hall, flashing cz-esque or poor quality diamonds,  dressed in halter-top encrusted with fake crystals under heavy sedation recommended by their gyno.  They are the mothers to know, they attend functions in packs and they pontificate about how they Luuuv their children, whilst muttering under their breath about their laundry list of activities they have scheduled…themselves.  This is a post in itself, probably more likely to appear here.  However, for the sake of your mental picture, I hope this short descriptor serves a purpose. 

So, as a kind and compassionate Mommentator, I make friends with whoever will have me.  I tend to like this particular Five-Carat Member because she fully admits to being shallow.  I do so enjoy the quality in others known as: aware of own weaknesses. She is apprising me of the last 7 weeks filled with karate lessons, dance and singing, keeping up with the latest fashion unveiling at Gymboree and the fantastic deal she got on some sequin flats.    We don’t talk often and it’s important to know these details, after all.  I do like to glean information from her as I feel like investing  my ten minutes is akin to reading People, Vogue and In Style.  Where can you get such a return on your investment these days?  She isn’t completely out-to-lunch, because she notices that my eyes are beginning to glaze over. She quickly changes the topic.

“Did you know that my good-for-nothing sister-in-law let her house go back on foreclosure?,” she questions.  I snap back.  Now, she has some savvy about her.  She knows me to be interested in current events.  She has somehow climbed the wall of intellectual conversation and conquered by making an association.  She also knows me to be a retired real estate agent who is obsessed with this giant economic casualty who deserves what it is reaping.  She has me at foreclosure.

Her motivation, being polar opposite mine is to illustrate her sister-in-law as an idiot because they don’t speak.  It doesn’t matter why, but let’s just say their daughters are the same age and there is a familial struggle which brews regarding “who’s got what.”  Here is the condensed version of what she said:

It was announced in the family that sisternlaw and hubby had bought a new house.  Immediately, ears were pinned down in nervous cat-like suspicion.  The story went that the builder of their 10-year-old house had approached the sisternlaw, et all and asked to buy the house back because he had done such a pooooooor job building the house.  Wow… that happens.  So, the family went out and bought a brand-new house and life was a bowl of jello.  Now, something is fishy in stink town so after Internet campaign was launched to get to the bottom of the story and some careful pushing within the family circle, it because clear that the roof of the family’s house needed replacement.  Well, and you know, “this carpet looks terrible.”  And,  ”I am not so happy with that choice of paint effect we put in the entry.”  We don’t have any savings.  Wouldn’t it be so grand to just start over  bail?  In clear defiance, family announces, “we work our arses off and we are good people… we deserve a fresh perspective.”   MOMMENTATOR SARCASM: “Doesn’t everyone?” 

So, into our saga enters Mortgage Geek who got started in lending on the coattails of… envy or unemployment (both).  He  has devised a BRIDGE LOAN program where the family can go ahead and qualify for that new mortgage and will kindly suspend the interest on the mortgage of the cast-away home.  Geek’s mortgage broker is  proud-papa of Mortgage Geek.  It is clear that little Geek was paying close attention to the in service broker presented Monday morning.  We know that we have saturated the market.  We have to innovate and define new options for the people.  They are, after all, looking to us to make their dreams come true, no matter the definition. 

Peer with me closely into the window of the mortgage closing agent’s office just six weeks later:  Clapping all around and smiles as the key to the new 4,000 square foot piece of the American dream is presented. 

Come with me again, as we travel ahead two months: GUESS WHAT?  The family decided that they would just let the cast-away house go… go back to that bank that made all that interest off them anyway — dang Wall Street tycoons they are.  When the happy family signed their truth-in-lending statement, it looked like they could make both mortgages.   Seriously, would they approve us, if we couldn’t?  But, after it became a sacrifice and they might have to tell Kelsey-baby-girl that she would have to fore go her jazz/hip-hop class, it just didn’t seem fair that their dear children should be affected so.  We just couldn’t do it any more.  sniff sniff.

PREDATORY LENDER was on the prowl and the average American Family — they were just victims.

