Chris Saxman: Cold Fusion-April Fool’s Edition

Redistricting – The Virginia House and Senate released their legislation for the new legislative districts. Amid the cries of partisanship and incumbent protectionism, the net result will be a change of not much. Sure some incumbents will lose their next election in either the nomination or general election and some will choose to retire rather than run and some will have more competition, but in the end not much is going to change. In the end, Virginia’s system of governance works. I will offer more comments on this in a later email, but a part time legislature that pays less than $18,000 a year with a non successive governor and a judicial branch that is elected and re-elected by the part time legislature – works. Limited and divided government works. See ANY similarities to DC? NOPE.

Baseball – The Pirates will win the NL Central and the National League Championship and the World Series. I am channeling the Black and Gold Color Spirit of the VCU Rams which is going to SHAKA the world this weekend! They have gone through Southern Cal, Georgetown, Purdue, Florida State and Kansas! And the Pirates signed Kevin Correia and beat Manatee Community College in spring season, so this is going to be a great year! Correia, the big free agent signing in the off season for the Pirates, brings in a 45% winning record. No wonder he is getting $4 million a year. Awesomeness abounds. GO VCU!!!!

Inflation is here. Can’t see it? Try looking at the sizes and amounts of food stuff that you purchase these days. The price might be the same for a can of this and a bag of that but there is less and less in the can of this and bag of that. The average price for a gallon of gas is $3.60. I had predicted $3.50 by Memorial Day and that Obama would relent on his offshore drilling ban after Labor Day. Well, we are three months ahead of the price increase and POTUS kind of admitted he was wrong on his energy policy the other day. Kind of. Inflation is often called the cruelest tax increase because it is hidden and hits the poor the hardest. As opposed to automatic payroll deductions for state, federal and social security taxes which are just hidden from those who actually pay them.

Will the GOP please move their convention to April 15th, 2012? No, because people won’t start REALLY paying attention to the fall of 2012. Really? I think people are paying pretty close attention and sticking to the same old same old will be the narrative, unless you change. Change…hmm….where have we heard that before?

Libya. The president’s polls numbers actually went down after a military strike. Previous to this “kinetic military action”, presidents enjoyed a pretty good bounce in the polls when the US hit an obvious bad guy somewhere in the world. Why did BHO’s go down? My guess, unsubstantiated of course by hundreds of polling cross tabs, is that those who would normally support this kind of action have already made up their mind about this president and those who do support the president don’t like the military. So, the universe of approval was limited at the start of the “kinetic military action”. Now, that we are apparently going to try covert operations (shhhhh, don’t say anything) things must not be too terribly unbearable for Ghad/Quad/Khad OFF EE. Maybe next time POTUS will tell us closer to the event rather than going to Brazil and telling us we bombed another country ten days after the fact. The media did treat him just like they would have treated Bush if he had done that. NOT.

Honestly, how many people in the world would have thrown a tizzy fit, other than Kucinich, if a Navy SEAL or Delta Force team suddenly dropped off a lifeless Ghad/Quad/Khad OFF EE body in downtown Brussels? Or how many would have said…”Bout friggin time, maybe this president has some stones after all…”

Charlie Sheen. Where is he? Do we miss him out of morbid curiosity or just because we have been left hanging worse than a episode of 24.

Budget Stalemate in DC. It looks like we could be playing a game of political chicken in which the Tea Party seems content to drive the GOP to the brink of another government shutdown and the Democrats seem content in their total misread of the electorate’s feelings about spending. Reminder – we have 1.6 TRILLION dollar DEFICIT. 1,600,000,000,000.00 is appropriated without the money to pay for it. Caught on tape extolling to his colleagues about the benefit of using the word “extreme” in his portrayal of the GOP, Senator Chuck Schumer needs to be reminded that the budget deficit is “extreme”.

Yesterday, I had a fascinating lunch with my dad. Okay, the shrimp and chicken over spinach salad wasn’t fascinating. The conversation was. Well, his side anyways. I just listened – no seriously – well, for the most part. Dad told me of how vastly different it was growing up in a time when things were much simpler. When roles were defined, understood and followed. He lamented how difficult every thing is these days. The size, scope and complexity of the world is mesmerizing. Think about it….

Ever tried to follow the conversations of the business cable shows? Do you really think you understand the most basic elements of what drives our economy?

Ever think that the political shows are showing you want really goes on in the world of politics and how it really works?

Do you think people see how politics and the economy are forever linked and the financial center of the country is now on K Street in DC? Well, Wall St and K Street. But not Main Street. That’s for sure.

Are the rules getting simpler? Less onerous? Can a man set his sights on the horizon and make it in the world or does he settle far earlier in life than in previous generations?

He’s settling, much earlier and not in a good paying manufacturing job where he is producing something of tangible value. Nope, those jobs are gone. We now have twice as many people working for government as we do in manufacturing.