I am here to tell you that, as a real estate agent and as a rural mom who is holding the pulse of have-nots in this country:  everyone is to blame.  The short-sighted, lack-of-discipline families that took these loans and signed hoping the MORTGAGE COMPANY was looking out for their family is to blame.  The huge conglomerate companies that saw a good thing in the banking industry… you know, their modest profits and ability to stay in business, created a humongous MONEY-suck on the entire economy by price fixing through poor appraisers and manipulation of the interest rates.  IT IS A TWO PRONG PROBLEM and every single politician that panders to the mortgage companies by giving them the cash to bail themselves out while appearing on nightly news and telling the American people that they were preyed upon, deserves to be deported.  And I’m not even kidding about that.  This politician is the straw man on the Wizard of Oz — pointing both ways at the same time.

Truth:  Capitalism is creating markets for a responsible amount of people to make money in an honest fashion.  If you are going out of business, it’s because there is no room for you.  Try again.  Your get-out-of-jail free card is to bankrupt your LLC, if you were smart enough to set one up, and try again.  We are all pulling for you.  It actually can work out.  Ask Donald Trump.  In fact, your next idea may even be better and more fulfilling. 

Truth:  If you think anyone other than yourself is looking out for you, you are lost.  You look out for you.  You create a budget.  You decide if you can afford it.  And, after you are done taking care of you, thank the forefathers of this country which sacrificed EVERYTHING for you.  The downfall to subsequent generations is because you are so wrapped up in you, thinking everyone else should do for you, you never give back.

Truth:  The lenders grew the industry through fraud and misrepresentation.  There are only so many families with so much economic influence in this country, at this time.  Boiled down and simplified, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand basic economics.  NOT EVERYONE can be engaged in the same business.  So, when you are forcing something into place, it cannot stay there.  Like Cinderella’s step-sister’s shoe:  That prince got that one-of-a-kind slipper on there for a minute, but it went flying off because her big ugly foot didn’t belong.  THAT is what is happening here. 

Look at it like this…  NO catfish, looking for a meal, stealthy and persistent as they may be, got a meal from a real smart minnow.  Did you see that?  That punctuation mark there?  That’s a period.  And that statement is delivered to you with definitive punctuation.

I am absolute witness to mortgage lenders, who in my small town, went from unable to pay on their own$120,000 mortgage to living in $500,000 quarters within TWO YEARS.  If it seems too good to be true, folks, it probably is.  But, this ?-turned-mortgage lender was in the right place at the right time. I often wonder, as she pimps around in her two Cadillac SUVs, if she sees the 20 or so foreclosure signs in this town of 4,000.  If she is, she’s thinking of lending to the next family who can roll their closing costs into the loan, along with a sizeable downpayment assistance program, which will catch them up in the web of up-side-down on your house.

But, having principles and morals aside, how can a family justify paying on that mortgage that is NO LONGER SOLVENT after the price value fluctuation? They could let it go back to the bank and go NEXT door and buy a bigger house for $30,000 less?  Suddenly, in an unexplicable turn-around this family applies some economical sense to their situation, without moral compass. I guess some would say they learned something since they weren’t able to exercise any reason when they bought the home they want to shrug from.  THEY justify letting the house go back because it doesn’t make sense for them.  Why would you pay too much?

And around and around we go, my friends. 

I know you have invested your time into reading this post.  I appreciate it.  And you are probably feeling bad right now… I sure as heck do. So, I want to reward you, friends, with a little nonsense.  Well, actually, it is real sense.  But, in a fun fashion. 

Just a bit of background, first.  This skit is sort of PIRATED… I know, I’m a rebel.  But, it isn’t the politically correct version which is now distributed by NBC on their site.  Last October, this skit was released and after consideration… or a call from George Soros, this was taken from the air and edited.  The edited version is now on the NBC site.  But, this is true, even if it offends.  You know what they say about that little thing called truth… 

http://msunderestimated.com/SNLBailoutSkit.wmv