We need to make things again. The government needs to get out of our entrepreneurial way. Like kids in my dad’s old neighborhood, we need to go out and try our hand at what comes our way without a lot on intrusion and when dinner’s ready, mom blows a whistle instead of driving up in a mini van with front and side air bags with adjustable belts for the shoulders and laps.

Don’t get me wrong – we have created a lot cool things that make life easier and more entertaining but have we made it better?

In my dad’s neighborhood, dinner was always at 6:00. Always.

If you waited until now for the April Fool’s Joke – my apologies….I just never got that concept and subsequently fall prey to them pretty much all day long.

Or do !?

Muwahahahahahah.

Column by Chris Saxman

Chris Saxman: Cold Fusion – March Madness Edition

March Madness is in full swing and I am blessedly out of Thin Mints.

No, I didn’t give them up for Lent. I gave up trying to figure out the Obama Administration’s energy, domestic and foreign policies for Lent.

Frankly, it has been a liberating experience.

No longer do I spend hours watching and reading the news discerning the decisions of this administration. After all, why try to make sense of the senseless?

Recently we have seen the wunderkind take on school bullying, childhood obesity and NCAA basketball brackets for both the women’s and men’s tournaments.

School bullying and childhood obesity issues should be the domain of the state legislatures but the states have devolved into administrative arms of the federal government. Anyone looking to repeal the 17th Amendment to the US Constitution will have an uphill but worthy battle. The Founders set up our nation such that the US Senate would represent the states to the federal government. Now, the opposite is irreversibly true. More’s the pity.

I don’t have a problem with the POTUS playing golf, filling out NCAA brackets or vacationing in Rio. I have a problem with the POTUS playing golf, filling out brackets and vacationing without dealing with $107 Trillion dollars in unfunded entitlements, a $231 Trillion derivative market that is hedged with federal taxpayer (my) money, and a monetary policy that is bordering on maniacal if not criminal.

Tackle those and then hit the links, go to the Bellagio and lay a few Franklins on Baylor beating UConn in the Women’s NCAA, and then take Michelle and the kids to Cirque Du Soleil. Go for it. Until then, try what so many Americans are doing for spring break – having a “staycation”. This is when people stay home for vacation and catch up the things that have been neglected for so long.

Instead the POTUS goes to Brazil and offers US FINANCIAL assistance in helping Brazil drill, safely mind you, off the coast of Brazil. Brazil. You remember that great ally of ours who has come to our aid in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya.

Direct quote of the POTUS in Brazil “We want to help you with the technology and support to develop these reserves safely. And when you are ready to start selling, we want to be one of your best customers.”

We do? We want to be one of Brazil’s best customers? No, we don’t. We want to be energy independent. We want to control our own destiny. We don’t want to send any more of our hard earned money to any country for their oil. We would prefer that to stay here so that we can help grow an economy that currently cannot pay the bills that are not just in the drawer but overflowing the drawer.

This is March Madness. But sadly it is going to continue for every March of our children’s and grandchildren’s future. All of their Marches and years will be devoted to paying our bills. Not their bills – ours.

If you had to fill out a bracket of 68 of the leading countries in the world and had to put money on it, real money, who would you pick to reach the Sweet Sixteen, the Elite Eight, the Final Four and the Championship Game? Who would you pick to win it all?

Mr President, fill out that bracket and make decisions accordingly.

When Obama was elected, many conservatives hoped that he would fail. I was not among them for when an American president fails, America fails.

I want every president to do well, regardless of party.

Our president is not doing well and it really has not affected his team a discernible iota. President Clinton, after the GOP won control of the House and Senate in 1994, took to the House floor and historically declared “the era of big government is over”. He understood that in order to govern, he had to make peace with his political adversaries.

And did.

After that momentous speech in January of 1995, the GOP and Clinton competed against each other to balance the budget. Guess what? It worked. They balanced the budget. Not Clinton or the GOP. They both did with a combination of economic growth(fueled in large part by massive investments and stock option baited hyper productivity in the tech sector) and keeping spending under control.

Nietzsche said “Madness is something rare in individuals – but in groups, parties, peoples and ages it is the rule”. He also said that “Out of chaos comes order”.

Supposing that along the way in his life Hawaii to Indonesia to Hawaii to Los Angeles (Occidental College) to NYC (Columbia U) to Harvard to Chicago he picked up some Nietzsche, he would see the merit in American rugged individualism and start leading this country out of and not into more chaos.

Apparently he has a far too unhealthy intellectual diet of Saul Alinsky and Rev. Jeremiah Wright barren of fly over country common sense that leaves him building a Brussels style European government. Which is quite perplexing given that Europeans are punting on Brussels. Hell’s bells – FRANCE is leading MILITARILY! Read that back. That’s madness!

The Ides of March has passed and the “groups, parties…rule”. Madness.

But why do I root for the Pittsburgh Pirates after 18 losing season in a row? Hope springs eternal (Alexander Pope) and since there will be snow on the daffodils tonight, spring is on the way! I hope….Thank God for baseball.

Column by Chris Saxman